Last Friday, the PayPal accounts for my blog AtlasShrugs.com and my organizations Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) were suddenly and without warning “restricted.” After a recent review of my account, Paypal said that it had been “determined” that I was “currently in violation of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy. Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance or the financial exploitation of a crime.”

Huh?

Hate? Violence? Racial intolerance? Financial exploitation of a crime? SIOA is an advocacy group devoted to defending the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience and the equality of rights of all people. Atlas Shrugs is a news site and a political blog. I am not responsible for the bad news in the world. I just report on it. (more…)

Recently, I was one of the featured speakers at the inaugural statewide Tea Party Convention in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains. This was despite efforts by the unindicted co-conspirator, terror-tied Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), to get me dropped from the speaker list. They issued a press release full of lies about me. That’s what I’d expect from CAIR, but the mainstream media quickly jumped in – and there followed some textbook examples of exactly how liberal media bias works.

Associated Press reporter Erik Schelzig contacted me for comment on CAIR’s libel. He wrote this to me: “I’m a reporter with The Associated Press doing a story on CAIR’s demands that Panel [sic!] Geller be dropped from this weekend’s Tennessee Tea Party Convention in Gatlinburg. They say SIOA is a hate group and should not be represented. Any response?”

Here is what I wrote to Schelzig: “

Erik, Stop Islamization Of America [SIOA] is one of America’s foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator (Holy Land trial), Hamas-linked front for the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

Schelzig came back with this: “Thanks for contacting me. Was hoping to get a comment from you on CAIR’s allegation that yours is a ‘hate group.’ I assume you reject this, but wanted to get direct response.” (more…)