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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeller gets paid pretty well to demonize Muslims. I’m talking to the tune of $200,000 a year.
Muslim-Bashing Can Be Very LucrativeDean Obeidallah
Why do Pamela Geller et al. do it? Sure, they believe it. But they get bankrolled to do itand on a major scale.
People keep asking me why does Pam Geller spew so much anti-Muslim crap? Is it part of her work as a pro-Israel activist? Did she once get food poisoning at a Middle Eastern restaurant? Is it simply because she really, really hates Muslims?
Probably all the above, but one other thing is certain: Geller gets paid pretty well to demonize Muslims. Im talking to the tune of $200,000 a year. True, that might be walking around money for Donald Trump (who actually bashed Geller this week for her draw the Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest) but that puts her in her top 5 percent of all Americans in terms of annual income. Now, $200,000 doesnt make a person rich these days (although the $9 million in combined divorce settlement and life-insurance payments she reportedly got certainly qualifies her). But for what she does, its handsome pay.
In fact, many of the people identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Center for American Progress (CAP) as the leaders of anti-Muslim industry in America are well paid for their efforts. Im talking so much money I almost want to start hating on Muslims-and Im Muslim.
In Gellers case, her salary is paid from her organization the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), a group listed by the SPLC as an active anti-Muslim organization. In 2013, the AFDI reported $958,800 in gross receipts and paid Geller a base salary of $192,500 plus $18,750 in other income (PDF).
Not bad for a group created, per AFDIs tax returns, to act against the treason being committed by the national, state and local government officials, the mainstream media and others in their capitulation to the global jihad and Islamic Supremacism. This is truly one step removed from tin foil hats and claims that the government has bugged your cheese.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/08/muslim-bashing-can-be-very-lucrative.html
samsingh
(17,571 posts)elleng
(130,127 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,081 posts)PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)In exchange, I'll follow you around the internet agreeing with everything you say, and calling people who disagree with you means names.
Seems like a fair exchange to me.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Like the OP said, it's not Donald Trump money, but a pretty good paycheck for peddling hate. How much would someone make for peddling peace? A couple of hundred dollars maybe. Americans love their hate.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,081 posts)Provided it wasn't to be a professional bigot, that is.
RedCappedBandit
(5,514 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)thats just reported income.
Besides, nobody in the darker quarters of the MIIC ever coordinated dirty deeds dirt cheap with mob associates.
nothing to see here.
progressoid
(49,825 posts)taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)elleng
(130,127 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)policy when her ex-husband died.
frylock
(34,825 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Full title: Gellers Wealth from Corruption, Fraud; Dealership She Co-Owned Supplied Cop-Killer Getaway Car
<snip>
"Pam Gellers N.Y. Times profile reveals her enormous wealth including a $4-million divorce settlement, a $5-million life insurance on the death of her ex-husband, Michael Oshry (her married name was Pamela G. Oshry), and a portion of the $2-million sale of the Hewlett Harbor home she jointly owned with Oshry. All of which allows her to live in luxury on an entire floor of upper Eastside condo.
What isnt as well-known, and was whitewashed from her Times profile, is that the basis of her wealth is a criminal enterprise. Michael Oshry, her ex-husband who died of an alleged heart attack in 2008, owned a large Long Island car dealership which operated a scam allowing buyers to purchase cars using fraudulent identities. Such a scam is perfect for organized crime and others seeking to use cars in the commission of felonies. In fact, one such vehicle was used by a former car salesman to murder two New York City police officers. An employee who discovered the scam was murdered execution-style.
Geller was listed as a co-owner of the dealership though she denied any knowledge of the fraud. However, the head of the local D.A.s economic crimes unit is quoted as saying that the owners of the dealership knew about, and possibly actively organized the fraud, which implies that either Geller had to know about it or willfully kept herself in the dark:
Peress said the corruption at Universal went all the way to the top.
So Pams denials ring hollow. If the origins of her wealth are based on a criminal enterprise is it any wonder that her political views are equally corrupt?"
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2010/10/13/gellers-wealth-from-corruption-fraud-mayve-facilitated-cop-killing/
'Car-Scam' Link Eyed
http://nypost.com/2007/07/15/car-scam-link-eyed/
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Really, really out there. And the cause of her ex-husband's death is apparently not really clear.
She's morally corrupt, so it should be no surprise that she is legally corrupt as well.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Sick, sad and true
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)malthaussen
(17,065 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Important info about her and the hate group which is apparently raking in almost a million a year to set the stage for hate crimes and violence.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Geller's big mistake was not calling her movement a religion. Nobody would dare criticize her if she was the founder of a religion.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)You're right.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)While there are a few in big megachurches who make megabucks, most don't come anywhere close.
And even those that demonize gays don't go anywhere near where Geller goes in her war against muslims.
Everyone here would criticize her if she was the founder of a religion.
Careful. Your gross prejudices against all things religious are showing and it's not pretty.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)The rest aren't hurting, either: http://m.christianpost.com/news/church-pastors-pay-rises-to-more-than-80-000--33898/
Plus they don't usually pay for housing and get a ton of perks. My best friend's dad is a Lutheran pastor and does better than most.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Your 7 year old link is not accurate. The average salary of pastors is $28,000 a year. They usually do get a parsonage allowance but I'd love to know about all those other perks. They generally work a massive number of hours with very little time off and are pretty much on-call 24/7.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2013/12/15/average-pastor-salaries-in-united-states-churches/
My father is a minister. We had just enough and no extras.
WBC is a good example of a privately funded hate group, though. It's very similar to Geller's group and the comparison completely destroys the Clown's argument that religious groups get a pass when it comes to bigotry. WBC is one of the most hated groups on this site.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)It varies considerably by denomination.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Most are not even denominationally affiliated, but have started their own "churches" that function completely independently of any denominational oversight.
They are horrible. They should be loudly and actively opposed, but blanket statements like the Clown's that don't distinguish between those that are horrible and those that are not do not help in the fight against them.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)A Breakdown of Salaries and Benefits for Senior Pastors
The 2012-2013 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, Christianity Today's bi-annual survey of compensation levels based on 4,600 participating churches, shows senior pastors' salary and benefits at an average $82,938 this year. This represents a 2.7 percent increase from the $80,745 average reported in 2010.
http://www.churchlawandtax.com/blog/2012/april/breakdown-of-salaries-and-benefits-for-senior-pastors.html
cbayer
(146,218 posts)as opposed to all pastors. I can't tell from you link what exactly that means, but the link I provided above includes all pastors.
And if you look closer at the article you link to, this number includes benefits (including housing allowance, retirement, health insurance, auto allowance, continuing education, life insurance and disability insurance). It's important to compare apples to apples, as most reports of salary do not include these kinds of benefits.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Suppose there was a religion called "Gellerism", and suppose its founder had written a book saying that all who are not Gellerites must be killed, and that to draw a picture of Geller was blasphemy punishable by death. And suppose that she lived 1000 years ago, and had millions of followers now.
Would you condemn all Gellerites just because they read and believe in her book? Or would you insist that most Gellerites are gentle, peace-loving people?
I don't hear those who would criticize Geller criticizing Mohammed for his hate speech, or even his under-aged concubines.
Disclaimer: I think she is scum, and I don't believe in anything she stands for. But, I can say pretty much the same thing about some (un-named) religions and their founders.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,081 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)Hate groups are hate groups and, in fact, most of them have religious ties.
Your contention that "Nobody would dare criticize her if she was the founder of a religion." is just total malarkey.
Are you really comparing Geller to Mohammed?