With Kyle Shideler on a Center for Security Policy webinar. Order my new book, Islamophobia and the Threat to Free Speech, here.
The freedom of speech and expression is one of our most important and cherished American principles. Yet it is everywhere under attack. On college campuses, by students and administrators alike. In the media, by journalists and pundits who are its beneficiaries. And elected officials and a government bureaucracy, in cooperation with Big Tech corporations have become increasingly censorious.
In Islamophobia and the Threat to Free Speech, the newest book from the Center for Security Policy, best-selling author Robert Spencer looks at how in the midst of the War on Terror, America began to adopt the very same positions on free speech —regarding defamation, incitement, and criticism— held by its jihadist enemies.
Spencer traces this troubling transformation from the 1989 death fatwa against Salman Rushdie, through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s campaign to ban defamation of Islam, to the “Cartoon Wars” over displaying images of Mohammad, and all the way to Big Tech’s censorship of a sitting president.
gregbeetham says
The amazing thing about this lefty mind warp is they don’t see the dead end alley their hypocrisy is leading them into.
There is not going to be a utopian free lunch society at the end of the Sharia totalitarian rainbow, (see Middle East for details) but hey! You can’t make it illegal for people to be stupid or ignorant.
mortimer says
Exactly! The Islamic Berzerkistans all show the globalists what happens in a Sharia society … dysfunctionality, bribery and backwardness. Afghastlistan is one of the most Islamic Berzerkistans and it is about to plunge again into the depths of berserk backwardness.
gregbeetham says
Yep, and it will all be America’s fault, or more likely the Republican’s and Trump’s fault if the lefty media covers it in any detail when all they had to do was be nice to the Taliban and Al Qaeda like Biden & Co is doing with Iran.
Infidel says
Great interview. However, one disconnect b/w what RS said and what appears on this website, wrt the support of alternate platforms to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
RS mentioned that he tries to support those alternate platforms wherever he can. However, look at the top right of this page, and one will see Facebook, Twitter and YouTube links, but none for Parler, Gab (which he totally forgot about, despite Gab having its business plan totally laid out), Rumble. How exactly is that supporting them, if one is gonna leave only the ‘Big Tech’ links there, but none of the challengers? What will JW do the day Twitter or Facebook or YouTube decide to ban RS from their platforms, just like GoFundMe did?
Incidentally, Gab did a far better job than Parler so far, given that they went thru the Big Tech cancellation way back in 2018, when Microsoft’s Azure stopped hosting them. They built their servers from scratch, defined a new business model where they sell an enhanced version of their service to users, rather than depend on ads, and were running pretty smoothly. When Trump was banned last year and Parler was sabotaged by Amazon, Gab was slow for a few days as thousands decided to sign up for accounts, but after adding some more servers to their server farms, they were back to smoothly running again. I didn’t buy their Gab Pro since I’m not a content creator, but if I were, I would have. Only thing Gab misses are the big names: only a few on the Right have joined in, including Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Allum Bokhari and Tim Runce. Parler in the meantime has kept changing logos (the one they had in b/w looked like a uterus) and can’t decide whether to demand our phone numbers every time we log in (which is a dealbreaker for me or anyone who wishes to preserve their anonymity)
Those of us who rail against big tech should put our money where our mouth is. I have accounts on most of the alternatives – Gab, Rumble, Parler and am considering Gettr as well if President Trump joins in. I closed my Twitter account, and don’t use my Facebook account at all (one Facebook account that I had was shut down b’cos I was following a game ‘Murder in the Alps’, which I play, and therefore must have been a homicidal maniac). I do have a YouTube account which I use to watch and comment on videos, but I do that on my Rumble account as well. If I were uploading any video content, however, it would only be on Rumble
gregbeetham says
Maybe there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with Trump’s court challenge, here’s a short outline of the current situation.
https://rumble.com/vjl8d1-alan-dershowitz-trumps-case-pits-free-speech-against-the-first-amendment.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Dinesh+D%27Souza&ep=2
mortimer says
When Western elites came to realize what was entailed in the fatwa against Rushdie, they correctly envisioned massive sabotage of all Western countries, their embassies and their international businesses in Muslim-majority countries. Commercial interests precluded the desire to support freedom of expression. The boards of directors and their political minions wanted no more freedom of expression against Islam … it would be too costly and would disrupt commerce.
No one actually tried to find the key to stopping Islamic intolerance. The place to stop Islamic censorship is at its source … at the level of basic belief, philosophy and ideology.
Only a handful of top Western thinkers took up the challenge to oppose Islamic (Sharia) supremacism.
Western governments can only succeed by funding thinkers who will dismantle Islamic ideology piece by piece.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, I agree that it is important to expose the horrors of Islamamic ideology. But Muslims are not apt to listen to the opinions of those they regard as “filthy Infidels”.
gregbeetham says
Yes, Muslims are usually arrogant and confident enough to not bother listening to any alternative reasoning which is one aspect of their demeanour the lefties agree with right off the bat, but if there is a major groundswell move against Islamic intrusion then the situation might change.
mortimer says
The Islamophobia slander is verbal jihad … this crafty deceit is a perfect example of taqiyya and kitman.
The Islamophobia slander in fact is a mask placed on top of Sharia supremacism to disguise Islamic censorship of anything about Islam that mullahs wish to conceal. Thus, the Islamophobia slander is Sharia law imposed by other means. The end result is the same.
When Muslims hear that so-and-so is an ‘Islamophobe’, it has the same effect upon them as saying that so-and-so is a BLASPHEMER. All Muslims realize that blasphemers should be assassinated and that vigilantes may assassinate blasphemers, since the blasphemers are ‘fighting’ Islam with words. There is thus divine authority to kill the blasphemer. Allah wants blasphemers dead and in Islamic hell.
Ultimately, the Islamophobia slander will be an incitement to violence against disbelievers who openly discuss Islam.
gravenimage says
Grimly, it already has been.
mortimer says
Robert Spencer has summarized the Islamophobia slander: the ‘Islamophobia’ word is a TOOL FOR TYRANTS who want to limit our freedom to criticize their tyranny.
gravenimage says
Video: Robert Spencer on Islamophobia and the Threat to Free Speech
………………
Likely the most important issue of our time. Kudos to Robert Spencer!
gregbeetham says
Robert is spot on as usual but is censored as much as possible by the treasonous weasels of the lefty biased social media outfits, but thankfully he isn’t a lone voice.
Kevin runs a YouTube and Rumble channel called SpaceX in the news and mostly covers the development of Elon’s Starship but his contemporary commentary here is pretty much essential listening for everyone.
https://rumble.com/viezqz-the-greatest-threat-to-humanitys-prosperity-in-space.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=2