I am a new contributor to DailyKos, after my first post I went on vacation; away from the keyboard. I didn't know my first post was going to create such a firestorm. My first post was about LoonWatch, a site that tracks and exposes anti-Muslim wackos (i.e. loons). It seems some of the anti-Muslims were hurt by the fact that a DailyKos contributor would describe them for what they are; full of hate.
Robert Spencer, surmised from my diary that there was a Leftist-Islamic Supremacist alliance afoot working against Western Civilization. Is he referring to LoonWatch as Islamic Supremacist? DailyKos readers should parse through the site as it has been nothing but consistent in adhering to its goal of exposing Islamophobes and make up their own mind.
Spencer wrote a blog piece titled, Daily Kos sides with Islamic supremacists who want to extinguish free speech and oppress women and non-Muslims. The good people over at LoonWatch also responded with a piece titled, Robert Spencer: LoonWatch, One-Half of the Leftist-Mooslim Alliance.
I wrote in my original piece,
The anti-Muslim blogosphere is a cesspool of some of the most vile hatred and misinformation on the internet.
I think that is pretty irrefutable but Spencer takes issue with this and responds,
It is not "hate" to report accurately on how Islamic jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence against non-Muslims. Nor is it "anti-Muslim" to do so. If the Kos gang is interested in actual "hate," they should write about those who kill unbelievers and oppress women in the name of Sharia. It is not "hate" to defend the equality of rights of women with men, freedom of speech, and other rights that are denied under Sharia.
If all Robert Spencer was doing was accurately reporting from a dispassionate and objective view there would be no problem, but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case and it is especially not the case with the anti-Muslim blogosphere that he is so quick to defend. The anti-Muslim blogosphere is filled with genocidal comments, White supremacist ideology,Christian-Zionist triumphalism, neo-fascism, not to mention the regurgitation of stereotypes over and over.
Robert Spencer, has had his own part in contributing to the anti-Muslim blogosphere. Not long ago when a picture of a wedding in Gaza circulated around the web showing grooms holding the hands of their young nieces, Spencer posted it on his site as a proof of pedophilia. It looks like the "scholar of Islam" needs to take a course or two in the cultures of Muslim societies. The reporter who covered the event, Tim Marshall, was appalled that anyone could have mistaken it as pedophilia, especially when he made clear that per practice in some conservative Muslim societies in the world the grooms and the brides were separate. He described the reaction of the anti-Muslim blogosphere as a case of "outright Islamophobia."
This is just one example of the Spencer method; take an event or practice that is, or can be perceived as vile and inhumane and try to project it onto all of Islam and Muslims.
He then responds to a pretty straight forward part of my original Kos Diary where I write,
The anti-Muslims cover a wide spectrum though most can be found slithering in the Right-Wing. They range from academics such as Daniel Pipes, self-declared scholars like Robert Spencer and his JihadWatch, to open racists such as Debbie Schlussel, Pamela Geller and the blog Gates of Vienna.
He responds,
Open racists"? When the Left can't argue (which is most of the time), they smear and lie. Schlussel and Geller are freedom fighters, warriors for human rights. Only to a Leftist would that be "racist." They are not open racists or closet racists or any kind of racists.
Smear? Lie? It is quite astounding that Spencer who claims to be a respectable person would go up to bat for repulsive and disgusting individuals such as Debbie Schlussel and Pamela Geller. By calling them "freedom fighters" and "warriors for human rights" Spencer just keeps on exposing himself.
Who is Debbie Schlussel?,
Debbie Schlussel was the one who proclaimed after the Virginia Tech Massacre that the shooter was a Muslim, and when early reports came out that he was Asian, she wrote that "Pakis are considered Asian" and that the attack could have been "part of a co-ordinated terrorist plot by Pakistanis." Even when it was revealed that the shooter was a Korean she persisted with her story that he could have been a secret Muslim. Not too long ago she was on the record making a genocidal joke about Palestinians, while writing about clashes between rival Palestinian forces which left six dead Schlussel stated, "As we say in lawyer jokes, that’s a start. Six down, a few million to go."
Pamela Geller? From Wikianswers,
Pam Geller's blog has earned her a spot in the Conservative limelight. She frequently attacks Barack Obama, pushing and originating conspiracy theories that include: Obama is a secret Muslim, Obama is not American, Obama is the illegitimate son of Malcolm X, Obama is an anti-Semite. She writes in an August 1st blog about Obama's travel to Pakistan in the 80's, "I think he went for the drugs and came back with jihad."
Freedom fighters? Warriors for human rights? These people want to take away human rights and restrict freedom which brings us to our next point: Robert Spencer is full of it! He doesn't care for freedom, as most extreme right-wingers such as himself really don't but instead he masks himself in the cloak of cultural warrior in the frontlines of the defense of the West.
This is proven by Spencer's hypocrisy,
One of the close comrades of Spencer is neo-fascist European politician Geert Wilders. Spencer is on the record stating his admiration for Wilders who he sees as the only European politician standing up for Western Civilization. Wilders is by all accounts an odious individual who calls for the out right denial of religious freedom to Muslims. He has called for the banning of the Quran which he compares to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, he has also stated that, "Freedom of Religion should not apply to Islam." He is also working to end Muslim immigration and strip Muslims in Dutch society of their citizenship.
This is Spencers friend. Spencer has also participated in forums with Wilders, conferences, writes articles about him, has interviewed him and cites him often. In one article Spencer wrote in response to CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper he says,
I support Wilders. And so should anyone who holds dear the Western values that are threatened by Islamic supremacists.
Also Spencer himself has genocidal predilections. His former ex-friend and ally in the anti-Muslim blogosphere Charles Johnson exposed the fact that Spencer joined a genocidal Facebook group called the Reconquista of Anatolia. When confronted about it rather then apologize or say it was a mistake Spencer fumed that he had been tricked.
He then quotes me again,
Various websites have taken up the task of chronicling the exploits and breaking down the hate of the anti-Muslim blogosphere. There is Islamophobia-Watch, Islamophobia.org, and a few others though none seem to be as organized, or updated as their opponents. However, LoonWatch, a site that I have been following since I learned about it over 3 months ago and which I have featured as an editor of the Islam page on Topix is one site that gives the anti-Muslims a run for their money.
For one, they aren't defensive, instead they satirize and poke fun at the lunacy that is Islamophobia such as: blaming every negative piece of news from the Middle East on Islam, calls for nuking Mekka, the stereotypes of the subjugation of covered women, evil Muslim cells lurking around the corner, leftists colluding with Muslim terrorists, etc.
He responds,
They "satirize and poke fun." In other words, they can't answer the arguments presented (not that I do the things enumerated above in the first place). It's straight out of the Left's playbook. As Alinsky put it in Rules for Radicals, "RULE 5: 'Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.' There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions."
I think Spencer thinks too much of himself and his stereotyped arguments which known by another name is nothing but Islamophobia. The reason people satirize Spencer and JihadWatch is because it is so easy and they leave themselves open to it by falsely associating events such as marriages in Gaza with pedophilia, partnering up with fascists and being an apologist for racists; the least that can be done for Spencer is to laugh at him.