Spencer on the Michael Medved Show

In case you were wondering (which you probably weren't), "medved" (медведь) means "bear" in Russian.

Thanks

Robert,
The show was great. As usual, you did an outstanding job at shedding light in the caverns of obfuscation and disinformation. Medved was a great host. Keep doing this until all these nocturnal rodents eventually scamper out of their cryptic and disreputable den, them beating a quick path out, solely in their escape from the cleansing light of truth. Then, let them find not another comforting nocturne.

What strikes me about the radio interview is how so many people, even non-muslims begin thier objections to Roberts work with some variation of verbal attack on Christianity or Judiaism. This surprises me coming from Americans.
I am not saying there are no problems in other religions but I can't understand the logic. It's like they are victims of some kind of weird mind control experiment.
"Look into my eyes"
"The mere mention of Islamic inspired violence will lead you to object to Jewish & Christian theology and make you angry."

I liked the polygamy exchange where the clown tries to say it isn't allowed by pointing at the verse where it clearly says it is allowed, it just depends on what the man thinks of himself. :P

Robert,

You're being defamed on LGF again. The topic is "Fisking Spencer", posted Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 9:29:46 am PDT. CJ has no shame, none whatsoever.

Just don't even go to LGF...why give him the hits. Who cares wht he has to say anymore anyway. Just avoid him and maybe he'll go away or at least lose money running a site no one visits.

WilliamTell wrote:

"Keep doing this until all these nocturnal rodents eventually scamper out of their cryptic and disreputable den, them beating a quick path out, solely in their escape from the cleansing light of truth. Then, let them find not another comforting nocturne."

While I agree with the sentiment against those who persist in misunderstanding the evil of Islam, I think the metaphor has it rather backwards: all those idiots who persist in whitewashing Islam actually enjoy the blue sky and sunshine of the mainstream, throughout the West. It is we jihadwatchers who continue to be forced to scurry and scamper through the darker Blogosphere, canaries in the coalmine...

On a related note, Unveiled wrote:

"What strikes me about the radio interview is how so many people, even non-muslims begin thier objections to Roberts work with some variation of verbal attack on Christianity or Judiaism. This surprises me coming from Americans."

What surprises me is how many in the anti-Islam movement persist in thinking that the position of whitewashing Islam is some kind of minority opinion. It continues to reflect, in fact, the vast majority throughout the West. We are the oddballs, not them. The mass existence of people who enable the obfuscation and whitewashing of the problem of Islam should not baffle us. It can annoy us, enrage us, motivate us -- but it should no longer baffle us. And the reasons why all those millions of otherwise relatively decent and good Westerners continue to whitewash Islam is not that difficult to fathom, although it is somewhat complex. It is part of Western progress, which paradoxically has developed excess health in the Body Politic of the West: too much of a good thing: irrationally excessive growths of virtues, such as self-criticism, appreciation for the Other, transcending tribalism, a sense of skepticism about Absolute Certainty, a cultivation of modesty in relation to the Meaning of Life as transmitted by our own religious traditions; etc. These are all good values, but not when taken to excess. They have been taken to excess over the past 50-odd years. That's why we're in the pickle we're in now, where we have a global enemy coalescing and yet we continue to coddle and whitewash their venom.

Excellent, as always, Robert. I listened to it twice.

The thing I like best about listening to Robert on these talk shows is that he is always polite but never let's the obfuscators get away with nonsense. They can attack but he just keeps bringing them back to the subject.

It is interesting to listen to the people who call in. They all seem to hear what they want to hear, and don't bother to listen to what is actually being said. Reminds me of a few people around here.

Abdullah Mike is going to be so jealous.

"'medved' (медведь) means "bear" in Russian."

For more on the медведь in popular song see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv7E9O77Kkg&feature=related. And a certain Medvedev (nekij Medvedev), it has been suggested, started out by dancing to the tune of his Поводырка, Vladimir Putin.

Oops. Time for the Errata Sheet (I'm beginning to feel like Paul Muldoon).

I need to correct the Russian in the last sentence in the posting above. The word поводырь should have appeared rather than its archaic variant (which appears in Dal's dictionary, twice, but it's not exactly in current use), Поводырка. We're not in Novgorod any more.

Errata Sheet:

For "started out by dancing to the tune of his Поводырка, Vladimir Putin"

Read "started out by dancing to the tune of his поводырь, Vladimir Putin."

Loved it Robert.The dunce from Ill was a typical liberal.They don't listen,They ramble and never get to the point.Largely cause they don't have one.I'ts a mental disorder.Any way Robert,job well done.

As Winston Churchill said, "never, never, never give up."

You’re befuddled; the correct quote was “Never give up, never surrender”, articulated by Commander Peter Quincy Taggart. Churchill said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.” :)

Gah. No edit on typepad... :-/

While he didn't say never give *up*, the idea is the same. Galaxy Quest notwithstanding. :p

I agree, Wellington, with all that you say; although I am often tempted to go the low road -- but then, that is apparently what Rabelais did, and who am I to impugn his methods?

Awww man...now I've got to go dig that movie out of my closet and watch it tonight, laundry be damned!

After I listen again to the radio program, I got riled up with one of the moronic callers and started yelling at my monitor...it's been a long day. My grammar-correcting-quote-clarifying self is having a hard time staying under wraps -- hence my rambling on about Churchill... ;-)

Robert Spencer was in top form in the interview. Medved was very good, except at certain moments where he kept cutting off the caller trying to make a point about two verses in the Qur'an about polygamy. I wanted Medved to shut up at that moment, let the speaker make his point, then let Robert Spencer answer it. Fortunately, though Medved made it difficult, the caller eventually got to present his point, and Spencer heard what the speaker was trying to argue despite the unclarity produced by all of Medved's interruptions, and eventually Spencer got a response in edgewise to the caller.

traeh, well, the self-criticism may not go far enough, but the far enough would have to traverse the leaps that the current self-criticism has already bounded. It's kind of semantic at this point. I think the point is, we have gone too far in self-criticism, and we need to recoil. It's nice if a man is modest and shows self-criticism, it even can show his strength and self-confidence: it's another thing if his goddamn house is on fire and his family is in danger of being burned alive, and he continues to be all self-effacingly modest about his own faults, meanwhile ignoring the people who are burning his house down! At that point, his virtue of self-effacing modesty becomes criminal. He is endangering his own family.

It was good of Medved having you on his show, Robert, now imagine if 'The Truth Detector' actually lived up to his name. Solid as always, and it's always noteworthy how hapless Muslim callers are when they attempt to argue against you. But Islam is what it is, and Muslims have not been prepared to defend it in any serious way, which is where violence comes in.

I can't stand Medved because of this load of nonsense that he's written in defense of not talking to mahoundians in the only kind of language they understand, the only one that can get a point across through their hollow skulls. In his mind, Saudi Arabia is a an American "ally", and America's got plenty of other "allies in the mahoundian world." How dishonest and how much of a sell-out does anyone have to be to spew such crap?

Will this book be available on Audible?

The last caller on the Medved program - an Orthodox Jew - I did not understand his point.

Wild Jew,

I don't think the Orthodox Jew had a point. I think he was thinking out loud on air and trying to work through years of accepting moral equivalency. I thought Robert handled him very neatly. Too bad the show wasn't longer because it would have been interesting to see if he would come around a bit.

Daughter of Eve,

"laundry be damned!"

LOL!!! Yes, fighting jihad often gets in the way of keeping the house or even getting extra work done to make a living, but it's a heck of a lot more fun. You go, little patriotic quoting, freedom protecting, stain fighting warrior chick!

Hi Thomas. ; )

when did you change your name to michael

when did you change your name to michael

SPENCER TO BE HEARD ON NEED TO KNOW! WITH FRANK WUCO
Need to Know! with Frank Wuco is a friend of JW. We will be discussing The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran. Join me and show host Frank Wuco as we discuss what Wuco describes as an accessible primer for anyone who needs to understand the basics of the Koran, including its stark prescriptions and use as an authoritative source for Muslims around the world, to include its divinely revealed prescriptions for jihad. Perhaps I might even have an opportunity to go a couple of rounds with the official jihadist of Need to Know!, Fuad Wasul. Need to Know! with Frank Wuco can be heard each Saturday on Salem Radio Networks Talk Radio 860 AM Tampa and streamed live at: http://needtoknowshow.com.

Visit http://needtoknowshow.com

Just got my copy and will be reading it a.s.a.p. - only one dissapiontment so far... no autograph! { that's a hint Rpbert}.

Just got my copy and will be reading it a.s.a.p. - only one dissapiontment so far... no autograph! { that's a hint Robert}.

I found the interview aggravating and depressing. As someone else already commented, Medved should have allowed Robert to talk to more but it's his show so whaddya gonna do?

That last caller is what depressed me. It's just one more indication that nothing will ever change and nothing will ever work. When someone who claims to be a practicing Jew is interested enough to call into a radio show, but not interested enough to educate himself on the subject but spouts false "facts" and has accepted false premises about what Robert does, it's just...depressing. His point about the book not being about Islam, but about the Koran, is just....

I just wish people like that last caller would make some effort to understand that Muslims believe the Koran is the last, literal, true word of God and is the only holy text that has never been corrupted by the hand of man. All Muslims believe that. Last being the most important part.

"That last caller is what depressed me. It's just one more indication that nothing will ever change and nothing will ever work."

I don't think that's true, Jaynie. I thought the last caller, while attacking Robert & Michael, sounded like he was trying to grasp what was being said and work his way through this new and uncharted territory in his mind. I think he attacked them because the possibility of this being true is so painful that he had to lash out to try and deal with it. But now he's heard it and the seeds have been planted. He reminds me of a jihad fighter I know in my area who is retired Air Force. He said that twenty some odd years ago another military member was talking to him about this jihad stuff and he thought, well that's nice, and didn't give it another thought. Until 9/11. Then the puzzle started to fit together. He's now active in undermining da' jihad but he said it took that long for him to come to understand what was really going on and what has to be done about it.

Like I said before, I wish the show had gone on a little longer because that guy seemed to be trying to work this out in his head. Looking back, I don't think I ever even heard the word jihad or knew anything about it until after 9/11. I certainly know about it now.

I am an admirer of Michael Medved but he wasn't in top form here. Robert, on the other hand, was in tip-top form. Thus the understandable sentiment from people commenting here to have heard more Robert and less Michael. In fact, wouldn't it be something grand if Robert had his own radio talk show where regular people could call in and be educated all about Islam. If only....

As for the last caller, the orthodox Jew from out west, I think his point was that anti-semites have used Jewish scripture to advance an anti-Jewish agenda, i.e. picking and choosing violent and unflattering passages from the Talmud etc. to claim that they reflect and explain Jewish attitudes and conspiracies in the world today.

Therefore, he was saying, it should not be for an outsider to "interpret" another's faith because they will invariably distort or misunderstand what they see.

Not a bad point except that Robert swiftly and forcefully explained that his was not a mission of interpreting Islam but rather to report on what authoritative Muslims interpreters and schools of thought have to say on the Koran. Robert's point went past the caller the first time so he repeated it again for emphasis; A reporter, not an interpreter! I think given ten or so minutes more Robert could've sorted it out for him but the show ended first as happens so often in these situations. A scholar such as Robert must contain within himself the patience of Job in order to make it through such radio or TV interviews. And this was one of the better ones!

Having said that, I do still believe that such appearances (or hearings) can and do plant the seeds for listeners to seek out even more information and educate themselves more. If this were not so then Robert's books would not sell so well as they do. Robert is one of the most effective writers and speakers I have ever read and heard. Too bad he is not given many opportunities to be widely heard on such media outlets as the major television outlets. Fox is about as grand as it gets and those are invariably the most frustrating appearances of all since the hosts there have such little knowledge of both Islam and what Robert is saying about it.

alexon,

"A reporter, not an interpreter!"

Alas, it's more complicated than that. For example, Spencer could be (and often is) faulted for selectively reporting. There is thus a way to "simply report" that disingenuously masks a selective spin on the data in order to convey a distortion of what others think they reasonably conclude from that data.

The problem we have here, or one facet of it, is that this kind of reporting that Spencer does occurs within a wider context where there is a massive paradigm in place, and that paradigm has as one of its primary principles the dogma that the vast majority of Muslims are harmless and only a tiny minority of "extremists" are trying to "twist" the Islam that is the guiding belief-system of that vast majority. It is, in fact on the face of it a reasonable principle, since most collections of masses of people who are spread out in several different countries are indeed mostly harmless, with only a tiny or small minority of problematic members. The thought that there could be a people numbering millions who believe in dangerous supremacist expansionism already causes the ordinary (and particularly Western) mind to balk; add to that the undeniable visible fact that most of these millions are non-white, and the modern white Westerner recoils in fear and repulsion that anything negative might be generalized about such masses of non-whites, for that would be unacceptably racist and would then lead to genocide, because white Westerners are ever-prone to commit genocide against non-whites, and are only seeking a justification for it. And here it is: the demonization of Islam, with its millions of lovely brown people dressed in cool ethnic garb.

In this wider context, then, we have an irrational resistance to noticing, then pointing out, an incidence and dispersion of Muslims who say and/or do extremist things, when that incidence and dispersion even begins to hint at challenging the aforementioned dogma of the paradigm and begins to indicate a more generalized extremism. As it happens, as we in the anti-Islam movement know, that incidence and dispersion in fact does point to statistics that both quantitatively and qualitatively indicate a far broader extremism than pertains to other religions or cultures, and far broader than the PC MC dogma seems to account for.

At this stage of the game, assuming that Spencer and that caller had all the time in the world to continue their discussion, the more that Spencer would report that incidence and dispersion of extremism among Muslims worldwide, the more the caller would pull out of his PC MC trick-bag all manner of deflections and contextualizations to account for the seemingly logical conclusion a reasonable person would infer from that incidence and dispersion of extremism -- and the discussion would mutate into a monster of a thousand appendages and radiating subtopics.