My imaginary dialogue with the President, from PJ Media:
The world is on fire with Islamic jihad, and last Wednesday, after his Countering Violent Extremism summit, the President called me in to talk it over.
Here is the dialogue we had:*
OBAMA: Most recently, with the brutal murders in Chapel Hill of three young Muslim Americans, many Muslim Americans are worried and afraid.
SPENCER: You’ve apparently decided that the murder of three Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Tuesday was a hate crime. What is the evidence that it was an anti-Muslim hate crime? Well, the victims were Muslims, and the murderer was non-Muslim. And the father of two of the victims says he expressed opinions that he never told to his wife or put on his Facebook page, and that his wife says he did not hold — but which you and the Islamic supremacist establishment would have us believe he held so strongly that he ultimately killed for them. And his Facebook page does reflect that he was an atheist who hated all religions, especially Christianity. That’s it. That’s enough nowadays, plus the fact that you want this to be considered a hate crime, so as to further your case that Muslims are being victimized, which preoccupies you far more than non-Muslims who are being victimized by Muslims. I notice that you’ve said nothing about non-Muslims being worried and afraid over jihad terror attacks.
OBAMA: First, we have to confront squarely and honestly the twisted ideologies that these terrorist groups use to incite people to violence.
SPENCER: Confronting squarely and honestly the ideology of the Islamic State and al Qaeda is exactly what you seem determined not to do.
OBAMA: Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders — holy warriors in defense of Islam. That’s why ISIL presumes to declare itself the “Islamic State.” And they propagate the notion that America — and the West, generally — is at war with Islam. That’s how they recruit. That’s how they try to radicalize young people. We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders — they’re terrorists. And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.
SPENCER: What you’re saying here reflects the argument that has been common and prevailing in Washington for years, that we must not call the Islamic jihadists “Islamic jihadists,” because that will give them the legitimacy they’re seeking among Muslims. The fallacy here is that you and others who hold to this view are assuming that Muslims care what non-Muslim leaders say about who is Islamic and who isn’t. But given the fact that the Qur’an calls believers “the best of people” (3:110) and the unbelievers “the most vile of created beings” (98:6), that is unlikely in the extreme.
You say, “Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek,” but in reality this legitimacy is not within the power of any non-Muslim to grant — or to withhold. The Muslims who join al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are not listening to Western non-Muslim leaders; they’re listening to their imams and reading the Qur’an. In all these years of non-Muslim leaders insisting that we must withhold “legitimacy” from these jihad groups, there has not been even one single report of a Muslim who was going to join a terror group until he heard Bush or David Cameron or Tony Blair or you say that those groups were not Islamic. And the insidious aspect of it is that this claim that calling the jihadists what they are gives them a spurious legitimacy is used to foreclose upon honest examination of their motives and goals.
And in saying, “we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam,” you’re effectively saying,: We are not going to confront the jihadis’ ideology. We are not going to examine the jihadis’ motives and goals, and we’re not going to call on Muslim communities to reject them. Instead, we’re going to partner with other Muslims who share those motives and goals but aren’t blowing anything up.
OBAMA: Of course, the terrorists do not speak for over a billion Muslims who reject their hateful ideology. They no more represent Islam than any madman who kills innocents in the name of God represents Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism. No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism.
SPENCER: I notice that you don’t give the names of any “madman who kills innocents in the name of God” who are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu. With 25,000 jihad terror attacks committed in the name of Islam since 9/11, the naming of a single person or incident here or there would only point up the glaring disparity. And as for your claim that “no religion is responsible for terrorism,” this is just begging the question: Does the Islamic religion encourage violence and supremacism? Is it even possible for any religion to do this? Why not? Why do you forbid examination of this question?
OBAMA: And to their credit, there are respected Muslim clerics and scholars not just here in the United States but around the world who push back on this twisted interpretation of their faith. They want to make very clear what Islam stands for. And we’re joined by some of these leaders today. These religious leaders and scholars preach that Islam calls for peace and for justice, and tolerance toward others; that terrorism is prohibited; that the Koran says whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind. Those are the voices that represent over a billion people around the world.
SPENCER: The attendees included Wajahat Ali, an Al Jazeera host with Muslim Brotherhood ties who was co-author of one of the “Islamophobia” smear pieces designed to discredit foes of jihad terror, and Nicole Mossalam, who “has been dishonest about her controversial mosque blocking congregants from giving police information during their investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing.” You claim that there are “Muslim clerics and scholars not just here in the United States but around the world who push back on this twisted interpretation of their faith,” yet there is not a single mosque or Islamic school anywhere in the United States or anywhere else that has a program to teach Muslims to reject the understanding of Islam presented by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
OBAMA: But if we are going to effectively isolate terrorists, if we’re going to address the challenge of their efforts to recruit our young people, if we’re going to lift up the voices of tolerance and pluralism within the Muslim community, then we’ve got to acknowledge that their job is made harder by a broader narrative that does exist in many Muslim communities around the world that suggests the West is at odds with Islam in some fashion.
SPENCER: Any resistance to jihad terror brings this charge. The only way you will be able to eradicate it will be to surrender completely.
OBAMA: The reality — which, again, many Muslim leaders have spoken to — is that there’s a strain of thought that doesn’t embrace ISIL’s tactics, doesn’t embrace violence, but does buy into the notion that the Muslim world has suffered historical grievances — sometimes that’s accurate — does buy into the belief that so many of the ills in the Middle East flow from a history of colonialism or conspiracy; does buy into the idea that Islam is incompatible with modernity or tolerance, or that it’s been polluted by Western values.
SPENCER: So you’re saying that some Muslims have legitimate grievances against the West. This is a signal that more concessions, probably in the form of more taxpayer billions, will soon be in the offing. When jihad terror rages more virulently than ever after those billions have been squandered, will you think of another excuse?
OBAMA: So just as leaders like myself reject the notion that terrorists like ISIL genuinely represent Islam, Muslim leaders need to do more to discredit the notion that our nations are determined to suppress Islam, that there’s an inherent clash in civilizations. Everybody has to speak up very clearly that no matter what the grievance, violence against innocents doesn’t defend Islam or Muslims, it damages Islam and Muslims.
SPENCER: Islamic jihadists don’t generally consider non-Muslims capable of being “innocent” — they are guilty by virtue of having rejected Islam….
At this moment I was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on my return to my room, found, to my no small surprise and mortification, that though I still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of my meeting with Obama, yet, with the exception of the lines above, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas, without the after-restoration of the latter!
* Just in case it isn’t obvious to everyone, this is an imaginary dialogue. Obama’s remarks, however, are real: they’re taken from his closing speech at his Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, as reproduced at White House.gov on February 18.
Read the rest here.
jihad3tracker says
THIS IS THE PERFECT RATHER GENTLE “WAKE UP” TEXT TO SEND TO OUR FEDERAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS . . ..
I WILL CONTACT MINE, AND PERHAPS YOU WOULD ALSO TAKE TIME TO DO THIS, TOO.
IMPORTANT ! ! ! MAKE SURE TO STEER THEM TO ROBERT’S CREDENTIALS AS AN EXPERT ON ISLAM — GO TO THE “ABOUT ROBERT SPENCER” LINK AT THE HOMEPAGE TOP BAR.
jihad3tracker says
OFF TOPIC BUT ——— ASTONISHING ! ! ! ! PAM GELLER’S WEBSITE ( http://www.pamelageller.com ) HAS AN AMAZING VIDEO GOING VIRAL —
A YOUNG BLACK KID EXPLAINS WHY OBAMA DOES NOT LOVE AMERICA.
MUST SEE — MUST SEE. BETTER SIT DOWN BEFORE YOU WATCH IT — YOU COULD PASS OUT.
SERIOUSLY. MIRACLES HAPPEN ONCE IN A WHILE, AND THIS CLEAR SIGHTED YOUNG HUMAN IS IN THE MIRACLE CATEGORY FOR OUR COUNTER JIHAD STRUGGLE.
Angemon says
Might as well give the link:
http://pamelageller.com/2015/02/must-see-viral-video-12-year-old-vs-obama-no-contest.html/
mariam rove says
Thanks. I just saw this! What a smart kid! M
Sam says
Robert, you know more than anybody else how it it is to talk to a muslim or a Islam supporter. That is why I admire your tenacity and courage in talking to anyone about Islam and Jihad day in day out even with this made up dialogue with the traitor in chief Obama. Keep up the excellent work. Where do you get all that energy dealing with these brained wahed people all over the world?
Richard Courtemanche says
Obama’s culture conflicts with the requirement as a US President to re-assert world leadership and deal with the Islamic threat vigorously. It’s must be very uncomfortable for Israel to dither for another two years before striking Iran.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
We in the administration and the government should give voice to the plight of Muslims living in this country.
— Homeland “Security” Secretary Jeh Johnson at Obama’s “Violent Extremism” conference
The plight. I’d say The plight is in plain sight. And, what makes violence extreme, anyway? Let’s examine what causes violence, where it is on the fear scale is what really counts. Yeah it’s true that the Holy Prophet Mohammed mass murdered several hundred guys one afternoon, but nobody knows that, ignorance that gives the ability to cast a blind sight to be able to coddle Moslems and their fake aggrievement from Infidel violence that could possibly happen. The vision of possibly aggrieved victim Unicorn Americans is the way, as in the way to avoid talking about the truth and what in the hell are gonna do about it.
Jeh Johnson, and his boss the mild dictator Prez Barack Hussein, demonstrate just how decoupled from reality a society can be.
cs says
THE PLIGHT OF THE SWEET MUSLIMS:
“Please give me that Jew, you are oppressing us so much, please give them to us, we swear we will behave, we are peaceful, but just give them to us, you will see how everything will be fine!!”
Years later: “Please let us deal with the Hindus, you see, they are kufar, not you, you are good, you are good.”
Years later “Well my friend, surah 47/35, now that we can win over you, we will devour you alive. Thanks for be a sitting duck for us, Allah did a good job.”
Kepha says
Main reason why the murder of three Muslims can’t be a hate crime:
The perp was of Leftist political persuasion, and everyone knows that “hate” is a monopoly of the political right. [end sarc].
Robert, Robert, Robert, don’t let that phony category of “hate crime” get any more traction! If someone loves his neighbor or simply respects him, he will not commit murder or theft against him. All crime is “hate crime” to one degree or another.
The guy who’d key your car in the apartment or townhouse complex lot (you know, the neigbor from Hell) just kicked it up a few more notches–and his victims were Muslims.
Brian Hoff says
It is than hate crime the three where laid face downon the ground with they hand trie behind they back shot in the back of the head excuteing style. It was not than parking lot problem. Both the murder and his wife are prejuor.
Mirren10 says
”It is than hate crime the three where laid face downon the ground with they hand trie behind they back shot in the back of the head excuteing style.”
defender, do you have any evidence for this assertion, or is it something you read on some mohammedan supremacist site ?
I find it hard to believe that **one man** would be able to tie up *three* people before shooting them ! Why didn’t at least one of them fight back ?
Angemon says
defenderofislam posted:
“It is than hate crime the three where laid face downon the ground with they hand trie behind they back shot in the back of the head excuteing style.”
“Hate crime” refers to the motivation for the crime, not to the fashion in which was executed.
“It was not than parking lot problem. Both the murder and his wife are prejuor.”
Hmm, let’s see. The perpetrator said it was about the parking space. His wife said the same thing. Neighbours said they lived in fear of him because of his claim to the parking spot. The police looked at the evidence and said “this was over a parking place dispute”. But I guess Brian Hoff/defenderofislam has some sort of insider info that counters all the available facts, facts originating from impeachable sources.
Western Canadian says
Keep posting brain off…. Keep posting every chance you get. Your pathetic butchering of the English language, only adds a little more flavor to the bitter and twisted lies you tell every time you come here. Your inability to think and make up falsehoods, only adds a lot more to the stench of your voluntarily belonging to the most vicious crime ever committed against the human race: The crime of islam.
Scott says
As usual Robert, you are SPOT ON!
mortimer says
Obama said: “We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”
But WHO has defined the ‘GOOD’ version of Islam?
The top Muslim, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University has been teaching the ‘BAD’ version of Islam that Obama disapproves.
Is the top Muslim wrong about Islam? Is the Grand Imam WRONG about Islam?
I would like to hear what Obama replies to that question. I hope a journalist puts such a question to his minions or the President himself.
Bezelel says
[ Islamic jihadists don’t generally consider non-Muslims capable of being “innocent” — they are guilty by virtue of having rejected Islam….]
I was glad to see you point that out. That is what always comes to mind whenever that verse about killing innocents is used. Just who decides who is innocent?
Loves God says
RE: Obama, I am reminded of the parable of the son who did not do what his father wanted but said he would and the one who who said he wouldn’t but did it any way. For someone who talks about how he cannot be a Muslim and how he is a Christian – I never read of him participating in a Christian church, attending communion some where or visiting pastor offering a service at the White House. Is is so common that it does not rate as news? I do read about him participating in Muslim holidays and I have often read of him defending Islam from perceived hate from within the US and abroad.
boakai ngombu says
Spencer: … I notice that you’ve said nothing about non-Muslims being worried and afraid over jihad terror attacks.” …
fly …. (hearing the unexpressed question) Do you love America?
Jay Boo says
Does Obama call the attack at Ft Hood or at the Boston Marathon a hate crime?
saturnine says
Death to the visitor from Porlock!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_from_Porlock
(FYI Robert, the PJM link is bad.)
Lia Wissing says
People in the USA keep saying that in 2016 they’ll be rid of Mr Obama. Is anybody trying to measure/assess the damage he can still do America in the time remaining?
Judi says
Lia – you can be sure he will inflict as much damage as he possibly can in the next two years. I dread to think what will become of your once great country.
Angemon says
Yeah, but Hilary is coming to finish the job.
Dave J says
Opening a seminar on “violent extremism” with a Muslim prayer does seem odd, as does inviting known Muslim extremists and keeping the invitee list secret.
Appeasing those who seek to destroy your law and culture and replace it with their own also seems odd and foolish.
duh_swami says
‘Perverted versions’…Rasool and company don;’t debate, they make speeches…
consisting of word magick and word trickery…Most of them have never even cracked a book. Rasool would not last long in an actually debate with Spencer, or any other kuffar who has done their homework…
Jae M says
This should be published in the New York Times. Seriously, people need to hear logic.