• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

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

“Journalist” Sohrab Ahmari converts to Christianity after priest murder, then denies published reports that he was Muslim

Jul 31, 2016 12:09 pm By Robert Spencer

Sohrab Ahmari

Yesterday, Jihad Watch writer Christine Williams posted a link to this story from Christian Today, along with some commentary praising Wall Street Journal reporter Sohrab Ahmari for his courage. Ahmari had announced his conversion to Christianity after two Islamic jihadists murdered Catholic priest Jacques Hamel:

There are two possible implications of this: it could be that Ahmari was so appalled as a Muslim by the murder of Fr. Hamel that he thought it an apposite time to announce that he was leaving Islam, or that Ahmari as a non-Muslim was so appalled by the murder of Fr. Hamel that he decided to stand publicly in solidarity with Roman Catholics. These are not mutually exclusive, but in any case, the coverage he got all opted for the first: in a photo caption, Christian Today wrote: “A leading Muslim journalist as announced his conversion to Catholicism with the hashtag #Iamjacqueshamel.”

Catholicism.org had the same interpretation; its headline reads: “Moslem Writer for WSJ Moved by Priest’s Martyrdom to Convert to Catholicism.”

Both the Christian Today piece and the Catholicism.org piece still identify Ahmari as a former Muslim. But when Jihad Watch published our piece with the headline, “Top Muslim Wall Street Journal reporter converts to Christianity after jihadist attack on priest,” Ahmari flew into a frothing, carpet-chewing rage. He tweeted at me accusing me of sloppiness and irresponsibility — in a tweet he has since deleted, apparently because in it he wrongly assumed that I had written the Jihad Watch post, when in fact Christine Williams had. How embarrassing to be sloppy and irresponsible in the process of accusing someone else of being sloppy and irresponsible. But Ahmari has something of a reputation for sloppiness and irresponsibility: the International Business Times wrote this about him back in 2012: “The more troubling issue is that the WSJ failed in its journalistic obligation to ensure factual accuracy, even on the editorial page. The WSJ’s editorial by Sohrab Ahmari was blatantly fallacious on multiple counts.”

Even though I took our post down at his request, in the course of our Twitter exchange, Ahmari was not only unaccountably abusive, but increasingly agitated, railing about the Jihad Watch “fevered swamps” in another tweet he later deleted — it wouldn’t look good, after all, for a Wall Street Journal reporter to betray that he has only a weak grasp of English idiom. He also accused me of being “irresponsible and malicious.”

Well, let’s see. Two sources currently identify Ahmari as an ex-Muslim; Christine Williams linked to one at Jihad Watch, and Ahmari is exercised only at Jihad Watch for this alleged inaccuracy — he has not publicly called out either of the other two in the way he called me out. He explained in another tweet that he was going after me first because Jihad Watch was “ideological trash.”

What’s more, Andrew Bostom has pointed out the fact that on page eight of Ahmari’s book Arab Spring Dreams, he identifies himself as “Iranian (with Azeri roots).” What an interesting self-description: the Ayatollah Khamenei is also an Iranian with Azeri roots. The overwhelming majority of Iranians with Azeri roots are Muslim or come from a Muslim background. Ahmari tweeted at me that he had never been Muslim, but had been a secular atheist — in yet another tweet that he curiously deleted soon afterward. There is no reason to doubt his self-description, even if he deleted it, but it is a perfectly reasonable assumption, and indeed a likelihood, that if he is an Iranian with Azeri roots, his secular atheist household was at least nominally Muslim in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which he grew up and only left in 1998, and that when he announced his conversion to Catholicism in the context of the priest’s murder, he was renouncing even any cultural and vestigial attachment to Islam.

It could be that Ahmari is afraid of being targeted by Muslim hardliners as an apostate if he identifies as a former Muslim. His fear in that case would be understandable, if not particularly worthy of respect; but to lash out at those who reported about his actions accurately suggests other motives as well. The bottom line is that whether Ahmari comes from a Muslim or Bahai or Christian or Jewish or Zoroastrian background, and whatever religion he is now, even in his revulsion at the murder of Fr. Hamel, he feels the need to distance himself from genuine opponents of jihad terror, and to assure his colleagues that even though he opposes jihad terror, he isn’t going to do anything so politically incorrect as link it to Islam.

Irresponsible, inaccurate, and careless “journalists” such as Sohrab Ahmari have no business being employed by the Wall Street Journal or any other respectable publication. But nowadays the world is so saturated with identity politics that he no doubt has doors opening to him on the strength of his name alone, his lack of talent and journalistic integrity notwithstanding.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Apostasy, Featured, journalistic bias, Useful idiots Tagged With: Sohrab Ahmari


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Henry jones says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    He may be quick to attack JW, but his twitter still claims he is an ex muslim, but that he took his tweet down due to Internet crazies. However, his twitter still.says he is an ex muslim and will.convert, so he’s not doing a good job changing his story.

    Then again, liars and cowards never do

    • Debbie says

      Aug 1, 2016 at 7:21 am

      His reaction is typical Muslim, going into attack mode. But wait, he converted…

      • linnte says

        Aug 1, 2016 at 8:17 am

        That’s what I was thinking; sounds like a normal Muslim to me! They can talk sweet and condescending to you until they know you understand Islamic texts and their modus operandi of world domination. Then BOOM! Out come the words that make your ears curl! I have saved two such emails from peaceful Muslims as proof! haahahahahaha!

        • eagle says

          Aug 1, 2016 at 9:38 am

          Well said and so true and this is not Taqiyya. As we know in the Muslim Satan Quran, all truths spoken against the Muslim Satan Quran is “islamophobia”. So believes Obama and CAIR.

  2. Mong says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    Hi, I’m a Muslim. Allah says that Muslims should be ruling the world so wherever Muslims are not ruling it must be because of oppression. Muslims can therefore attack defensively to stop this oppression. If you complain about this, you’re islamophobic. Thanks.

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Jul 31, 2016 at 1:25 pm

      Thank you. Sir.

    • Karen says

      Jul 31, 2016 at 2:47 pm

      The perfect summary for non-Muslim dummies. Thank YOU!

    • Mirren10 says

      Oct 2, 2016 at 1:30 pm

      Succinct. And true.

  3. WorkingClassPost says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Wow, Jihad Watch must carry some weight in MSM for this guy to be so paranoid about even appearing as a news item.

    Yet he doesn’t realise how lucky he is, because most of the stories here about apostates, have a very different ending.

    Keep up the good work.

  4. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    I am not a Moslem now, nor have I ever been one in the past. Nor was I born to a Moslem father, like our Prez Barack Hussein, and so am not subject to execution for apostasy. I just want to say here that I’m a regular Infidel, but one who gladly pays taxes and concedes freedoms to support Moslems in their collective Cause. The pork meat notwithstanding, or course.

    • Angemon says

      Jul 31, 2016 at 1:27 pm

      A foreigner, a Communist and a muslim walk into a bar. The bartender says “what will you have, President Obama”?

      • Rich says

        Jul 31, 2016 at 2:44 pm

        Donald Trump and Ted Cruz walk into a bar. Trump walks up to a group of people and says: “When I’m President, I’m gonna kill a million Muslims and one beautiful blonde with large breasts.” The group all reply in unison: “Why you gonna kill a beautiful blonde with large breasts?”

        Trump turns to Cruz and says: “See, I told you nobody gives a sh*t about the Muslims”.

        • LB says

          Aug 1, 2016 at 7:46 am

          GOLD!

      • linnte says

        Aug 1, 2016 at 8:20 am

        HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! You two are fantastic! Great five am laugh!

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 31, 2016 at 5:40 pm

      Brilliant, APF!

  5. Jaladhi says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    His first name, Sohrab, suggests he is/was a Zoroastrian!!

  6. RodSerling says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    I saw the exchange between Ahmari and Robert last night/this morning. Initially, I read Christine’s commentary over a few times and could not find the misattributed quote. Ahmari didn’t point it out in his initial tweet, where he called Robert’s reporting “lamentably trashy”. It was only during his exchange with Robert that Ahmari pointed out the quotation in the Christian Today article. Then it became clear to me how Christine, or anyone else, could have honestly mistaken it as a quote of Ahmari and not Jenny. The paragraph previous to the quote referred to Ahmari but also Jenny, and was not closed with full quotation marks (“). Then the next paragraph started and ended with quotation marks. That was the quote which Christine mistakenly took to be Ahmari’s. This was an honest mistake. I missed the problem myself as a reader, trying to figure out what the heck Ahmari was complaining about in his angry but unclear tweet.

    I see now that Christian Today has removed the quote and the previous paragraph entirely, probably at Ahmari’s request.
    http://www.christiantoday.com/article/top.journalist.announces.he.is.converting.to.christianity/91830.htm

    Good luck getting any mainstream media outlet to correct a mistake as quickly as Robert did.

  7. Karen says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    Well, if he is not a Muslim apostate, I certainly can’t blame him for not wanting to be confused with one. The possibility of triggering full Holy Jihadi Rage Mode in friend, family or stranger must be terrifying.

    But it does make me wonder what his big conversion talk was all about. Just for a moment, that is…..he bores me already.

  8. Crusades Were Right! says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 5:04 pm

    I wonder if some Muslims in Western countries are only pretending to convert to Christianity for the purpose of protecting themselves, as Westerners become more aware of the dangers of Islam?

  9. gravenimage says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    “Journalist” Sohrab Ahmari converts to Christianity after priest murder, then denies published reports that he was Muslim
    ………………

    Hard to know what is going on here. Is Ahmari so terrified of being murdered as a Muslim apostate that he backpeddled? Was he so afraid of being associated with the “Islamophobes” at Jihad Watch that he lashed out, even though Christine Williams was merely referring to an article that Ahmari had chosen not to object to? Like a certain percentage of Muslim apostates, does he still feel duty-bound to whitewash Islam? Was he actually a non-Muslim to begin with, but for whatever reason decided not to correct the story until it was picked up by Jihad Watch? Who knows?

    In any case, though, he decided to go after good Anti-Jihadists–how dare anyone actually object to the oppression and violence of Islam?

    On his Wikipedia page, it mentions that Ahmari converted to Roman Catholicism, while carefully avoiding any mention of what faith he might have had before his conversion. It also does not mention the date of his conversion.

  10. Baucent says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    It’s a bit rich for Ahmari to attack other commentators for reporting what he had put out on a Tweet. If he wanted to remain in the shadows he should never have made a public statement, which “Tweeting” is.
    Don’t shoot the messenger.

    • Champ says

      Aug 1, 2016 at 1:56 am

      Exactly!

  11. pdxnag says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 9:21 pm

    If the WSJ hired Robert Spencer today would that mean his words would jump a magnitude or two in merit respectability and worthiness?

  12. Kay says

    Jul 31, 2016 at 10:33 pm

    I wondered what happened to that post!
    I was in the middle of adding a comment–
    That the wonderful thing is that Ahmari (and we) get to choose how (or if) to worship, when it disappeared.
    Now I’m wondering how Ahmari found out about his name on JW.

  13. خَليفة says

    Aug 1, 2016 at 3:26 am

    Ever wonder about the basis for the first amendment? The Freedom of religion / from religion in the Bill of Rights.
    The underlying assumption is that no religion can be proven to actually be from God, so government needs to treat all religions as though they were the mere creation of man, but, at the same time government must not discriminate against people who believe their religion is God’s true word. Government thus cannot take religion into account and must treat all equally, from the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” religion to Christianity to satanism/Islam and all others.

    USA and western countries need to reevaluate what they consider “religion” – there is no standard for what constitutes a formalized “religion” ( i.e. Recognized by government and given religious tax status ) so pretty much anyone can make up anything and call it a religion ( like Islam ). How about for starters – any doctrine which has political overtones will not be classified as “religion” – so people will be free to practice such a belief, but will not have religious protections undear the law.

    What is a religion – think about it, dont just give the first answer which comes to mind.

    • Kay says

      Aug 1, 2016 at 11:53 am

      I’m not sure about what you say.
      FSpaghettiMonster was ruled not a religion.
      My belief is that if Islam had gone to court under a different not-recognized name some decades ago, it too would have been declared not a religion.

  14. Dustin Koellhoffer says

    Aug 1, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    This is what I expect from those who are truly horrified by the reality of Islam and the teachings of Muhammad.

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • revereridesagain on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • James Lincoln on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • Carol on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • James Lincoln on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Jayme on Canadian Mental Health Association studies Muslim women’s mental health due to ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate crimes’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.