By Scotty Reid, 9/26/2012 news, politics

The anti-Muslim hate organization “The American Freedom Defense Initiative” which is behind the controversial posters currently under scrutiny in New York City were also displayed on buses in San Francisco and appear to be taking a page out the Nazi propaganda playbook. The group is headed by anti-Islamist Pam Geller and Robert Spencer whose previous anti-Muslim propaganda was cited as inspiration by the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people that were mostly children. Much of the language he used in his manifesto presenting his worldview mirrors that of  The American Freedom Defense Initiative in that it is Islamphobic and pro-Zionist.

In fact, a number of right wing white supremacist terrorists have cited right wing propaganda and conservatives as inspiration for their attacks. Fox News watchers posting over at Fox Nation found the Sikh Temple shootings to be “inspiring”.

The violence instigated by right wing propagandist is nothing new. Propaganda was a major part of the Nazi Party of Germany in the 1930’s and 40s. It was Nazi propaganda that desensitized the German public and prepared them to accept the crimes committed against Communists, Jews, Gypsies and others who were pushed out of their homes into ghettos and later the death camps. Members of the German Communist Party were the first victims of the Nazi propaganda machine and would become the first sent to concentration camps and yet very few opposed the hate speech and crimes committed against them. However, when Jews became the object of hate speech, there was an International outcry especially from the United States.

Pam Geller tries to defend the hateful ads by saying that she is referring to “terrorist” and not all Muslims but the ads do not make that distinction. Geller is playing word games here as right-wingers have long suggested that Islam is synonymous with terrorism.  These ads are especially sensitive to New Yorkers considering Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD’s illegal and formerly secret spy ring that targets Muslims and have not turned up not a single terrorist plot in six years with millions of wasted taxpayer dollars.

The similarities between the Nazi propaganda directed at Jews by the German Nazi Party and that of Pam Geller and Robert Spencer are very clear. The ads sponsored by The American Freedom Defense Initiative use similar language employed by Hitler and his cronies. In the Nazi propaganda film “The Eternal Jew”, Jews are labeled and portrayed as being uncivilized just as the anti-Muslim ads in New York suggests Muslims to be. The goal of Hitler and his Nazi propaganda master Joesph Goebbels was to manipulate the German public into calling for violence against Jews. Just as right wing propaganda today seeks to elicit blind support for the Israeli right wing government of Netanyahu and portray Muslims, particularly Iran, as their number one enemy, Hitler said Nazi propaganda should “elucidate events of foreign policy” in a way that would cause the German people to call for violence against Jews.

Pam Geller & Mitt Romney

Coincidence? Some would say no and that right wing propaganda in America has for decades sought to demonize and dehumanize their opponents and many continue today are suggesting that President Obama is a secret Muslim and non-citizen ineligible to be President and an enemy of the American people. Geller and Spencer know exactly what they are doing and that is to garner public support for military action against yet another Muslim country.

At least one person has been arrested for defacing the hateful ads. However, considering the lessons of the past, it is the duty of a civilized society to engage in civil disobedience in opposing hate speech even if it means risking arrest. Just because hate speech is lawful does not make it a legitimate expression of thought when its goal is to bring harm to others.