Defamation, as you can see here and here, is a favorite weapon of jihadists and their witting and unwitting allies. They prefer to smear anti-jihadists as “hatemongers” and “bigots” than actually to refute their assertions, which of course they cannot do in any case. This morning Jihad Watch reader James sent me this letter from the Morris Daily Herald, in which a Herald reader responds to a piece by a CAIR op by recommending that people read the writings of Mark Gabriel, Brigitte Gabriel and me. Then another reader, a Mr. John Hubers, responded to the letter:
I am a Christian pastor who lived and worked in the Middle East for over ten years. I have no affiliation with CAIR. But I also take exception to what you write here, particularly with regard to the so-called experts you cite. […]
Robert Spencer is the worst. Claiming to be a scholar of Islam, he like his friend, Daniel Pipes, deliberately distorts legitimate scholarship to perpetuate the worst kind of anti-Muslim invective. The only reason he gets away with it is because most who read his hate-soaked material know nothing about credible scholarship of Islam.
These people represent the worst kind of hatred and bigotry. CAIR is right to be concerned.
I have long since grown resigned to being defamed in this fashion, but actually it is not something that I or anyone else should take lying down, because it is an attempt to discredit the entire resistance to the jihad and Islamic supremacism, and that has implications far larger than my good name. Also, I do not believe that the jihadists, their allies, and their dupes should be allowed to get away with these broadly defamatory statements that never provide any specifics about the alleged falsehoods in counterjihad presentations.
So I just submitted this comment to the Morris Daily Herald. We’ll see if it shows up on their site:
Dear Mr. Hubers:
You write:
Robert Spencer is the worst. Claiming to be a scholar of Islam, he like his friend, Daniel Pipes, deliberately distorts legitimate scholarship to perpetuate the worst kind of anti-Muslim invective. The only reason he gets away with it is because most who read his hate-soaked material know nothing about credible scholarship of Islam.
Leaving aside the defamatory (“hate-soaked material”) content of your words, you claim here that I “deliberately” distort “legitimate scholarship.”
Prove it, please. I challenge you to produce from my books or articles, or from my writings at my website jihadwatch.org, even one false statement about Islam or its doctrine of jihad. Please also demonstrate from sources that a significant number of Muslims consider authoritative that the statement is indeed false.
I can be reached at director@jihadwatch.org. I look forward to hearing from you, and will publish your response at that site.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
This is not about me — it is a much larger issue. Those who are informed about the jihad threat should always be ready to counter, with solid facts from authoritative Islamic sources, the smoothly deceptive pieces that CAIR and its ilk place in American newspapers on a more or less daily basis. People often ask me what they, as ordinary working citizens, can do to counter the jihad threat. Well, this is one thing you can do. The deceptions are blanketing the land and convincing people to be complacent about and dismissive of Islamic supremacism. As such they are an extraordinarily potent weapon in the hands of those who would destroy our society and freedoms. Those who are informed should take the time and trouble to fight back by writing in with the facts.