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Robert Spencer in FrontPage: When Are Islamic Terrorists Not Islamic Terrorists?

Sep 6, 2016 10:17 am By Robert Spencer

When they commit Islamic terrorism, of course. My latest in FrontPage:

Memorial-911

“Islamophobia” is running rampant in the heretofore bucolic town of Owego, New York, and Muslims are worried. Are marauding bands of “right-wing extremists” pulling hijabs off little old Muslim ladies and daubing swastikas on the walls of mosques? No, the “Islamophobia” in question appears on Owego’s new 9/11 memorial monument, which dares to refer to the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 jihad terror attacks as “Islamic terrorists.” In this age of Obama, Owego should have known better!

WWMT reported last Thursday that the monument was “causing controversy,” as “the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier worries the wording could encourage hatred toward Muslims living in the area, painting all Muslims with the same brush….The Islamic group has asked that the monument just read, ‘terrorists’ or even ‘Al-Qaeda terrorists.’”

Calling the 9/11 hijackers “Islamic terrorists” is “painting all Muslims with the same brush”? This is an oft-used and tired talking point. How does identifying the motivating ideology of the 9/11 attackers paint all Muslims with the same brush? Does referring to the Italian mafia amount to calling all Italians mafiosi? Does referring to German Nazis mean that one is calling all Germans National Socialists?

This is just an attempt to deflect attention away from the ideology of the 9/11 hijackers, and to keep people ignorant and complacent regarding the fact that those hijackers were working from Islamic principles that are embedded within the Islamic texts that are read and studied and taught by the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier.

And it isn’t by any means the first time. In April 2014, Muslim groups protested against the screening of a seven-minute film entitled “The Rise of Al Qaeda” at the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City. Sheikh Mostafa Elazabawy, the imam of Masjid Manhattan, huffed: “The screening of this film in its present state would greatly offend our local Muslim believers as well as any foreign Muslim visitor to the museum. Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between Al Qaeda and Muslims may come away with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site.”

This was an extraordinary complaint in light of the fact that the film in no way conflated al-Qaeda with Muslims as a whole. All it did was use the words “jihad” and “Islamist.” Nonetheless, Akbar Ahmed, a noted Islamic scholar at American University, insisted that many visitors to the museum were “simply going to say Islamist means Muslims, jihadist means Muslims. The terrorists need to be condemned and remembered for what they did. But when you associate their religion with what they did, then you are automatically including, by association, one and a half billion people who had nothing to do with these actions and who ultimately the U.S. would not want to unnecessarily alienate.”

That the terrorists themselves were the ones who associated their religion with what they did, not the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Ahmed did not address, any more than did the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier when it was complaining about the 9/11 monument in Owego. (Atta reminded himself in a note found in his suitcase: “Increase your mention of God’s name. The best mention is reading the Qur’an. All scholars agreed to this. It is enough for us, that [the Qur’an] is the word of the Creator of Heaven and Earth, Who we are about to meet.”) Ultimately, the museum stood firm about the film, but it did remove the term “Islamic terrorism” from its website. What Owego will do remains to be seen.

These episodes are illuminating: even to note the obvious fact that the 9/11 hijackers identified themselves as Muslims and explained that they were doing what they did because of Islam is now supposedly offensive to other Muslims, and so must not be done. Even to take notice of the hijackers’ Islamic self-identification is unacceptable evidence of “Islamophobia.” This is as ludicrous as it is self-defeating. That it has become official administration policy in dealing with the jihad threat, and enough of a cultural norm that the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier wasn’t too embarrassed to protest against a simple truth being told in Owego, is evidence of how severe the crisis we are in really is.

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Filed Under: "Islamophobia", claiming victim status, Featured, War is deceit Tagged With: Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier, New York, Owego


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Comments

  1. American Pragmatism says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 10:45 am

    American Pragmatism calls on Robert Spencer to formally endorse Donald J. Trump for President of these United States. Trump has shown exceptional bravery and insight by thinking through the issue of jihad pragmatically.

    • Angemon says

      Sep 6, 2016 at 11:18 am

      Well, as pragmatic as “suggestions” can get while beating around the bush.

      • American Pragmatism says

        Sep 6, 2016 at 12:28 pm

        Jihadism and Islamism clearly drove the attacks of 9/11 and have for more than 1400 years. Imagine how forcefully Plato, Socrates, and Pearce would rebuke this argument, and Political Correctness in general.

        Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussien Obama live in a fantasy world where the US faces no ideological threats.

        • JAR says

          Sep 6, 2016 at 7:45 pm

          No ideological threats in their fantasy world? Let me play devil’s advocate. What about Climate Change? Americans against fluid-sexuality and equal opportunity bathrooms? Mother Teresa? Donald Trump? “Republicans”? People who cling to God, guns, and religion?
          What makes something a genuine “ideological threat”?
          Am Prag, I agree with you to some degree that they live in a fantasy world, even as so cleverly envisioned here by David Wood. I’m sure jihadtracker3 likes this one, too:

        • Shane says

          Sep 7, 2016 at 10:12 am

          The muslims have a point, let’s call the 9/11 attackers Islamic Jihadi terrorists and acknowledge the fact that they were holy warriors at war with the USA and the West.

  2. Jay Boo says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 11:13 am

    Encourage hatred toward Muslims living in the area?

    Well ok then,
    Let’s be fair.
    Let’s talk about the local imam reading from the Qur’an about infidels.

    • Mark Swan says

      Sep 6, 2016 at 1:51 pm

      Absolutely Jay Boo

  3. Jaladhi says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 11:13 am

    In a Muslim’s mind there is no such thing as “Islamic” terrorists ever. This is a holy cause that they undertake to please allah. Therefore it is never a terrorism The world may see it as a terrorism but that is world’s problem and not a Muslim problem. However, when we call them “Islamic terrorism” they flatly deny it by call those Islamic warriors as un-Islamic to further shut down the truth about Islam!

    • Jay Boo says

      Sep 6, 2016 at 11:36 am

      That is very true.
      Muslims do not see infidel murder victims as ‘their’ problem.

    • Rufolino says

      Sep 7, 2016 at 2:39 am

      However, Mohammed DID say, “I have been made victorious by terror” !

  4. epistemology says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 11:23 am

    Never call a spade a spade, that’s the message. This is another grave for free speech, it’s preposterous. But we fight for our freedom, we don’t accept sharia regulations. We can’t be silenced. Thank you Robert, you’re a great freedom fighter.

  5. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 11:31 am

    What that stone engraving has on it is very appropriate, fitting and truthful .This is because those al Qaeda jihadists were Islamic terrorists. In other words they were Muslim terrorists. That’s reality. Those nineteen al Qaeda operatives with all their Islamic scheming in their malicious and murderous jihad and likewise demonically ambitious. Furthermore, all those Muslim /jihadist of September 11, 2001 all had a very harsh reality check after they died in their deluded jihad Islam murder attack. Foe after those Islamic terrorists died they found themselves no in any kind of paradise whatsoever, with are without virgins, Those Muslim terrorists of al Qaeda found themselves trapped and suffering in the fires of hell. For the Bible teaches that a murderer “shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” Galatians 5:21. Likewise, the Bible further teaches that “murderers …shall have their part in the lake of which burneth with fire and brimstone…” Revelations 21:8. [K.J.V.]

  6. jimbo says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 11:47 am

    Could we not consider an additional argument to the one made by Mr. Spencer, not to replace but rather to support what he is saying, which I totally agree with. So, in addition, what if we say the removal of the word Islam doesn’t make any sense for yet another reason, namely that Islam’s god is a false god anyway. For example, in the past decade the evidence has been mounting that Mohammad was not a prophet, that he did not receive from the angel Gabriel the word of god, and that the half dozen existing original texts of the Koran that are supposedly the words Mohammad received are invalid because they are inconsistent with each other, let alone each is incomplete. Moreover, those texts reflect numerous changes by men made for their own benefit, and some of the latest techniques such as carbon dating reveal that some or all of the Koran may well have been written before Mohammad was even born.

    • American Pragmatism says

      Sep 6, 2016 at 12:44 pm

      The last book of the bible says revelation is finished.

  7. Tiredofstupid says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    If you really want to hear them screech, we could add “mostly saudi arabian” after islamic terrorists. On a separate note– what has come of the “original” koran found recently. I thought a prelimanary reading had shown marked differences between that and later versions of the koran?

  8. JeffS says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    Would they be satisfied with “Islamic freedom fighters standing up against US aggressive foreign policy and the Israeli occupation?”

    • linnte says

      Sep 6, 2016 at 3:06 pm

      BOOM!

    • somehistory says

      Sep 6, 2016 at 4:51 pm

      What about *islamic fighters murdering in the name of their religion and to show what they intend to keep doing until the entire earth submits to them”?

      They are all snakes and like their father, the original serpent devil, they lie, steal and kill to get what others have.
      The more they are angered, the less control they have on the rest of us. When they are no longer being angered by what non moslims say and do, they will have obtained full dominance; which they must not do!

  9. linnte says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 3:09 pm

    I wonder how Al Qaeda feels about them saying they are not Muslims? Ha! American Muslims forget they belong to the Umma when it is convenient.

  10. DHazard says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 3:51 pm

    I think it should be changed as well. Instead of “islamic terrorists” it should say “devout Muslims”.

  11. neunder says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    This is *not* happening in Oswego.

    It’s happening in Owego.

  12. underbed cat says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 7:31 pm

    After a 4 year study gets purged of facts to hide the fact the terrorist follow religious laws that forbid detection about terrorism. and everyone knew their part to deceive.and to shame the other (infidel).which is why they could operate, plan, raise money sometimes act and smile without a worry.clever and we never hear a thing,ring a ding ding pretty clever.

  13. rubiconcrest says

    Sep 6, 2016 at 9:41 pm

    The best thing Muslims can do to improve their standing in the free world is to tell the truth about the faith and to cast out the demons among them. The Islamic group in NY that wants to cover up the truth deserve the scorn they are receiving. They make all Muslims look like terrorists.

  14. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 7, 2016 at 10:20 am

    What was engraved on that memorial stone about September 11, 2001 which has the term “Islamic terrorists ” is keeping within the bound of reality .. Just as calling Marxists terrorists what they are which are “Communists terrorists” and likewise calling environmentalists who engage in violence for their cause by the term “Environmental terrorists.” So it’s fitting and to call Muslim terrorists by the term that actuality described them . Which is “Islamic terrorists.”

  15. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 7, 2016 at 2:28 pm

    One thing about those nineteen Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001, and the term Islamic terrorists fits to describe those Muslim/ jihadists of al Qaeda were was committed to their Islamic cause which is based on the falsehood and false doctrines of Islam . In all fairness, even murderous jihadists of 9/11 they ,those al Qaeda operative who so hideously deadly .I’ve come to the conclusion what they were and were not. They were not really cowards .What they were were deluded and dangerous men. As the then President Bush sad a few days after those 9//11 attacks said that they were “deluded and evil men.” What President Bush did not say is they were deluded and evil because they firmly believed in Islam which is a death cult . As the Qur ‘an teaches 2:191. 9:5, 111,123. 47:4. Those murderous Muslim/jihadists of 9/11 were under the demonic spell of Islamic power . Nevertheless this extreme Islamic delusion does not excuse them from the responsibility of their heinous and murdering evil. They will still as the Bible teaches have to answer to God for their wicked behavior . Romans 14:12. In addition I had discovered a Christian internet site which replies the the many apologists and propagandists for Islam.. It’s http://www.answering-islam.org

  16. TheFastig says

    Sep 8, 2016 at 1:48 am

    Actually we should not allow them to ‘speak’ with their position like this, like they are the ones who defending their rights. That started because we (indirectly) agree with their term ‘islamophobia’ as a term that decribes us, people who love freedom of speech, as people who oppressing one`s belief. Because we let them shape the word into their defensive walls. This is like when criminal use a term such as ‘police brutality’, to gain support from other criminal minds & attract the so-called liberal freedom fighter.
    How to fight this, simply by countering all their words like Mr.Spencer doing like now, & never give up to show the world again & again, that they are indeed the criminal, & we are defending our rights to keep this world free of this abussive (if we can`t say terrorist) religion.
    & they, the moslems are quite smart as they have this intifada over internet, their struggle over their internet battlefield. They commenting in every sites they consider as liberal site / online newspapers & write false words to shape that islam are under opression by the west. So, if you all saw comments that seem liberal, the fact it is not always liberal, as moslem learn how to be wolves in sheep clothing & they also seeing this site regularly to ‘learn’ from us & write propaganda against the west in their local newspaper. You should see how they keep attacking the western in their media even though the liberals defend them. They act like a democrats in the west, but they will show their true face in their own countries. Their mouth full of lies, in western media is their way to defend their moslem friends in west as their trojan friend in a process of poisoning most of the liberal / democrat peoples just like when they defend their palestinian friend to justify their hatred toward the Israel / Jew & the Christians.
    & do not forget the fact that, there are some influential journalist in CNN & BBC that actually are moslem 😉

    I believe if we keep accepting these criminals develop terms, I wonder if there will be terms like pedophile-phobia, childmarriage phobia, mariyuanaphobia & many more nonsense in the future.

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