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

Sam Harris shocked to find Reza Aslan and Glenn Greenwald lying about him

Oct 19, 2014 8:10 pm By Robert Spencer

Aslan-HarrisThe Leftist/Islamic supremacist defamation machine that is dedicated, as a conscious strategy, to defaming and destroying every opponent of jihad terror, is now turning on Sam Harris. He will find that Aslan, Greenwald, and their ilk will not deal with his points honestly. Their intention henceforth, unless he comes back to the reservation and affirms that Islam is a religion of peace, will be to catch him out in statements they can use, as they are using the one he discusses in this piece, to make him look as bad as possible.

Ironically, the passage comes from Harris’ The End of Faith, which came out in 2005, but Harris and Aslan debated in 2007, and were on friendly terms for years after that. That was, however, before Harris became so publicly identified with criticism of the Islamic texts and teachings that jihadis use to justify violence and supremacism; now that he has, the gloves are off, and Harris will be given no quarter.

This is what people like Aslan and Greenwald, both of whom are allied with Islamic supremacists and jihadists in so many ways (see here and here for some details), and their friends and allies in groups like the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) do to anyone and everyone who speaks the truth about jihad terror. The extensive dossiers of the evil words and deeds of counter-jihadists that groups such as Hamas-linked CAIR, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for American Progress continuously retail are the aggregate of years of their doing to us what Aslan and Greenwald are doing to Harris here. If he keeps telling truths about Islam and jihad, in a few years they will have a dossier on him just as extensive, full of things he has said that they will have deliberately misrepresented, supposedly unsavory associations he allegedly has, and a proud record of statements by event organizers explaining why they canceled his appearance after discovering what a “bigot” he was.

I hope that Sam Harris’ experience here will help expose and destroy this fascist smear machine, which is designed to discredit and marginalize all resistance to jihad terror. So far, Harris himself shows no indication of knowing that this defamation of him by Aslan and Greenwald is anything but a singular occurrence; I hope he will soon realize how typical and predictable what is happening to him really is.

“On the Mechanics of Defamation,” by Sam Harris, October 12, 2014:

…Aslan and Greenwald know that nowhere in my work do I suggest that we kill harmless people for thought crimes. And yet they (along with several of their colleagues) are doing their best to spread this lie about me. Nearly every other comment they’ve made about my work is similarly misleading.

Both Aslan and Greenwald are debasing our public discourse and making honest discussion of important ideas increasingly unpleasant—even personally dangerous. Why are they doing this? Please ask them and those who publish them.

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Filed Under: "Islamophobia", free speech, Leftist/Islamic Alliance Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Jovial Joe says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    I thought you must have read it already; I was waiting for your response. A feeling of schadenfreude no doubt:)

    • Altar Boy says

      Oct 20, 2014 at 9:29 am

      TODAY, THE WORLD WOULD BE IN A VERY DIFFERENT PLACE IF BEN AFFLECK HAD AGREED WITH BILL MAHER AND SAM HARRIS. It unbelievable how so many people listen to no-nothing celebrities. But let’s not kid ourselves, they have enormous power to influence. Unfortunately, Mr. Affleck choose to call persons critical the religion of Islam, “racists.”

      Bill Maher is used to controversy, but academic and neuroscientist, Sam Harris, is not, and has put himself in the crosshairs and the big guns of character destruction are out.

      Glen Greenwald, and Reza Aslan—strange bedfellows. Greenwald, who would be executed in Iran or Saudi Arabia etc. for being homosexual, defames Sam Harris. Reza Aslan, who is likely a Shiite Muslim, would be persecuted in Sunni-majority countries, and put to the sword by ISIS, defames Sam Harris.

      I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Glen Greenwald wraps his arms around Islamic supremacists. Every year at Gay Pride parades in Toronto, New York, etc., there is a group that marches called “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.” (Funny how Israel is the only country in the Middle East that respects Gay rights).

      https://www.facebook.com/pages/NYC-Queers-Against-Israeli-Apartheid/127621283984596

      It is very brave (and risky) for Bill Maher and Sam Harris to criticize Islam–more reason to give them our support (What is wrong with liberals? Where are they?).

      Mainstream media seems oblivious to the fact that through intimidation, the US Constitution has already been changed: “Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech”. (Except for Islam).

      Mr. Harris, welcome to Robert Spencer’s world.

    • Emanuel Goldstein says

      Nov 30, 2014 at 12:56 am

      Sam Harris has made excuses for killing people for beliefs, for pre emptive nuclear war, for torture, and for profiling.

      Excuse after excuse.

      And when he is called out on it he whines and back tracks.

      What a coward.

  2. jewdog says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 8:23 pm

    I don’t know much about Sam Harris. I think that he is in academia in the humanities. If so, his turn towards the counter-jihad will definitely alienate him from his former colleagues. I had originally intended to major in the humanities but found that the ideological biases were too strong to tolerate.

    • Jesus tapdancing Christ says

      Oct 19, 2014 at 8:33 pm

      Harris is a neuroscientist and philosopher. He’s written many superb essays and blog posts about this problem, in addition to his books, and his argument hasn’t changed since The End of Faith was published in 2004, so there’s no “turn” from his side. He was just catapulted into the mainstream recently after his spat with Ben Affleck on Real Time with Bill Maher, which made him an even bigger target for the left-wing apologists like Reza Aslan and Glenn Greenwald than before.

      His essays “Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks” and “Islam and the Future of Liberalism”, among others, are highly recommended. Incredibly smart guy.

    • Jay Boo says

      Oct 19, 2014 at 8:52 pm

      The link in the article —(“On the Mechanics of Defamation,” by Sam Harris, October 12, 2014:”
      )
      — Just above the grayed out area offers some insight about Sam Harris.

    • dieter says

      Oct 19, 2014 at 10:35 pm

      Sam Harris didn’t turn towards counter-jihad. He did this right from the beginning. 9/11 motivated him to write his first book (published in 2004, not 2005) which kicked of New Atheism.

      Here is Sam Harris in 2004 on O’reilly:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kufly8wz-gI
      The substance and intensity of his statements on Islam haven’t changed one bit.

      Aslan, Greenwald, Chris Hedges and others started to engage in outright defamation against Sam Harris after he mopped the floor with them in debates. Name calling is all they have left.

      • UnEasyOne says

        Oct 20, 2014 at 2:24 am

        I’m gratified to see that so many at this site know Harris and his work.

        That doesn’t necessarily mean that you, like me, are on the political left, like Harris, Ayaad Hirsi Ali and, uh, me. but I wonder how many other leftists come here because it is right about islam. Is it a few or a lot?

        I say this, not because I want to get help for “my side” of the political debate, but because I want to know how many of us there are who want to unite as AMERICANS, as human beings, to educate our fellow citizens about this existential threat to our very existence.

        United we stand…

        • Nuvaslacker says

          Oct 20, 2014 at 7:09 am

          Though not from the US (I’m from the UK), I also respect Sam Harris’s work, and consider that a broad coalition of those who support freedom of speech and thought is the only way to defeat Islamofascism.

        • dieter says

          Oct 20, 2014 at 8:51 am

          I am more of a chross-polinator. I read everything that is outside of the ideological mainstream. Most political and ideological groups are insular and oblivious about what other groups are about and perceive them as a uniform and simplistic caricature.

          If bloggers or commenters on the secular left are aware of Robert Spencer or Pam Geller at all, they are usually assumed to be christian theocrats who support Bush/neocon interventionism.

          Now most readers don’t ever comment on anything. So the pure readership could potentially be more broadly informed, but I doubt it.

          I am Austrian, not American. I doubt that political and ideological tribes will come together, but they can reach the same conclusion on independent paths.

          Both the neocon and the liberal internationalist flavor of democracy spreading and liberating didn’t work, neither did the Arab spring, which is something progressives hoped for. Now we’ve got ISIS beheading do-gooder journalists and the unwillingness of middle eastern regimes to fight ISIS. All of these alternatives have been ruled out, so now many are willing to consider that the islamophobes were on to something all along.

          The german language media currently gives center stage to Hamed Abdel-Samad. He is on every channel and in every newspaper. He is intense, lays out how ISIS does exactly what Muhammed and the early Muslims did and the journalists are willing to listen and let him talk.

      • bernie says

        Oct 20, 2014 at 9:02 am

        Sam Harris is an extremely intelligent man. He’s not only a neuroscientist and philosopher; as well, his English is excellent, and he also speaks French, and perhaps Hebrew and/or Yiddish as well (his mother was of Jewish background, and his father of Quaker Protestant heritage; I don’t know if either of his parents were religious or not though). He also knows a lot about the various major world religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Mormonism and of course the 3 main Abrahamic faiths.

      • voegelinian says

        Oct 20, 2014 at 1:25 pm

        Whether or not Harris has changed since then I’m still unsure; but one thing that is vividly clear from the You Tube which dieter linked: Bill O’Reilly was as much of a maddeningly obtuse PC MC blowhard back then as he continues to be now.

  3. Liam1304 says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    This is exactly the kind of thing some of us have been praying for for years. Harris may regard me as a person of faith, as deluded, but I still regard him as an honest man. We have new friends coming round to the truth, let’s be very kind & gentle with them. Show patience while they still may think us bigots – the truth will out!

    2 plus 2 equals 4

    • Sam says

      Oct 19, 2014 at 8:46 pm

      Liberals will not believe in the truth about Islam. Because it is against their world view as “all people and cultures are good and equal”. Once they admit that men are bad by nature, their whole reason of existence, which is being against bigots and racists like us JW readers, will collapse. Sorry, this is the way I see it and I don’t see much hope in my life time. Maybe, another 300 or 400 years later things may change for the better for freedom loving people.

      • Jay Boo says

        Oct 19, 2014 at 8:55 pm

        If Muslims continue to bite at the Leftist hands that feed them they might finally get the message to stop feeding them.

      • voegelinian says

        Oct 20, 2014 at 1:29 pm

        Liberals will not believe in the truth about Islam. Because it is against their world view as “all people and cultures are good and equal”

        That’s not the worldview of liberals (or PC MCs, as I like to call them). They don’t for one second believe that “all people and cultures are good and equal”. They believe, in fact, the precise opposite: that white Western Judaeo-Christian culture is worse than all other cultures and, as a consequence, its members are obligated in numerous ways to feel shame about that and to put that shame into practice (such as, for example, to welcome millions of Third World immigrants into our societies so as to “enrich” our culture and help, at least in some small part, to make us better and help sand down the rough edges of our innate “bigotry” we have naturally as white people).

      • Jeremy says

        Nov 21, 2014 at 8:02 am

        Nice generalization asshole. I am liberal and I agree with Sam Harris.

    • pumbar says

      Oct 19, 2014 at 11:39 pm

      “2 plus 2 equals 4”

      Not in room 101 it doesn’t.

    • JIMJFOX says

      Oct 20, 2014 at 4:21 am

      2 plus 2 equals 4

      ONLY if they are positive AND in phase….

  4. twostellas says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    Why are they doing this, he asks? Because they are scum who are in no way interested in truth. They are monsters in suits.

  5. Skevin says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    OT Good News: THis is the Greek Orthodox church at the WTC that was delayed during the Ground Zero Mosque dust-up.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/nyregion/razed-by-terror-attacks-a-church-will-rise-anew-.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Oct 20, 2014 at 4:53 am

      That *is* good news!

      May its bells – which are forbidden by Islam; dhimmi Christians aren’t supposed to have bells on their churches – soon ring out loudly and merrily in the midst of NYC.

    • Mirren10 says

      Oct 20, 2014 at 3:42 pm

      Brilliant, excellent news ! I echo dda’s sentiments.

  6. Islam_Macht_Frei says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    Greenwald and Aslan are beneath contempt.

  7. Don McKellar says

    Oct 19, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Virtually every word out of Asslan’s mouth is lie or deception or half-truth of some sort! Everybody who has followed his smarmy, childish behavior with regards to Robert Spencer knows that. Or at least those with a brain who have been paying attention. And now Sam Harris is learning all about Asslan, too. And it appears that is right about time for the Guardian to make Greenwald unemployed and end his miserable career of petty vandettas and infantile squabbles.

  8. Henry says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 5:19 am

    Aslan and Greenwald, two conceited, delusional moral relativists whose indefensible double standards, and hypocrisy are beneath contempt. Anyone giving them any credence needs their head examining.

  9. Mahmoud says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 10:21 am

    ‘in a few years they will have a dossier on him just as extensive, full of things he has said that they will have deliberately misrepresented, supposedly unsavory associations he allegedly has, and a proud record of statements by event organizers explaining why they canceled his appearance after discovering what a “bigot” he was.’

    That is just hilarious. Is that not precisely what you’re doing to Aslan, CAIR, Greenwald and your other opponents?

    • Henry says

      Oct 20, 2014 at 12:16 pm

      The difference Mahmoud, is that Robert Spencer’s reports are based on facts and evidence. He hasn’t deliberately misrepresented anyone. The unsavoury associations, and bigotry he points out are documented, provable truth.

    • Mirren10 says

      Oct 20, 2014 at 4:39 pm

      ”That is just hilarious. Is that not precisely what you’re doing to Aslan, CAIR, Greenwald and your other opponents?”

      No, mohammedan, it isn’t. Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and the majority of commenters here, believe in **free speech**.

      I don’t believe you will be able to quote **one** instance of either Robert and Pamela, trying to get people banned from speaking, anywhere. Unlike your co-religionists, and your leftard apologists, who know only too well mohammedanism cannot stand scrutiny, and the light of day; hence your shameful attempts to shut down the speech of those who will expose your repulsive ideology.

      Equally, the comments section here, is mostly un-moderated, and the only reason people would be banned, is for foul language, racist language, genocidal language, which, if flagged up to Marc or Robert, would usually result in such comments being deleted, and the commenter banned.

      Any other discourse is published without quibble, which is why such as *you* are free to comment here, unlike the leftard sites which you no doubt love, like the despicable and cowardly ‘loonwatch’, which has never met a mohammedan murderer it didn’t make excuses for, and routinely deletes, and bans, any comments which dare to argue with its lockstep mind set.

  10. ApolloSpeaks says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    IT’S ALL VERY SIMPLE

    Islam simultaneously is a “religion of peace” and a “religion of war.” It’s a religion of peace for Moslems, and a religion of war against all infidels. Infidels who claim that Islam is a religion of peace for them are either liars or fools-as Islamic peace for unbelievers means their complete subjugation to the faith and abolition of all divisions in a single worldwide state.

    Infidels who dare speak the truth “that Islam is a religion of peace for Moslems only and war for every one else” are smeared as Islamophobic racist warmongering bigots creating needless division with a great world religion (1.3 billion mostly peace loving souls) that only wants the supreme good of peace for all mankind- the conquering peace of the “master faith” born from subversion and victorious war.

    Islamic supremacists believe that Islam is the one, only, true supreme answer to mankind’s age old quest for peace; and they’ll resort to any means peaceful and violent to make Islamic Peace a global reality.

    In the final analysis, Islam (Mohammed’s Islam) is immorality and lawlessness masquerading as divine revelation in pursuit of absolute power. And anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.

    http://www.apollospeaks.com

  11. Amy says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    Watch William Lane Craig debate Sam Harris on “Is the Foundation of Morality Natural or Supernatural?” (University of Notre Dame, April 2011) if you want to see a truly brilliant mind at work. It’s on YouTube. Harris can’t hold a candle to Craig. Few can. Some have said it was Craig’s easiest victory, even easier than when he beat Hitchens.

    Sam Harris doesn’t impress me. He’s not saying anything new – no original thought on board. He’s just another atheist. He can write well, I’ll give him that. But he’s not a deep thinker. And it appears his emotional IQ is lower than he thinks. Why is he surprised by the behavior of Aslan and Greenwald?

  12. pdxnag says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    The fascist smear would transform into something more final if Islamic/Sharia law were the base of all legislation here.

  13. LimpiaNyc says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    I am a liberal on domestic issues, and have been reading here for years due to my concern with Islamic jihad, freedom of speech and israel.

  14. Allan Mandrowski says

    Oct 20, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Greenwald and Aslan are dishonest, narcissistic, slanderous characters that should be fought against from the right and the left alike.

    They serve the public no good, other then to obfuscate factual information, derail sincere and honest discussion and turn anything critical of their beliefs into something nasty.

    Any sane left-wing person who opposes religion in general, should oppose Islam to its fullest.

    At one stage people will have to make a choice. Either fully accept Freedom of Speech and thus let an honest and open debate about the violent and genocidical tendencies of Islam commence and flow or don’t accept it and start preparing for living under Islam’s dominance.

    Ironically enough, if Islam were to dominate all of us, there would be very little multiculturalism left.

    Again, there are many left wingers out there who do see Islam’s problematic nature and the gigantic challenge that is in front of us of tackling it whilst it’s not too late. Unfortunately, too few speak up and too many are still in la-la-land.

  15. R Davis says

    Oct 21, 2014 at 7:05 am

    Aslan & Harris are raking in the appearance money .
    2 ignorant men who would not have a clue about anything.
    Being able to shoot your mouth off is definitely a money making venture.
    I am not impressed with either of these men – they only talk about themselves & each other.
    Preoccupied is a good word here.

  16. tom says

    Oct 21, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    There is more ignorant invective, name calling, and character assassination directed at Greenwald in these posts than an intelligent person can tolerate. Kettle meet pot.

  17. Oxymoron says

    Oct 26, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    I am a great admirer of Sam Harris,most of ideas are full of reason but sometimes when debating with religious people,its like trying to reason with a drunk,i wish we had listened to the leftards,”the strongmen of middle east kept a lid on the religious nutters,now pandora’s box is opened and the demons from hell have been unleashed,when Saddam ruled there was no al qaeda!!

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