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Quality of English

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In view of the fact that editing this article is not permitted, can those who are in the inner circle and have that access please alter the last sentence of the article to read: Breivik [omit] later admitted that he had long been a neo-Nazi who only in later years had exploited counter-jihad writings. (Three small changes to verb tenses for better sense.)

Robert Spencer became Orthodox

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Interview with Robert Spencer, author of The Church and the Pope — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.115.91.205 (talk) 06:11, 24 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Removed Source: "American Islamophobia’s Fake Facts", Arnold R. Isaacs, 09 August 2018.

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A citation template for the article "American Islamophobia’s Fake Facts" by Arnold R. Isaacs was removed here, giving as a reason that the containing publication was The Unz Review. As the article was being cited three times, there are now cite errors in the Wikipedia article.

An alternative source for the article is Salon. Salon has been discussed a number of times on the Reliable Source Noticeboard, but not, as far as I've been able to determine, with any formal conclusion being reached.

    ←   ZScarpia   20:43, 8 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Salon (RSP entry) article was republished from TomDispatch, the blog of the Type Media Center, an organization previously associated with The Nation (RSP entry). I haven't looked into the reliability of TomDispatch, but editors on the reliable sources noticeboard might be able to help. — Newslinger talk 04:37, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 22 November 2021

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Robert Bruce Spencer (born 1962)[1] is an American anti-Muslim. This should be changed to "Robert Bruce Spencer (born 1962)[1] is an anti-Islam American. (I have never heard him speak against Muslims as persons but about the ideology/religion of Islam. To label him as anti-Muslim is false. ) Geo Edat (talk) 19:18, 22 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. It is well cited with that term. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 19:37, 22 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

↑ I second this notion, the article is painting him as a racist when he is not he only has a problem with islam and islamic extremists; labeling him as anti-muslim is PATENTLY false and is very clearly intended to be an ad-hominem attack by biased writers. 69.154.131.151 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 20:10, 9 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Anti-Muslim vs Anti-Islamic

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@User:Snuish2 Many sources mentioned were unreliable. Relevant diffs - 1, 2 Ping @ User:ZScarpia Dhawangupta (talk) 07:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, they certainly are reliable. Take it to WP:RSN if you disagree with its reliability. Do not whitewash Spencer. WikiLinuz🍁(talk) 18:41, 5 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
One of them has been discussed, without conclusion. That is why I pinged others for more discussion.Dhawangupta (talk) 07:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
OK. So there is no consensus about Salon as summarized by WP:SALON.COM. However, the article also cites the Washington Post, the BBC, and a book. Do you have concerns about any of the other sources? Snuish (talk) 23:13, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
If you are being disruptive once again—such as whitewashing the articles—you will most likely be AE sanctioned and topic-banned. WikiLinuz🍁(talk) 18:44, 5 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Is that a threat?Dhawangupta (talk) 07:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I've added multiple high-quality academic sources to support the "anti-Muslim"/"Islamophobic" descriptors. — Newslinger talk 00:34, 21 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Phillip L. Jones
Salon.com is not a high-quality academic source! Neither is the Islamic University of Malaysia, or the Washington Post, or the BBC, or the New York Times! All of your sources are peddlers of far-left agitprop! You and the sources you cite zero evidence that Robert Spencer portrays all Muslims as terrorists or fanatics, wants Muslims to be deprived of those rights, or deported or killed, or believes they are are all suspicious, or anything that can even be remotely described as anti-Muslim. All Spencer odes is destroy the myth that Islam is a religion of peace, or that Muslim extremists are distorting their texts and holy books to justify terrorism. That’s why you and the rest of the leftist establishment attack him. You’re islamophillic appeasers! I don’t know why Robert Spencer hasn’t sued Wikipedia and its writers for libel, but when I become a famous critic of Islam, I assure you I will!
Also, why isn’t Chomsky described as antisemitic, even though he said the following: 'Jews in the US are the most privileged and influential part of the population... Anti-Semitism is no longer a problem, fortunately... it's raised because privileged people want to make sure they have total control, not just 98% control.' http://variant.org.uk/16texts/Chomsky.html 98.166.60.126 (talk) 04:38, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Legal threats are prohibited on Wikipedia. Please see the following high-quality academic sources in the article that support the anti-Muslim/Islamophobic descriptor (emphasis added):
7 high-quality academic sources that support the anti-Muslim/Islamophobic descriptor
  • Ernst, Carl W., ed. (2013). Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 4, 125–126, 163. doi:10.1057/9781137290076. ISBN 978-1-137-32188-6. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2022 – via Google Books. Anti-Muslim activists like Terry Jones, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, the Bible Believers, and the Westboro Baptist Church are drawn to Dearborn because they see it as an abomination, as a dangerous exception to the American norm. In fact, Dearborn is proof that an alternative American reality, one in which Islam is normal and Muslims enjoy political support, is possible and will become increasingly common in future.
  • Mariuma, Yarden (2014). "Taqiyya as Polemic, Law and Knowledge: Following an Islamic Legal Term through the Worlds of Islamic Scholars, Ethnographers, Polemicists and Military Men" (PDF). The Muslim World. 104 (1–2). Hartford International University: 89. doi:10.1111/muwo.12047. ISSN 1478-1913. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2022. A concept whose meaning has varied significantly among Islamic sects, scholars, countries, and political regimes, it nevertheless is one of the key terms used by recent anti-Muslim polemicists such as Robert Spencer or Daniel Pipes, and has been used by US Prosecutors to explain terrorist behavior.
  • Beirich, Heidi (2013). "Hate Across the Waters: The Role of American Extremists in Fostering an International White Consciousness". In Wodak, Ruth; KhosraviNik, Majid; Mral, Brigitte (eds.). Right-Wing Populism in Europe. Bloomsbury. pp. 90–92. doi:10.5040/9781472544940.ch-006. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2019. But the primary sources for the anti-Muslim propaganda that had helped give voice to Breivik's manifesto were American. The anti-Muslim author Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihad Watch website, was cited by Breivik 64 times in his manifesto and excerpted extensively. 'About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer', Breivik wrote, adding that Spencer should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (Lenz 2011).
  • Mohideen, H.; Mohideen, S. (June 30, 2008). "The Language of Islamophobia in Internet Articles". Intellectual Discourse. 16 (1). International Islamic University Malaysia: 76. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2022. Robert Spencer, a prolific Islamophobic writer, has gravely offended Muslims by describing the Holy Qur'ān as the jihadists Mein Kampf, the book which embodies Hitler's fascist philosophy.
  • Guimond, Amy Melissa (May 20, 2017). "Islamophobia and the Talking Heads". Converting to Islam: Understanding the Experiences of White American Females. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 61. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_3. ISBN 978-3-319-54250-8. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Robert Spencer, a well-known Islamophobe, published five anti-Muslim books in the years following September 11 and, in the 7 years after the launch of his Islamophobic website, was earning an annual salary of $140,000.00 off of the profiteering of Islamophobic sentiments through his instant bestsellers.
  • Cole, Darnell; Ahmadi, Shafiqa; Sanchez, Mabel E. (November 1, 2020). "Examining Muslim Student Experiences With Campus Insensitivity, Coercion, and Negative Interworldview Engagement". Journal of College and Character. 21 (4). Routledge: 302. doi:10.1080/2194587X.2020.1822880. ISSN 2194-587X. S2CID 227249730. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Campus-supported events like the anti-Muslim speaker Robert Spencer, invited by the Stanford College Republicans, have also been linked to increases in discrimination and harassment aimed at Muslim students. Spencer is the director of the Muslim-bashing website Jihad Watch and the co-founder of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which are both classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
  • Bail, Christopher (December 21, 2014). Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691173634. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Anti-Muslim bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller founded SIOA to protest the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, as the next section of this chapter describes. Yet even before this high-profile controversy, Spencer and Geller received modest notoriety for their anti-Muslim views.
There is no evidence that any of the sources you mentioned are "far-left". I do not see any valid reason to exclude "The Language of Islamophobia in Internet Articles" (published in Intellectual Discourse, the "peer-reviewed, flagship journal" of the International Islamic University Malaysia) from the article, as it clearly meets the reliable sources guideline. — Newslinger talk 19:41, 14 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"Anti-Muslim" vs "Anti-Islam"

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Just posting to say that I did make a controversial change to this article. I probably shouldn't have since I haven't established consensus based on any reliable sources. Python Drink (talk) 20:53, 24 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Please see WP:DUE. --WikiLinuz {talk} 🍁 03:03, 1 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
You were completely in the right and wikilinuz is wrong, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Robert_B._Spencer#Semi-protected_edit_request_on_10_July_2023:~:text=I%20completely%20agree,October%202023%20(UTC) from the person being smeared themselves. 69.154.131.151 (talk) 02:16, 12 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Unsourced text under "Career" section

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The paragraph starting from Spencer’s interactions with practicing liberal Muslims have [...] and K.S. Lal. doesn't cite any sources. Such an excessive amount of unsourced text violates our BLP policies. It should either be removed as a whole, or the original editor should add inline citations. --WikiLinuz {talk} 🍁 21:04, 16 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the material. There is more discussion on the talk page of the user who added it. Snuish (talk) 21:55, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 20 February 2023

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This is obviously written in an extremely biased way against this man. Have you made any attempt to check the validity of the information he provides, or simply allowed someone to tar and feather him? 75.100.91.190 (talk) 01:12, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Lightoil (talk) 03:54, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Critical Qur'an

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Spencer's new book The Critical Qur'an came out a couple of days ago. Please add this to the article. 2601:C4:C300:2890:A4F9:91E6:4B54:8DC6 (talk) 00:03, 6 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 10 July 2023

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Why is Robert Spencer being called anti Muslim for just stating the truth about Islam? Truth is subverted when the goal becomes 'protecting the reputation of a subject' rather than going threadbare into it. Please remove the 'anti Muslim' tag. It's just feeding into the fundamentalist frenzy 106.201.184.215 (talk) 07:21, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: because multiple reliable sources describe him as such. M.Bitton (talk) 08:36, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
↑
I completely agree with this point from 106.201.184.215 (as well as several others who have requested this change), these "sources" are patently false smear pieces that are just ad-hominem attacks, anti-muslim NEEDS to be changed to "anti-islam". Not doing so shows clear bias and is not an impartial review on his positions/character that borders on the line of libel. No where in any of his books or his site are critical of muslims themselves just the practice of islam, the closest he has come is in the title of his book "onward muslim soldiers", but this is only in reference to how tenants of islam identify themselves as muslim.[1].[2] 69.154.131.151 (talk) 69.154.131.151 (talk) 20:14, 9 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Please see the seven high-quality academic sources supporting the anti-Muslim/Islamophobic descriptor that were restored to the article, now listed at Special:Permalink/1180145289 § cite note-anti-Muslim-15. — Newslinger talk 19:49, 14 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, then should we change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_people_and_Islam#:~:text=Abu%20Bakr%20apparently%20recommended%20toppling%20a%20wall%20on%20the%20culprit%2C%20or%20else%20burning%20him%20alive to LGBT people and Muslims as well? Because a lot of this is based on writing within the quran's surahs, the sunnahs, the hadiths, and islamic scholar's writings which is where all the points Robert Spencer's are coming from... Just don't want to see double standards and would like to see consistent language applied for topics. Example from that article that is over lgbt and islam references writings from Abu Bakr (one of muhammad's followers who happens to identify as a muslim) like crushing gay people with walls, the same sources that robert spencer's points come from but he is categorized as anti-muslim rather than anti-islam. This may be anecdotal, but even chatGPT seems to agree that a lot of people interpret his work differently on this one that there isn't any strong evidence of him attacking muslim people, but more so the religion of islam and jihad--- https://chat.openai.com/share/1c0153db-3bab-47c7-ab19-96191cf09913 It's important to note that the line between critiquing the religion of Islam and promoting anti-Muslim sentiments can sometimes be blurred, and individuals may interpret his writings differently. To provide a more accurate understanding of his views, I can offer a quote from Robert Spencer himself to illustrate his perspective: "Jihad in Islamic history is much broader and deeper than a mere call to individual self-improvement. It is the collective duty of the Muslim community (umma) to establish and maintain the hegemony of the Islamic social order in the world. In traditional Islamic theology, this was a corollary of the Prophet Muhammad's status as the final prophet. When he died, the prophetic mission was not over; it had just begun. The political mission of Islam was to be the final divine mission to the human race, and it was to be fulfilled by the instrument of jihad." 69.154.131.151 (talk) 00:20, 16 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Per the verifiability policy, Wikipedia articles are based on reliable sources like the high-quality academic sources cited in this article. ChatGPT and other large language models are not reliable sources; see Wikipedia:Large language models (WP:LLM) for details. — Newslinger talk 04:29, 16 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Understandably so, which is why I said that it was only anecdotal; but that being said, these sources seem to be biased (maybe unintentional but from many other people on the talk page's perspectives and Spencer's own words) and are just confusing muslims and islam) in the sense that they are lumping him in to a category that would make him seem like his organizations are hate groups by phrasing it as anti-muslim and different people ae interpreting his works differently, and I'd argue that these sources are confusing the distinction between mulsim people and the religion of islam itself. 69.154.131.151 (talk) 19:32, 16 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ Spencer, Robert (2003). Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West. Regnery Publishing.
  2. ^ Spencer, Robert. "About". Jihad Watch. Retrieved October 9, 2023.

Semi-protected edit request on 19 March 2025

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Robert Spencer
Spencer in 2020
Born
Robert Bruce Spencer

(1962-02-27) February 27, 1962 (age 63)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MA)
Occupations
  • Author
  • blogger
Years active2002–present
Organizations
Known forAnti-Muslim views, Jihad Watch, books

Robert Bruce Spencer (born February 27, 1962)[1][2] is an American anti-Muslim[15] author and blogger, and one of the key figures of the counter-jihad movement.[16][17] Spencer founded and has directed the blog Jihad Watch since 2003. In 2010 he co-founded the organization Stop Islamization of America with Pamela Geller.[18]

Three of Spencer's books reached The New York Times Best Seller list.[2] Reports that two of Spencer's books were listed in FBI training materials and that he had given seminars to various law enforcement units in the United States stirred controversy.[10][19] In 2013, the UK Home Office barred Spencer from travel to the United Kingdom for three to five years for "making statements that may foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence".[11] He has frequently appeared on Fox News.[20]

Background

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Spencer was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church and joined the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1984.[21][22] Spencer has stated that, under the reign of President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, his grandparents were forced to emigrate from an area that is now part of Turkey because they were Christians.[23] Spencer's father worked for Voice of America during the Cold War, and in his younger days, Spencer himself worked at Revolution Books, a Maoist bookstore in New York City founded by Robert Avakian.[24]

Spencer received an M.A. in 1986 in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His masters thesis was on monophysitism and the history of the Catholic Church.[25]

Spencer has been harshly criticized by several clerics of the Roman Catholic Church because of his views on Islam.[22] In 2016, as a result of "personal reflection and historical study", Spencer returned to the Greek Orthodox Church.[26]

Activities and writings

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Spencer has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history since 1980, but his publications on Islam and Muslims have not undergone academic peer review. They have been published by publishing houses that specialize in the writings of political conservatives, mostly Regnery Publishing or Bombardier Books.[27][28] He worked in think tanks for more than 20 years,[24] and in 2002–2003 was an adjunct fellow with the Free Congress Foundation.[29]

A 2010 investigative report by The Tennessean described Spencer as one of several individuals who "cash in on spreading hate and fear about Islam." The Tennessean investigation concluded: "IRS filings from 2008 show that Robert Spencer earned $132,537 from the David Horowitz Freedom Center."[30][31] In addition to being the editor for the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Jihad Watch blog, Spencer has also written for Breitbart News,[32] and has been a columnist for Human Events, PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine.[2][33]

Spencer co-founded the anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America (also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative) with Pamela Geller in 2010. The organization is designated as a "hate group" by the Anti-Defamation League[34] and the Southern Poverty Law Center.[35][36][37] Together with Geller he led a campaign to stop the building of Park51, an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center, which they referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque",[5] claiming that imam Feisal Abdul Rauf planned to build a "victory mosque" to celebrate the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks.[2]

Ban from entering the UK

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On June 26, 2013, both Spencer and Pamela Geller were banned from entering the UK.[11] They were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, south London, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed by two Muslims. Home Secretary Theresa May informed Spencer and Geller that their presence in the UK would "not be conducive to the public good".[38] A letter from the UK Home Office stated that this decision is based on Spencer's statement that Islam "is a religion or a belief system that mandates warfare against unbelievers for the purpose of establishing a societal model that is absolutely incompatible with Western society. ...Because of media and general government unwillingness to face the sources of Islamic terrorism, these things remain largely unknown."[39] The decision was to stand for between three and five years. The ban followed a concerted campaign by the UK anti-racism organization Hope not Hate,[40] which said it had collected 26,000 signatures for a petition to the Home Secretary.[41] Spencer and Geller contested the ban, but in 2015 the British Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal, arguing that "this was a public order case where the police had advised that significant public disorder and serious violence might ensue from the proposed visit."[42][43]

The ban was criticized by author Douglas Murray. He has stated his belief that because Islamic supremacist hate preachers were and are still allowed to enter the UK, and because what Geller and Spencer say is much less objectionable than the views and statements of extremist Muslim clerics such as Muhammad al-Arefe (who was allowed to enter the UK shortly before Spencer and Geller were banned), the ban is unjust.[44] Spencer responded to the ban by stating that the UK had become a "de facto Islamic state".[2]

The government of Pakistan previously banned Spencer's book, The Truth About Muhammad, in 2007, citing "objectionable material" as the cause.[45] His book Onward Muslim Soldiers was banned in Malaysia the same year.[46]

Speaking engagements

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Spencer as guest of a webinar by the Middle East Forum in 2020

Spencer spoke at Truman State University in April 2017 despite protests and a petition against him, having been invited by the Young America's Foundation.[47] He spoke at the University of Buffalo in May the same year, where he was shouted down and heckled.[48] He also spoke at Gettysburg College two days later; 375 alumni urged the college president Janet Morgan Riggs to cancel the speech, but the event went on as planned.[49] Spencer said, "There is one kind of diversity that is not valued generally in an academic setting and that is intellectual diversity."[50] Spencer spoke at Stanford University in November 2017, during which a group of students walked out.[51]

Spencer has said that "a young Icelandic Leftist" poisoned him in 2017 in Reykjavik, Iceland, after a speaking event where he warned Icelanders of the dangers of "the impact of Islam" on Icelandic society.[52][53] A medical report indicated he had been given MDMA and amphetamines.[54]

Spencer became a senior fellow of Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy in 2020, after years of consultations with the group. He is also a frequent guest on Gaffney's Secure Freedom Radio and Securing America TV.[2]

Influence and criticism

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Spencer is known for his anti-Muslim views. He comments on radical Islam, Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism, and Islamic supremacism.[55] His main thesis is that Islam is an inherently violent religion, and that extremists who commit acts of terror are simply following Islam's most authentic version.[2] According to author Todd H. Green, Spencer's commentary on Islam has been regarded as "hav[ing] made a huge impact on the misinformation about Islam that circulates so freely on the Internet, in the media, and in political circles."[56]

Spencer's 2008 book Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs has been seen to have developed one of the most important ideas of the counter-jihad, namely the "stealth jihad" idea that "terrorists aren't America's real Muslim problem", writing that "distracted by foreign wars and the prospect of domestic terror attacks, Americans pay little heed to the true agents of intolerance in their midst", namely the Muslim Brotherhood and its alleged American offshoots such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).[57]

The perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, cited Robert Spencer 64 times in his manifesto and wrote of him: "About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer."[5][58] Spencer condemned Breivik and said he was unfairly blamed by the media for the attack,[12][59] likening it to Charles Manson drawing inspiration from The Beatles.[2] Breivik has later admitted that he has been a neo-Nazi since the early 1990s, who only in later years exploited counter-jihad writings.[60]

In July 2011, Wired magazine reported that two of Spencer's books were listed in FBI training materials. Both The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam were recommended for agents hoping to better understand Islam.[19] His books were later dropped from federal training programs.[2]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ @jihadwatchRS (February 27, 2023). "Very grateful to all who are wishing me happy birthday, may God bless you all, and thanks..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Robert Spencer". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  3. ^ Ernst, Carl W., ed. (2013). Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 4, 125–126, 163. doi:10.1057/9781137290076. ISBN 978-1-137-32188-6. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2022 – via Google Books. Anti-Muslim activists like Terry Jones, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, the Bible Believers, and the Westboro Baptist Church are drawn to Dearborn because they see it as an abomination, as a dangerous exception to the American norm. In fact, Dearborn is proof that an alternative American reality, one in which Islam is normal and Muslims enjoy political support, is possible and will become increasingly common in future.
  4. ^ Mariuma, Yarden (2014). "Taqiyya as Polemic, Law and Knowledge: Following an Islamic Legal Term through the Worlds of Islamic Scholars, Ethnographers, Polemicists and Military Men" (PDF). The Muslim World. 104 (1–2). Hartford International University: 89. doi:10.1111/muwo.12047. ISSN 1478-1913. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2022. A concept whose meaning has varied significantly among Islamic sects, scholars, countries, and political regimes, it nevertheless is one of the key terms used by recent anti-Muslim polemicists such as Robert Spencer or Daniel Pipes, and has been used by US Prosecutors to explain terrorist behavior.
  5. ^ a b c Beirich, Heidi (2013). "Hate Across the Waters: The Role of American Extremists in Fostering an International White Consciousness". In Wodak, Ruth; KhosraviNik, Majid; Mral, Brigitte (eds.). Right-Wing Populism in Europe. Bloomsbury. pp. 90–92. doi:10.5040/9781472544940.ch-006. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2019. But the primary sources for the anti-Muslim propaganda that had helped give voice to Breivik's manifesto were American. The anti-Muslim author Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihad Watch website, was cited by Breivik 64 times in his manifesto and excerpted extensively. 'About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer', Breivik wrote, adding that Spencer should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (Lenz 2011).
  6. ^ Mohideen, H.; Mohideen, S. (June 30, 2008). "The Language of Islamophobia in Internet Articles". Intellectual Discourse. 16 (1). International Islamic University Malaysia: 76. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2022. Robert Spencer, a prolific Islamophobic writer, has gravely offended Muslims by describing the Holy Qur'ān as the jihadists Mein Kampf, the book which embodies Hitler's fascist philosophy.
  7. ^ Guimond, Amy Melissa (May 20, 2017). "Islamophobia and the Talking Heads". Converting to Islam: Understanding the Experiences of White American Females. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 61. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_3. ISBN 978-3-319-54250-8. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Robert Spencer, a well-known Islamophobe, published five anti-Muslim books in the years following September 11 and, in the 7 years after the launch of his Islamophobic website, was earning an annual salary of $140,000.00 off of the profiteering of Islamophobic sentiments through his instant bestsellers.
  8. ^ Cole, Darnell; Ahmadi, Shafiqa; Sanchez, Mabel E. (November 1, 2020). "Examining Muslim Student Experiences With Campus Insensitivity, Coercion, and Negative Interworldview Engagement". Journal of College and Character. 21 (4). Routledge: 302. doi:10.1080/2194587X.2020.1822880. ISSN 2194-587X. S2CID 227249730. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Campus-supported events like the anti-Muslim speaker Robert Spencer, invited by the Stanford College Republicans, have also been linked to increases in discrimination and harassment aimed at Muslim students. Spencer is the director of the Muslim-bashing website Jihad Watch and the co-founder of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which are both classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
  9. ^ Bail, Christopher (December 21, 2014). Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691173634. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Anti-Muslim bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller founded SIOA to protest the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, as the next section of this chapter describes. Yet even before this high-profile controversy, Spencer and Geller received modest notoriety for their anti-Muslim views.
  10. ^ a b "Anti-Muslim speakers still popular in law enforcement training". The Washington Post. March 12, 2014. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  11. ^ a b c "US bloggers banned from entering UK". BBC. June 26, 2013. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  12. ^ a b Shane, Scott (August 3, 2011). "To Fight Radical Islam, U.S. Wants Muslim Allies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  13. ^ Noble, Jason. "Iowa's congressional delegation responds to Trump immigration order". Des Moines Register. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  14. ^ Isaacs, Arnold (August 9, 2018). "American Islamophobia's Fake Facts". Salon. Archived from the original on August 8, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  15. ^ Sources describing Spencer as anti-Muslim or Islamophobic: [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
  16. ^ Carter, Alexander J. (2019). Cumulative Extremism: A Comparative Historical Analysis. Routledge. p. 190. ISBN 9780429594526.
  17. ^ Berntzen, Lars Erik (2019). Liberal Roots of Far Right Activism: The Anti-Islamic Movement in the 21st Century. Routledge. p. 87. ISBN 9781000707960.
  18. ^ Jeffrey Kaplan; Heléne Lööw; Leena Malkki (2017). Lone Wolf and Autonomous Cell Terrorism. Taylor & Francis. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-317-53042-8.
  19. ^ a b Ackerman, Spencer (July 27, 2011). "FBI 'Islam 101' Guide Depicted Muslims as 7th-Century Simpletons". Wired. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  20. ^ "Meet The Extremists Who Lead Fox's Conversation About Islam". Media Matters. January 13, 2015. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  21. ^ Spencer, Robert (October 26, 2010). "Pope must condemn demonizing of Israel". Spero News. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  22. ^ a b Jeffrey Rubin (October 25, 2018). "Robert Spencer and the Religion of Terror". Crisis Magazine. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  23. ^ "Robert Spencer Jihad Watch, Director Q & A with Brian Lamb". C-SPAN. August 20, 2006. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  24. ^ a b Mark Jacobson (August 22, 2010). "Muhammad Comes to Manhattan". New York. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
  25. ^ Spencer, Robert Bruce (1986). The monophysite in the mirror, by Robert Bruce Spencer. Davis Library Thesis, Religion, 1986 (Thesis). UNC-CH Libraries. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  26. ^ Robert Spencer [@jihadwatchRS] (June 8, 2020). "I did return to Orthodoxy, yes, but as the result of personal reflection and historical study.]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. ^ "Let's talk about Robert Spencer". November 9, 2017. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  28. ^ "Marines gather to honor, celebrate". Trib.com. October 26, 2005. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
  29. ^ Robert Spencer (December 19, 2008). "A Tribute: Paul Weyrich Has Died". Catholic Online. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  30. ^ "Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear". The Tennessean. October 24, 2010. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
  31. ^ "David Horowitz Freedom Center's IRS Form 990" (PDF). The Tennessean. June 3, 2009. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
  32. ^ Othen, Christopher (August 15, 2018). Soldiers of a Different God: How the Counter-Jihad Movement Created Mayhem, Murder and the Trump Presidency. Amberley. p. 275. ISBN 9781445678009.
  33. ^ "Robert Spencer". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
  34. ^ "Backgrounder: Stop Islamization of America (SIOA)" Archived May 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Extremism. Anti-Defamation League. March 25, 2011 [August 26, 2010]. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  35. ^ Lach, Eric (March 1, 2011). "Pam Geller On 'Hate Group' Label: 'A Badge of Honor'". Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on March 13, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  36. ^ "Pamela Geller & Stop Islamization of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 25, 2011. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  37. ^ Steinback, Robert (Summer 2011). "Jihad Against Islam". Intelligence Report, Issue #142. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  38. ^ Rawlinson, Kevin (June 26, 2013). "Anti-Ground Zero Mosque campaigners Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer barred from entering Britain to speak at an EDL rally". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  39. ^ The Speech that Got Robert Spencer Banned From the UK. YouTube. June 27, 2013. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  40. ^ "Anti-Muslim pair banned from UK". Daily Express. UK. June 26, 2013. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  41. ^ Lowles, Nick. "Geller and Spencer Banned". Hope not Hate. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  42. ^ "Geller & Anor, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWCA Civ 45 (05 February 2015)". British and Irish Legal Information Institute. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  43. ^ English, Rosalind (February 15, 2015). "Critics of Islam prevented from entering UK to attend Lee Rigby rally". UK Human Rights Blog. 1 Crown Office Row. Archived from the original on January 21, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  44. ^ "A gross double standard over hate speech". The Spectator. UK. June 27, 2013. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  45. ^ "Pakistan: Book Closed on Muhammad". National Review. January 9, 2007. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  46. ^ "Ministry Bans 14 Books". BERNAMA. July 12, 2007. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
  47. ^ "Truman State grapples with controversial anti-Muslim speaker". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. April 11, 2017. Archived from the original on April 24, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  48. ^ "No violence, but UB speaker greeted with tension, heckling". The Buffalo News. May 2, 2017. Archived from the original on May 2, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  49. ^ "Open letter from 375 alums urges President Riggs to cancel Robert Spencer's speech". The Gettysburgian. May 1, 2017. Archived from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  50. ^ Pontz, Benjamin (May 3, 2017). "Robert Spencer's speech at Gettysburg College engages students in civil discourse". The Gettysburgian. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  51. ^ "Stanford Students Walk Out, Protest During Robert Spencer Speaking Event". NBC Bay Area. November 15, 2017. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  52. ^ "Controversial US author Robert Spencer claims he was poisoned by "leftist" while in Iceland". Iceland Magazine. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  53. ^ "Islamophobe Robert Spencer Claims Young Leftist Poisoned Him". May 16, 2017. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  54. ^ "Spencer var byrluð e-tafla: Sjáðu læknaskýrsluna". DV (in Icelandic). May 16, 2017.
  55. ^ Deland, Mats (2014). In the Tracks of Breivik: Far Right Networks in Northern and Eastern Europe. Berlin Wien: Lit Verlag. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-643-90542-0.
  56. ^ Green, Todd H. (2019). The Fear of Islam, Second Edition: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West. Fortress Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-5064-5045-2.
  57. ^ Beauchamp, Zack (February 13, 2017). "Trump's counter-jihad". Vox. Archived from the original on June 8, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  58. ^ Gardell, Mattias (January 1, 2014). "Crusader Dreams: Oslo 22/7, Islamophobia, and the Quest for a Monocultural Europe". Terrorism and Political Violence. 26 (1): 129–155. doi:10.1080/09546553.2014.849930. ISSN 0954-6553. S2CID 144489939.
  59. ^ Shane, Scott (July 24, 2011). "Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 18, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  60. ^ "Breivik: - Jeg leste Hitlers Mein Kampf da jeg var 14 år". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). March 16, 2016.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert B. Spencer.

Semi-protected edit request on 19 March 2025

[edit]

Robert Spencer
Spencer in 2020
Born
Robert Bruce Spencer

(1962-02-27) February 27, 1962 (age 63)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MA)
Occupations
  • Author
  • blogger
Years active2002–present
Organizations
Known forAnti-Muslim views, Jihad Watch, books

Robert Bruce Spencer (born February 27, 1962)[1][2] is an American anti-Muslim[15] author and blogger, and one of the key figures of the counter-jihad movement.[16][17] Spencer founded and has directed the blog Jihad Watch since 2003. In 2010 he co-founded the organization Stop Islamization of America with Pamela Geller.[18]

Three of Spencer's books reached The New York Times Best Seller list.[2] Reports that two of Spencer's books were listed in FBI training materials and that he had given seminars to various law enforcement units in the United States stirred controversy.[10][19] In 2013, the UK Home Office barred Spencer from travel to the United Kingdom for three to five years for "making statements that may foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence".[11] He has frequently appeared on Fox News.[20]

Background

[edit]

Spencer was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church and joined the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1984.[21][22] Spencer has stated that, under the reign of President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, his grandparents were forced to emigrate from an area that is now part of Turkey because they were Christians.[23] Spencer's father worked for Voice of America during the Cold War, and in his younger days, Spencer himself worked at Revolution Books, a Maoist bookstore in New York City founded by Robert Avakian.[24]

Spencer received an M.A. in 1986 in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His masters thesis was on monophysitism and the history of the Catholic Church.[25]

Spencer has been harshly criticized by several clerics of the Roman Catholic Church because of his views on Islam.[22] In 2016, as a result of "personal reflection and historical study", Spencer returned to the Greek Orthodox Church.[26]

Activities and writings

[edit]

Spencer has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history since 1980, but his publications on Islam and Muslims have not undergone academic peer review. They have been published by publishing houses that specialize in the writings of political conservatives, mostly Regnery Publishing or Bombardier Books.[27][28] He worked in think tanks for more than 20 years,[24] and in 2002–2003 was an adjunct fellow with the Free Congress Foundation.[29]

A 2010 investigative report by The Tennessean described Spencer as one of several individuals who "cash in on spreading hate and fear about Islam." The Tennessean investigation concluded: "IRS filings from 2008 show that Robert Spencer earned $132,537 from the David Horowitz Freedom Center."[30][31] In addition to being the editor for the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Jihad Watch blog, Spencer has also written for Breitbart News,[32] and has been a columnist for Human Events, PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine.[2][33]

Spencer co-founded the anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America (also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative) with Pamela Geller in 2010. The organization is designated as a "hate group" by the Anti-Defamation League[34] and the Southern Poverty Law Center.[35][36][37] Together with Geller he led a campaign to stop the building of Park51, an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center, which they referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque",[5] claiming that imam Feisal Abdul Rauf planned to build a "victory mosque" to celebrate the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks.[2]

Ban from entering the UK

[edit]

On June 26, 2013, both Spencer and Pamela Geller were banned from entering the UK.[11] They were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, south London, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed by two Muslims. Home Secretary Theresa May informed Spencer and Geller that their presence in the UK would "not be conducive to the public good".[38] A letter from the UK Home Office stated that this decision is based on Spencer's statement that Islam "is a religion or a belief system that mandates warfare against unbelievers for the purpose of establishing a societal model that is absolutely incompatible with Western society. ...Because of media and general government unwillingness to face the sources of Islamic terrorism, these things remain largely unknown."[39] The decision was to stand for between three and five years. The ban followed a concerted campaign by the UK anti-racism organization Hope not Hate,[40] which said it had collected 26,000 signatures for a petition to the Home Secretary.[41] Spencer and Geller contested the ban, but in 2015 the British Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal, arguing that "this was a public order case where the police had advised that significant public disorder and serious violence might ensue from the proposed visit."[42][43]

The ban was criticized by author Douglas Murray. He has stated his belief that because Islamic supremacist hate preachers were and are still allowed to enter the UK, and because what Geller and Spencer say is much less objectionable than the views and statements of extremist Muslim clerics such as Muhammad al-Arefe (who was allowed to enter the UK shortly before Spencer and Geller were banned), the ban is unjust.[44] Spencer responded to the ban by stating that the UK had become a "de facto Islamic state".[2]

The government of Pakistan previously banned Spencer's book, The Truth About Muhammad, in 2007, citing "objectionable material" as the cause.[45] His book Onward Muslim Soldiers was banned in Malaysia the same year.[46]

Speaking engagements

[edit]
Spencer as guest of a webinar by the Middle East Forum in 2020

Spencer spoke at Truman State University in April 2017 despite protests and a petition against him, having been invited by the Young America's Foundation.[47] He spoke at the University of Buffalo in May the same year, where he was shouted down and heckled.[48] He also spoke at Gettysburg College two days later; 375 alumni urged the college president Janet Morgan Riggs to cancel the speech, but the event went on as planned.[49] Spencer said, "There is one kind of diversity that is not valued generally in an academic setting and that is intellectual diversity."[50] Spencer spoke at Stanford University in November 2017, during which a group of students walked out.[51]

Spencer has said that "a young Icelandic Leftist" poisoned him in 2017 in Reykjavik, Iceland, after a speaking event where he warned Icelanders of the dangers of "the impact of Islam" on Icelandic society.[52][53] A medical report indicated he had been given MDMA and amphetamines.[54]

Spencer became a senior fellow of Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy in 2020, after years of consultations with the group. He is also a frequent guest on Gaffney's Secure Freedom Radio and Securing America TV.[2]

Influence and criticism

[edit]

Spencer is known for his anti-Muslim views. He comments on radical Islam, Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism, and Islamic supremacism.[55] His main thesis is that Islam is an inherently violent religion, and that extremists who commit acts of terror are simply following Islam's most authentic version.[2] According to author Todd H. Green, Spencer's commentary on Islam has been regarded as "hav[ing] made a huge impact on the misinformation about Islam that circulates so freely on the Internet, in the media, and in political circles."[56]

Spencer's 2008 book Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs has been seen to have developed one of the most important ideas of the counter-jihad, namely the "stealth jihad" idea that "terrorists aren't America's real Muslim problem", writing that "distracted by foreign wars and the prospect of domestic terror attacks, Americans pay little heed to the true agents of intolerance in their midst", namely the Muslim Brotherhood and its alleged American offshoots such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).[57]

The perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, cited Robert Spencer 64 times in his manifesto and wrote of him: "About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer."[5][58] Spencer condemned Breivik and said he was unfairly blamed by the media for the attack,[12][59] likening it to Charles Manson drawing inspiration from The Beatles.[2] Breivik has later admitted that he has been a neo-Nazi since the early 1990s, who only in later years exploited counter-jihad writings.[60]

In July 2011, Wired magazine reported that two of Spencer's books were listed in FBI training materials. Both The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam were recommended for agents hoping to better understand Islam.[19] His books were later dropped from federal training programs.[2]

Bibliography

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ @jihadwatchRS (February 27, 2023). "Very grateful to all who are wishing me happy birthday, may God bless you all, and thanks..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Robert Spencer". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  3. ^ Ernst, Carl W., ed. (2013). Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 4, 125–126, 163. doi:10.1057/9781137290076. ISBN 978-1-137-32188-6. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2022 – via Google Books. Anti-Muslim activists like Terry Jones, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, the Bible Believers, and the Westboro Baptist Church are drawn to Dearborn because they see it as an abomination, as a dangerous exception to the American norm. In fact, Dearborn is proof that an alternative American reality, one in which Islam is normal and Muslims enjoy political support, is possible and will become increasingly common in future.
  4. ^ Mariuma, Yarden (2014). "Taqiyya as Polemic, Law and Knowledge: Following an Islamic Legal Term through the Worlds of Islamic Scholars, Ethnographers, Polemicists and Military Men" (PDF). The Muslim World. 104 (1–2). Hartford International University: 89. doi:10.1111/muwo.12047. ISSN 1478-1913. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2022. A concept whose meaning has varied significantly among Islamic sects, scholars, countries, and political regimes, it nevertheless is one of the key terms used by recent anti-Muslim polemicists such as Robert Spencer or Daniel Pipes, and has been used by US Prosecutors to explain terrorist behavior.
  5. ^ a b c Beirich, Heidi (2013). "Hate Across the Waters: The Role of American Extremists in Fostering an International White Consciousness". In Wodak, Ruth; KhosraviNik, Majid; Mral, Brigitte (eds.). Right-Wing Populism in Europe. Bloomsbury. pp. 90–92. doi:10.5040/9781472544940.ch-006. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2019. But the primary sources for the anti-Muslim propaganda that had helped give voice to Breivik's manifesto were American. The anti-Muslim author Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihad Watch website, was cited by Breivik 64 times in his manifesto and excerpted extensively. 'About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer', Breivik wrote, adding that Spencer should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (Lenz 2011).
  6. ^ Mohideen, H.; Mohideen, S. (June 30, 2008). "The Language of Islamophobia in Internet Articles". Intellectual Discourse. 16 (1). International Islamic University Malaysia: 76. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2022. Robert Spencer, a prolific Islamophobic writer, has gravely offended Muslims by describing the Holy Qur'ān as the jihadists Mein Kampf, the book which embodies Hitler's fascist philosophy.
  7. ^ Guimond, Amy Melissa (May 20, 2017). "Islamophobia and the Talking Heads". Converting to Islam: Understanding the Experiences of White American Females. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 61. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_3. ISBN 978-3-319-54250-8. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Robert Spencer, a well-known Islamophobe, published five anti-Muslim books in the years following September 11 and, in the 7 years after the launch of his Islamophobic website, was earning an annual salary of $140,000.00 off of the profiteering of Islamophobic sentiments through his instant bestsellers.
  8. ^ Cole, Darnell; Ahmadi, Shafiqa; Sanchez, Mabel E. (November 1, 2020). "Examining Muslim Student Experiences With Campus Insensitivity, Coercion, and Negative Interworldview Engagement". Journal of College and Character. 21 (4). Routledge: 302. doi:10.1080/2194587X.2020.1822880. ISSN 2194-587X. S2CID 227249730. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Campus-supported events like the anti-Muslim speaker Robert Spencer, invited by the Stanford College Republicans, have also been linked to increases in discrimination and harassment aimed at Muslim students. Spencer is the director of the Muslim-bashing website Jihad Watch and the co-founder of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which are both classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
  9. ^ Bail, Christopher (December 21, 2014). Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691173634. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Anti-Muslim bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller founded SIOA to protest the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, as the next section of this chapter describes. Yet even before this high-profile controversy, Spencer and Geller received modest notoriety for their anti-Muslim views.
  10. ^ a b "Anti-Muslim speakers still popular in law enforcement training". The Washington Post. March 12, 2014. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  11. ^ a b c "US bloggers banned from entering UK". BBC. June 26, 2013. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  12. ^ a b Shane, Scott (August 3, 2011). "To Fight Radical Islam, U.S. Wants Muslim Allies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  13. ^ Noble, Jason. "Iowa's congressional delegation responds to Trump immigration order". Des Moines Register. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  14. ^ Isaacs, Arnold (August 9, 2018). "American Islamophobia's Fake Facts". Salon. Archived from the original on August 8, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  15. ^ Sources describing Spencer as anti-Muslim or Islamophobic: [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
  16. ^ Carter, Alexander J. (2019). Cumulative Extremism: A Comparative Historical Analysis. Routledge. p. 190. ISBN 9780429594526.
  17. ^ Berntzen, Lars Erik (2019). Liberal Roots of Far Right Activism: The Anti-Islamic Movement in the 21st Century. Routledge. p. 87. ISBN 9781000707960.
  18. ^ Jeffrey Kaplan; Heléne Lööw; Leena Malkki (2017). Lone Wolf and Autonomous Cell Terrorism. Taylor & Francis. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-317-53042-8.
  19. ^ a b Ackerman, Spencer (July 27, 2011). "FBI 'Islam 101' Guide Depicted Muslims as 7th-Century Simpletons". Wired. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  20. ^ "Meet The Extremists Who Lead Fox's Conversation About Islam". Media Matters. January 13, 2015. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  21. ^ Spencer, Robert (October 26, 2010). "Pope must condemn demonizing of Israel". Spero News. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  22. ^ a b Jeffrey Rubin (October 25, 2018). "Robert Spencer and the Religion of Terror". Crisis Magazine. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  23. ^ "Robert Spencer Jihad Watch, Director Q & A with Brian Lamb". C-SPAN. August 20, 2006. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  24. ^ a b Mark Jacobson (August 22, 2010). "Muhammad Comes to Manhattan". New York. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
  25. ^ Spencer, Robert Bruce (1986). The monophysite in the mirror, by Robert Bruce Spencer. Davis Library Thesis, Religion, 1986 (Thesis). UNC-CH Libraries. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  26. ^ Robert Spencer [@jihadwatchRS] (June 8, 2020). "I did return to Orthodoxy, yes, but as the result of personal reflection and historical study.]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. ^ "Let's talk about Robert Spencer". November 9, 2017. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  28. ^ "Marines gather to honor, celebrate". Trib.com. October 26, 2005. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
  29. ^ Robert Spencer (December 19, 2008). "A Tribute: Paul Weyrich Has Died". Catholic Online. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  30. ^ "Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear". The Tennessean. October 24, 2010. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
  31. ^ "David Horowitz Freedom Center's IRS Form 990" (PDF). The Tennessean. June 3, 2009. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
  32. ^ Othen, Christopher (August 15, 2018). Soldiers of a Different God: How the Counter-Jihad Movement Created Mayhem, Murder and the Trump Presidency. Amberley. p. 275. ISBN 9781445678009.
  33. ^ "Robert Spencer". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
  34. ^ "Backgrounder: Stop Islamization of America (SIOA)" Archived May 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Extremism. Anti-Defamation League. March 25, 2011 [August 26, 2010]. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  35. ^ Lach, Eric (March 1, 2011). "Pam Geller On 'Hate Group' Label: 'A Badge of Honor'". Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on March 13, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  36. ^ "Pamela Geller & Stop Islamization of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 25, 2011. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  37. ^ Steinback, Robert (Summer 2011). "Jihad Against Islam". Intelligence Report, Issue #142. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  38. ^ Rawlinson, Kevin (June 26, 2013). "Anti-Ground Zero Mosque campaigners Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer barred from entering Britain to speak at an EDL rally". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  39. ^ The Speech that Got Robert Spencer Banned From the UK. YouTube. June 27, 2013. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  40. ^ "Anti-Muslim pair banned from UK". Daily Express. UK. June 26, 2013. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  41. ^ Lowles, Nick. "Geller and Spencer Banned". Hope not Hate. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
  42. ^ "Geller & Anor, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWCA Civ 45 (05 February 2015)". British and Irish Legal Information Institute. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  43. ^ English, Rosalind (February 15, 2015). "Critics of Islam prevented from entering UK to attend Lee Rigby rally". UK Human Rights Blog. 1 Crown Office Row. Archived from the original on January 21, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  44. ^ "A gross double standard over hate speech". The Spectator. UK. June 27, 2013. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  45. ^ "Pakistan: Book Closed on Muhammad". National Review. January 9, 2007. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  46. ^ "Ministry Bans 14 Books". BERNAMA. July 12, 2007. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
  47. ^ "Truman State grapples with controversial anti-Muslim speaker". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. April 11, 2017. Archived from the original on April 24, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  48. ^ "No violence, but UB speaker greeted with tension, heckling". The Buffalo News. May 2, 2017. Archived from the original on May 2, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  49. ^ "Open letter from 375 alums urges President Riggs to cancel Robert Spencer's speech". The Gettysburgian. May 1, 2017. Archived from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  50. ^ Pontz, Benjamin (May 3, 2017). "Robert Spencer's speech at Gettysburg College engages students in civil discourse". The Gettysburgian. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  51. ^ "Stanford Students Walk Out, Protest During Robert Spencer Speaking Event". NBC Bay Area. November 15, 2017. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  52. ^ "Controversial US author Robert Spencer claims he was poisoned by "leftist" while in Iceland". Iceland Magazine. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  53. ^ "Islamophobe Robert Spencer Claims Young Leftist Poisoned Him". May 16, 2017. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  54. ^ "Spencer var byrluð e-tafla: Sjáðu læknaskýrsluna". DV (in Icelandic). May 16, 2017.
  55. ^ Deland, Mats (2014). In the Tracks of Breivik: Far Right Networks in Northern and Eastern Europe. Berlin Wien: Lit Verlag. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-643-90542-0.
  56. ^ Green, Todd H. (2019). The Fear of Islam, Second Edition: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West. Fortress Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-5064-5045-2.
  57. ^ Beauchamp, Zack (February 13, 2017). "Trump's counter-jihad". Vox. Archived from the original on June 8, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  58. ^ Gardell, Mattias (January 1, 2014). "Crusader Dreams: Oslo 22/7, Islamophobia, and the Quest for a Monocultural Europe". Terrorism and Political Violence. 26 (1): 129–155. doi:10.1080/09546553.2014.849930. ISSN 0954-6553. S2CID 144489939.
  59. ^ Shane, Scott (July 24, 2011). "Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 18, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  60. ^ "Breivik: - Jeg leste Hitlers Mein Kampf da jeg var 14 år". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). March 16, 2016.
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