"The principal leader…in the new academic field of Islam-bashing."
"Spencer's readers are carefully steered away from all contact with the Islamic interpretative tradition, which equals or exceeds that of any other religion, because any scholarly knowledge about Islam would expose all his extremist interpretations to ridicule."
- Robert Crane (Ex-Nixon Aide, author)
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"[Robert Spencer] has no academic training in Islamic studies whatsoever; his M.A. degree was in the field of early Christianity"
“The publications of Spencer belong to the class of Islamophobic extremism that is promoted and supported by right-wing organizations, who are perpetuating a type of bigotry similar to anti-Semitism and racial prejudice. They are to be viewed with great suspicion by anyone who wishes to find reliable and scholarly information on the subject of Islam.”
- Carl Ernst (Islamic Scholar UNC)
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“[Robert Spencer] uses the Internet to spread misinformation and hatred of Islam and presents a ‘skewed, one-sided, and inflammatory story that only helps to sow the seed of civilizational conflict’."
- Benazir Bhutto (Late Prime Minister of Pakistan)
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“When it comes to Robert Spencer scholars of Islamic studies outright dismiss him and his body of work. They call him an unreliable ideologue at best and a divisive bigot at worst.”
- Michael Kruse (Writer St. Petersburg Times)
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“After looking at your website, I was quite surprised to see how much hate, venom and misunderstanding you are fostering.”
- M. Cherif Bassiouni (Law Professor, Scholar, Humanitarian)
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“Robert Spencer is an extremist, right-wing anti-Muslim rabble rouser.”
- Robert Dreyfuss (Nation Magazine Editor, Contributor to Rolling Stone and Mother Jones)
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“Mr. Spencer espouses a view of Islam as a system of belief which is essentially violent, undemocratic, totalitarian, exclusive and at war with all non-Muslims. Mr. Spencer in fact goes as far as to equate Islam with fascism.”
- Group of ALA Librarians, scholars and academics
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“There is no doubt The Little King [Robert Spencer] ‘plagiarized,’ and therefore is a ‘plagiarist’.”
- Andrew Bostom (Close friend, ally and blog collaborator)
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“Robert Spencer is an anti-Muslim blogger…And yes, I do mean ‘anti-Muslim’ — Spencer long ago crossed the line from simply criticizing radical Islamists to relentlessly demonizing all Muslims. And the bigoted, hateful comments he allows at his website are beyond disgusting.”
- Charles Johnson (Former Ally, Friend and Blog Collaborator)
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“Spencer's historical argument is dubious. It emphasizes violent passages in the Koran, while downplaying the passages that urge peace and goodwill. It applies a moral standard to Islamic empires that certainly could not be met by the Roman empire or the empires established by the Portuguese, the Spanish, the French and the British. In the Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella, for example, Jews had three choices: convert to Christianity, leave the country, or be killed. No Muslim empire legislated or systematically enforced such a policy toward its religious minorities."
"Spencer glibly jumps over entire centuries in linking, say, the savagery of the Ottomans in Constantinople with the savagery of Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Taliban in Afghanistan."
- Dinesh D’Souza (Conservative scholar, pundit and author)
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“According to Mr. Spencer, Judeo-Christianity is fundamentally and qualitatively superior to Islam, so to suggest that there could be a degenerative least-common-denominator into which all three religions could converge under any conditions, reeks of cultural relativism, because it denies Judeo-Christianity’s irreducible superiority.”
“I find it curious that Robert Spencer closes both eyes to atrocities perpetrated by Serbs, because if it had only been Muslims on their receiving end, I would understand now (but of course not justify it) seeing where Spencer is coming from, but Serbs have also fought against Croats and Slovenes —their fellow Christians. Yet he takes the side of the most historically aggressive representatives of his own ‘Religion of Peace.’ Could it be that while ostensibly and quite irrationally denying any violence within Christianity, he in fact secretly and perhaps subconsciously admires violent Christianity?”
- Kejda Gjermani (Commentary Magazine author)
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“Robert Spencer, a prolific anti-Islam writer and a leading Islamophobe who is bent on distorting Islam and demonizing Muslims, has persistently argued that violence and terrorism employed by Muslim extremists is rooted in the Quran and its message. Spencer calls the Quran, a book sacred to Muslim, ‘the jihadists’ Mein Kampf,’ in reference to Hitler’s memoir.”
- Louay M. Safi (Islamic Scholar)
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“The widespread ignorance about Islam in the West makes many vulnerable to Spencer’s polemic; he is telling them what they are predisposed to hear. His book is a gift to extremists who can use it to ‘prove’ to those Muslims who have been alienated by events in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq that the west is incurably hostile to their faith."
- Karen Armstrong (Author)
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“Spencer thinks, ‘Islamist fundamentalist drive European politics’.”
“Spencer and Bat Ye’or “lack academic seriousness.”
- Ivan Jablonka (Scholar)
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“Words like Islamophobia and phrases like anti-Muslim bigotry are bandied about too liberally…But the real thing does exist, and it frequently takes the cover of anti-jihadism. Jihad Watch...traffics fairly openly in such stuff.”
- Cathy Young (Writer with Reason Magazine)
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Awesome. I’ll be ordering a copy. The truth comes out eventually.
quote: “If Islam is that awful, why is it that it was not only the only religion that grew in America the past 18 years, but actually doubled in population?”
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LoL. Yeah, that sounds like a sound refutation.
BTW, I like the attempt at making Spencer the one who takes passages, such as the one mentioned, out of context.
Is it not typical in an Islamic court of law, that there should be two women present for one male witness ?
Really, that whole issue has already been addressed at loonwatch.com here:
http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/12/testimony-of-rape-victim/
Nice try though. Better luck next time, in which I suggest you come up with some of your own, instead of relying so heavily on Spencer’s drivel.
Well, here is what Mr Zayed actually said:
***Mr. Spencer brought a verse from the Quran, claiming that it proves that Islamic law mandates male witnesses of “sexual immortality” in order to support the male criminal! It appears that Mr. Spencer has intentionally omitted the first sentence of the verse that shows it is only related to recording debts!***
Ok, fine. Spencer said that in Islamic law, there should be two female witnesses present for one male witness.
Has Danios, besides cherry-picking a few ‘contemporary’ Muslims, shown that the above is inaccurate ?
In fact, Spencer typically doesn’t make his own claims as Danios is forced to accept – he relays what Muslims have to say about Islam and Islamic law and relays their messages in his books.
So, Spencer isn’t guilty of selective quoting of the Koran, as Mr Zayed claims. Muslims are supposedly guilty of selectively quoting the Koran. But in this case, the point still stands, AFAIK, courts in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and elsewhere require two women – one to give testimony and the other to ‘remind’ her that her facts are correct.
I really don’t see why you have your collective panties in a twist. You’re ashamed of these facts but instead of doing something about it, you’d rather sit around and call others Islamophobes for pointing these facts out.
Shame on you.
I really don’t see why you have your collective panties in a twist. You’re ashamed of these facts but instead of doing something about it, you’d rather sit around and call others Islamophobes for pointing these facts out.
That’s pretty much the meat of it. They can dress up some of the Islamic uglies in the Qur’an in prettier dresses, but they are still too ugly for rational people to accept. So they resort to tu quoque arguments and other attempts to make Judaism and Christianity just as menacing as Islam. It’s a losing battle for them.
I’m amazed your post made it past the “waiting for moderation” phase. Usually truth loaded posts “hit the spam filter.”
Yes. JihadBob is right!
I learned all I need to know about Islam from a guy who has a Masters degree in Christianity.
I wish I could say more, but I have to go teach my Biomedical Engineering course with my Linguistics major. If anyone wants to know how to say centrifuge in Gaelic you can go ahead and ask me.
Spencer is misrepresenting the issue, and is altogether wrong, since even in classical times, Muslims allowed women to be judges.
If all Spencer said was that that’s what they did in some Muslim countries today, despite contrary views on the issue by contemporary Muslims, there wouldn’t be a problem.
Spencer is indeed guilty of selectively quoting the Qur’an, if only mentions verses that can be used to support his view, while completely ignoring the ones that don’t.
“even in classical times, Muslims allowed women to be judges”.
Hi. Could you name some of the women judges, and cite sources for that claim? Thanks.
It’s in the link I posted.
Why would people bother commenting without reading?
Jihad Bob, what you don’t get is that just because Pakistan or Saudi Arabia has laws that treat women as 1/2 the witness of men doesn’t mean it represents Islam. Saudi Arabia which uses Sharia Law says Muslim women can’t drive while Iran and Pakistan which also uses Sharia Law says they can drive. So you can’t judge Islam by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc. Islamic law as well as Islam is not monolithic like Spencer portrays it to be, there is a difference of opinion.
Moreover, in the link that Awesome posted you will actually see that Danios or Zayed aren’t selectively choosing the views of a few contemporary muslims. They listed views of classical as well as traditional jurists, conservative as well as liberal viewpoints. Thus Danios doesn’t portray his own views, he just presents the truth and the whole truth unlike Spencer. Danios doesn’t deny that there are muslims who hold extreme views, but he points out that they are the minority and Spencer shouldn’t just choose them as references or examples and then generalize that this is what all or almost all muslims believe.
As for you Allah Snackbar, when you say “They can dress up some of the Islamic uglies in the Qur’an in prettier dresses, but they are still too ugly for rational people to accept” you forget again that Danios is only doing this because that is what Robert Spencer does he dresses up some of the Catholic,Christian and Jewish uglies in the Bible as well as throught contemporary history in prettier dresses, but they are still too ugly for rational people to accept, so we are only reciprocating because Spencer is the one who brought it up not us. Moreover, just because you believe that there some controversial and objectional verses in the Quran, do you think rational people would say that we need to get rid of the entire Quran? Is this what the reformed jews did to the Torah, even though there are controversial verses in there that say they should stone to death woman who wear pants, fathers can sell their daughters to slavery, gays should be stoned to death, etc, Jews don’t throw the Torah away and completely reject it.
Moreover, liberal muslims like the ones who run this site aren’t just calling anyone an Islamophobe who points out something that is controversial in Islam, we are actually doing something about it and changing the perspective of many muslims on touchy issues such as apostasy, jihad, women’s rights, etc. Instead of supporting them, Spencer, Jihad Bob, Allah Snackbar and other anti-muslims call muslims who try to reform particular aspects of Islamic law as Stealth Jihadist who aren’t really sincere. So in the end we are damned if we do, damned if we don’t.
Excellent post Robaby!
Ha! Well, Let us see what Averroes wrote in his “Bidayat al-Mujtahid” one of the most important texts in Islamic Jurispresedence; he wrote: “There is a general consensus among the jurists that in financial transactions a case stands proven by the testimony of a just man and two women on the basis of the verse: ‘If two men cannot be found then one man and two women from among those whom you deem appropriate as witnesses’. [....] Imam Abu Hanifah [to which belongs the dominant Islamic School] is of the opinion that except in cases of Hudud and in financial transactions their testimony is acceptable in bodily affairs like divorce, marriage, slave-emancipation and raju‘ [restitution of conjugal rights]. and this is [too] the view of Imam Shaf’i, while Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad is of the view that their testimony is not acceptable in bodily affairs. There is however a difference of opinion among the companions of Imam Malik regarding bodily affairs which relate to wealth like advocacy and will-testaments which do not specifically relate to wealth. ” [Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Shehzad Saleem (translator) (September 2002), "The Law of Evidence", Monthly Renaissance 12 (9), retrieved 2008-10-14]
That puts end to all.
I guess you missed the piece Danios wrote on that issue. Check it out it is another good one.
Wow! one more Danios for mr spencer..2 much 2 handle ….good luck …spencer
Yes! Finally! A book on Islam by a SCHOLAR on Islam. Not some bigot who is scamming JihadBob out of his hard earned money.
I will definitely buy the book, insha’allah.
Spencer is such a small man that I wouldn’t be surprised if he was behind the JihadBob moniker posting above. Try again Spencer, and before you come down to NYC to try to tell New Yorkers what to do, you might want to do something about your Muslim neighbors in Bedford, NH.
Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this book
Spencer’s loon followers seem to be in denial that they were fed propaganda. So who are you gonna hate on next?
I live in Malaysia and I know who to believe without reading any books.Zayed is a liar.
I’m sure the muslms of malaysia, who make up less than 1% of all muslims, truly represents every since of the 1.6 billion muslims(i’m being sarcastic) maybe you should read the book before you judge it.
lol you must be God or Santa Claus. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t need to read anything but just ‘knows who to believe’…..:D
Are you a Muslim?
He’s probably a hate-monger trying to pass of as a Malaysian Muslim. Unfortunately for him, I happen to be the real deal and if anyone wants to ask about Islam in Malaysia or Malaysian Muslims, I’d be more than happy to oblige.
Hey Guy, I live in Malaysia true, what’s *your* issue? Some Muslim cut you up on the highway? Didn’t hold a door open for you? Shoved you in the queue for the ATM? Those Muslims who tried to burn down a church (and are now serving jail sentences BTW)? Yeah, judge the majority on the minority why don’t you… maybe you should come and join my Mosque group here in Selangor, we’re visiting orphans and people in the hospital this week ins’allah, come along, it’s fun
I *am* a Malaysian and I say that YOU, sir, are the liar.
JihadBob is regurgitating Spencer’s response to the book. Not kidding, you can check for yourself.
well done danios for bringing this to our attention…
ordered it straight away…. pity it takes so long to get to the UK from the US.
Ibsy, I didn’t write the book, nor have I read it. I can’t comment on it. This post was written by someone else.
I am going to purchase both Spencer’s book as well as this book. Then, I might give some feedback. But I’m really pleased that this book was written.
Check it out, Spencer is gloating about this new book and took a cheap shot at it before having read it. But hey, he ordered it to have a ‘great deal of fun with it’.
But to be fair, before having read the book, this is the only real chance he has for giggling. Have your great deal of fun, Spencer, we’re waiting for your review!
I have also purchased the book off of Amazon, and will eventually read both books, and offer my feedback.
I am obtaining a PDF version of Spencer’s book… not going to waste my precious dollars on a piece of rehashed material from the Orientalists. Will offer my own rebuttal of the book if I have the time, insha’allah.
Orientalists are much more objective than Spencer
Seems to be another trait of Islamophobes….pronouncing “victory” even before they actually see the arguments presented first.
Yeah they’re mostly cheap-shots for now. He’s using classic propaganda tactics such as ‘truth or lies, your choice?’ when the ‘lies’ in the case of Zayed’s book refers to the lies levelled against the Prophet (S.A.W)
if this were done against him, he’d be screaming ‘Taqiyya’ and ‘libel/ ad hominem’ or one of his multi-worded ways of frothing at the mouth. Yet has absolutely no shame in doing it to other people and pretending to sound neutral….:S
weirdo
They’re a smug bunch.
I can corroborate MENJ. He is Malaysian. I have followed his websites for years, including bismikallahuma.org.
I have read about half the book. Sadly, it is very poorly written and the arguments are weak. Overall, the “refutation” was highly ineffective. In fact, I would go so far as to say the book is childish. It was painful to read, and was quite simply tiresome.
Waste of money in my humble opinion. Worse than that, the author’s failure to effectively refute Robert Spencer’s arguments will give the impression that Spencer’s arguments are strong. So in a way, this book does more harm than good. More likely, however, the book will simply be disregarded.
I was honestly skeptical of the book when I bought it, simply because I have seen so many “Muslim scholars” fail so miserably when debating Spencer. Even then, however, the author managed to surprise me by how poorly it was written.
This is not to say that Spencer’s book is well-written or convincing. I will eventually devastate the arguments in his book, just like I am doing now with The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). The inability of “Muslim scholars” to write dispassionately and from a neutral analytical perspective hampers their effectiveness quite considerably.
If only I got paid to blog for one year (where are you George Soros!?), I’d be able to refute all of Spencer’s arguments in these two books within a few short months. Since I have to balance work with writing, it takes me much longer to produce an article.
Sincerely,
Danios.
That’s the impression I got as well from a excerpt I read online. Unfortunate.
I agree with you a lot of people fail to really refute Spencer – I guess because the lies he spins are so involved and far-fetched that for every word of falsehood he writes you could point out 10 different ways in which he is wrong. It’s an exhausting process – which I guess is his game.
Secondly, a lot of the writing aimed at him is just bad and unreadable, even when the points are on the mark. Not everyone is a born writer.
Mostly though – like you’ve implied its just an issue of time. Not much of what you write is “new” – these things are known to most devout Muslims as a matter of faith and reason, whether they’d take the time to write many pages essays on it or not. But who’s going to take time out to refute something so transparently vile and false?
Danios! We’ve been begging you to get a tip jar for ages. Take a working vacation and write those rebuttals!
@nat..i completely agree when you say “you could point out 10 different ways in which he is wrong”..he is very smart and the manner in which he insuniates his claims in his books makes for an interested fodder for people who already don’t have a good notion about islam or muslims ..unfortunately there are plenty of them ..no wonder two of his books are the bestseller..But i really liked the article on spencer’s methodology which gives you a fair idea on how he works and ..and i think it inspired me in a way only if one day i were to to refute him ..But i’ll be more interested in the way danios works .i am really impressed by his work…i’m sure he has a large collection of books..
I think if you are looking for anti-islam and anti-muslims stuff Spencer is the limit ..i mean you cannot go any further from there and he thought there was no way he can be defeated ..But loonwatch has done an outstanding job specially Danios in exposing this scumbag..His silence is his defeat and we all know that ..till date since the time loonwatch has been exposing this retard ..he has not been able to say a word ..He just can’t afford to publicize loonwatch..he know it well and he is afraid he’ll lose his audience..i am telling you the day he starts to fight us on his website he’ll be finished ..But we all know this battle is far from over..!!Carry on Danios .We are waiting with bated breath for your book..Bring ‘em on!!
Thanks for your kind words, Aamir.
I am hopeful that the jihad article will be the best one yet.
There is no doubt about that and i wish u all the best ..May God be with you ..However yesterday i was thinking if we can have a commentary section on Quran .That will be very educational and it will help us in eradicating a lot of misconceptions on Islam ..
I really hope you come up with it sometime ..
The same section on jihadwatch is by far the most popular section courtesy evil Spencer and his band of loons..
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