HIKIND CALLS OUT LONG ISLAND ‘RELIGIOUS’ HYPOCRITES FOR BULLYING GELLER, GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE

NEWS FROM
ASSEMBLYMAN DOV HIKIND

April 11, 2013

Contact: Yehudah Meth                                                       For Immediate Release
718-853-9616 (office)
973-945-4903 (cell)

HIKIND CALLS OUT LONG ISLAND ‘RELIGIOUS’ HYPOCRITES FOR BULLYING GELLER, GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE

“THE TERRORISTS ARE WINNING”

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) says a successful campaign by a prominent Nassau County official to intimidate the Great Neck Synagogue into cancelling outspoken Islam extremist critic Pamela Geller is the height of hypocrisy and a terrifying blow against freedom of speech.

Habeeb U. Ahmed, a member of the Nassau Commission on Human Rights, organized like-minded extremist apologists into bullying and threatening the synagogue until Geller’s scheduled April 14^th appearance was cancelled. Ahmed was joined by Tom Goodhue, the executive director of the Long Island Council of Churches, and Robert Nuxoll, of the Interfaith Alliance of Long Island and a member of The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock, is equating Geller to a Nazi, according to a string of emails posted by Geller on her blog.

“I am disappointed that the Great Neck Synagogue would cave in to this pressure,” said Assemblyman Hikind. “We live in nation that guarantees freedom of speech. The synagogue wanted Pamela Geller to speak or they wouldn’t have invited her. By giving in to pressure or fear they have denied many people, including myself, the right to hear what Pamela Geller has to say on Islamic extremism.

“This is a prelude to something terrifying. On the one hand, you have Brooklyn College officially sponsoring a group calling for the destruction of the State of Israel—and getting away with it! On the other, you have a successful intimidation network frightening a synagogue into cancelling the appearance of a well-known speaker and published author who they invited to speak. We never asked Brooklyn College to cancel the BDS event—my fellow elected officials and I asked that the college remove its official sponsorship. But we see with Islamic extremists and those who support them have zero respect for free speech. And we’re letting them get away with it, which means the terrorists are winning.”