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Elizabeth Kantor, editor of the Conservative Book Club and author of the superb Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature, writes about my new book Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't.
We're proud to be offering Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is -- and Islam Isn't as a Main Selection of the Conservative Book Club. This is the book all of us have been waiting for.By "all of us," I mean:
1) The host of folks annoyed and frustrated by the flood of anti-Christian bestsellers that have been pouring off the presses for the last two years, from Sam Harris' condescending Letter to a Christian Nation to Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything; plus
2) Everyone who's ever shouted at a television screen or argued back to the editorial page when a commentator made Christian "fundamentalists" out to be the moral equivalents of the Islamists who brutalized the women of Afghanistan and murdered 3,000 civilians on 9/11; as well as
3) The many fans of Robert Spencer's previous bestselling books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and The Truth about Muhammad; and finally,
4) Robert Spencer's personal friends, who've been waiting for years for him to write a book about the Christian faith, because they know something about what that faith means to him.
The first three categories add up to a large proportion of the Conservative Book Club membership, and I belong in all four. Robert Spencer is an old and dear friend of mine; in the 1980s we were both students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I studied English literature (with the last generation of English professors who saw studying and teaching literature as their job). Spencer was working toward an M.A. in religious studies and, in his off hours, engaging in lively intellectual exchanges with the Muslims on campus.
In his previous books, Robert Spencer set forth an exhaustively documented case about the danger in which we now stand from Islamic jihad -- and the ultimate source of that jihad in the founding documents of Islam and the life of its Prophet. In Religion of Peace? he answers the objection he hears over and over again, as he travels the country warning about the dangers of jihad and encroaching Islamic law. (Believe it or not, sharia is making headway not just in Asia and Africa, but in Europe and Canada as well). Yes, Spencer's interlocutors may admit, the Koran does include exhortations that inspire believers to violence, and Muslims do want to impose their religious law on other people. But, they add, so does the Bible, and so do Christians.
Religion of Peace? blows this nonsense out of the water. The book begins with an up-close look at the cultural cringe that too many Westerners have learned from their "multicultural" (i.e., West-bashing) educations. Spencer tells the fascinating story of one American college student, "Rachel," who was so ashamed of her own culture that her professor, an American Indian, was moved to quote a Cheyenne proverb: "A nation is never conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground," and to ask, "Who had conquered Rachel's people? What had led her to disrespect them?"
From there, Spencer goes on to dismantle the case for moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam, taking on each piece of supposed evidence that Christianity is a source of violence, prejudice, and oppression. He exposes the multiple absurdities of the "theocracy" scare books and shows that the violent passages in the Bible have never justified or inspired violence as the Koran most certainly has (and continues to do). He sets the record straight on the "dominion" movement among American Protestants, on Christian anti-Semitism, on Timothy McVeigh (he was an atheist, not a Christian), on the Catholic Church and Galileo, on "patriarchal" oppression in the West, on the Inquisition and the Crusades. Along the way, he gives us shocking glimpses of the gulf between the Christian and the Islamic mind: When Christians in Cairo began putting fish bumper stickers on their cars in 2003, Muslims responded by putting shark bumper stickers on theirs. ("If they want to portray themselves as weak fishes, okay," explained an Egyptian Muslim. "We are the strongest." No empty boast in a country where Christians suffer continual harassment, punctuated by violent persecution.) Spencer also makes a moving argument that Christianity is the indispensable source of the freedom and dignity we enjoy. Finally, he appeals to everyone who doesn't want fall prey to the jihad to rally around the banner of the Judeo-Christian civilization of the West.
The question the reader is left with, at the end of this powerful book, is whether there's still time. Is there still a chance for us to do as Spencer suggests -- for all of us, not only Christians and Jews, but also atheists and peaceable Muslims -- to put aside our disagreements, face the jihadist threat, and rally around the freedom that's the legacy of Christianity, but that non-Christians in the West also enjoy? Or is it too late for that?
If it is -- if, in the end, we come not just to a clash of cultures, but to the clash of religions that the jihadists are bent on forcing -- then the implication of this book is that peaceful Christians will face violent Muslims with the weapons Christians have always used: patience, reason, love even of our enemies, willingness to die (not to kill) to spread the gospel. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians. But the possibility that Christian martyrs might ultimately defeat jihad by means of the heroic suffering by which Christian martyrs defeated Roman paganism is not a prospect to which any of us can look forward with equanimity.
Posted by Robert at August 13, 2007 7:31 AM
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Robert,
Thank you so much for putting up these reviews.
Looks like your latest book is very well-received. Well done !
Hope you sell squillions of them :)
Posted by: Gramfan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 13, 2007 7:45 AM
Robert:
You DO know this (among others) is by far THE biggest reason why douggie hooper is so rabid lately...right?
at August 13, 2007 7:46 AM
Hope you sell squillions of themPosted by: Gramfan at August 13, 2007 7:45 AM
:)
Posted by: Shy Guy at August 13, 2007 7:51 AM
I hear they invented the moon, too...lol
Posted by: jcom972 at August 13, 2007 7:54 AM
I will certainly buy one for my reference and am inclined to buy several more simply to hand out; this gospel will be spread!
Posted by: witness at August 13, 2007 8:24 AM
Pardon me, but in light of the following, I have a suggestion:
Radical mosque to feed proposed N.Y. Arabic school?
Foes fear publicly funded 'madrassa' will promote jihadhttp://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57119
"You cannot separate Arabic culture from Islam," argued Robert Hall, a co-leader of the Bronx Household of Faith. He described KGIA as a "publicly funded religious school."
Springer is leading a group of parents and concerned citizens calling itself "Stop the Madrassa Coalition" to close the school, which so far has enrolled 44 students.
The group contributed to last week's ouster of KGIA's principal – a native of Yemen, a country well-represented at al-Farooq mosque – by calling attention to her close ties to an organization selling T-shirts that glorify Palestinian terrorism. Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser defended the shirts – which are emblazoned with the phrase, "Intifida NYC" – before resigning in the wake of public outrage.
"Both parents and teachers have a right to be concerned about children attending a school run by someone who doesn't immediately denounce campaigns or ideas tied to violence," said Randi Weingarten, head of the United Federation of Teachers in New York.
The intifadas were Palestinian terror campaigns that left 1,221 Israelis dead. Most of the attacks were suicide bombings, and many of the victims were civilians.
Still, school officials are pressing ahead with plans to open the school, which will offer students internships with Muslim lawyers, trips to the Middle East and community activism.
The program will integrate intensive Arabic language instruction and the study of Middle Eastern history and historical figures – which Springer says will include the life and teachings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
Text books, lesson plans and teacher materials will be adapted from publications supplied by the Council on Islamic Education, Springer says. CIE's chief consultant is Susan Douglass, a Muslim activist whose husband is on the Saudi government payroll as a teacher at an Islamic academy that has graduated terrorists.
"Parents have raised the fear of jihad incitement privately," said Springer, who has attended a few of the PTA meetings concerning the school.
Garth Harries, chief executive of New York City's Office of New Schools, would neither confirm nor deny Springer's assertions regarding the curriculum.
and that is to offer Mr. Spencer's latest book to the school for their "objective" curriculum. Since there are only 44 students, the cost of 50 or 100 books donated to this so-called "publicly funded school" is very affordable.
However, since this school in REALITY is nothing more that a publicly funded madrassa in the heart of NYC, I expect that such as offer would be refused most likely on the grounds of separation of church and state.
But, wouldn't it be interesting just to have such a refusal on public record?
Could be VERY interesting indeed!
Posted by: witness at August 13, 2007 8:46 AM
No, no, Shy Guy - INDIANS (India) invented the zero. NOT MOHAMMEDANS, though they love taking the credit!
Will be going to my nearby Barnes & Noble today and buying Mr. Spencer's book.
And as far as "witness" referring to this book as "gospel," - it is a gospel. Jesus approves wholeheartedly.
Posted by: darcy at August 13, 2007 9:45 AM
Re: Christian Koreans, Muslim Afghanis, and the World of Today
In the big boy world, which used to exist up to around fifty years ago, the smiling drivers delivering the two Korean hostages would have been seized. And then the drivers’ families would have been rounded up.
That is when the questioning would begin. The drivers would be asked about the location of the remaining hostages. The information gained would be used to launch an operation to save the Christian missionaries from their Muslim abductors. If the information provided by the driver was false, bad things would begin to happen to his children.
But, in 2007, we don’t live in the big boy world. In the world of today, the lives of 19 peaceful Christians are worth less that a few fingers of a young Jihadi.
Posted by: pez at August 13, 2007 10:12 AM
Congratulations, Mr. Spencer.
You have certainly applied the Scriptual lesson that the Truth is sharper than any sword.
I am heading out now to buy the book.
Posted by: CapitalistGig at August 13, 2007 11:09 AM
BTW, WalMart has the book online and in stores. Guess I'll see my favorite cashier, Fouad, today when I get the book.
Posted by: CapitalistGig at August 13, 2007 11:23 AM
So if I, a Catholic, defend my family, myself and my religion against violent Muslims with a shotgun would that make me a bad Christian?
Posted by: Infidel at August 13, 2007 12:01 PM
@Infidel: Only if you are a bad shot.
To RS: Congrats on this important new book, Robert. I wish I had your patience and prolific energy.
Posted by: Foehammer at August 13, 2007 12:18 PM
How about posting the ISBN-numbers for us outside the US.
Posted by: boma at August 13, 2007 12:59 PM
Shy Guy:
Nice try. But--
The Muslims did NOT invent the zero as they claim to have!!
The zero was invented by the Hindus. After the Arab Muslims invaded (and obliterated) Hindustan, they stole the concept and claimed it as their own.
Invention and innovation are anti-Islamic and an offense to al-lah.
Muslims want credit for inventing things, but they have no real motivation (or capacity) for inventing anything. Especially when in the Kuran, al-lah tells Muslims they are more than welcome to steal ("enjoy the good things gotten from war") whatever they can get their hot little hands on from "infidel" nations al-lah says they may invade...
Posted by: pythagoras at August 13, 2007 1:07 PM
for the record , as an atheist, even i am highly annoyed by Christopher Hitchens' moral equivalence between radical Islam and Christian evangelicalism.
Christians dont want to blow me up - they want to convert me, whilst giving me a free copy of their Holy Bible. They might even invite me to a church service.
The Jihadists just want to kill me.
Therein lies the difference. And I commend you Mr Spencer for writing this book.
Posted by: archduke at August 13, 2007 3:40 PM
JUST BOUGHT MINE! In the Barnes & Noble of the moonbat stronghold of Ann Arbor! So good news, it's available there too.
Posted by: nichtdhimmi at August 13, 2007 5:05 PM
At the rate things are going Muslims may indeed win the battle for this temporal world.
That's okay. We Jews and Christians are guaranteed the next -- for eternity! :-D
---
"WHERE THERE ARE NO MUSLIMS THERE ARE NO TERRORIST ATROCITIES."
at August 13, 2007 5:38 PM
To Infidel - 'would that make me a bad Christian?' - answer: not necessarily.
Had ordinary Christians like yourself, in the West, not been prepared to fight at certain critical junctures, the glories of Western Christendom, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and yes, the Enlightenment would not exist - we would all have been swamped by Islam long ago, and killed, brainwashed, or enslaved, like our suffering brethren, the remnant Church in the Middle East.
Look up Charles Martels, Tours/ Poitiers 732. Look up the Reconquista of Spain - the basic idea, booting out an evil tyrannical occupying empire, was entirely just (the Spanish have lately apologised to the Sephardi Jews re events in the 15th/ 16th century; but I do not think anyone should expect them to apologise to the Mohammedans).
Look up Malta and the Knights of St John, 1565: someone at this site a while ago posted a link to an amazing book called 'Blood Rock', by one James Jackson, devoted to the heroic defence of Malta against a Turkish fleet. Outnumbered, outgunned, and without backup, the knights fought like lions. Malta then, as in WWII, was the key to the Western Mediterranean. Had that 'gate' fallen, the Turks would have ruled the seas. But the Knights of St John, with incandescent faith and fury, stood in the gate, and held it. And on the whole, under the circs, they fought honourably.
See Battle of Lepanto, 1571; also Vienna, 1529 and 1683. There's a Martin Luther text online, where he's writing to the Holy Roman Emperor on the topic of the Mohammedans, Islam, and the advisability of a united and resolute resistance to the Turkish attacks. Let us also recall the heroism of those Orthodox Christians in the Balkans - Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria - who threw off the Turkish yoke in the 19th/20th century.
Look up standard Christian thinking on 'Just War' theory. Someone wrote a good book on it recently but I'm afraid I can't recall his name (it's mentioned by Yaacov Lozowick in 'Right to Exist' . Essentially: mainstream Christians don't love war, they don't glorify war, but they do regard going to war as, at times, the only permissible choice when the alternatives are worse. Jewish thinking is similar. In Leon Uris' popular novel about the Warsaw ghetto uprising, he places in the mouth of a rabbi these words: "The highest obedience to God is resistance to tyranny".
I recommend Winston Churchill's motto, as given in his History of WWII: "In War, Resolution; in Defeat, Defiance; in Victory, Magnanimity; in Peace, Goodwill".
In the present extremity the heirs of Christendom should seek to 'fight hard, fight clean'. And this time round we should not repeat the error of the Crusaders, who allowed themselves to be overwhelmed by Jew-hatred. Our motto should be: "We stand with Israel". Those of us who are practising Christians, in particular, should be prepared to stand in between the jihadists and the Jews, no matter what. Muslims are using the 'palestinian' card very neatly to divide Jews and Christians and to sucker christians into assisting at a second Shoah. Time to stop being suckered.
Both Tolkien and Rowlings, in mythic/poetic form, offer a double counsel. First: fight with all one's might to withstand the physical onslaught of the destroyers. This action buys time for the second, parallel action - a peaceful, spiritual flanking movement, aimed at undoing the spiritual stronghold - the destructive ideology - that drives the enemy.
That second movement is much tougher and far more dangerous. It is where the martyrs come in - like those Korean Christians in Afghanistan, or Raymond Lull and Charles de Foucauld. Unlike Muslim 'martyrs' these people fought with spiritual weapons only, seeking not the death of their opponent, but their release from spiritual bondage. And: this may seem impossibly idealistic, but if we can 'hold the line' militarily and socially long enough, defending an 'Islam-free zone', I think that this 'second front' might just work. See Daniel Shayesteh, Exodus From Darkness - he was one of the Iranian jihad revolutionaries; now he's a peaceful Christian preacher.
The 'default' position of Christians is peaceful persuasion, and patience. But that doesn't mean it is our only possible or permissible position! Think of the magnificent moment in Rowlings' final book, where the gentle, humble herbology student, Neville Longbottom, seizes the silver sword of Godric Griffindor and whacks off the head of Voldemort's pet snake.
at August 13, 2007 5:40 PM
infidel:
HELL no!
YOU'd be doing so DEfensively, to protect your family-not shooting to kill, but shooting to stay alive.
islamists do their bidding in clearly and unmistakably OFFensive fashion.
There is NO comparison whatsoever.
Don't let the hypocritical PC BS scare you.
at August 13, 2007 6:08 PM
"But the possibility that Christian martyrs might ultimately defeat jihad by means of the heroic suffering by which Christian martyrs defeated Roman paganism is not a prospect to which any of us can look forward with equanimity."
Even the Byzantines attempted fiercely to defeat Islam while pandering and attempting to appease them. In the end, the primitive eating machine of Islam proved too relentless, too merciless, too effective a destructive force for them to prevail.
Islam has consumed and annihilated many other superior cultures before their onslaught against ours... Mighty Persia fell and became one of the poorest and most backward cesspools of Islamic filth... India too, as did the entirety of the Christian and Jewish Middle East. Egypt fell to Islam, as did Spain, etc. & co.
We are fools of the highest order if we imagine we are somehow immune to the primitive techniques of Muslim subversion -- their Jihad has burned for over a thousand years, and it rarely relinquishes territory once consumed. The mechanisms of terror embedded within Islam forestall it.
Islam is a mechanism to project a primitive and barbaric Arabic model, imperial in every way, supremacist, genocidal, horrific beyond measure. The atrocities it has perpetrated are innumerable -- the degradation and destruction it has caused -- infinite, and unforgiveable.
at August 13, 2007 7:59 PM
P.S. -- Good luck with the book. I'll be sure to make the very good but very leftist bookstore in my neighborhood obtain at least one copy -- it will drive them NUTS -- but that's a good thing.
Posted by: jsla at August 13, 2007 8:00 PM
Face out in Comparative Religion, Barnes & Noble, Lansing, MI!
Posted by: Infidel's Delight at August 13, 2007 8:57 PM
I'll read it, but I'll need gallons upon gallons of PeptoBismol to overcome the revulsion and nausea I feel upon seeing the names "Ann Coulter" and "Michelle Malkin." I guess I'll get over it somehow--maybe I'll smoke some of that fine grass the Dutch have been smoking. Would explain how compliant they've been in the face of Jihad.
Posted by: GetBornAgain at August 13, 2007 9:37 PM
I went to Barnes & Nobel to buy my first copy. They had it on the bottom shelf in the religon section tucked away where it was difficult to find rather than in the New Releases section.
I had to ask the store manager who knew right where to look.
Posted by: witness at August 13, 2007 10:33 PM
I guess this is my day to be odd man out. Sam Harris' work is excellent, objective, and very well thought out and writeen. As an atheist, he of course has no use for any religion by definition, but there is a special place in his Hell for Islam. I suspect he is more along the lines of Oriana Fallaci, who described herself as a "Christian Atheist." That is, an atheist who embraced the Western values of pluraism, respect for others and the law, appreciation of arts, culture, and human accomplishment and dignity. All of these are quite at home in the Judeo-Christian universe, and completely outside of Islam.
Posted by: BunrattyBill at August 13, 2007 10:47 PM
Pepto break right here...
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/6/8/101032.shtml
;-)
at August 14, 2007 1:42 AM
ooops, sent ya a reality check instead.
my mistake.
;-)
at August 14, 2007 1:48 AM
Infidel---You would NOT be a bad Christian but a wise, responsible, loving father and husband.
When the Red Coats were advancing, The men behind the trees with their muskets were church members led by their Pastors! They later joined the Continental Army with some of the Pastors becoming officers.
I would recommend any books by David Barton at www.wallbuilders.com. David appears regularly on many national programs including Fox News. His book "The role of Pastors and Christians in Civil Government" would be a great one to start with.
Posted by: guide inside at August 14, 2007 2:46 AM
Infidel...
I wouldn't stress over it at all.
It's not murder (intentional taking of a life against the persons wishes, AND for NO viable reason, with malice aforethought).
Besides, they may be fanatics...in places where the citizenry can't or won't return fire, but they're also not THAT stupid, especially here...where they're outnumbered by 100 to 1, by armed folks, who know what they're about, and a country with more guns than people, and the willingness to use them, is one helluva HUGE deterrence.
Personal experience...the vast majority of them are NOT THAT willing to "die for allah"...only when they know they can win-otherwise they would already have done so.
Remember, refusing to defend yourself is de facto suicide, and you know where I'm going there. nuf sed
And once and for all, the original text was:
"thou shalt not M-U-R-D-E-R", not the long bastardized "thou shalt not kill", which has been twisted by the anti-self-defense weenies to imply fraudulently that you don't kill under ANY circumstances.
Don't let the PC brownshirts propaganda scare you into submission.
You defend your family.
I do, 24/7/365 if necessary (even after retirement)
I don't lose a bit of sleep over it, and never will.
The goths are at the gate...someone must man it.
It's not a necessary evil, or any other evil for that matter...your cause will be just, as you'll be doing so for the right reasons-they won't.
But that aside...keep the powder dry.
They will not risk it unless they're sure they can win...that's not gonna happen here.
Rest easy, my friend.
at August 14, 2007 6:04 AM
I'm glad to hear that Wal-Mart has it! CapitalistGig - did you see "Fouad" yesterday?!
witness - at the B & N I went to in my city the book was where it should be - on the "New Arrivals" table with other hardcovers!
Posted by: darcy at August 14, 2007 8:47 AM
jsla is absolutely right. The Byzantines fought for their lives against the Islamists, but they were eventually drained of their energy and overwhelmed after more than 800 years - their city-empire capital eventually falling in 1453, followed by three days of looting and cold-blooded murder. The fate of Constantinople served as a reminder for at least the next 230 years as to what would happen if a capital city of any nation fell to the Muslim hordes. That explains why the defenders of Vienna, twice and Malta fought so fiercely and without mercy. But the saying "If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again" certainly applies to the Muslim conquests. How many times must the Jihadis have tried and failed in their attempts to snuff out the Byzantine Empire over a period of 825 years, until their eventual success in 1453? Persistence is one of the Jihadis enduring properties, and certainly isn't one of ours. They think long term, whilst our thinking goes from one election to the next. Political correctness is leaving the West just as vulnerable to the Jihad as anyone who has found themselves in its path and fallen victim to it over the last 1,400 years. It, with rather more than a little help from the idiotic, self-loathing Western liberal lefties over the last 30 or 40 years, has sapped our will to survive against an opponent who we could destroy many times over if we put as little as one percent of our might to it. If the Byzantines had been as powerful in real terms at any time over those 825 years as we are today, does anyone doubt that they would have used their power to destroy Islam? As Bill Warner says, Islam has annihilated every culture it has come up against - and we are once again its latest target in its millennium-long war against the West, and we should heed the wise words of John Wesley who wrote: "Ever since the religion of Islam appeared in the world, the espousers of it... have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth; that numberless cities are raised from the foundation, and only their name remaining; that many countries, which were once as the garden of God, are now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations are vanished from the earth! Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of human kind." We would do well to heed those wise words, but because of political correctness, any politician who dared to quote him would be hounded out of office - the same political correctness the Jihadis had been waiting for since 1683 which finally arrived on the university campuses of the West during the 1960s and has now seeped into every Western institution with potentially lethal results. And to paraphrase John Wesley, do we want to fall into their merciless paws and be ground by their iron teeth? Do we want our cities to be raised from the foundation, with perhaps only their name being remembered by the Chinese, who might well be rather less pc when threatened by the Jihad? Do we want our countries, that might have been regarded as the garden of God until the mid-1960s, to become a desolate wilderness? Do we also want our nations to join that list of powerful nations that are vanished from the earth? Because until or unless we smack down these destroyers of human kind with fury, that is exactly what will happen to us - and quicker than many think.
Posted by: Spirit Of 1683 at August 14, 2007 2:36 PM
Archduke, it is either slanderous or immensely ill-informed to suggest that Hitchens (or Harris, for that matter) draws a "moral equivalence between radical Islam and Christian evangelicalism." I'll let Hitchens' reply in his own words, from his debate with liberal theist Chris Hedges:
"I ask you: You pick that kind of relativism [Hedges' politically correct "Islam is a religion of peace just like all real religions" mantra], you'll also find you're dealing with a very surreptitious form of absolutism, which is only capable of describing as fascistic relatively comical forces (who I've denounced up- and downhill all my life in the United States), but cannot use the word totalitarianism about the religion that actually conducts jihad, actually organizes totalitarianism, actually inflicts misery, pain, unemployment, and despair upon millions of people, and then claims what it has done as the license for suicide and murder."
Please pay particular attention to the part where he describes Christian fundamentalists as "relatively comical."
On the other hand, I think that there are some elements on the hard right in America that can be legitimately compared to Islamic fascists (and that Hitchens and perhaps Spencer may be going too easy on them). Let me clear up right now that I am not talking right now about your average young-earth creationist or Christian anti-abortionist. No, I mean the fervent dominionists who want to dash the U.S. Constitution to the ground and institute the book of Leviticus as the national code of law. This would be the Old Testament equivalent of shariah, and the Christian fascists are less scary than their Islamic brethren only because they are less numerous.
Posted by: Prometheus at August 14, 2007 2:36 PM
To those of you heading off to the bookstore, let me put in a little plug for Professor Kantor's book in the PIG series: The PIG to English and American Literature. Robert notes that it's a good read, and that it is. The thesis is one that all JW adherents will champion: The suppression of the great themes of English-language literature by PC academics who despise western culture must be prevented if we are to save our culture. It's a thesis not so far removed from the thesis of Robert's new book.
Pick them up together.
And enjoy.
HAID
at August 14, 2007 2:53 PM
Just ordered the book for a relative. I already have my own book. Folks, it might be a good idea to order it as a gift for a few friends.
Thanks for your order, Frank =====!
Want to manage your order online?
If you need to check the status of your order or make changes, please visit our home page at Amazon.com and click on Your Account at the top of any page.
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at August 14, 2007 6:39 PM
My son got his yesterday at Barnes & Noble...lol
He said the clerk looked at it & handled it as if it were roadkill...LOL
I hope she didn't break another fake nail on it, but...ok, who cares...lol
She said absolutely NOTHING, didn't even tell him the bottom liune cost, just showed him the price on the register monitor...he paid, kept the smile as he looked right down at her (she was on the elevated floor behind the register and still was shorter, lol), paid, she gave him the right change, and he stayed polite, said "Thank You, Ma'am" and left as if nothing happened...because it didn't to him.
She then goes to gossip with her equally PC ditzes, glancing occasionally back at him...as if he had some disease or robbed a bank or something...lol
How sad...funny, but sad...and typical of the dweeb clerks in CA.
I guess, since I can't get a look (he's glued to it) I'll go get one myself...lol.
I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when it's my turn...LOL
at August 14, 2007 9:51 PM
To Spirit of 1683, also jsla –
You make some good points.
However, as regards short-term thinking, we must remember that prior to 1776 no society confronting Islam could have been thinking ‘from election to election’. Similarly, there was no ‘PC’ in any pre-modern society. It was other things entirely – such as rivalries between rulers, or the schism between the Eastern and the Western church – that for centuries tended to undermine resistance to the jihad.
Despite the terrifying image it projects, Islam is not in fact very strong in and of itself. It can destroy; but it cannot create. When not fighting Infidels, the Ummah devours itself with cannibal ferocity, and its rulers rot in decadence. Without the luck of oil money, they would not be up to much today.
However: Islam has an uncanny – I would say, demonic – capacity to perceive, to exploit and to foster discord amongst its opponents.
Tolkien and Rowlings, poetically describing fictional societies under similar threat to our own, zero in on Despair and Division as crucial problems for the 'good guys'. As we confront the Jihad, it is Despair and Division of which we must beware. We need to rediscover love for everything that is good; love for one another; fidelity, oath-keeping; love that is strong enough to cast out fear (for then we will fight fearlessly for what we love, as the Knights of St John fought at Malta).
And we have to keep our wits about us. M Scott Peck in ‘People of the Lie’, argues that one of the chief marks of the thoroughly evil is their ability to create Confusion. They lie to themselves and to everyone they meet.
To deal with the Confusion, we have people like Bat Ye’or, Robert Spencer and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Jew, Catholic, atheist), and others less well known. In their love of truth, their passionate lucidity, and their compassion, they function almost like a team of exorcists or clinical psychologists: patiently, relentlessly, and – dare I say, lovingly? - penetrating, exposing and breaking to pieces the multiple pretences of Islam.
They are exposed to great spiritual, as well as physical, danger. Defining ‘testimony’ as “to stand up against a tyrant, to denounce injustice, and to proclaim the dignity of all humanity”, Bat Yeor notes in one place that: “testifying is no easy task, as it also brings persecution, loneliness, and despair. Challenging evil, unveiling it from behind its ubiquitous masks, is dangerous, an unending life struggle”.
Nevertheless, our truth-tellers persevere. Given modern communications and widespread literacy, the potential for the majority of the non-Muslim world to get its head straight, about Islam and our common danger, is much greater than it was in any previous era.
Our final card: via radio and other means the alternatives to Islam can travel into the heart of dar al-Islam, as could not have happened so quickly or easily in, say, the 10th or the 15th century. An Iranian was caught with a Bible in his car. How many other Bibles – and other dangerous, life-affirming, soul-awakening texts - are quietly circulating throughout the empire of Islam?
Islam has a scary track record, sure. But to say it has ‘destroyed’ ALL civilisations it has ever encountered, is a slight exaggeration. After 1400 years there are a lot more Christians in the world than there are Muslims. The Hindus and the Chinese are pretty numerous too. All is not yet lost.
I refuse to despair; I beg you both, jsla and spirit of 1683, to reject despair, no matter how bad things seem. Despair is one of the seven deadly sins: it paralyses the capacity for thought and action. Only if we despair will we be SURE of losing.
at August 14, 2007 11:52 PM
To Spirit of 1683, also jsla –
You make some good points.
However, as regards short-term thinking, we must remember that prior to 1776 no society confronting Islam could have been thinking ‘from election to election’. Similarly, there was no ‘PC’ in any pre-modern society. It was other things entirely – such as rivalries between rulers, or the schism between the Eastern and the Western church – that for centuries tended to undermine resistance to the jihad.
Despite the terrifying image it projects, Islam is not in fact very strong in and of itself. It can destroy; but it cannot create. When not fighting Infidels, the Ummah devours itself with cannibal ferocity, and its rulers rot in decadence. Without the luck of oil money, they would not be up to much today.
However: Islam has an uncanny – I would say, demonic – capacity to perceive, to exploit and to foster discord amongst its opponents.
Tolkien and Rowlings, poetically describing fictional societies under similar threat to our own, zero in on Despair and Division as crucial problems for the 'good guys'. As we confront the Jihad, it is Despair and Division of which we must beware. We need to rediscover love for everything that is good; love for one another; fidelity, oath-keeping; love that is strong enough to cast out fear (for then we will fight fearlessly for what we love, as the Knights of St John fought at Malta).
And we have to keep our wits about us. M Scott Peck in ‘People of the Lie’, argues that one of the chief marks of the thoroughly evil is their ability to create Confusion. They lie to themselves and to everyone they meet.
To deal with the Confusion, we have people like Bat Ye’or, Robert Spencer and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Jew, Catholic, atheist), and others less well known. In their love of truth, their passionate lucidity, and their compassion, they function almost like a team of exorcists or clinical psychologists: patiently, relentlessly, and – dare I say, lovingly? - penetrating, exposing and breaking to pieces the multiple pretences of Islam.
They are exposed to great spiritual, as well as physical, danger. Defining ‘testimony’ as “to stand up against a tyrant, to denounce injustice, and to proclaim the dignity of all humanity”, Bat Yeor notes in one place that: “testifying is no easy task, as it also brings persecution, loneliness, and despair. Challenging evil, unveiling it from behind its ubiquitous masks, is dangerous, an unending life struggle”.
Nevertheless, our truth-tellers persevere. Given modern communications and widespread literacy, the potential for the majority of the non-Muslim world to get its head straight, about Islam and our common danger, is much greater than it was in any previous era.
Our final card: via radio and other means the alternatives to Islam can travel into the heart of dar al-Islam, as could not have happened so quickly or easily in, say, the 10th or the 15th century. An Iranian was caught with a Bible in his car. How many other Bibles – and other dangerous, life-affirming, soul-awakening texts - are quietly circulating throughout the empire of Islam?
Islam has a scary track record, sure. But to say it has ‘destroyed’ ALL civilisations it has ever encountered, is a slight exaggeration. After 1400 years there are a lot more Christians in the world than there are Muslims. The Hindus and the Chinese are pretty numerous too. All is not yet lost.
I refuse to despair; I beg you both, jsla and spirit of 1683, to reject despair, no matter how bad things seem. Despair is one of the seven deadly sins: it paralyses the capacity for thought and action. Only if we despair will we be SURE of losing.
at August 14, 2007 11:55 PM
To Spirit of 1683, also jsla –
You make some good points.
However, as regards short-term thinking, we must remember that prior to 1776 no society confronting Islam could have been thinking ‘from election to election’. Similarly, there was no ‘PC’ in any pre-modern society. It was other things entirely – such as rivalries between rulers, or the schism between the Eastern and the Western church – that for centuries tended to undermine resistance to the jihad.
Despite the terrifying image it projects, Islam is not in fact very strong in and of itself. It can destroy; but it cannot create. When not fighting Infidels, the Ummah devours itself with cannibal ferocity, and its rulers rot in decadence. Without the luck of oil money, they would not be up to much today.
However: Islam has an uncanny – I would say, demonic – capacity to perceive, to exploit and to foster discord amongst its opponents.
Tolkien and Rowlings, poetically describing fictional societies under similar threat to our own, zero in on Despair and Division as crucial problems for the 'good guys'. As we confront the Jihad, it is Despair and Division of which we must beware. We need to rediscover love for everything that is good; love for one another; fidelity, oath-keeping; love that is strong enough to cast out fear (for then we will fight fearlessly for what we love, as the Knights of St John fought at Malta).
And we have to keep our wits about us. M Scott Peck in ‘People of the Lie’, argues that one of the chief marks of the thoroughly evil is their ability to create Confusion. They lie to themselves and to everyone they meet.
To deal with the Confusion, we have people like Bat Ye’or, Robert Spencer and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Jew, Catholic, atheist), and others less well known. In their love of truth, their passionate lucidity, and their compassion, they function almost like a team of exorcists or clinical psychologists: patiently, relentlessly, and – dare I say, lovingly? - penetrating, exposing and breaking to pieces the multiple pretences of Islam.
They are exposed to great spiritual, as well as physical, danger. Defining ‘testimony’ as “to stand up against a tyrant, to denounce injustice, and to proclaim the dignity of all humanity”, Bat Yeor notes in one place that: “testifying is no easy task, as it also brings persecution, loneliness, and despair. Challenging evil, unveiling it from behind its ubiquitous masks, is dangerous, an unending life struggle”.
Nevertheless, our truth-tellers persevere. Given modern communications and widespread literacy, the potential for the majority of the non-Muslim world to get its head straight, about Islam and our common danger, is much greater than it was in any previous era.
Our final card: via radio and other means the alternatives to Islam can travel into the heart of dar al-Islam, as could not have happened so quickly or easily in, say, the 10th or the 15th century. An Iranian was caught with a Bible in his car. How many other Bibles – and other dangerous, life-affirming, soul-awakening texts - are quietly circulating throughout the empire of Islam?
Islam has a scary track record, sure. But to say it has ‘destroyed’ ALL civilisations it has ever encountered, is a slight exaggeration. After 1400 years there are a lot more Christians in the world than there are Muslims. The Hindus and the Chinese are pretty numerous too. All is not yet lost.
I refuse to despair; I beg you both, jsla and spirit of 1683, to reject despair, no matter how bad things seem. Despair is one of the seven deadly sins: it paralyses the capacity for thought and action. Only if we despair will we be SURE of losing.
at August 14, 2007 11:57 PM
oops! sorry about the double posting, people.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at August 14, 2007 11:58 PM
I dont think I will be getting a copy anytime soon. All previous attempts at buying Robert Spencer’s books in the Republic of Indonesia have all been met with raised eyebrows. I don’t think this one will be any different. I have however noticed in more than one bookstore that a rather splendid looking black clad hardcover copy of Mein Kampf is available and bizarrely in the bestsellers shelf..
Posted by: squadcarbob at August 15, 2007 3:43 AM
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