Meet Robert Spencer - Director of Jihad Watch

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ROBERT SPENCER is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of sixteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran. Coming in 2017 is The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies).

Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Justice Department’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and the U.S. intelligence community. He has discussed jihad, Islam, and terrorism at a workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry. He is a consultant with the Center for Security Policy and vice president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

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An outstanding speech by Robert Spencer about the freedom of speech and its foes.
Spencer exposes the enemies of free speech, including the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton.
Spencer argues "hate speech" is simply a vehicle to destroy the 1st amendment and a tool for the powerful to silence the powerless.
Spencer argues that "incitement to religious hatred" is simply code for "anti-Islam speech".
Any honest discussion of the texts and teachings of Islam that justify jihad terrorism is viewed by the UN as "incitement to religious hatred". The UN has called several times to criminalize incitement to religious hatred in order to compel people not to express themselves honestly and accurately about the jihad threat, and seek to exhort old fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming against citizens of the free world.

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A complete listing of Robert Spencer’s books:

Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (Encounter);

Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West (Regnery);

Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics (with Daniel Ali) (Ascension);

The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (Prometheus);

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) (Regnery);

The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion (Regnery);

Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t (Regnery);

Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs (Regnery);

The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran (Regnery);

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War On America (with Pamela Geller) (Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster).

Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins (ISI);

Not Peace But A Sword: The Great Chasm Between Christianity and Islam (Catholic Answers);

Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About the War We’re In (Regnery);

The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS (Regnery).

The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran (Regnery).

The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies) (coming in 2017 from Regnery).

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I love Spencer's work. He is a great champion of freedom and a great educator of Islam from a politically incorrect perspective.

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Q: Why should I believe what you say about Islam?

RS: Pick up any of my books, and you will see that they are made up largely of quotations from Islamic jihadists and the traditional Islamic sources to which they appeal to justify violence and terrorism. My work sheds light on what these sources say.

The evidence stands by itself; readers can evaluate it for themselves. I would, of course, be happy to debate any scholar about Islam and jihad; this is a standing invitation.

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Q: Why have you studied Islam for so long?

RS: It has been an enduring fascination. Since childhood I have had an interest in the Muslim world, from which my family comes. When I was very young my grandparents would tell me stories about their life there, and I always heard them with great interest. When I met Muslim students as a college undergraduate I began reading and studying the Qur’an in earnest. That led to in-depth forays into tafsir (interpretations of the Qur’an), hadith (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad), and much more about Islamic theology and law. While working on my master’s thesis, which dealt not with Islam but (in part) with some early Christian heretical groups, I began to study early Islamic history, since some of these groups ended up in Arabia and may have influenced Muhammad. In the intervening years I continued these studies of Islamic theology, history, and law out of personal interest.

This led to my consulting privately with some individuals and groups about Islam, but I had never intended to do such work publicly. However, after 9/11 I was asked to write my first book, Islam Unveiled, in order to correct some of the misapprehensions about Islam that were widespread at that time.

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Q: I’ve read that you are actually a white supremacist neo-Nazi.
RS: No. I have consistently opposed racism and supremacism of all kinds — otherwise, I wouldn’t oppose the global jihad.

Q: I’ve read that you are actually ignorant of Islam.
RS: Such a charge is a common, albeit empty, rhetorical tactic of jihadist apologists. I am ready to defend my statements about Islam and jihad in discussion or debate with virtually anyone.

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Q: Do you hate Muslims?

RS: Of course not. Islam is not a monolith, and never have I said or written anything that characterizes all Muslims as terrorist or given to violence. To call attention to the roots and goals of jihad violence within Islamic texts and teachings, and to show how jihadists use those texts and teachings, says nothing at all about what any given Muslim believes or how he acts. Any Muslim who renounces violent jihad and dhimmitude is welcome to join in our anti-jihadist efforts. Any hate in my books comes from Muslim sources quoted, not from me. Cries of “hatred” and “bigotry” are effectively used by American Muslim advocacy groups to try to stifle the debate about the terrorist threat. But there is no substance to them.
It is not an act of hatred against Muslims to point out the depredations of jihad ideology. It is a peculiar species of displacement and projection to accuse someone who exposes the hatred of one group of hatred himself: I believe in the equality of rights and dignity of all people, and that is why I oppose the global jihad. Those who make the charge use it as a tool to frighten the credulous and politically correct away from the truth.

Some time ago here at Jihad Watch I had an exchange with an English convert to Islam. I said: “I would like nothing better than a flowering, a renaissance, in the Muslim world, including full equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies: freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, equal employment opportunities, etc.” Is all that “anti-Muslim”? My correspondent thought so. He responded: “So, you would like to see us ditch much of our religion and, thereby, become non-Muslims.”

In other words, he saw a call for equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies, including freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, and equal employment opportunities, as a challenge to his religion. To the extent that they are, these facts have to be confronted by both Muslims and non-Muslims. But it is not “anti-Muslim” to wish freedom of conscience and equality of rights on the Islamic world — quite the contrary.

Q: Do you think all Muslims are terrorists?

RS: See above.

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Q: Are you trying to incite anti-Muslim hatred?
RS: Certainly not. I am trying to point out the depth and extent of the hatred that is directed against the United States, because efforts to downplay its depth and extent leave us less equipped to defend ourselves. Anyone who targets innocent Muslims in the USA is not only evil, but is playing into the hands of the jihadists who are trying to fan the flames of anti-American hatred. Also, one of the reasons why the war on terror is so important is that those who would destroy Western civilization do not believe in the principles of due process and justice that are central elements of the American system.

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