The woman who organised the “Muhammad Art Exhibit” attacked by two gunmen in Texas last night has a long history of generating anti-Islam controversy.

Pamela Geller, whose American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, declared on Sunday that “the war is here” after two heavily armed suspects were killed outside the Curtis Culwell Centre in Garland, north of Dallas.

The centre was hosting an art show of drawings of the Prophet – the latest in a series of inflammatory events and campaigns organised by the group.

Geller is banned from entering the United Kingdom, following a ruling by Theresa May in 2013 preventing her from speaking at a rally for the far-Right English Defence League rally in London.

The Home Office said Geller had been told not to travel to Britain because she had set up organisations “described as anti-Muslim hate groups”.

The AFDI has sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the US.

Last year, the AFDI took out a series of Islamophobic posters on New York buses and subway trains, including one containing the phrase “Hamas Killing Jews”.

The posters showed a man in Middle Eastern attire with the headline “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah” – a quote attributed to “Hamas MTV” – and concluded with the provocative tag-line: “That’s His Jihad. What’s yours?”

Photo: EPA/LARRY W. SMITH

New York’s transport authority (MTA) told the group it would not run the advert because the message would incite violence.

After a judge ruled in April that the AFDI should be allowed to display its advertisement under First Amendment freedom of speech rights, the MTA last week voted to ban all political advertising.

In 2010, advertisements on New York buses offering help to Muslims who wish to leave Islam paid for by conservative activists including Geller were denounced as a “smoke screen for anti-Muslim bigotry”.

That same year, Geller led a march to the site of a proposed Islamic centre near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.

Organisers of yesterday’s “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” said the event was to promote freedom of expression.

They offered a $10,000 prize for the best artwork or cartoon depicting the Prophet, as well as a $2,500 “People’s Choice Award.”

Photo: Reuters

Geller said on Fox News that she chose the Garland venue for the art exhibit because it was where American Muslim leaders held a conference on combating Islamophobia a week after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

In response to the shooting in Garland, the AFDI issued a statement on Facebook saying, “This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?”