By: Adam Barnett
Adam Barnett co-wrote One Law for All’s Enemies Not Allies: The Far:Right report. Here he responds to Robert Spencer’s statement on the report.
Following the publication of ‘Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right’, our new report which investigates his and similar organisations, Stop Islamization of America director Robert Spencer has invited One Law for All to ‘substantiate [our] charges, or withdraw them and issue a public apology.’ One could simply recommend that Mr. Spencer read our report. Indeed, in his ‘rebuttal’, he writes as if he has answered all of these charges before. It’s therefore strange that he felt the need to reply to them at ‘11:53pm’ on a Sunday night, and to attempt to smear his critics as ‘racist anti-Semites’ and ‘supporters of Jihad’. One could be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Spencer hoped to prevent people from reading the report for themselves.
In any event, I’m happy to list our main charges against his group and refer interested readers to the relevant citations in our report:
- Stop Islamisation of Europe is the ‘expansion’ of a Danish anti-Muslim party, Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (SIAD), which was itself the result of a split within a xenophobic lobby group. (p.36-37) It calls for a boycott of all ‘Islamic countries’, for the Qur’an to be banned, for the mass deportation of immigrants from Europe, and protests against the building of Mosques. (p.37, 44-46) SIOE’s leadership consider all Muslims to be congenital liars who have a ‘culture of deceit’, and never tire of announcing that they ‘do not believe in moderate Muslims’. (p.40-41, and here)
- SIOE’s leaders have collaborated with and defended Julius Borgesen, former spokesperson for the right-wing extremist group Danske Front, which has ‘co-operated’ with Blood & Honour and Combat 18. Borgessen has reportedly participated in a march to celebrate Rudolf Hess, and was imprisoned in 2007 for calling for an arson attack against a Danish minister. SIOE insist that Borgesen is ‘in no way Nazi [or a racist], but is fighting for the democracy and freedom of Denmark’. (p.38-39) Further, there is evidence to suggest that other Danish neo-Nazis, as well as members of the BNP and the National Front, have attended SIOE and SIAD events. (p.38, 47)
- Stop Islamization of America is the U.S. branch of the SIOE umbrella group, and was entrusted by its leadership to Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer in January 2010. Geller and Spencer have praised SIOE, endorsed its political programme, published its statements and expressed admiration for its leaders. (p.48-49)
- SIOA’s leaders have surpassed SIOE’s defence of war criminal Radovan Karadzic, (which included offering justifications for his actions), by defending Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, denying Serbian atrocities including the Srebrenica genocide, publishing the work of professional apologists for the Milosevic project, and in Spencer’s case working on an institutional level with such people to oppose an independent Kosovo. Ms. Geller has gone so far as to say that Bosnian Muslims killed themselves in order to ‘manipulate media coverage’, and refers to the 1995 genocide as a ‘propaganda lie’ which was ‘manufactured [by] the international community’ as part of ‘the ongoing blood libel against the Christian Serbs’. (p.42-43, 53-54 and here)
This is presumably what Mr. Spencer means when he writes of SIOA’s ‘opposition to the jihad in the Balkans and skepticism (sic) about some of the charges made of Serbian war crimes.’
- SIOA’s leadership has supported, defended and praised the English Defence League, (without equivocation until recently), and has promoted their events, published their statements and attacked their critics. (p.55-59) Co-director Pamela Geller’s web log has featured conspiratorial articles regarding the President of America’s religion, his family, his sexual history, and the circumstances of his birth, and has likened his ‘stealth jihad on the White House’ to ‘an SS officer getting elected president during WW II’. (p.52-53) In 2010, Robert Spencer defended his and Geller’s ‘colleague’ Joseph John Jay, who had recommended the ‘wholesale slaughter’ of Muslim civilians, including children, on the grounds that he had been ‘misinterpreted’. Spencer maintains this still, and Ms. Geller has recommended Jay’s writings as recently as July 2011. (p.51-51)
I could go on, but I ought to address Mr. Spencer’s direct challenge regarding a quote of his which we included. Here is the quote, published on his Jihad Watch site in 2005: ‘there is no distinction in the American Muslim community between peaceful Muslims and jihadists. While Americans prefer to imagine that the vast majority of American Muslims are civic-minded patriots who accept wholeheartedly the parameters of American pluralism, this proposition has actually never been proven.’
Writing today, Spencer claims ‘what [he] meant was there is no institutional distinction, so jihadis move freely in Muslim circles among those who oppose them and claim to do so’. However, when asked by a commenter on the original article in 2005 ‘how distinctions can be made’, Spencer replied: ‘That’s simple. Let American Muslims renounce all attachment to violent Jihad and Sharia, refuse all aid from Sharia states (chiefly Saudi Arabia), and cooperate fully with anti-terror efforts aimed at rooting jihadists out of American mosques.’ (p.52) Having thus identified all Muslims as suspects who are guilty until proven innocent, Spencer does not specify how to treat Muslims who do not ‘cooperate fully’, or who fail to make the prescribed disassociations. But based on his record and the company he keeps, I’m glad we’ll never have to find out what it might entail.
I think this meets Mr. Spencer’s challenge, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring all of this to people’s attention. I’m not sure how one squares the above with the claim that SIOA ‘stand[s] for the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and equality of rights for all people’. Perhaps Mr. Spencer will enlighten us.
August 17th, 2011 at 8:10 am
KO. This is exactly the kind of stuff that people should be bringing against Spencer instead of treating him like a legitimate commentator. He can’t possibly defend himself from these charges and still look credible.
August 17th, 2011 at 8:57 am
Facts rule
August 17th, 2011 at 9:47 am
BTW, Danios, I think the article should make some note that Barnett is, himself, a loon, just a loon of a lesser degree than Spencer.
If you read up on his organization, you’ll see that they parrot much of the same uninformed generalization and fearmongering regarding “Sharia law” and the rest. That’s the purpose of their existence, actually. They have far more in common with Spencer than with us.
That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be given credit for taking a stand against the overt bigotry of Spencer and the rest, and in fact, their breaking ranks with Spencer further dents his credibility. However, the article should still note that they are not LW’s ally.
August 17th, 2011 at 10:42 am
So one loon is trying to discredit another loon? Looks like a typical political power struggle to me.. I wonder if last election is any clue this this coming one….
August 17th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Let’s be quite honest about things: this IS a powerplay. Spencer, Geller and the whole bloody lot of them have demonstrated that you can make MILLIONS of dollars peddling to the anti-Muslim (and anti-Arab, anti-Asian, anti-immigration, etc) prejudices in this country. Now others want a piece of the pie.
The thing to remember here, of course, is that before 9-11, they were ALL nobodies. Geller is just a glorified blogger. Ditto for Schlussel. I’m still convinced that Bridgette Gabriel is black African (or African-American) and not Arab at all. And Spencer didn’t write his first book on Islam until AFTER 9-11 (fancy coincidence that, eh?). Daniel Pipes was politically active, but he has fallen out of favor because appearently he isn’t kooky enough. And Bat Ye’or… well she is/was a creepy old hag. Is she even alive still?
Point is, all of these people are nobodies who are milking a cash cow. But people get tired of things. Think back ten, twenty years. What was popular? Boy bands? Pogs? Members Only jackets? Yeah, well all laugh at those sorts of things right now, but the fact is, they aren’t that different from Islamophobia. It’s a meme, a bandwagon, something people jump onto because it is popular… and then afterwards deny their affiliation with it. Just like anti-Semitism or anti-black prejudices before… nowadays most Americans actively avoid the KKK and neo-Nazis.
Well the same will happen with Islamophobia. And as people start to distance themselves from it or get tired of the same repetitive shrieking, the pie will grow smaller and smaller. Geller, Spencer and the lot will turn against each other because really, it’s all that they have. Their sole claim to fame.
August 17th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
“Dream On”, there’s nothing like a nice Enemy Civil War!
August 17th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
EDL vs. Spencer/Geller vs. Andrew Bostom vs. Debbie Schlussel
Now we just have to wait until Spence and Geller are at each other’s throats.
August 17th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
These guys could also be loons, but they’re completely incomparable to Mr. Spencer and co. They’re loons because they see Sharia as some sort of threat, which it isn’t, as opposed to what Spencer does- concocts conspiracy theories regarding Islam and Muslims.
August 17th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
“Now we just have to wait until Spence and Geller are at each other’s throats.”
Oh, I’m salivating for that moment.
I think we should start betting on the fight. Who will turn on who first?
August 17th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
There’s a group called the Covert Undercover Nuisance Tactics? Had to pick myself up off the floor a couple of times. Dear God, my sides hurt. Owwww.
August 17th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
^I guess they need to do some Special High Intensity Training.
August 17th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Well.. if you base it on face time.. who do you think will have dominance come election?
August 17th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Ladies and Gentlemen! Place ya bets! place ya bets! who’s gonna come out the winner in this highly entertaining tournament!
“The king of Haters 2011″
will it be the Plastic Princess of Polemics ? Or the Portly Porky Pig with a beard! Place ya bets!
August 18th, 2011 at 8:25 am
^so many to choose from. This will be a tough competition!
August 19th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
to Zakariya Ali Sher:
Great comment, brother! Let’s hope Allah makes it happen as you wrote.
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:33 am
“‘That’s simple. Let American Muslims renounce all attachment to violent Jihad and Sharia, refuse all aid from Sharia states (chiefly Saudi Arabia), and cooperate fully with anti-terror efforts aimed at rooting jihadists out of American mosques.’ (p.52) ”
Nah, I would rather die thanks. Also, there’s no such thing as “violent Jihad” and “violent shariah”. I mean, the US occupation of Iraq isn’t violent enough is it?
August 23rd, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Wasn’t that hell hole Saudi Arabia a major contributor to the Bush campaign as well?