The talk I gave in mid-November at the Heritage Foundation here in Washington will be broadcast on C-Span's Book TV this Sunday at 3:30PM EST. I discuss issues covered in my book The Truth About Muhammad.
And take a look at what follows immediately after my talk, at 4:30PM EST: Karen Armstrong, talking about her new and hagiographical biography of Muhammad. Hmmm. I wonder what considerations led to this delectable bit of scheduling, and why Armstrong's talk was scheduled to follow immediately after mine. Anyone have any ideas?
To comfort the victims of your frightening thesis after you strike terror in the hearts of the unbelievers?
I'll watch.
Perhaps you should browse through her book to find a couple of obvious errors or omissions and work them into your presentation.
They will use her goody goody muslim story to actually reinforce your accurate and truthful assessment of islam.
Yup, Fair and Balanced reporting in action!
Cheers,
http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com
Can we.....call in and ask questions? ;)
"Anyone have any ideas?"
Robert,
It is obvious C-Span is trying to cover all spectrums of the life of Muhammad... They will get the truth from you and how to learn to be a dhimmi from her... ;)
I mean how many lessons are there out there on how to be a dhimmi? She offers a comprehensive case study of this. This study may be applied in some of those lost people living in the world of un-truths. If those people submit themselves correctly to a step by step understanding of the life of the puppet Muhammed...
This will help all of those who feel a loss of hope after spending decades in Multiculturalism and Reletivism. This hoplessness was caused by lack of truth and now the only way out "obviously" is Dhimiatude...
Now for me I will just choose truth and move on with it :)
Robert you have three guesses, and the first two dont count. l wonder if Karen Armstrong will have a chance to hear what you have to say, and change her tactics. but then if she were smart appologists, she will use all the taquia available to her. well at least you will have your say, and you will be a very difficult act to follow.
The speaker speaking last is remembered first. This is probably a deliberate attempt to try and nutralise or at least water down RS appearance.
If she listens to RS first, she will try to eliminate any good points made. At anyrate, it will be interesting to see what tactics C-span and Karen come up with...
To whom it may concern:
Neither talk is live.
And for "Matoko": I took questions at the end of the talk, as I always do. I expect they are part of the video.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
Am I correct in the assumption that Robert's segment will be pre-recorded, and Armstrong's will be live?
This puts Robert at a slight tactical disadvantage, If Armstrong watches his presentation in advance and gears her presentation against his points - without him being able to rebut.
If Armstrong is live, people in the audience can ask questions. WHERE is this being held? Has it already been recorded, or can interested Jihad Watchers still get out there?
The scheduling is for "balance". Hopefully some viewers who watch both will see through the re-obfuscation I expect from the latter segment.
Mine will not be live. I very much doubt that hers will be live: CSpan usually tapes talks for BookTV and airs them later. But I suppose hers could possibly be live.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
Sometimes Book TV films these things live at book fairs and author signing events. The public can then participate.
It might be interesting to pay attention to when and where these authors will appear at local bookstores and fairs and ask them the hard questions.
Just do your little bit for humanity...
PRCS said
But that's the thing, Robert has already recorded his presentation. There is no chance to respond, or even to know in what context they will show his presentation. Just as in the previous case where the rebuttal aired before what was being rebutted. The MSM feels they must vet Robert's recorded speeches with our Muslim masters before they can be aired in public. They cannot address the content of what he is saying, so they change the context. Perhaps they can sandwich him in between a David Duke KKK speech and an archival recording of a Hitler rally, and see if people take any inferences from that. With all the games, Robert is protected by sticking to the facts, and by being calm and rational, quick-witted, and well-researched.
But as for Ms. Armstrong's book, I heard an infuriating interview on NPR with her. She is chock full of bland generic platitudes for Mohammad ("he is a man of peace", "he did not believe he was founding Islam, a new religion, he believed he was bringing Christianity and Judaism to the Arabs, who had not been previously exposed", and my favorite, "Mohammad was a successful businessman", I guess his caravan raiding was a franchise industry back then), and she is short on any specifics. She paints a fantasyland of a peaceful, democratic, tolerant person/religion/region. In short, it's her version of everything our society aspires to, with no relationship whatsoever to what Islam actually teaches, or to what Mohammad actually did in his life. Thankfully, despite all the MSM foistering of her book on an unsuspecting public, Robert's book is getting far more purchases.
And after all this, kudos to C-Span for showing Robert's presentation, under whatever conditions they deign to show it.
I think it is wonderful that viewers will again have the opportunity to see Mr. Spencer on C-SPAN. One of my husband's coworkers saw the interview with Brian Lamb a while back and was impressed by how Robert's explanations and evaluations were backed up with primary source material.
I'm sure that the obsfucation by Karen Armstrong will be apparent.
Wishing that Islam/the quran doesn't say what it does or mean what is obviously written, can't mask the reality of what is there.
Presenting islamic texts and the long settled rulings from islamic schools of thought, along with his unbelievable grasp of the topic, is what is most impressive about Robert's presentations.
eve_anne_gelical said
Excellent point. This will backfire on them, as anyone who sees both interviews will come away with a clear opinion on who is more informed about who Mohammad really was. Putting them back to back is the closest that Robert has been able to get to a face-to-face debate, and the results will be obvious.
Maybe we should see this as a sandbagging of Ms. Armstrong, she is the one who will come out of this for the worse. Intentionally or not, C-Span is on the side of the anti-jihad.
RS and special_guest:
My mistake.
In re-reading the post, I see that it is a broadcast of the Heritage Foundation presentation.
Knowing in advance what was said then, it will be even more fun to watch Ms. Armstrong's presentation.
The average person will not know Armstrong is lying.
Most have never read one word of islamic texts.
Unless a person has a fire in their belly about the world situation, they will flip the channel looking for lighter entertainment. Fingers in their ears, shouting la la la.
Then there are the same type people who made up their minds on 9-11, never will read anything about islam, but understand what it's all about by the terrorism being constantly performed by the "faithful".
According to the schedule, Robert will get 60 minutes to Armstrong's 90... hmmm....
www.booktv.org/schedule
Here's an idea whose time has come.
Robert Spencer's taped presentation is put on. Unbeknownst to him, someone at CNN has decided to schedule the well-known ex-nun and apologist for Islam, whose pap has been eagerly lapped by hundreds of thousands (her "Islam" and her equally idiotic worshipful "biography" of Muhammad) immediately after.
It would be appropriate now, since she will appear after Spencer, and seem to have the last word, and she is unconstrained by such trivial things as the truth, to have Robert Spencer on again, live, after her, to discuss what she has said in the light of what he said. And then, at that point, if she wishes to come on yet again, to discuss what he has just discussed, or if better still they were to appear together for a little debate after his taped and then her apparently live (or possibly taped) appearance, that would be enlightening for the audience.
And isn't enlightening the audience the whole point of CNN? Or shouldn't it be?
Yes: Spencer, then Armstrong, then Spencer, then Armstrong, or possibly Spencer, then Armstrong, then Spencer and Armstrong at the same time.
May the Informed One win. May the purveyor of taqiyya and tu-quoque be shamed beyond measure.
Mr. Spencer,
Do not worry. Your writing skills are far superior to armstrong's. As far as C-Span, they claim to be fair and balanced, that is debateable.
When the Lincoln-Douglas debates made the circuit in Illinois in 1858, the discourse was raised and the citizenry was enlightened, even entertained.
If I were a rich man, I'd pay Spencer and Armstrong $1 million each to conduct a series of 7 public debates, televised, each 1 hr long, absolutely free of any format.
* 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 *
Then the citizenry would be enlightened, Karen Armstrong's career would be destroyed, Prof. Esposito would disappear into Arabia, and babes would sleep peacefully in the night.
I didn't see if anyone else mentioned this, but all of the Heritage Foundation's talks are available for viewing online. The website for their events is here. Then scroll down to November 14.
Doesn't look like I made a link. The Heritage Foundation website for lecture archives is:
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/archive.cfm.
Just for fun.....
O Jihadwatchers!
I thought muslims "loved death and we love Pepsi",
They're not so tough.
/heh heh heh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvGOZLIGO8I
the time for a duel is coming; it is unfortunate that the two ideas coexist and that the media does not explore further. will the real muhammed please stand ... oh, maybe not.
is good news that Robert (so-called purveyor of hysteria, hatred, and so on) is (increasingly?) being given an equal position to someone whose message is more accepted the mainstream.
what continues to amaze is that people can know the same facts and come to vastly different conclusions about the meaning. "the real problem," says a minister and neighbor, "is fundamentalism of any kind." but then, he also gets his facts from the well-behaved muslims he speaks with informally.
Carolyn 2,
That is the funniest frickin' thing!! Maybe we should import a bunch of Boa's and let 'em loose in Minneapolis, Texas and Washington D.C. Funny, the guy who the snake slid under fainted like a girl. Maybe that's why they have to bag their women, because they continually show up the men. Any self respecting housewife from around here that I know would have gotten her gun and shot it.
/heh heh heh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvGOZLIGO8I
Good one! I now have a fantasy of dropping millions upon millions of Rattlers on them when they mass at the black rock next time :-)
B-52s full of snakes.. figthing snakes with snakes :-)
Perhaps C-Span is afraid of being sued by CAIR unless they show both points of view.... I believe the American expression is cover your a**
Carolyn2 said
True, it'll take a JihadWatch Superbowl Halftime Show to reach some. Not everybody watches C-Span. But I'm hoping that many thoughtful and intelligent (and, nerdy) people, who currently believe the Religion of Peace (tm) canard in the name of openmindedness, will see this and have questions in their mind. They'll check a few of the original sources that Robert gives (and which Ms. Armstrong studiously avoids giving)citations to, and turn ashen as they read themselves, for the first time, what the Qur'an and ahadith actually say. It's a bone-chilling experience, and there is no going back after that.
Spencer,
I'm really grateful for your Heritage speech and will be purchasing your book when I have some time.
I'm growing impatient/nervous with so many public figures/talk-show hosts, etc perpetuating the fallacious western understanding of the Islam/Jihadist mindset. Lord willing, your efforts will help dispel the mist before it's too late.
Just reading elsewhere this past week of Sharia law spreading in the U.K. -- if that doesn't scare us, nothing short of a nuke going off in our country will.
Mr Spencer,
I would think the best response to the BookTV scheduling of that reprehensible disinformationist Karen Armstrong is to watch it and write a critique of her talk for this well known site and to deliver another very cogent rebuttal on Hot Air. Nail her hard - don't let her get by with anything! Should be easy.
Let's hope that the audience that attends Armstrong's presentation isn't as stupid as she hopes they are. Hopefully the question and answer period won't be all smooth saling for Karen. Just a few knowledgeable audience members is all it would take to undue the misinformation she'll try to force feed her listeners.
Let's hope.
It might be an advantage to have Robert's presentation scheduled ahead of Armstrong's. If Armstrong's were first, the audience may drift into a peaceful slumber while listening to her and then miss Robert's entirely.
I've just finished reading 'The Truth about Mohammad.' Very good. Clear as. Am using its basic theme in a letter controversy with a Muslim in a local paper. It'll be interesting to see how far we are allowed to go.
At the end of Robert Spencer's presentation of his book, in the video in the link as follows, from November 14th, a few people can be heard singing something. I can only make out a few words, such as "Spencer" and "that's like nazi genocide." Does anyone know what they're saying? Your reactions, Mr. Spencer?
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/archive.cfm
"Jonas Salk":
Some Lyndon LaRouche cultists began singing an absurd song suggesting that Cheney and I are working together in a large conspiracy to kill Muslims. They evidently overlooked, in their frenzied conspiracy theorizing, the statement I made against the Wilsonian adventure in Iraq earlier in the question period.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
C-Span...I love it!
Every chance to get Roberts' information promoted is a step forward in forcing needed recognitions upon the stubborn and ignorant masses.
I say forcing, because it's been over five years since Muslims killed thousands in America, and the ideological aspects of this war on terror are still not addressed by our leaders.
When enough of us get to the level of enragement required to activate ourselves, they will have to listen.
And the truth is maddening indeed.
Robert--or anyone--who exactly is this Karen Armstrong? I heard her talking about her new book, and Islam in general and historically, on Talk of the Nation on NPR the other day and simply could not believe what I was hearing. She made some of the most outrageous comments that went completely unchallenged by Neil Conan (I think that's his name). One I remember was that there was absolutely no anti-semitism in the Islamic world until the 20th Century, and that was planted by the Christian West through Imperialism and Colonialism! I'll bet Bat Yeor would be overjoyed to hear that! There were other jaw-droppers as well about Mohammed's dealings with women, the non-muslim world in general, etc. This person is a little scary and certainly not the voive we need to hear at this point in history (if ever).
Thanks to anyone who knows--
Wow, and here I was thinking that it was just some silly college students. I guess the old adage is true: "When in doubt, blame Lyndon LaRouche."
Still, Mr. Spencer, it is hilarious that you get such absurd accusations from people in public. Your presentation was wonderful, by the way. I especially enjoyed being able to follow the portions of the Koran you mentioned with my version. I'm not regretting having purchased your book, either!
The NPR audio interview with Karen Armstrong on Muhammad is at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6549530 . It is a painful to hear her whitewash of Muhammad’s life in which she avoids responding directly to questions while perusing tangents that enable her to romanticize Muhammad & Islam. Oh to hear a real debate between her and experts like Spencer of Trifkovic who could easily take her apart and show her as a fool. Will it ever happen?
She has become a major apologist for Islam and even recently made official UN historian of religion. IMO unless her useful idiocy is confronted she can do much harm.
"Anyone have any ideas?"
Yeah, I have an idea ...
CSPAN is scared, like pretty much everyone in that business.
And I think that people acting out of fear in this matter have to be exposed, plainly, loudly and clearly.
Nearly all the moslem propaganda consists of 2 components delivered together:
1) Attacks on moral confidence, presented as accusations of racism and claims of victimhood, and
2) Nearly naked threats of violence.
And pretty much the entire media business is shaking in their boots.
They are loudly self-congratulatory about their alleged courage in mocking and criticizing safe targets, the Catholic church, the American president, what have you... But present them with a single "offended" (i.e. angry) moslem and they melt like butter.
Quoted by Alarmed Pig Farmer:
If I were a rich man, I'd pay Spencer and Armstrong $1 million each to conduct a series of 7 public debates, televised, each 1 hr long, absolutely free of any format.
Mr Spencer would utterly destroy her in such a debate, which is why she will never consent to doing one.
Which is unfortunate.