Steven Zhou lists BuzzFeed, CBC News, and Vice on his Twitter profile, presumably as outlets for which he writes. Abigail Hauslohner describes herself as a “roving national reporter” for the Washington Post, “covering Islam & Arab affairs in America.”
Recently both Zhou and Hauslohner picked up on a press release from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), demanding that the Marines drop my book The Truth About Muhammad from its “Civilian Marine Professional Reading Lists.”
I was surprised to see that the Marines still had my book listed after the Obama Administration’s 2011 purge of all materials mentioning Islam and jihad from counterterror training, and I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if they cave to Hamas-linked CAIR’s pressure and remove the book now.
However, while Hamas-linked CAIR claims the book is inaccurate, it makes only sweeping claims about it, and never points out even a single specific inaccuracy. In reality, the book is based entirely on the earliest Islamic sources about Muhammad, and it does what its title says: it tells the truth about what those sources say.
What is noteworthy about this episode is not so much Hamas-linked CAIR calling for the suppression of the truth about Islam. It always does that. What is noteworthy is how these “journalists” Zhou and Hauslohner eagerly parrot Hamas-linked CAIR talking points, claiming the book is “Islamophobic” and is “propagating misinformation,” once again without a single example.
I very seriously doubt that either Zhou or Hauslohner has read the book. They just understand that for the establishment media, Hamas-linked CAIR is a good, reliable source, and I am a condemned “Islamophobe,” and so they don’t approach this story for what it actually is, an attempt at censorship and the spiking of inconvenient truths, but as a forbidden book somehow coming to be recommended by the Marines. They’d sneer at the Catholic Church’s old Index of Forbidden Books, and preen about how much more enlightened they are than that, but they swallow Hamas-linked CAIR’s Index of Forbidden Books with alacrity. Hamas-linked CAIR carries around mainstream media reporters in its pocket like so many nickels and dimes.
Also noteworthy is how careless both these “reporters” are. The tweets below have both been deleted, but only after I and others pointed out their tendentiousness and factual inaccuracies. Zhou claimed that my book The Truth About Muhammad was “new,” when actually it was published in 2006. Hauslohner attributed the book to “Richard Spencer,” and left the erroneous attribution up for hours even after correcting it in other tweets, presumably to associate the book with Richard Spencer’s white nationalism and neo-Nazism. She also called me “anti-Muslim,” as establishment media “journalists” always do, without ever pausing to reflect what the implications are of their characterizing opposition to jihad terror and Sharia oppression in that way. Were foes of the Nazis anti-German?
Anyway, their carelessness with the facts is telling. They aren’t really journalists at all, they’re just low level propagandists, doing the bidding of their masters at Hamas-linked CAIR and elsewhere.
mortimer says
Ad hominems and physical threats are the only possible ways to defend Islam, since Islam CANNOT be INTELLECTUALLY DEFENDED.
Islam is indefensible in THREE (3) different ways: 1) Islam cannot be defended ethically since it is amoral, inconsistent, and opportunistic and anything inconsistent is not moral or ethical 2) Islam cannot be defended historically, because the Islamic primary source texts are WITHOUT PROVENANCE … what is without PROVENANCE CANNOT be AUTHENTICATED, 3) Islam cannot be defended RATIONALLY or LOGICALLY because the texts of Islam are SELF-REFERENTIALLY INCOHERENT and 2 claims cannot be true at the same time and in the same way.
Thus, Islam is totally without an INTELLECTUAL basis and must be classified as PURE OBSCURANTISM. No thinking person can be a Muslim.
JM says
+1
BC says
Yes Mortimer the sad truth is the reason religions endure is that most people do not think, very much or even at all. The other reason religion survives is though indoctrination from the earliest years, which is especially true in Islam. Muslims are branded like calves from birth, no choice involved in being a Muslim, and the majority of them never question
their fate or try to leave, especially when they are likely to be murdered by their own families if they do.
The ex Muslims are real people of intellect and courage.
blitz2b says
BC says”…. the reason religions endure is that most people do not think, very much or even at all. The other reason religion survives is though indoctrination …”
That is a poetry generalized statement that throws out the proverbial baby along with the bathwater… Don’t thou think?
The Bible teaches
“… test everything, hold fast to what is good…” 1 Thessolonian 5:21
Now compare this to what the Koran says …
Al Ma’ida 5: 101 “..O ye who believe! ask not questions about things which if made plain to you may cause you trouble. But if ye ask about things when the Qur’an is being revealed they will be made plain to you….102 Some people before you did ask such questions and on that account lost their faith…”
So let’s not assume all religions are indoctrination just because you subscribe to any.
There are many things unexplainable and untestable aspects of the universe and life itself that atheist/naturalists also stumble with and have aspired to explain away with what seems to be blind faith…
Indoctrination of children can also happen in families where both parents are militantly atheistic and instill in their children a strong hatred for anyone who ascribes to religion.
gravenimage says
The problem is not “religions”, but Islam.
bonnie louise loranger says
very good answer
Mark Swan says
Absolutely blitz2b and bonnie louise loranger.
Diane says
My niece has recently decided to major in journalism. I have every faith in her, that she’ll uncover and report the truth, wherever it takes her…. unlike the “journalists” that are discussed, above. The manner in which today’s mainstream journalists behave, is so disheartening, disgusting, maddening.
mortimer says
Diane, even the journalism schools indoctrinate the young in Marxism.
mortimer says
Good point from Robert Spencer, namely, that the Leftards HAVE CREATED THEIR OWN “INDEX” of forbidden books and they have CREATED an OFFICE OF THE HOLY MARXIST INQUISITION in the form of Southern Povety Law Center … a Marxist-Muslim Brotherhood think tank and SLANDER OUTFIT.
Ren says
Congrats to Robert Spencer. Your book is serious material regarding jihad and is addressed to all that want to learn about it.
Diane Harvey says
“and I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if they [Marines] cave to Hamas-linked CAIR’s pressure and remove the book now”
Neither will I. Like the old grey mare, the Marines just ain’t what they use to be.
But the answer to CAIR should be a McAuliffian NUTS.
Emilie Green says
The Service Academies have long be infected and infested with CFR types. So too with those who have served as the Joint Chiefs and its staff, and in the E Ring of the Pentagon.
The fighting forces are as good as ever. If they’d ever be allowed to fight. All those help-our-enemy Rules of Engagement are the direct product of the CFR influences.
Linnte says
She says “scholars of Islam” totally ignoring Robert Spencer as a Scholar of Islam! Apparently, if you’re a scholar of Islam, you’re only truthful if you’re a Muslim.
End PC says
A Muslim scholar of Islam is an impossibility. Such a Muslim already starts about with a great many Islamic assumptions that are non-verifiable.
JawsV says
What do you expect from the Washington Post but Islam-groveling?
NewWorldParty says
The media, Obama and Hillary lied about Islam so much, that Muslims created videos to tell them to stop lying:
“A Message to President Obama from a former Muslim” (Brother Rachid tells Obama to stop lying about Islam and that ISIS is Islamic)
https://youtu.be/QxzOVSMUrGM
“By The Numbers – The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics” (Raheel Raza explains how media, Obama and Clinton were lying when they called Islam a religion of peace.)
https://youtu.be/pSPvnFDDQHk
Peter Buckley says
“In reality, the book is based entirely on the earliest Islamic sources about Muhammad, and it does what its title says: it tells the truth about what those sources say.”
Thanks to the Internet, muslims can now read online the first biography of Muhammad, by the devout muslim Ibn Ishaq:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Ishaq
If you read the biography, you will understand why so-called “extremists” do what they do (they are copying Muhammad), and why so many muslims are leaving Islam now they are finding out the truth.
Muhammad orders his son-in-law Ali, to behead Al-Nadr bin al-Harith on page 136.
Muhammad says that those who follow him will be given paradise; those who refuse will be slaughtered and sent to hell on page 222
Muhammad approves the stabbing of Uqba bin Abu Muayt on page 308.
Muhammad arranges the beheading of Kab bin al-Ashraf on page 364-9.
Muhammad personally beheads over 600 Jewish prisoners of war on page 464
Muhammad orders the torturing of treasurer of Khaybar tribe, Kinana on page 515
Muhammad orders the killing of Abdullah bin Katal’s and one of his singing-girls on page 550-1
Muhammad approves the murder of Asma bint Marwan on page 675-6.
Muhammad arranges the assassination of the old man Abu Afak on page 675.
Muhammad approves the murder of an old one-eyed Bedouin man, by Amr bin Umayya, one of his Jihadist thugs on page 674-5.
http://www.justislam.co.uk/images/Ibn%20Ishaq%20-%20Sirat%20Rasul%20Allah.pdf
JW readers can accelerate the collapse of Islam by copying and pasting the above to any online article on Islam, or to any journo worth his salt. No further comments are required-simply copy and paste the wording and links above.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
I keep coming across Robert’s books being listed on reading lists. Just the other day I was looking for a primary source and knew that Real Crusades History had it listed somewhere. Lo and behold I find Robert Spencer’s, ‘The Truth About Muhammad’ on its read list: http://www.realcrusadeshistory.com/reading-list
Westman says
There is some benefit from these bumbling “journalists” reviving interest in the very books they attempt to discredit. How many times have we been forced to a motoring crawl only to learn, miles later, that drivers are gawking at some spectacle?
In this day of somewhat autonomous access to information, highlighting anything is an open invitation for others to look and an opportunity to be discredited by your own errors. Sloppiness with information, like confusing Robert Spencer with Richard Spencer immediately signals an agenda-driven screed in place of facts.
Norger says
Indeed. Both of these “reporters” should be embarrassed and ashamed. However, the reality is that they are doubtless continuing to revel in their perceived moral superiority. Who needs or even a modicum of intellectual honesty when you are working for the greater good of silencing a dangerously knowledgeable and articulate “Islamophobe?”
Norger says
Correction above: Who needs facts or even a modicum of intellectual honesty when you are working for the greater good of silencing a dangerously knowledgeable and articulate “Islamophobe?”
Dennis Davis says
Islam is the epitome of evil. Go & spread the word.
No Fear says
Robert, thank you for all the time and effort you put into writing that book.
No Fear says
Ha ha somehow my comment got put in the wrong place. But I agree with Dennis.
JawsV says
Yes Dennis so the less followers the better. The less spreading of evil Islam.
Mark Hoskins says
Robert, if you can, please correct these small mistakes, which were probably made in haste.
drop by book
once again with a single example.
Robert Spencer says
Thank you, fixed
gravenimage says
WaPo and BuzzFeed “reporters” parrot CAIR talking points, try to get Robert Spencer book banned
……………………
Appalling.