• 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

“Robert Spencer’s new and indispensable book on the mullahs — and their aims of global conquest”

Aug 4, 2016 3:41 am By Robert Spencer

“Terrorist attacks, assassinations of police, and the presidential campaigns have sidelined the biggest, and perhaps most consequential news story of recent months: Iran’s serial subversion of the fatally flawed deal Obama made last October with the mullahs regarding their nuclear weapons program.” It’s worse than you think. Get the details in The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran.

CIG Iran Graphics10

“The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran,” by Bruce Thornton, FrontPage, August 4, 2016:

To order “The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran,” CLICK HERE.

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Terrorist attacks, assassinations of police, and the presidential campaigns have sidelined the biggest, and perhaps most consequential news story of recent months: Iran’s serial subversion of the fatally flawed deal Obama made last October with the mullahs regarding their nuclear weapons program. German intelligence reports that Iran is carrying out “illegal proliferation-sensitive procurement activities” at a “quantitatively high level.” More recently, an AP reporter revealed yet another secret “side deal” to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA), as Obama’s agreement is known. This one allows Iran to replace its 5060 uranium centrifuges with more advanced models, doubling the rate of enrichment. Along with Iran’s already documented cheating on the deal, these concessions bring ever closer the day when a fanatical, genocidal regime possesses nuclear weapons.

The urgency of this threat makes Robert Spencer’s The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran a must-read. Spencer is director of the Freedom Center’s Jihad Watch and author of fifteen books on Islam. His new book gives readers everything they need to understand the nature of the regime, its hatred of the West, especially the United States, and its religiously inspired aims of global conquest, which nuclear armaments would serve.

Spencer’s book begins, in a chapter appropriately called “The Ultimate Screwing,” with a summary of the JCPA and its dangerous appeasement of Iran. He explodes the mendacious claims of Obama such as “every pathway to a nuclear weapon” had been blocked and “we have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons in the region.” Nor does he let John Kerry off the hook for his equally preposterous claims that “we are watching their centrifuge production with live television, taping the whole deal 24-7 for 20 years.” Subsequent revelations about the deal and Iran’s violations of its terms have shown that the Ayatollah Khamenei’s jubilant boast–– that the U.S. has been “forced to accept and stand the spinning of thousands of centrifuges and the continuation of research and development in Iran” –– is more accurate.

As Spencer reminds us, other terms of the deal represent dangerous concessions to the mullahs rather than ways to change their terroristic foreign policy and prevent them from acquiring the bomb. The deal expires in 15 years, with no mechanism to keep Iran from continuing research and development. Inspectors must give the mullahs up to 24 days’ notice before entering suspect sites. Iran doesn’t have to prove it’s living up to the deal, since sanctions have already been removed, a windfall worth as much as $700 billion from renewed trade deals like the $25 billion agreement just inked with Boeing. A secret side deal allows Iran to inspect its own sites of nuclear related work. And as we have already seen, there are no consequences for violating the terms of the deal, the much touted “snap-back sanctions” being nothing but a fantasy. As former Democratic Senator Joe Leiberman and U.N. Ambassador Mark D. Wallach reported last November, “Iran continues to act as a nuclear weapons outlaw.”

The bulk of the book is aimed at explaining through Iranian history and Shia doctrine the mullahs’ true motives that Obama and Kerry either don’t know or simply ignored in their search for a “legacy” diplomatic achievement. Particularly relevant is the history of the 1979 revolution that created the Islamic Republic of Iran. Just like today, those running our foreign policy back then completely missed or downplayed the religious nature of the overthrow of the Shah. Rather than an anti-colonial movement to establish national self-determination and consensual government, the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini was a reaction against the liberalizing, secularizing, and modernizing program of the Shah and his father before him, who had ordered Iranians to wear Western clothes, allowed more mixing of the sexes, and encouraged women to stop wearing the hijab.

In 1962 the Shah angered the clerical class when he gave women the right to vote and allowed office-holders to take their oath of office on any scared book, not just the Koran. The next year he launched the White Revolution, which also allowed women to hold political office, and instituted land reforms. In the following years he introduced more reforms, such as changing the calendar to mark the years not from Mohammed’s emigration to Medina, but from the creation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great. These changes reduced the influence of Islam and clerics on public life, a repudiation of sharia law. And traditional Muslims saw these reforms as reflections of the malign influence of the secular West, which Islamic theorist Jalal Al-e Ahmad dubbed “Westoxication,” a “disease that comes from without, fostered in an environment [the West] made for breeding diseases.”

As Spencer documents with copious quotations, the cure was a return to the purity of Shia Islam. The eventual leader of the revolution, the Ayatollah Khomeini, made the religious origins of the revolution clear: “What is happening is a calculated plot against Iranian independence and the Islamic nation, and it is threatening the foundation of Islam.” And he made explicit the need for a theocratic form of government based on the model of Mohammed, “who headed the executive and the administrative institutions of Muslim society” and “undertook the implementation of law and the establishment of the ordinances of Islam [Sharia law], thereby bringing into being the Islamic state.” Hence the current rule by clerics established by the revolution, and a government that believes democracy and human rights to be un-Islamic imports from the West.

The role of the U.S. as the “Great Satan” spearheading the Western assault on Islam and the Islamic Republic became established by an act of war–– the storming of the embassy in Tehran in November 1979 by the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s [Khomeini’s] Line. The Ayatollah called this egregious breach of international law the “second revolution” that would neutralize the West and keep it from interfering in the establishment of the theocracy, correctly judging that “our opponents do not dare act against us.” The taking of the hostages was the de facto declaration of war on the U.S, a war Iran has waged for 37 years and regularly celebrates in public chants of “Death to America.”

Moreover, the revolution was just the beginning of a global Islamic revival fueled by jihad. Contrary to Western jihad deniers, Khomeini made it clear that “Islam wants to conquer the whole world” and that Islam says “kill all the unbelievers” and “kill in the service of Allah” the infidels who allegedly want to kill Muslims. Iran began to fund and train numerous jihadist terror organizations still active today, most notoriously Hezbollah, which in 1983 murdered 241 American military personnel in Beirut and today threatens Israel with 150,000 rockets and missiles. As Khomeini’s successor the Ayatollah Khamenei said in 2011, “Wherever a movement is Islamic, populist, and anti-American, we support it.”

As Spencer shows, these strains of grievance over perceived wrongs, and the sense of entitlement to world domination are reinforced and legitimized by the Twelver Shiism followed in Iran. Shiism arose in the 7th century out of a struggle for leadership between Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali and the Prophet’s father-in-law Abu Bakr. Ali and his faction lost, and he eventually was murdered in 661; his son Hussain and Hussain’s infant son were likewise killed in 680.  Shiism became a minority strain in the Muslim world, one characterized by a high value placed on martyrdom arising from Ali’s reported self-sacrifice for the sake of Muslim unity; and by a sense of inevitable defeat at the hands of heretics who unjustly stole the leadership of the Islamic world. But as Spencer writes, “Only with the coming of the Islamic Republic did a sense of victory arising from the ashes of defeat become combined with a new and lethal aggressiveness.”

Additionally, Iranian Shiism reveres the tradition of the Twelfth Imam, also known as the Mahdi, who disappeared as a child in the 10th century and according to prophecy currently is in hiding until a third of the world’s population is destroyed and Muslims suffer a great persecution. In the words of another prophecy attributed to Ali himself, a humble man would arise and “conquer the whole world. All would enter the fold of religion willingly or unwillingly. He would fill the earth with justice, equity and proof. No disbeliever will remain without accepting the faith.” And according to another Shiite tradition, “The Imam who will create a world state will make the ruling nations pay for their crimes.”

Western leaders have discounted these beliefs for decades, dismissing them as mere rhetoric used to express political and economic grievances. That’s why Obama in 2009 hoped that the regime would respond to the protests against a rigged presidential election “not with violence, but with a recognition that the universal principles of peaceful expression and democracy are ones that should be affirmed.” Like many Westerners before him, Obama has not paid attention to repeated rejections of democracy and human rights by Muslim religious leaders and Islamic theorists. More importantly, the president ignores the powerful hold these tenets and traditions of Shiism have on the Iranian ruling class. Khamenei continually refers to the Twelfth Imam and his historical role, and sees the Iranian Revolution as an important step toward the fulfillment of the venerable prophecies of his return.

Given these apocalyptic and triumphalist doctrines, Spencer argues, allowing the mullahs to acquire nuclear weapons is lunatic. Such weapons will help the believers to initiate the times of destruction and disorder that are prophesized to usher in the return of the Twelfth Imam and the global utopia he will create. Secularized Westerners who dismiss religion as a quaint lifestyle choice of course sneer at such superstitions. But however strange or fanciful to us Westerners, such beliefs nonetheless can be powerful motivators of destructive human behavior.

There are many other useful analyses in this important book, from Iranian genocidal antisemitism and daily life in an oppressive theocracy, to the history of Persia and the 2009 short-lived Green Revolution. Spencer ends his book with a list of common-sense prescriptions for dealing with Iran, most important of which are understanding accurately the origins and nature of the the mullahs’ religious beliefs, and responding forcefully to provocative behavior in order protect American prestige and power of deterrence. Every president from Carter to Obama has failed at these imperatives, thus emboldening the regime to even greater aggression, and now has brought it closer to the possession of nuclear weapons. For those who want to correct this sorry record, Robert Spencer’s informed, thoughtful, and clearly written book is the best place to start.

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: Featured, Iran, Robert Spencer Tagged With: The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. David says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 3:56 am

    Please make this available on the Kobo

  2. Godwin says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 4:03 am

    Obama is the architect of Iranian nuke. He is a stealth jihadi n his father was a Shiite of the Iranian kind. If ever Iran fires a nuke at Israel, It will receive 10 in return. Nuke war in the ME was predicted n It will be turned into a huge waste land.

    • RonaldB says

      Aug 4, 2016 at 9:07 am

      You speak as if Iran’s getting nuked by Israel is a deterrent. As Spencer’s book and the review make clear, the Shiite theology ruling Iran actually mandates a holocaust to bring about the appearance of the 12th Mahdi. In other words, the leadership of Iran actually look forward to getting nuked by Israel…as long as they can destroy Israel as well.

      Paradoxically, as Spencer makes clear in his book (which is very readable as well as being extremely informative), one of the missteps of the Shah was liberalizing too quickly and too well. He forgot that he was the head of a Muslim nation. The Shah went out on a limb, which was sawed off by the blithering idiot Jimmy Carter, who decided he would support “democracy” in the world, come what may. The Shah was also weakened by his decision to rein back Savak, the vicious secret police that was successful in suppressing the expression of religious fanaticism.

  3. No Fear says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 4:04 am

    I am getting this book ASAP. The Shiite eschatology is scary without nukes, it is terrifying with nukes.

  4. The renegade says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 6:52 am

    God bless you Robert Spencer.. for having the strength and the courage to:
    – speak against tyrannical and evil Islam when no one else could
    – for carrying on the good fight when a normal person never could
    – for seeing Islam for what it is when no one else could
    – for making the truth about Islam be heard far and wide across the world like no other person ever could…

    Thank you my brother and may God keep you safe, happy and healthy…

    GOD BLESS U!

    • Yorkshire_Kufir says

      Aug 4, 2016 at 7:09 am

      Renegade, you are an ass licker. Robert speaks the truth, your invisible friend cannot protect him, honest freedom lovers can.. Don’t put your trust in the death god of the desert, put it in humanity.

      • gravenimage says

        Aug 4, 2016 at 7:37 pm

        With all respect, you should consider Renegade an *ally*, even if you do not share his spiritual beliefs, rather than insulting him, Yorkshire Kufir.

      • The renegade says

        Aug 5, 2016 at 5:23 am

        @Yorkshire_Kufir

        Aah hate… how it impairs judgement and intelligence…..

        You now sound just like the jihadists you oppose…

        BTW. I am not a Muslim.. you do your duty and leave the results to God… this is what I believe.. respect it or hate it….

        Abusing me won’t defeat the enemy we are fighting my friend…

        Robert and I believe in the same God… one through a messenger and the other through pure faith and conscience without a messenger…

        With all the bad things happening in the world I don’t blame you for not believing in God… love God or hate God.. does not change the fact God does exist and permeates through every living and non living being….

        Mumbo jumbo you may say.. again respect your views… Won’t hate you for it..

        Go have a drink in the pub! It’s Friday!
        Cheers!
        MAY GOD BLESS U AS WELL!

  5. Richard Paulsen says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 7:56 am

    Good. Good luck with the book. It was sad how Iran was being turned into in 1979. Growing worse instead of better.
    Now mosques being built in Europe and U.S.A. and all the west. Who could have imagined. Migration of a sort and scale never imagined.

    What can a common person do? Hating watching the ongoing changing of the western world and worsened so called developing.
    I am looking forward to a guide stating what do do to stop islam being spread?
    What is realistic and what not to do in order to stop islam being spread.
    It is the task of the politicians and voters. More or less politicians each of us. Can not escape responsibility handing over to others.
    Robert Spencer is one of the best taking his responibility. Thank you.
    A few suggestions.
    1. Stop migration
    2. Send back
    3. Destroy mosques.
    4. Teaching islam forbidden
    5. Forbid islam.

  6. Yorkshire_Kufir says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 8:39 am

    Agree with 1,2,3.4 and 5 need modifying, Islam needs to be taught as being an evil influence, antithical to free discourse, an example of violence trying to destroy reason.. Islam needs to be shown as what can go wrong with authoritarian ideologies and create psychosis.

    • Richard Paulsen says

      Aug 4, 2016 at 11:58 am

      Agree.

  7. Jay Boo says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 9:09 am

    I am so relieved that Obama gave us reassurances.
    That is very comforting.

    Weren’t we also worried until Bill Clinton reassured us about (our pals) North Korea.

  8. mortimer says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 9:13 am

    All Iranian mullahs take post-doctoral degrees in taqiyya. Even Hill-liar-y would be far behind them.

  9. WorkingClassPost says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 9:23 am

    There seem to be two great mistakes here.

    The one of today, and our inability to see Iran for what it is, and understand it’s intentions.

    But the biggest for me, is not learning from the first mistake, that of the Khomeini revolution.

    The one and only hope for the world, if we exclude that islam might miraculously reform itself, is that the people reject islam and seek to join the human race, free and as equals.

    We got a glimpse of this during the Arab Spring, but we also saw how quickly such a movement was stifled and distorted and usually led to even harsher and more extreme islamism.

    Those of us who lived through the first Cold War, will know all about the strategic planners and how various scenarios were played out and dealt with. These were collectively called ‘war games’ and were seen as a vital part of our survival.

    Interestingly, the spontaneous fall of USSR was probably not one of the scenarios they played out, and that’s the issue here.

    How will we deal with a muslim country that tries to break away from islam?

    Imagine a small country like Tunisia, will we support them if they seek genuine reform and freedom, will we stand against their neighbors and protect them from the likes of Saudi, Algeria, Libya and even Egypt?

    Not likely, but why not, and what of a larger country?

    I’m not talking about intervention in their internal affairs, but safeguarding their borders from external forces, under International Law.

    The shah was imperfect and perhaps in that case the will of the people was served, but who knows how improved Iran and the region might be today, if he had been allowed to continue reforming?

    We need to understand that for the world to change for the better, then something’s gotta happen, and we must be ready.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 4, 2016 at 8:36 pm

      WorkingClassPost wrote:

      But the biggest for me, is not learning from the first mistake, that of the Khomeini revolution.

      The one and only hope for the world, if we exclude that islam might miraculously reform itself, is that the people reject islam and seek to join the human race, free and as equals.
      ………………………….

      I’m afraid this has *never* happened, WCP. There have been some places reclaimed from Dar-al-Islam–Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Greece, the Balkans, Israel–but not because Muslims rejected Islam, but because the Infidels fought back.

      We *have* made the world safer from Islam, but we did it by isolating the Muslim world as much as possible, not by expecting Muslims to mass apostasize.

      More:

      We got a glimpse of this during the Arab Spring, but we also saw how quickly such a movement was stifled and distorted and usually led to even harsher and more extreme islamism.
      ………………………….

      The “Arab Spring” was mostly about reasserting Islam from the very beginning, except for a handful of secularists in Egypt.

      More:

      How will we deal with a muslim country that tries to break away from islam?

      Imagine a small country like Tunisia, will we support them if they seek genuine reform and freedom, will we stand against their neighbors and protect them from the likes of Saudi, Algeria, Libya and even Egypt?
      ………………………….

      Tunisia has been marginally less hideous than some stretches of Dar-al-Islam, but it is still 98% Muslim. The idea that they are all about to reject Islam is, I’m sad to say, quite implausible.

      In fact, over all Tunisia, like so many parts of the Muslim world, is further Islamizing:

      “Egypt, Turkey, and Tunisia Are All Slowly Islamizing”

      http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/egypt-turkey-and-tunisia-are-all-slowly-islamizing/275663/

      More:

      Not likely, but why not, and what of a larger country?

      I’m not talking about intervention in their internal affairs, but safeguarding their borders from external forces, under International Law.

      The shah was imperfect and perhaps in that case the will of the people was served, but who knows how improved Iran and the region might be today, if he had been allowed to continue reforming?
      ………………………….

      The Shah was not reforming Islam, he was just–like Atatürk in Turkey–marginalizing it to some extent. Ultimately, this did not work. Iran is a now a brutal Islamic theocracy.

      More;

      We need to understand that for the world to change for the better, then something’s gotta happen, and we must be ready.
      ………………………….

      I’m afraid we are apt to be waiting a waiting a long, long time for this to happen…

  10. biff says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 9:36 am

    Obama, Muslim in Chief.

    He should be charged with sedition.

  11. Angemon says

    Aug 4, 2016 at 11:20 am

    Terrorist attacks, assassinations of police, and the presidential campaigns have sidelined the biggest, and perhaps most consequential news story of recent months: Iran’s serial subversion of the fatally flawed deal Obama made last October with the mullahs regarding their nuclear weapons program.

    Let’s pretend, for a moment, said deal had been done by a Republican president. Would the media sideline Iran’s actions?

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

  • Lion heart on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Graham Bryant on Biden vows to surrender to Iran, then negotiate
  • gravenimage on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Lion heart on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • Graham Bryant 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.