Chris Field of Townhall interviewed me for the March 2009 issue of their print magazine: “5 Questions for Robert Spencer: Keeping An Eye on the Enemy”:
1. Since launching Jihad Watch, what has been your biggest accomplishment?
I see elements of my analysis entering into the public discourse. For example, a major international publication recently recommended that the War on Terror be recast as a war against “Islamic supremacy.” Now, I do not claim to have originated the term, but I”ve been discussing this conflict in terms of “Islamic supremacism” for years, and I don’t know of anyone else who has been doing so with the same consistency or detail.
2. What’s it like to be, as former Nixon advisor Robert Crane called you, the “principal leader “¦ in the academic field of Islam-bashing”?
It is a great honor! Crane is a convert to Islam who consistently resorts to hysterical, hateful rhetoric. He has called me “diabolical” and accused me of “demonizing Islam.” And all I have done to deserve these accolades has been to report accurately on the contents of Islamic texts and teachings and show how jihadists today are acting upon those texts and teachings. If Islam has a doctrine of warfare against and subjugation of unbelievers, it is not “Islam-bashing” or “demonizing Islam” to say so. It is just a fact, an inconvenient truth. I”m honored that Crane sees me as the leader among those who expose truths he would apparently prefer to conceal.
3. What’s the biggest jihadist threat America faces, and what will it take to beat it?
The threat of a catastrophic terror attack is still with us, but perhaps even more potentially damaging is the stealth jihad threat: the Muslim Brotherhood initiative of, in their words, “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.” This initiative is advancing on many fronts in America today: In business, finance, education, public institutions and more, there are ongoing attempts to assert elements of Islamic law and to reinforce the principle that where Islamic law and American law conflict, it is American law that must give way. Yet most Americans remain completely unaware that this is happening.
4. How do you expect the new Obama administration will treat our radical Islamic enemies?
Obama has repeated twice now that he wants to restore an atmosphere of “mutual respect” with the Islamic world, thereby implying that the conflict has arisen because the U.S. has not been behaving respectably toward Muslims, not because of anything Muslims themselves may have done. Like most of the Washington establishment, he has not considered the existence, nature, and implications of the doctrines of jihad and Islamic supremacism — which indicate that ultimately there is nothing America can do to win the approval of large sections of the Islamic world short of converting to Islam or submitting completely to the demands of political Islam.
5. You can tell a lot about a man by his enemies. Which groups or individuals have been most vocal in their anti-Spencer rhetoric, and how do you deal with it?
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been the worst: Once on CNN Ibrahim Hooper demanded that Dennis Prager denounce me on the basis of something that I had not actually said and do not believe. In response to attacks like these, and there are many, I stick to the facts: Neither CAIR nor anyone else has ever been able to show that anything I have written about Islam or jihad is false. Truth is my best and only defense.
BONUS QUESTION: Is it true that you, Salman Rushdie, Fox News and John Bolton are part of a secret cabal to smear all Muslims?
Why, of course! The cabal meets every Wednesday morning, when we pick up our Zionist checks.