“Robert Spencer delivers another indispensable book.” Bruce Bawer’s review of my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies), over at FrontPage:
[To order “The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies),” CLICK HERE.]
What would we do without Robert Spencer? In over a dozen definitive books, and on his invaluable Jihad Watch website, he has served as a one-man truth squad on the subject of Islam, providing readers with lucid, cogent accounts of the belief system itself, of the Koran, of jihad, and of the life of Muhammed. In Stealth Jihad (2008), he described the ways in which Islamic law is being forced upon America, subverting the nation’s constitutional freedoms in aggressive but peaceful and even, at times, seemingly reasonable ways. Now, in The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies), he looks at the same phenomenon from the other side – providing a compendious if not comprehensive history of the ways in which Western governments, media, and others in positions of authority have enabled stealth jihad and punished its critics.
Needless to say, it’s a depressing story. In my 2009 book Surrender, I told it up to that point – the Salman Rushdie fatwa, the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, the Danish cartoons. As it happens, Spencer kicks off his account with the cartoons, reminding us that the good guys (notably Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who refused to discuss freedom of speech with Muslim ambassadors) were outnumbered by the bad guys (the UN’s Louise Arbour and Doudou Diène, the EU’s Javier Solana, and – surprise! – Bill Clinton, all of whom condemned the cartoons). Spencer then takes a long leap back – not to Rushdie, but all the way back to Muhammed, who himself, Spencer points out, initiated the time-honored Islamic practice of eliminating critics tout de suite. After each of several poets – among them Ka’b bin a’l-Ashraf, Abu Afak, and Asma bint Marwan – publicly mocked Islam, Muhammed, prefiguring Henry II, asked aloud, “Who will rid me of [insert poet’s name here]?” Each of these versifiers was promptly dispatched by one of his faithful followers. And a beloved Islamic custom was born.
Spencer doesn’t just focus on Islam. By way of demonstrating to American readers that they shouldn’t put too much faith in the indelible, rock-solid nature of the First Amendment, he harks back to the 1798 Sedition Act – under which several individuals were imprisoned for mocking then-President John Adams – and the 1917 Espionage Act, under which Socialist Party leaders were jailed for opposing the draft. History, warns Spencer, “shows that First Amendment protections of free speech are most likely to be curtailed in a time of serious and imminent threats to the nation.” Have we reached that point now? After all, look at the procedural encumbrances that have been placed on the Second Amendment in many jurisdictions. Who’s to say that the same can’t happen to the First?
It’s not as if it such limitations haven’t been entertained at the highest levels. Spencer reminds us of a failed 2015 House resolution that decried “violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims”; of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 statement that “every constitutional right and amendment can be tailored in an appropriate way without breaching the Constitution”; of Hillary’s promise, in a 2011 Istanbul speech, to use “old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming” to silence Islam’s critics; of President Obama’s support for a UN Human Rights Council motion calling for the criminalization of “negative racial and religious stereotyping”; and of an Assistant Attorney General’s refusal “to affirm that the Obama Justice Department would not attempt to criminalize criticism of Islam.”
And of course Spencer revisits the Benghazi killings, every aspect of which, we’re reminded, was pure evil – Hillary’s mendacious attribution of the killings to an anti-Islam video; her promise to a victim’s father that its producer, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, would be “arrested and prosecuted”; Nakoula’s actual arrest and year-long (!) imprisonment (allegedly for a minor violation of probation); the cruelly cynical condemnations of the video by Obama himself as well as by innumerable administration flunkies, such as UN Ambassador Susan Rice. Every one of these actions, of course, was a betrayal not only of the First Amendment but of the dead in Benghazi, of the American people, and of the truth itself. Spencer quotes the estimable Kenneth Timmerman (whose 2016 book Deception: The Making of the YouTube Video Hillary and Obama Blamed for Benghazi I don’t think I’ve even heard of before) as calling Nakoula “the first victim of Islamic Sharia blasphemy laws in the United States.” During the presidential campaign, Democrats complained endlessly about conservatives’ supposed harping on Benghazi; in fact Hillary’s heinous conduct in this matter – forget everything else she’s ever done – should have been more than enough reason for a decent-minded electorate to repudiate her entirely. And to think that this wretch dared to call half of America deplorable!
There are details in Spencer’s book that will be familiar to some readers but new to others. For example, I didn’t know – or had forgotten – that on the very day after the massacre at that San Bernardino Christmas party in December 2015, then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, speaking to a Muslim group, focused not on that jihadist atrocity but on the purported danger of “anti-Muslim violence,” and instead of committing the Justice Department to enhanced anti-terrorism measures made comments that seemed to many to suggest that she was prepared instead to prosecute anti-Muslim speech acts. One of the very few politicians to call her on these reprehensible remarks was former New York Governor George Pataki, who, in a tweet, dared her to arrest him for wanting to see jihadists annihilated. (Similarly, when Terry Jones, an obscure Florida pastor, announced his intention to burn copies of the Koran, drawing protests not only from Obama and Hillary but also from Sarah Palin and General David Petraeus, the good guy was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who instead of upbraiding Jones affirmed his First Amendment rights.)
Spencer reminds us that the FBI officials knew of Major Nidal Hasan’s terrorist contacts and pro-jihadist statements before he committed the Fort Hood massacre, but let him alone, for the same reason that British authorities kept mum for years about the systematic rape of children (ultimately over 1400 of them) by Muslims in Rotherham: because they didn’t want to be called Islamophobes. At the other end of the cowardice-to-courage spectrum, Spencer tells us how a terrorist plan to kill soldiers at Fort Dix was foiled by a young Circuit City clerk, Brian Morgenstern, whom the plotters paid to transfer jihad videos from VHS to DVD. When Morgenstern noticed the alarming contents of the videos, he hesitated to say anything to anybody for fear he was being “racist,” but overcame his fear, informed authorities, and saved lives. As Spencer notes, Morgenstern’s hesitation was a perfect example of the kind of “peer pressure” and “shaming” that Hillary Clinton celebrated in Istanbul.
“Americans,” laments Spencer, “are internalizing Islamic blasphemy law.” Well, that’s certainly the case with despicable Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who accused the murdered Charlie Hebdo cartoonists of “hate speech” and of having “brought a world of pain to France.” Another is the execrable novelist Joyce Carol Oates, who (along a couple of hundred other writers) criticized a posthumous award by PEN, the authors’ rights organization, to the Charlie Hebdo victims. Far from all of the dhimmis have been on the left: among those who objected to the 2015 Draw Muhammed event in Garland, Texas, were Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Rep. Peter King (a leading anti-jihad voice in Congress), and, alas, Donald Trump. Spencer reminds us that in the midst of the Satanic Verses controversy, the Vatican denounced Salman Rushdie; that Pope Benedict, after causing a ruckus by censuring Islam in his 2006 Regensburg speech, quickly tendered a groveling apology; and that Pope Francis responded to the Charlie Hebdo massacre by calling for limits to the right to criticize somebody else’s beliefs, suggesting that if you “make fun of the faith of others” you should “expect a punch.”
One of this book’s big pluses is the attention it draws to unsung heroes – and villains – in the counterjihadist struggle: I’ve never heard of Natalie Merchant or her rock group, 10,000 Maniacs, but kudos to her for deciding to stop covering Cat Stevens’s “Peace Train” (which had apparently been a big hit for her) after he expressed support for the Rushdie fatwa.
Near the beginning of this work, Spencer quotes 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, who told the passengers on American Airlines Flight 11: “Just stay quiet and you’ll be okay.” Well, as we all know now, they weren’t okay. In the days and weeks after that fateful day, we should all have gotten busy learning things that would have entirely altered the grim history related in these pages. The tragic fact, alas, is that during the sixteen years since 9/11, the forces of ignorance and submission have on the ascendant in the West, aiding stealth jihad and squelching its critics. Atta’s seven simple words have become the refrain of the CAIR crowd and the pro-Islamic left – and tens of millions of men and women in the West have listened, held their tongues, and buried their heads in the sand. Atta’s promise – his assurance, his admonition – echoes throughout this book, in which Spencer, at appropriate moments, quotes it again and yet again, reminding us that it was, and is, nothing but a deadly lie. The cumulative effect is powerful, even haunting. As we reach the volume’s concluding pages – in which Spencer covers some of the latest acts of campus violence by the fascist anti-fascists known as Antifa and offers up sage advice for President Trump (who we can only hope will read this book) – we find Atta’s chilling words ringing in our ears. No: as Spencer has made abundantly, authoritatively, and illuminatingly clear, staying quiet will not make everything okay.
Carolparker says
Facebook has blocked me big time
bonnie loranger says
me too I am on twitter now. They do not block Linda Sarsour for spewing hate on line
John Forbes says
I cannot understand why there is STILL no PUBLIC rage about this ISLAMIZATION & SHARIA push ?
How can we all allow this deliberate & calculated & PUBLICALLY STATED DEMAND for an end to DEMOCRACY to be tolerated???
WE all still put up with this UTTER NONSENSE STATEMENTS from our COWARDS at the TOP ! ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE ! USUALLY FOLLOWED BY MORE RUBBISH – VIOLENCE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM !
We tolerate utter NONSENSE statements from a BISHOP in the UK after the MANCHESTER BOMBING – WE MAY NEVER KNOW WHY THIS GUY DID THIS ??? WE DO KNOW – HATRED OF OUR SOCIETY , ITS FREEDOM OF CHOICE !!!
WHEN ARE WE ALL GOING TO DEMAND THAT THE COWARDS AT THE TOP STAND AGAINST THIS IDEOLOGY THAT PUBLICALLY STATES IT WANTS OUR DEMOCRATIC DESTRUCTION ????????
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Surely the ultimate instance of punishing the critics is when AG Loretta Lynch threatened to prosecute for hate crimes anybody who spoke up against Islam. I believe this was just after the Orlando mass murder, but maybe it was the San Bernadino mass murder. Loretta is a big brain alum of Hardboard Law Tool, so she is definitely stupid enough to believe religion of peace narrative.
That was the most egregious abridgment of free speech ever in this country. The subjective notion of “hate crime” as a law almost guarantees loss of free speech.
Walter Sieruk says
On how Western governments can “cave in’ or be “taken in” by the Muslims who engage in the stealth jihad for the advancement of Islam two thins need to be made clear.
First, the message needs to be made known to all the Muslims who live in the United States of America who dislike and maybe even despise the US Constitution and would like to replace it with Sharia law. Those same Muslims instead in trying to force Sharia law on American citizens and their nation those are free to leave and really should leave the USA and then go to live in either Shii ‘ite, Iran or Sunni , Saudi Arabia if they actually feel the Sharia law is the grand, great and wonderful .
Moreover, all this is a strong reminder of the wise words declared by Theodore Roosevelt in a speech. “There can be no fifty –fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only one hundred percent Americanism , only for those who are Americans and nothing else.”
Second, Much of the sly insidious yet subtle stealth jihad is based on the Islamic dogma called Taqiyya .This is the Islamic doctrine the deception is a good thing to do as long as it’s done for the advancement of Islam. In strong contrast to this practice of Taqiyya is the teachings found in the Bible . For the Bible informs its readers in Proverbs 11:18. “The wicked worketh a deceitful work…” Likewise, the very next chapter[12] of the same book of Proverbs it reads in verse 5 “The counsels of the wicked are deceit .” Also further on verse 20 it instructs “Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil…” [K.J.V.]
Walter Sieruk says
About America and other Western nations and the stealth jihadists who strive to have ,by hook or by crook, Sharia law implanted in the nation of theses countries of the West ,there are three important to understand about this .
First ,what is known as the Stealth jihad otherwise called the Muslim method of Islamic Gradualism. In contrast to the way of the violent jihad or also called the militant jihad .This non-violent form of the jihad for Islam is a very sly, insidious, subtle and deceptive way of working for the advancement of Islam.
This Muslim scheme for achieving the goal of the Islamic agenda is as, many times, as subtly effective as it is demonically clever. Furthermore, this Islamic gradualism, in some ways, is very similar to the instruction printed in the book entitled THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu. Which reads “At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to opposes you”
Second ,The scheming jihadist /Muslims who attempt to have Sharia law set up in the USA and other Western nations engage in the doctrines of the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya which is very insidious. Taqyyia is the jihad dogma that deception is a good thing to do as long as it’s done for the advancement of Islam. Nevertheless, the God of the Bible “condemns those who devise wicked schemes…” Proverbs 12:11. [N.I.V.] Likewise, Proverbs 12:20 teaches “Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil.”
Third, some of the jihad-minded Muslims use the strategy that is the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya in the stealth jihad for Islam. Taqiyya is the Islamic dogma that deception is a good ploy as long as it’s done for the advancement of Islam. Therefore, about those who engage in deception the Bible informs its readers that “Enemies disguised themselves with their lips. Proverbs 26:24. Further in the same chapter of Proverbs [v.26 ] teaches Their malice may be concealed by deception.” [N.I.V.] In conclusion .let’s not be beguiled to the sly and insidious Muslim methods of Traqiyya.
Guy Forester says
First, does anyone here think that this site is not monitored and everyone posting here is not eventually identified and monitored by either our government or another?
Second, government exists to perpetuate itself, like any other institution. Unfortunately, that means that unless individuals inside and outside of government keep up the pressure on the elected officials and unelected bureaucrats (in other words, they get fired), the PTB will follow the money. That is, lines their pockets and supplies them with election funding. Right now, I would think OPEC oil money drives this.
Lastly, there is a government within the government composed of career bureaucrats, technocrats, diplomats, and other rats that have been embedded there over the years by left-leaning administrations. They will subvert the current and any other administration that gets in the way. The current strategy appears to be the left and jihad supporting each other to shut down any real dissent and to disarm us.
We must support Trump, Trump needs to get his act together, and we need to keep supporting those elected officials that are willing to fight for the Constitution and Bill of rights, in congress, in the courtroom, and anywhere else the fight goes.
Jaladhi says
The Western governments are totally responsible for allowing stealth jihad to prosper and propagate and this has happened to due immigration of Muslims into the Western countries. The West had an illusion that Muslims can and will assimilate in the West – but before doing so they should have seen the behavior of Muslims living in India for more that 1000 years and seen how well have they assimilated there. If it didn’t happen in India, it will not happen in the West and experience of last 50 years or so has proven this point. Muslims do not assimilate in any country they live in. Their only aim is to take over that country! The West could have also learned from Muslims in Europe – Spain, eEastern European countries with large Muslim population – this is very similar to that of India!
mortimer says
Western LIBTARDS are concerned about the EQUALITY OF OUTCOME. They think that if we want EQUALITY OF OUTCOME that we must LIE ABOUT the inequality of CULTURES. We must tell COMFORTING LIES ABOUT ISLAM so that Islam can be ‘EQUAL’ with the West, even though ISLAM does NOT see itself as EQUAL with the West, but SUPERIOR to it and with a DUTY of achieving HEGEMONY over the West and the entire WORLD.
LIBTARDS justify all their egregious errors in THOUGHT by the END that they seek: EQUALITY OF OUTCOME. But the end does NOT justify the means.
LIBTARDS do not realize that MUSLIMS do NOT seek an equal world but Islam requires total INEQUALITY between men and women and between Muslims and the DIRTY KUFAAR.
Islam is NOT based on equality, but upon INEQUALITY.
jewdog says
My advice to all you moonbats: Just read Robert’s book and everything will be okay.
Jack Holan says
Whatever that is supposed to mean. Since I am first generation post Nazi Germany and grew up in a neighborhood of Camp survivors, their oral testimony to me how the erosion of Freedoms legally evolved until they had none and hearing diirectlu from a survivor 5 years ago that what’s happening here today is exactly how everything got started in Germany. He said for him the memory is vivid as if it’s yesterday. The only way to combat what what is happening today is to employ all means of warfare law fare, full political participation regardless of Party but stop the Muslim Brotherhood, MSA, and CAIR cold , get on school boards, put pressure on Pearson and other Academic Publishers and so on
jewdog says
You asked: “Whatever that is supposed to mean”
My posting was a parody of Mohammed Atta’s statement to the airline passengers. Reread the above post.
blitz2b says
They have to get by the big hurdle of “hate-monger, islamophobe, xenaphobe etc etc. ” labels that the leftist enemedia, SPL, the UK government and political big wigs here in the US have unfairly put in him.
In the words of Pamela Geller “Truth is now the new hate speech”
The Islamization of the west has already passed the first phase…. Using our ignorance to their benefit.
Joe says
Who is the picture above the article of? I don’t get it.
Michael Copeland says
Bruce Bawer
Joe says
Thanks Michael!
Lydia says
It is a plot. Don’t comply with it.
I won’t.
John Forbes says
The ARROGANCE of those who would allow the Democracies to be destroyed for a ploy both to stay in power & IMPOSE MULTICULTURALISM using POLITICAL CORRECTNESS & the RACE CARD is ASTOUNDING !
These people need to be called out as TRAITORS !!
Start with MERKEL then MAY & MUSLIM TRUDEAU & MACRON & TURNBULL & the SWEDISH ELITE along with most of the Western LEADERS( COWARDS)
High time that PUBLIC RAGE STARTS !!!!!!!!
gravenimage says
“Robert Spencer delivers another indispensable book.” Bruce Bawer’s review of my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies), over at FrontPage
…………………
Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Bawer.
patriotliz says
Stealth Jihad in collaboration w/ the dumb-dumb-Dhimmis, predominantly but, not exclusively, the Progressive Globalist Marxist party (aka, Democrats or “Leftists”) will destroy Judeo-Christian Western Civilization.
https://youtu.be/G1RieIRFqN0
John A. Marre says
The left hates free speech. They figured out a way to eliminate it without telling anyone. They defined certain crimes as “hate” crimes and added a penalty to the ones already there. Then they removed the requirement that a crime be committed, and made just the “hate” a crime. Then they made the suspicion of “hate” a crime, which is where we are now.
They are clever. They don’t prosecute hate against Christianity (piss Christ, dung Virgin) and then they loudly proclaim that they believe in free speech.
Muslims and Christianity-haters actually DO have freedom of speech.
John says
When i type Jihad , Jihadwatch still appears on the first page of searches
Louis says
TAKE OVER of Britain who to blame for passively succumbed to the Muslim invasion?
Mayor of London … MUSLIM
Mayor of Birmingham … MUSLIM
Mayor of Leeds … MUSLIM
Mayor of Blackburn … MUSLIM
Mayor of Sheffield … MUSLIM
Mayor of Oxford … MUSLIM
Mayor of Luton … MUSLIM
Mayor of Oldham …
MUSLIM
Mayor of Rockdale … MUSLIM.
Over 3,000 Muslim Mosques
Over 130 Muslim Sharia Courts
Over 50 Muslim Sharia Councils
Muslims-Only No-Go Areas Across The UK.
Muslim Women … 78% don’t work and are on
FREE benefits/housing.
Muslim Men … 63% don’t work and are on FREE benefits/housing.
Muslim Families 6-8 children planning to go on FREE benefits/housing.
Now all UK schools are ONLY serving HALAL MEAT !
All this achieved by just 4 million Muslims out of the 66 million population!!!
All this achieved by just 4 million Muslims out of the 66 million population!!!
This is an eye opening for all non-Muslims – ….. ….. Forward this if you are concerned!!!
John Forbes says
The UK is as you show in really serious trouble & will be an ISLAMIC state of one type of another in about 30 years or earlier.
The catalyst may be the Death of Elisabeth & the crowning of bat ears Charles who is a MUSLIM supporter !
The TREATMENT meted out by MUSLIMS to the children of the indigenous British Christians & Sikhs & Hindu’s is very well documented in EASY MEAT & in the Trials of CHILD RAPING UK wide !
What is more disturbing is the AUTHORITIES denial & determination to HIDE the population change out, deny the cultural destruction & the ABUSE of the CHILDREN By MUSLIM GROUPS !
This level of DISHONESTY,DENIAL & CALLOUSNESS needs to be watched & NEVER ALLOWED anywhere else !
SADLY this is being repeated in GERMANY,FRANCE,HOLLAND , BELGIUM ,SWEDEN & other places!
The Nations that simply will not tolerate this are POLAND ,HUNGARY & SLOVAKIA & they are being castigated for this BUT should be COMMENDED for protecting their women & Children & their CHRISTIAN faith & cultures>