This morning the New York Times has picked up on the effort by the hard Left and Islamic supremacist groups to intimidate the FBI into abandoning all attempts to teach the truth about Islam and jihad, which I wrote about at length yesterday here. The agenda of Hamas-linked CAIR is obvious in their outrage over FBI training materials: they want the Feds to stop teaching the truth about Islam, and to supply agents only with a whitewashed, misleading picture that will leave them woefully ill-equipped to understand or deal adequately with jihad terror plotting in the U.S. The Leftist media, including now the New York Times, with its usual suicidal short-sightedness and fashionable anti-anti-terror stance, has eagerly signed on to this campaign.
Here is one section from the Times’ piece on this today: “F.B.I. Chided for Training That Was Critical of Islam,” by Erica Goode in the New York Times, September 16:
The agency was also criticized last year for inviting Robert Spencer, an anti-Muslim blogger, to speak to a joint terrorism task force.
“This isn’t a revelation to us,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group in Washington. “We”ve been dealing with this issue for quite some time now.”
He added, “There’s a problem with the use of anti-Islamic trainers and Islamophobic materials.”
I wrote this to Erica Goode:
I am not “anti-Muslim,” as I have stated many times. It is not “anti-Muslim” to stand for human rights for all people, including Muslims, and to defend the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and equality of rights for women, all of which are denied under traditional forms of Sharia. Nor am I merely a blogger, but the author of 10 books, two of which were New York Times bestsellers. Nor is CAIR simply a neutral Muslim advocacy group, but a Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood-linked group with many former officials convicted of terror plotting. I hope next time you write about this you will attempt at least some semblance of objective journalism, but I have no high hopes.
Robert Spencer
Like Spencer Ackerman, Erica Goode makes no attempt to determine whether or not the material in the FBI training is true or accurate. She just takes for granted that it must be false (I show that it is true here), and assumes also that Hamas-linked CAIR and the ADC are the honest brokers in this controversy. It is typical, but no less excusable for that.
UPDATE 12:05PM Saturday 9/17: I just received this email from Erica Goode:
Dear Mr. Spencer,
Thanks for your email. We are changing the sentence online to read “a blogger and author widely perceived as hostile to Islam.” CAIR is defined in the piece as an advocacy group. Best wishes, Erica Goode
I responded:
Dear Ms. Goode,
I much appreciate the change, although it is factually inaccurate: I am not hostile to Islam. I am hostile to the oppression of women, and to the denial of the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience. Aren’t you? The idea that I am hostile to Islam because I tell the truth about its teachings is part of an OIC-led effort by Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups like CAIR to squelch any honest discussion of how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and recruit and motivate terrorists. I think the goal of such an effort is obvious. Meanwhile, regarding CAIR as an advocacy group, would you also characterize the KKK or the Aryan Nations as an advocacy group?
Thanks for your note.
RS