Pamela Geller Slams Media As NYPD Investigates ISIS Death Threats

It is famously said that the pen is mightier than the sword. But Pamela Geller has more than a simple 99-cent rollerball in her proverbial arsenal. Indeed, the megaphone, computer keyboard, and television camera are among Geller’s foremost ideological weapons of choice, and she makes skilled use of them all.

Ever since the May 3 attack on Geller’s “Draw Muhammad” event in Garland, Texas, the outspoken anti-Muslim activist has remained diligent in her continued efforts to propagate her political and religious convictions. To be sure, the public reception to her media blitz has varied, divided mostly along ideological lines. Nevertheless, the unflappable Geller continued her onslaught on Thursday, engaging in email correspondence with the Washington Post.

“I knew what the stakes were when I started planning the cartoon contest. But it had to be done,” Geller told the Washington Post. “The jihadis had to be shown that at least some Americans will not bow to violent intimidation … I love life. I do not love death like the jihadis. But I will not live as a slave.”

Geller’s correspondence further asserted that the media “has been aligned with the Islamic State” by blaming the anti-Muslim activist for the Garland attacks rather than focusing on the assailants and selected interpretations of certain tenets of Islam.

Of course, Geller herself has made extensive use of mainstream media outlets over the course of the past several days, including a spate of appearances on CNN, Fox News, and on talk radio. She also penned an op-ed for Time Magazine earlier this week, in which she encouraged readers to “take back our freedom” from “jihadis.”

While Pamela Geller has indeed been the subject of extensive media critique in the wake of the Texas attack, she has also apparently garnered the specific attention of the international terrorist group ISIS. As previously reported by Inquisitr, ISIS has reportedly issued a religious declaration, or fatwa, calling for Geller’s murder. TheNew York Daily News reports that the New York Police Department is currently investigating the threat, as Geller is a resident of New York City.

“We have been in touch with Pamela Geller,” NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis advised. “People known to be associated with ISIS have posted a direct threat to her. To whatever extent she will be in New York City, we will do a comprehensive threat assessment to determine what, if any measures, to take … We have to treat it like it’s a direct threat because they named her — and we informed her.”

Although author Salman Rushdie famously went underground following a 1989 fatwa decreed by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeni, Pamela Geller doesn’t seem intent on living her life as a recluse. The New York Daily News further reported that Geller was recently seen outside of her Upper East Side apartment building, adding that it is widely believed Geller has hired a private security team to assist with her mounting security concerns.

It’s a relative certainty that Ms. Geller will be on the go and in the public eye for the foreseeable future, too. For despite her vociferous condemnations of the mainstream media, those very outlets appear more than willing to book her for an endless cavalcade of interviews and panel discussions, affording Pamela Geller every opportunity to turn cyberspace and airwaves into a virtual bully pulpit for her controversial message.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]