• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Oh — this is why they call them moonbats

Jul 13, 2005 8:43 pm By Robert Spencer

A Jihad Watch reader pointed out to me today that the silly anti-“Islamophobia” site that criticized me for being unsophisticated has taken exception to my post here, in which I note the New York Times’ January 2005 characterization of the now-disbanded Al-Muhajiroun as “Britain’s largest Muslim group.”

Now, this “Islamophobia” site generally isn’t worth replying to: the writer there seldom if ever presents any evidence for his positions, and contents himself with presenting things that people like me and Daniel Pipes have written as if they were self-evidently false. So I am not posting this to refute him — there’s no there there, as Gertrude Stein might say — but to point out his indulging in a particularly common type of smear.

Here is his post:

Britain’s biggest Muslim group were Al-Qaida admirers — Robert Spencer

Robert Spencer has words of advice for Tony Blair: “I’m sure many Muslims in Britain are indeed decent and law-abiding. But I see no indication that Blair has considered the implications of the New York Times’ January 2005 assertion that the now-disbanded jihadist group Al-Muhajiroun was Britain’s largest Muslim group.”

Perhaps that is because Blair’s advisers, unlike this self-styled expert on jihad and Islamic terrorism, are not so gobsmackingly ignorant as to believe that Omar Bakri’s tiny band of Al-Qaida admirers was ever anything of the sort.

The link to the Times (which you can find above) is not in his piece. This indicates how gobsmackingly ignorant he must take his readership to be, in trying to pass off something the New York Times said as if it popped out of my own head.

Is the New York Times gobsmackingly ignorant? I don’t think so — not about simple matters of fact like that. I take issue with their analyses, as any regular reader of this site well knows, and with their selective portrayals of many incidents, but I find it striking how matter-of-factly they present this assertion about Al-Muhajiroun. It is, of course, inconceivable that the Times cooked this up out of “Islamophobia” or “ignorance.”

This kind of sleight-of-hand is common. When I repeated on an MSNBC TV show Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani’s 1999 assertion that 80% of American mosques were controlled by extremists, CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper, who was on the show with me, dismissed this as a fabrication of “hatemongers” like me. Never mind that I am not a hatemonger, and more importantly, that I did not originate the figure. Hooper wanted to deflect attention away from Kabbani’s statement, and he largely succeeded, although I did get a chance to emphasize the real origin of the assertion.

In the same way, this “Islamophobia” character evidently hopes that no one will notice that it was not I, but the Times, that said this — and tries to use it as an example of my “Islamophobia” in the process. He is constructing an edifice without a first floor. It is useful, I think, to note such flights from reality (moonward flights, no doubt) on the part of our Politically Correct friends, and not to let them get away with it.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Audio: Robert Spencer on Muslim Brotherhood influence in a Biden/Harris administration
  • gravenimage on Audio: Robert Spencer on Muslim Brotherhood influence in a Biden/Harris administration
  • gravenimage on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • gravenimage on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • gravenimage on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.