Stanford student Minha Khan has a bright future ahead of her in the Islamic victimhood propaganda industry. Her piece here wringing her hands and claiming victim status over my scheduled appearance at Stanford next week is a masterpiece of self-dramatization, featuring outlandish claims that would have moved me to laughter were it not, hang it all, for the pathos of this poor girl’s plight. I shed a few tears in solidarity with her, while giggling behind my hat.
How did it come to this, that someone who simply opposes jihad terror and supports equality of rights for all people is treated as the second coming of Jack the Ripper? Get the full story in my book Confessions of an Islamophobe, which you can preorder here. Find out why Minha Khan is so frightened of me, or claims to be, and who she really ought to be frightened of. Get the book now.
Then after you’ve ordered the book, come back and read Minha’s sad tale, with my comments interspersed.
“‘I Will Never Belong to the Stanford Community,'” by Minha Khan, Stanford Review, November 8, 2017:
Before leaving Pakistan, my grandparents told me to be careful at Stanford. I laughed it off and told them that things had changed- being Muslim on campus was not such a big deal anymore. I told them there was no need to be afraid. I wasn’t going to live in fear.
“Before leaving Pakistan, my grandparents told me to be careful at Stanford.” I would have laughed, too. You see, Stanford University is apparently a toxic environment of “Islamophobia,” while Pakistan is free and clear and safe. That’s why so many Muslims from the U.S. are clamoring to get in to Pakistan, you see. And Stanford is “Islamophobic”? There are three new articles today, this one and two in the Stanford Daily, denouncing me. One would think that if Stanford were really “Islamophobic,” the campus wouldn’t be in such an uproar over the appearance of an accused “Islamophobe.”
But when the first thing I saw while walking downstairs to get breakfast was the flyer for Robert Spencer’s talk “Jihad and Radical Islam,” I was afraid. I didn’t know what this meant for me, a Pakistani Muslim girl who covers her head.
Why, Minha, it doesn’t mean much of anything. You’re welcome to come, if the event happens, but I doubt you will. If you did, you could ask me some pointed question, and I would do my best to answer it. You could do your best to show me up as the Satanic ignoramus you think I am. But is anyone going to bother you? Of course not. And in the highly unlikely event that someone does, that would be absolutely contemptible, but would it be because I spoke about the jihad terror threat? Why would it? You oppose jihad terror, don’t you?
Robert Spencer is a self-proclaimed expert on “Radical Islam” who co-founded “Stop Islamization of America.”
This “self-proclaimed expert” business is funny. Nor do I ever use the term “Radical Islam.” I defy anyone to quote me actually saying “I’m an expert on Radical Islam.” My work stands or falls on the basis of the evidence I present, not any claim of expertise on my part. I don’t believe one should take anyone’s word uncritically for anything. The only time I see myself being called a “self-proclaimed expert” is by those who claim I am no expert. Very well. Let them refute me on the facts. But that is the one thing they have never managed to do.
He has often been criticized for causing a divide between the West and Islam, and is known to promote a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda.
It is not I who have caused a divide between the West and Islam, although I thank Minha Khan for giving me so much credit. In reality, if anyone in the West is suspicious of Islam, it isn’t because of Robert Spencer, but because of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Mohamed Atta, Nidal Malik Hasan, Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik, and all the other Islamic jihadis. But to discuss them is immediately to become “Islamophobic.” So where are we?
In short, he’s not my biggest fan.
I’m terribly sorry to break it to you, Minha, but I never actually heard of you before I read this article. I actually have no opinion of you one way or the other. In fact, if time permits, I’d be glad to sit down with you for a cup of coffee, and we could talk all this over. But I doubt you would be willing to do that.
I talked to other people in my dorm regarding their opinion on the decision to bring Spencer to campus. Many thought it was okay, a simple exercise of the the right to free speech.
But when do we draw the line between free speech and hate speech?
There is actually no such line anywhere. “Hate speech” is not a concept in American law — at least not yet. “Hate speech” is subjectively determined: one person’s “hate speech” is another person’s enunciation of unpopular truths. If the government ever did outlaw “hate speech,” the person tasked with determining what it is would have so much power over the public discourse that the very freedom of society would be threatened, because he or she could classify as “hate speech” and outlaw whole swaths of opinion that simply dissented from the line of the people in power. The antidote to bad speech is more speech. If Minha Khan opposes what I say, she should show it to be false. No one at Stanford has even attempted to do that.
When does it become acceptable for a guest to this campus to tell my fellow students that Islam is radical and hate-driven?
Good question, Minha. Here are some quotes that may interest you (thanks to Jihad Watch reader Mortimer for them). The UK-based imam Anjem Choudary once said: “As a Muslim, I must have hatred for anything non-Islam.” Sufi scholar Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624) said: “The honour of Islam lies in insulting kufr and kafirs. One who respects the kafirs dishonours the Muslims… The real purpose of levying jiziya on them is to humiliate them to such an extent that they may not be able to dress well and to live in grandeur. They should constantly remain terrified and trembling. It is intended to hold them under contempt and to uphold the honour and might of Islam.” Imam Abdul-Latif ibn Abdur-Rahman Rahimullah said: “It is not possible for someone to realize Tawheed and act upon it, and yet not be hostile against the mushrikeen. So anyone who isn’t hostile against the mushrikeen, then it cannot be said that he acts upon Tawheed nor that he realizes it.” Ibn Taymiyya, in his “Book of Emaan,” says that “true believers show animosity and hatred towards disbelievers.” Umar Sulayman ‘Abd-Allaah al-Ashqar, in his “Belief in Allah,” says: “The Muslim should regard the Kuffaar as enemies and hate them because of their kufr, just as he hates their kufr (disbelief) itself.” And in chapter four of “The Islaamic Concept of al-Walaa’ wal-Baraa’” by Khalid El-Gharib, Muslims are exhorted “to show enmity to those who show enmity to Allaah and His Messenger.”
There are many other examples of this kind of teaching from Muslim clerics and scholars. No doubt you have a vastly different view of Islam, and that is good. But these teachings exist. Is it “hateful” to notice? Would you prefer I just looked the other way and pretended such things were not taught? Wouldn’t it be better to call attention to them and call on the Muslim community to renounce and teach against such ideas? You would support such an initiative, wouldn’t you?
When does it become okay for someone to tell those that I live with that we need to get Islam out of America?
Seeing as how I have never said such a thing, I’m not sure.
When many Western media outlets are already spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric,
Really? Which ones? Where? When? All I see them doing is bending over backwards after every jihad massacre to whitewash its motive and portray Muslims as victims. Can you please send me some links to this “anti-Muslim rhetoric” from “Western media outlets,” Minha? I’m at director@jihadwatch.org.
my tuition fees paying for a man to speak against my very existence in this country feels like the final knife in the heart.
Minha, can you please quote me saying that you or Muslims in general should not exist in this country?
I worked hard to get into Stanford and my father worked even harder to afford it…for what? To come here and see that I am not wanted?
I’ve put up with the microaggressions I’ve faced on a daily basis — jokingly being called a terrorist or a member of the Taliban because of my hijab. I’ve ignored them and sometimes confronted them. But an organized, university-sponsored event is difficult for me to ignore or fight back against. It’s a whole new battlefield; and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
How about attend, consider the facts I present, and formulate a rational response? Maybe that is too much to ask of college students these days.
A friend suggested tearing down all the flyers. I don’t feel like that is the answer.
Good, Minha. Reject fascism.
Is it my right to tear down the posters someone else put up?
No.
Am I allowed to take down a poster that feels like an attack against my identity?
No. Whatever the poster “feels like,” others have the freedom of speech as much as you do.
Am I allowed to feel hurt?
Sure. Why not? But it’s silly. You oppose jihad terror, I am sure. So do I. So what’s the big deal about my coming? I’ll tell you: for years now, there has been a concerted effort to defame and destroy all those who oppose jihad terror. Now you’re joining in that effort.
Or do I just ignore it in the name of free speech?
Now you’re catching on.
I considered attending the event. I want to know what he has to say. I want to hear him tell me Islam is evil and radical. I want to hear him tell me that the religion that has only taught me to be loving and kind is the religion of hate. I want to hear him tell me that “Jihad” means “Holy War,” when it actually means “to struggle.”
Oops. If you had done a bit of research, Minha, you might have found this, which I wrote, and which has only been at the Jihad Watch site since you were about five years old. In the second paragraph, it says: “Jihad (Arabic for “struggle”).” I know research is not something college students are accustomed to doing these days, but still, I am a bit embarrassed for you.
My jihad, my struggle, is not killing people. My jihad is holding my head up high when there are people who believe that I shouldn’t be allowed in the country.
How grand. Now what are you doing to counter those Muslims who believe that their jihad is killing people? Or is all your energy devoted to opposing people who oppose them?
But I am not welcome at the event.
Why, of course you are. I hope to see you there. If I remember to do it, I will ask for you from the podium, and invite you to ask questions.
I would be afraid to join a crowd where people believe that Islam should be eradicated from America. Beliefs translate into actions, like the travel ban, against Muslims like me, my family, and the 3.35 million Muslims that live in the US.
I’m not asking for the event to be shut down. I’m not asking for reassurance that I am wanted at Stanford. I don’t need anyone to tell me that I belong in America. But I do want everyone to know that this event has reminded me that no matter how hard I try, I can never fully belong to the Stanford community. There will always be someone who believes that I don’t deserve to be here because of my religion. My Muslim identity was always my strength, but today, it feels like my weakness.
Your mastery of the victimhood narrative is admirable, but this is all just fiction and fantasy, Minha. You are not in danger at Stanford, and will not be after I speak, if the event goes on. If it does, however, I will be there with a security team. That ought to tell you something about who is really doing the threatening and who is really threatened, but it probably won’t.