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Robert Spencer interview on Arab Winter Comes to America

Apr 17, 2014 11:56 pm By Robert Spencer

RobertSpencer_Arab WinterPamela Geller asked me a few questions about my book Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About the War We’re In:

Geller: What possessed you to write this book now? Why?

Spencer: The denial of the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat is near-total. The only people who speak honestly about the threat we face are ostracised from mainstream discourse, vilified, ridiculed, defamed, and marginalized. Even the government and law enforcement officials are, as a matter of policy, ordered to ignore, deny and downplay the motives and goals of jihad terrorists. This is a recipe for disaster, and that disaster will surely come unless there is a substantial turnaround. I wrote this book to that end. Not that I think it will affect that turnaround in itself, but by chronicling the extent of the denial, as I do in the book, I hope to move some people to act to clear away the fog of deception and institute some more realistic policies.

Geller: You’ve made this the whole of your work for well over 15 years. What changes in the past 10 years have encouraged you? Distressed you?

Spencer: I’m afraid it has been mostly distress, although now I am way beyond distress. In the early years I thought that there would be strong response not just in the U.S., but in the West and in non-Western nations that were also targets of jihad, against jihad terror and Islamic supremacism. I did not expect the massive and international capitulation to Islamic supremacist intimidation, such that while 25 years ago, when the Rushdie fatwa was first issued, there was a huge outpouring of support for the freedom of speech, now that freedom’s ostensibly foremost guardians readily agree that self-censorship is in order so as to avoid offending Muslims. We are well on our way to adopting, under the guise of avoiding and criminalizing “hate speech,” Sharia restrictions on criticism of Islam, thereby establishing Muslims (including jihad terrorists) as a protected class of which criticism is not allowed. And that will be the death of free society.

Geller: Are we winning this war?

Spencer: Not at all. Muslims riot and kill over cartoons and videos, and instead of telling them to grow up and explaining the cardinal importance of the freedom of speech to them, Western leaders (chief among them Obama) declare in ringing tones that speech that offends Muslims indeed should not be allowed. The implications of this capitulation have yet to be felt. But they will be, when free people wish to speak out against tyranny and find that all their avenues for doing so have been blocked in the interests of stopping “hate speech” — which is in the eye of the beholder in any case.

Geller: What’s the biggest failing of the West?

Spencer: Ethnocentrism. And the chief ethnocentrists are the multiculturalists. They naively assume that the whole world thinks like they do, and wants what they want. It’s a false assumption, drastically false, and the fallout of its falsehood could bring down the West altogether.

Geller: What are the biggest changes under the Obama administration?

Spencer: Although Bush proclaimed Islam a Religion of Peace, he did not stop the truth about Islam and jihad from being taught to military personnel and FBI agents (by, among others, me). But Obama foreclosed on that teaching after pressure from Islamic supremacist advocacy groups, many with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is another decision with consequences that will be disastrous, and that have yet to be felt.

Geller: How has sharia moved into the American marketplace of ideas?

Spencer: As I explained above, it is now taken for granted even by the media that speech that offends Muslims must not be countenanced. Likewise the idea that Islamic law and culture must always be accommodated, even at the expense of American law and custom, has gained widespread traction. The danger of this is that there is always more Sharia to accommodate, and as the only ones who are opposing this are branded and dismissed as “bigots” and “Islamophobes,” there is no one I can see who can or will stop the headlong rush to total capitulation.

Geller reviewed the book as well — see her review here.

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Comments

  1. Paul Weston says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 4:42 am

    As you say Robert, the establishment capitulation is total. As an example, I am standing in the EU elections and all the candidates have a maximum of 6 words to outline their party’s ideology, which are printed on the ballot paper next to the party name.

    The electoral commission has turned down all our suggested statements of ideology, because they contained the words “Islam” Islamisation” or “Multiculturalism”.

    So in our so called democracy, political parties can no longer use words during an election which might cause “distress” or “hamper community cohesion”.

    I am often reminded of the words uttered by the great English philosopher Roger Scruton: “When words are rendered illegitimate, then words will be replaced by deeds.”

    I am not suggesting we take such a recourse at this stage, but the establishment is certainly forcing us toward that eventual position.

    • mortimer says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 5:09 am

      A law brought in by Thatcher to control the IRA and sports hooligans is being used to defend Islamic misogynists and supremacists. The law did too much. It is used now whenever a government disagrees with its opposition.

      It’s time for a new Magna Carta in England that will protect every Englishman’s right of free speech. The Public Order Act is like grapeshot indiscriminately cutting down a host of rights previously enjoyed and required in a flourishing democracy.

    • Charli Main says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 5:31 am

      Mr Weston
      I have the greatest respect for you and your right to freedom of speech and the right to express of your views.
      However, I believe it to be grossly unfair for people to persistently equate “Islam” and ” Islamisation” with “Multiculturalism”.
      Why is “Multiculturalism” being blamed for the activities and behaviour of the Muslims infesting Britain ??
      The ” Multicultural” Indians/ Sikhs/Chinese/Jews/Poles et al ARE NOT blowing up women and children on buses and trains.
      Neither are they grooming and raping little white girls, chopping up British soldiers in the streets and publicly declaring that Britain´s laws don´t apply to them and that they are going to force their religion, language and culture on everyone else and murder those who resist.
      The problem facing Britain is not Hinduism/Sikhism/Buddhism or Judaism, ITS ISLAM.
      If I have mis-understood or mis- interpreted your post, I apologise in advance.

      • Paul Weston says

        Apr 18, 2014 at 5:44 am

        Charli, you make a good point. My problem with state enforced multiculturalism is that it promotes racial and cultural apartheid. Encouraging differing races and religions to remain “seperate” is essentially encouraging them NOT to assimilate into the host society.

        Most races and cultures will eventually assimilate, despite multiculturalism, but encouraging Muslims not to assimilate, given the varied drawbacks of a 7th century supremacist, monocultural and violent mind-set, is an act of evil – both for us and for them.

        We can have multi-racial and MONOCULTURAL societies but we CANNOT have multi-racial, multicultural societies. That route leads to the inevitable multicultural civil wars most recently seen in the mid 20th century Partition of India, 1970’s Lebanon and 1990’s Yugoslavia etc etc etc.

        Hence my intense dislike of multiculturalism as promoted by the state/establishment.

        I made a video recently about multiculturalism, which if you are interested can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNjHayK3C-o

        • Ronald Parsons says

          Apr 18, 2014 at 10:56 am

          Well stated.

      • duh_swami says

        Apr 18, 2014 at 7:16 am

        Multiculturalism does not ’cause’ behaviors, but it opens the door to them.
        If you invite Drac’ullah into your home, expect to get bit.

    • Paul Weston says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 5:32 am

      Like it! But too late unfortunately. We are going with:

      Liberty GB “Faithful To Tradition, Revolutionary In Outlook.”

  2. mortimer says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 4:56 am

    Obama is clearly an enemy of free speech. You would expect more from a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he also served as president of the Harvard Law Review.

    Obama reminds one of the many German lawyers and judges who presided over the dismantling of free speech, free assembly and many protections that German law provided. They knew what they were doing. The Weimar constitution that these lawyers destroyed was one of the most progressive constitutions of the world, providing an extensive catalogue of fundamental rights. Based on his UN rant about NOT criticizing Islam, Obama is a self-declared enemy of free speech. Obama is clearly in bed with the totalitarians of the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama has demanded Islam be exempt from the same criticism given to all other totalitarian systems.

    • logdon says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 5:35 am

      Not just Obama but his acolytes in Britain and Europe.

      It’s the ‘narrative’ and must be obeyed.

      http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/09/why-does-david-cameron-refuse-to-admit-that-the-terrorist-attack-in-nairobi-is-linked-to-islam/

      http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/18/david-cameron-votes-britain-christian-country

      Just two there, but one of many, indicating that if there’s a Muslim vote out there Cameron will bend the knee.

      Selling us out for a handful of highly doubtful votes? You bet.

  3. duh_swami says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 7:12 am

    The bigger enemy of America are not jihadists, the bigger enemy are kuffar who enable jihad. These people are traitors and treasonous. Did anyone vote for all this BS coming down the pike? If it were not for kuffar with calcified and fragmented minds, There would be no need for Robert to write this book.
    But since there is a need, I hope the book hits ‘best seller’.

  4. b says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 7:50 am

    Jihadist in Syria says: “This is a message to Canada and all of America. We are coming and we will destroy you.”
    Is Obama and the govt of USA listening? I am afraid that it will take another major attack on US mainland to make them wake up.

  5. OldretiredSFdude says

    Apr 19, 2014 at 7:24 am

    Edmund Burke once said “When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.” So it is that our current day leaders, both in the USA and UK have become “flatterers instead of legislators”. They are more concerned with the ever present poles of this or that than they are with being Statesmen and serving the people that put them in their position. So it falls to the people of our respective countries to take the reins and guide us back to the from which we have strayed. That requires every citizen to open their eyes and minds to the fact that our respective countries need not and must not be dictated to by any religion or single race or nationality, but are and must be inclusive to a set of rules and laws equitable to all. Islam does not nor will not allow for such a society of man. So I see no value in considering it’s worth to a country, but only concern in it’s threat to a civilized nation.

  6. Cid Campeador says

    Apr 19, 2014 at 3:44 pm

    Mr. Spencer, I am pretty much convinced that a man of your wisdom and knowledge must know and could name the force or forces operating under so much apparent insanity as the one you denounce in this interview (and, I know, whenever the occasion presents itself). If by any chance your answer to this simple question is that you do not know, I am quite prepared to give you a hint or two. Mind you, by ‘force or forces’ I mean Western organizations, clubs, councils, groups and even much respected instititutions that seem to have lost their senses. I am sure referring to a great desing from occult powers to bring our Christianity-inspired civilization to its kness, thus resulting in a sort of war of religions under other guise in which traitors abound. I see that a good number of the posters in this blog imply it by some of their comments, so I’m sure you won’t label me a delusional conspiracy crackpot.

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