"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)
______________________
"[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)
______________________
“[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)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“Robert Spencer is an extremist, right-wing anti-Muslim rabble rouser.”
- Robert Dreyfuss (Nation Magazine Editor, Contributor to Rolling Stone and Mother Jones)
______________________
“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
______________________
“There is no doubt The Little King [Robert Spencer] ‘plagiarized,’ and therefore is a ‘plagiarist’.”
- Andrew Bostom (Close friend, ally and blog collaborator)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“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)
______________________
“Spencer thinks, ‘Islamist fundamentalist drive European politics’.”
“Spencer and Bat Ye’or “lack academic seriousness.”
- Ivan Jablonka (Scholar)
______________________
“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)
______________________
Exactly. Spencer as well as many others put Islamic terrorism in a different category than terrorism committed by non-Muslims. I am surprised that Breivik has not much, if at all; been categorized or called a Christian terrorist. Whenever it is terrorism commited by a non-Muslim, it is just terrorism or the person was crazy or some other lame excuse like that. But when a Muslim commits an act of terrorism, it is automatically associated with Islam and the word “Islamic” is always put in front of the word “terrorism” or “terrorist” We need to face the facts that terrorists are terrorists, irrespective of ideology or the like, when people commit crimes such as shooting or bombing innocent civilians, it honestly doesn’t matter with regards as to whether they are Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist-whatever.
Terrorists are terrorists; pure and simple. Thus, it is unnecessary to put the word “Islamic” in front of the word terrorism for that matter or to categorize Muslim terrorists and non-Muslim terrorists into different categories.
Furthermore, Spencer, Geller, and the rest of the gang need to be held accountable for their actions. While it is true that they were not directly responsible, they most certainly were indirectly responsible. No amount of their excuses for their indirect involvement should be allowed. If it is allowed, then Spencer, Geller, and others get away with this. And it is as simple as that.
Like Islamic fundamentalists, Breivik also denounced Western society and detested democracy as evidenced in his writings and the comments from his lawyer.
Unlike “Islamic Fundamentalists”, this guy was a devoted follower of Robert Spencer.
Nice try, though. Even when the guy is quite clearly Christian (and includes a chapter in his book entitled “The Bible and Self-Defence”), somehow he must be tied to those pesky Mooslims.
His hatred of Western society and Democracy was because he believed (thanks to Spencer and co.) that they had enabled the “Islamic takeover” of Europe. He certainly didn’t hate the West in general — he wanted to unite all of Europe to combat the Marxist-Mooslim menace.
In fact, he believes that his massacre was the ultimate act of defence of the West.
Good job Colmes!
So when did the liberals at SpencerWatch start caring about Scandavia, especially when they were attacking the region over those cartoons?
I thought it was those barbaric Mooslims who were doing that? Can’t even distinguish between your 2 arch enemies anymore? In any case, showing disgust for the cowardly attacks and sympathy for the victims =/= suddenly ‘caring about Scandinavia’.
As a matter of fact Robert Spencer is as much to be held accountable for the crimes of Anders Breivig as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche for the crimes of the Nazis. They had read him, they quoted him, but they had never understood him, it’s as simple as that.
Being Jewish it’s always funny to me to defend Christians; Breivig considered himself a sort of templar, whatever that means to him, I can’t read his mind, but that doesn’t mean that he followed Christianity, he didn’t turn the other cheek anyway, as they say in the Christian Bible. He chose violence, the usual option of Islam, as the Koran says: “Kill the infidels wherever you find them.” That’s neither in the Hebrew nor in the Christian Bible, but in the unholy Koran.
To label Breivig a Christian terrorist doesn’t fit the reality, he’s simply a loony no more no less. He’s a loner he doesn’t belong to any group, whereas all Muslim terrorists were and are in Muslim terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, to name only two of them, even if they operate only in segregated cells.
LOL. You don’t see the irony of what you just posted do you?
They had read him, they quoted him, but they had never understood him, it’s as simple as that.
TAQIYYA!!!!1111
Morons like you obviously don’t understand
But morons like you do?
Replace Brevik with Nadal Hassan, and Christianity the Bible and Robert Spencer’s writings with Islam and the Qur’an.
Now, think of how you apply nuance and reason to one incident, and mindless bigotry to the other.
Actually don’t do that, just continue to name-call.