JIHADISTS ARE THE OBSCENITY, NOT PAMELA GELLER

Peter Wehner at Commentary comes to Geller's defense over the Muhammed cartoon contest, and notes how horrific it is that a blame-the-victim narrative is being employed:

The storyline isn’t about the rise of ISIS-inspired terrorists on the American homeland; it’s on Ms. Geller’s provocations. One cannot help but sense in the coverage that many journalists believe Ms. Geller had this coming. After all, she was using “fighting words” and “hate speech.” The logic of Ms. Geller’s critics goes like this: Ms. Geller was doing something she knew would provoke a violent response and therefore she (the intended victim) is the person to blame. Women are unfortunately all too familiar with this kind of ugly storyline. [...]

I find it rather stunning that those whose profession depends on freedom of speech are so eager to cater to those who are undermining it. The thinking of many in the political class seems to be that if cartoons are deemed offensive and off limits by jihadists, then the cartoons are offensive and off limits. Ms. Geller, however imperfect she may be, decided she wouldn’t go along with this game. She wouldn’t play by jihadi rules. If the demand by Islamists is you can’t draw cartoons of Muhammed, her response was: Oh yes we can. Certainly in America we can.

And those who really, truly do value free speech would do well to defend the right to draw pictures of figures who're supposedly off limits for illustration. The mindset now being employed by the MSM is the same kind used to blame rape victims by claiming they had it coming because they were beautiful and/or how they dress, which is not true at all.