An unskillful propagandist
Reza Aslan is an ongoing Jihad Watch case study in how the media elites are either ignorant of or complicit with the Islamic supremacist agenda. Aslan, despite his pretensions, has revealed himself to be a arrogant gutter-minded adolescent who appears clownishly incapable of staking out or defending a coherent intellectual position and instead retails tired and oft-retreaded Islamic supremacist talking points about Muslim victimhood.
Nonetheless, he is a vaunted media-saturated "moderate" Muslim whose Islamic supremacist ties and proclivities are becoming more ill-concealed by the day. And here we go again, with an ironically (given its title) fact-less propaganda piece by Aslan last week in the Washington Post: "On Muslims, King has reached his own fact-less conclusion," by Reza Aslan in the Washington Post, March 11:
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they?
How interesting that Aslan doesn't bother to mention that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case -- so named by the Justice Department. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR's cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Honest Ibe Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements.
But that is no surprise when one remembers that Aslan is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council, a group that genuine Iranian pro-democracy forces regard as an apologetic vehicle for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has tried to pass off Iran's genocidally-minded President Ahmadinejad as a liberal reformer. He has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad himself, as well as with Hamas -- that is, with two of the most barbaric and murderous adherents of Sharia. He has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as "the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon," as well as the Jew-hating, women-hating, kuffar-hating Muslim Brotherhood.
He has also spoken at events sponsored by the Muslim Students Association, a Brotherhood group, and at an event co-sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of Hamas-linked CAIR, and moderated by the notorious Edina Lekovic, the Muslim Public Affairs Council flack whom Steve Emerson caught lying on national television, denying she was editor of a Muslim student publication that praised Osama bin Laden as a great mujahid. Emerson produced copies of the rag showing Lekovic's name on the masthead as editor on the very same page on which the praise for Osama appeared.
In light of all this, it's clear that CAIR and Aslan are on the same side, and it's clear which side they're on.
King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group?
Well, whatever they may be, I doubt they will be as costly in lives as the continued tendency of Islamic jihadists to single out non-Muslims for jihad attacks, both in the U.S. and around the world.
All one needs to know about what is behind the King hearings can be gleaned by Peter King's own statements regarding Muslims in the US.How does Rep. King feel about Islam in the United States?
"Unfortunately, we have too many mosques in this country. There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully. We should be finding out how we can infiltrate [them].
How does King know so much about radicalization in the US? From a single source more than decade ago.
"The only real testimony we have on it is from Sheikh Kabbani who was a Muslim leader during the Clinton Administration, he testified back in 1999 and 2000 before the State Department that he thought over 80 percent of the mosques in this country are controlled by radical Imams. Certainly from what I've seen and dealings I've had, that number seems accurate."
King's single source, Sheikh Kabbani, is a Sufi Muslim who has advocated for peace and tolerance in Islam but who by his own admission is not an authority on Islam in America and who has admitted to simply stating his personal opinion - an opinion that has been contradicted by both the FBI and by every scholar who has studied the matter. Oh, and by the way, Sheikh Kabbani has also claimed that any Muslim who advises the US government is also "an extremist." But King is not interested in facts. He just feels like it must be at least 80%.
"It was 80 percent back in 2000. Based on the radicalization since then, it has to be -- I have no doubt, I have problem at all in saying it's 85 percent. If it's not 85, it's still 80."...
Aslan then defames the great anti-terror researcher Steven Emerson, and adds:
Of course, King could try to speak to American Muslims himself. But it seems he has already reached his own, fact-less conclusions....
Actually, it is Aslan's conclusions that are "fact-less." On December 6, in a post about Aslan, I supplied evidence to back up the estimate that King later repeated. Yet on March 11, he felt free to continue to pretend in the Washington Post that King had no evidence. If the Post were any kind of real journalistic outlet, they wouldn't let him get away with this, but the WaPo cares not for truths that don't fit its political agenda.
In any case, Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani's 1998 study was not based on his personal opinion, as Aslan claims. Kabbani actually visited 114 mosques in this country before giving testimony before a State Department Open Forum in January 1999 that 80% of American mosques taught the "extremist ideology." Has Reza Aslan investigated 114 mosques in the U.S.? Then there was the Center for Religious Freedom's 2005 study, and the Mapping Sharia Project's 2008 study. Each independently showed that upwards of 80% of mosques in America were preaching hatred of Jews and Christians and the necessity ultimately to impose Islamic rule.
Not only that. Also, I challenged Aslan five months ago, on October 4, to provide any evidence that any of these studies had been debunked by anyone. He has not done so, and cannot do so. Obviously, he doesn't care to do so, because to address this data would interfere with his deceptive agenda.
Reza Aslan is an ongoing Jihad Watch case study ...
I had to get past that line before I could read the rest of the article...I wonder if Reza was crying when he wrote that piece? If you are going to go all out portraying yourself as a victim, you have to learn to cry...on demand...Teardrops staining the paper, making the ink run...I used to know a young man who would write love letters to his girl friend and drip water on it to fake tears...Look how well Ellison faked them...There were drops all over his Quran...
I expect, as the pressure on Islam grows, we will see an escalation of victimism...They will go from complaining, to whining, to crying...Expect to see more Mahoundians in tears in the near future...
Frustrating. I just got done reading the new (3/28/11) issue of the Weekly Standard online (that is, the parts that aren't behind their pay wall). There is an article by long-time Rosenberg spy ring exposers and historians Ronald Radosh and Steven Usdin about Morton Sobell and others involved in the Rosenberg spy ring, and the extent to which the ring was successful in passing information to the Soviets (Stalin was still in charge at the time) that damaged US war capabilities as early as the Korean War. Yet the MSM, most liberals and other biens pensants, and others still insist that most of those in the ring were innocent or caused no damage. Thus more than 60 years after the fact, these people are being defended, and Radosh, Usdin and others are denounced as far right-wing neocons and "extreme" anti-Communists (whatever that means).
My guess is that we are in a long twilight struggle with Islamist extremism (assuming a truly moderate Islam exists, or comes into existence; it would require the rejection of much of the founding tenants of what could be called the "Sharia creed" as Roland Shirk so aptly put it in a recent post on this site), and that struggle will, as the one against Communism was, be both complicated and prolonged by the fact that all the self-appointed "right-thinking" people in the intellectual and journalistic communities provide moral, intellectual, and political cover for the Hoopers and the Aslans of the world, who really hate dhimmi pluralist and liberal (in the old-fashioned, not left-wing, sense) democracy but know how to give the impression that they are moderates. In the Cold War era, these people were called dupes and fellow travelers. In any case, expect the Aslans and the Hoopers to do well in the foreseeable future; it may take a new generation of Radoshes and Usdins, decades from now, to expose the truth.
BTW, the struggle against Communism was NOT helped by grandstanding, showboating, publicity-seeking stunts like those Sen. McCarthy pulled back in the 1950s. Sober and mature investigation and exposure of Islamist tendencies and actions in this country are called for, but Rep. King, like McCarthy before him, only made himself look like a look-at-me publicity hound and a buffoon, ran hearings that allowed exercises in irrelevant maudlin kitsch (Rep. Ellison's Sarah Bernhardt-worthy performance), and gave the media and the Islamists and their defenders an opportunity to say how "oppressed" and "singled out" the Muslims were in this country.
Love the photos in the JW-posts about Reza Aslan, they're funny.
Even though this is very serious. Reza Alsan asked Robert on ABC's tv-program "This Week":
"If you go around saying 80% of US mosque is preaching hatred and violence, how can it surprise you that people will respond with hatred and with violence?"
Reza if you go around denying data that a group people is preaching hatred and violence how can you be surprised that this will lead to hatred and violence from this group against the object of contempt (i.e. non-muslims)
As Spencer sums it up:
Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber
These were apparently not people who found that their mosques taught universal love and brotherhood.
Reza should be branded as a deceiving extremist who denies data of vital importance, because he is obviously not one of the useful idiots.
Our big problem is that this has not penetrated the mainstream media and so it is still possible for people to essentially act as apologist for the spread of hatred and violence.
Keep up the good work Mr. Spencer!
One positive note: Virtually all the comment in the WaPo article are anti-Aslan. People are getting it!
i loved the youtube video for Steve and Edina because she denies everything until it is too late from the evidence and then plays the Victim of being attacked just because someone had the evidence on hand to expose her charade and lies.
CAIR rep's sound like they are reading from a Scripted P.R. Taqqiyah rollidex to fit which story is the truth or which lie will work best.
Dr.Sheema Khan from CAIR-canda tried to pwan off her bogus islamophobia Survey until people smarter than her asked questions abou tthe alleged 40'000 Muslim victims of Racism and racial-profiling. Transcripts from her public comments showed that the "Survey" was mostly a CAIR Online request for Complaints,then we saw how about 50% of the respondants were non-Citizens and foreign Students on campus.
Dr.Khan was forced to tell the truth that only 500+ persons made up the Survey and many were afforded the luxury of being annonymous or could recount 3rd party allegations of islamophobia that they heard of orthought
happened to a friend.
Even now,I saw Robert debate the CAIR rep that just started to shout over him and demonize him, and she didn't wear her Hijab but appeared to have a ear-plug that fed her the responses because if you look closely she adjust her right ear a few times as if the Plug is coming lose.
Memo to Reza. Get back to Iran. You're not wanted here, so shoo.
This isn't the first time that Reza Aslan have denied facts and given answers without substance and even lies.
For example in his debate with Sam Harris on that violence and terrorism's roots to Islam is separable from all other factors and how horrific big the support is for suicide attacks on civilians in the Middle East:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5og-hyD3A7A&feature=channel_video_title
He does not adress in any way the facts and his arguments are that it is much more complex and he is the expert
Or in his other debate with Sam Harris on the Ground Zero Mosque, where he talks around question of death penalty for apostasy in Islam in 3:05 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTL89Mggr_0&feature=related
Sam Harris is one of the few liberals who have gotten the Islammic problem right. That's also where Bill Maher have gotten his understanding from.
Maybe Robert should ally himself with Sam Harris so he could get more approval and so as to come Bill Maher's show and all the other funny liberal talkshows.
Then maybe Robert could also make his case for Christianity to Sam Harris so he at least he could promote the good parts of Christianity also.
One of the most amusing things about this excellent article is that Reza is sure to have read it and is sitting somewhere with his hands tied so he won't hit the computer keyboard with a blistering response and give away the fact that it has got right under his skin.
I would love to be a fly on the wall wherever he is now.
'Spencer .. mumble, mumble..that...mutter, mutter,..I'll mumble, mumble, him ...' etc
What a hoot!
buraq....and that a 100% certainty...
he is indeed OBSESSED with Pam/Robert/JW/SIOA...
just type reza aslam islamaphobia into youtube.
the first two i brought up one his vlog, the other a so called lecture.....viola! there he was Pam GZM, Robert JW
he even squirms when talking about them...hilarious
the song gets it right
"i ve got you under my skin, i ve got you.........." lol
you gotta love Assland's pedantic style and ad hominem attacks on those who quote his "religious books." I'm truly amazed that he ever had the wherewithal to get as far as he has in life--mouth-breather that he is.
Fun Fact: The Riyadh, Saudi Arabia edition of the English version Noble Qur'an has pages so thin, that it makes a wonderful addition to your outhouse needs.
Of Mr.Aslan : Give him enough rope and he might...how's that go ???
Me thinks he protests too much-- he's trying to prove that his religion isn't as bad as he knows it is .
BLACH :
If you don't mind and if others here will allow me to indulge beyond the main topic just a little I'd like to say something about Sam Harris .
That man puzzles me because it seems the Islamic problem is what inspired his first book "The End of Faith" , and yet he has since treated the problem almost as if it doesn't exist. You would think he would have something to say about Islamization in his next two books ( "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "The Moral Landscape " ), but very little.
Another thing that bugs me is that Project Reason forum he has. I quit having anything to do with it because it is all a bunch of Ultra -liberal, far-leftist, bleeding heart Muslim kiss-ups , Obama infatuated,foul-mouthed, nut caess. Reasoning is the last thing they do. How Sam Harris can allow them to be there is more than I can understand. They are an insult to him and anyone's intelligence.
So I am disappointed with Harris. And, btw, the crack-pots on that forum are nothing but negative about both Robert and Pamela . I took their insults as long as I could bear it then ..couldn't stand to hear their negative put-downs about all the people that I admire and look up to like Robert, Geert, Pam,Mark Steyn, Dan Pipes,Brigette Gabriel,Steve Emerson , Dianna West, and so on. They hated every one of them so I figured they hated me too.
dr ?? reza aslan....scholar of religions??? :-D
don t need to add any more.....hilarious
is this guy a stand up? he ought to be on comedy central :-)
Prophet:
I just visited the website and found a description of the Qu'ran that you could pick and choose the peaceful and the violent passages as you wish - so I think you are right they haven't got a very clear approach to Islam.
I think that any people who profess to take a scientific approach shouldn't allow themselves to exclude people based on their views on certain topics, but examine the substance of what they are saying.
But I can kind of understand why they would be very suspicious of people who holds some very uncomfortable views on Islam. Because if Islam has at its core a violent doctrine, why aren't the many people who have studied Islam at the universities reporting this very important information to the public more clearly?
I would say that this is actually more important than the fault of the mainstream media, to have educated people who don't know their business. It's like having educated meteorologists who say that we can never really with certainty know how the weather is going to be tomorrow so therefor we shouldn't make any predictions at all - that would be to arrogant of us or something.
BLACH :
Although I am interested in all the subjects that forum offers us,religions, philosophy, psycology,news ,cults, etc.I mostly participated because I was impressed with Harris , and am interested in Islam. How can I help but be disgusted ,though,in a group that claims to be united in their mutual contempt for religious power and oppression, and yet gets mad at me for saying Islam is evil ? They are a prize team of hypocrites , and no matter how down on religion they are they still are typically liberal in their slobbering love affair with Obama and Muslims.
To me, their behavior is a good example of the attitudes of the times. Today your name is on the blacklist of society if you criticize Islam . And it wasn't long before I heard myself being accused of "bigotry " or "racist" ( just like Wilders is being labeled ).
I think those forum participants well define why common sense has gone with the wind- because it's become a leftist society, and it doesn't stop with America.
Their whole inability to recognize and accept the truth is rooted in their ultra-liberal Marxist mindset, which I think is- perverted. I am an independant, but am going right, because as I see it, today the leftist phenomena has become the kiss of death.