Anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller has accused TX Gov. Rick Perry of being the pro-Sharia "Fifth Column" presidential candidate -- but still says she'd support him if she had to "with every breath of my body."
Geller's been writing about Perry's relationship with the Aga Khan, the leader of the Ismailis sect of Shia Islam, in response to a Salon piece that detailed their friendship.
From Justin Elliott at Salon:
Sprouting from that friendship are at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and Ismaili institutions, including a far-reaching program to educate Texas schoolchildren about Islam.
More here.
Geller, of course, was concerned. She wrote an August 15 piece in the American Thinker describing Ismailism as "a Shi'ite sect of Islam that today proclaims its nonviolence but in ages past was the sect that gave rise to the Assassins." About the education initiative, she wrote: "Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace."
But, as Geller wrote, there's another smoking gun: Perry gave a speech in March alongside Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.
The anti-Islam right-wing has long attacked Norquist for being part of a "Fifth Column" within the GOP, a covert group of pro-sharia, pro-jihadist Republicans who infiltrated the Bush Administration and continue to advance a nefarious pro-Muslim Brotherhood agenda. The attacks on Norquist seem to stem primarily from the fact that his wife is Arab.
In a World Net Daily column Tuesday called "Yes, Rick Perry is the 5th column candidate," Geller doubled down on her attacks on Perry. "Why shouldn't there be questions about a candidate's friendship with the owner of a bank accused of funding al-Qaida (and never exonerated), a man who also does business with the terror-supporting government of Syria?"
"All this speaks to a pattern," Geller writes. "And the pattern is not good. It speaks to a pattern of going along with our civilization path to suicide. No matter who wins the nomination, I will support him or her with every breath of my body. But I am going to fight like a cat to get the right cat there."
"It is not my intention to damn all Muslims," she said. "But we need a president who will call out the Islamic supremacist groups on stealth jihad. That is real political courage, not calling for tax cuts."