Pam Geller Rebuffs Norquist’s Call For The Right To ‘Knock Down’ Islamophobia: ‘Grover’s Got To Go’ - Radical Right

Leading up to last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, some on the right — led by Frank Gaffney — dredged up their anti-Muslim, Islamophobic fury, claiming that leaders of the American Conservative Union — which puts on CPAC — had been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other “radical Islamists.” Gaffney told ThinkProgress in an interview at CPAC that ACU board members Grover Norquist and Suhail Kahn were the main perpetrators of this alleged Muslim Brotherhood infiltration.

Also at CPAC, ThinkProgress asked Norquist to respond to Gaffney’s allegations. Norquist said conservatives have to “knock that stuff down and just make it clear that there’s no place for that in the party of Reagan.” He added that he thinks the right’s Islamophobia “will go away because it doesn’t work. I would like it to go away because it’s the wrong thing to do.”

Right-wing anti-Ground Zero Islamic community center crusader Pam Geller hosted a panel at CPAC, “The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.” During the question and answer period, ThinkProgress asked Geller — who also said that CPAC has been “corrupted and been compromised by Muslim Brotherhood operatives” — to respond to Norquist’s call for calm. “Grover’s got to go, Suhail Kahn’s gotto go,” Geller said dismissively, adding that the whole ACU board “has got to go!” After the event, ThinkProgress caught up with Geller and asked her to expound:

GELLER: I think that he should resign his seat and let true conservatives — … Here is a man, where the basic premise of freedom of speech. This is the tenant of conservative values. … So I think there’s something really wrong at CPAC.
TP: And you said something about the Muslim Brotherhood at CPAC? What did you mean by that?
GELLER: I didn’t mean anything about it. It’s been documented that he has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
TP: Who does?
GELLER: Suhail Kahn and Grover Norquist.

Watch the video clips:

ThinkProgress also asked Geller who she wants to see run for president in 2012 to help advance her views. “I think that the only person looking at a world that’s changing in the way that it’s changing catechistically, John Bolton would be my candidate,” she said.