Robert B. Spencer
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Pp-semi-blp Template:Infobox person Robert Bruce Spencer (born February 27, 1962)<ref>Template:Cite twitter</ref><ref name="splc">Template:Cite web</ref> is an American anti-MuslimTemplate:Refn author and blogger, and one of the key figures of the counter-jihad movement.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="KaplanLööw2017">Template:Cite book</ref>
Three of Spencer's books reached The New York Times Best Seller list.<ref name="splc" /> 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.<ref name="Anti-Muslim-speakers-Washingtonpost">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":1" /> 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".<ref name="BBC-US-bloggers-banned-from-UK"/> He has frequently appeared on Fox News.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Background
Spencer was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church and joined the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1984.<ref name="Spero News">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":3" /> 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.<ref name="lamb">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Muhammad comes to">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref name=UNC>Template:Cite thesis</ref>
Spencer has been harshly criticized by several clerics of the Roman Catholic Church because of his views on Islam.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, as a result of "personal reflection and historical study", Spencer returned to the Greek Orthodox Church.<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref>
Activities and writings
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.<ref name="Let's talk about Robert Spencer">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He worked in think tanks for more than 20 years,<ref name="Muhammad comes to"/> and in 2002–2003 was an adjunct fellow with the Free Congress Foundation.<ref name="tribute">Template:Cite web</ref>
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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition to being the editor for the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Jihad Watch blog, Spencer has also written for Breitbart News,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and has been a columnist for Human Events, PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine.<ref name="splc"/><ref name="spencer">Template:Cite web</ref>
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<ref>"Backgrounder: Stop Islamization of America (SIOA)" Template:Webarchive. Extremism. Anti-Defamation League. March 25, 2011 [August 26, 2010]. Retrieved February 16, 2012.</ref> and the Southern Poverty Law Center.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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",<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name="splc"/>
Ban from entering the UK
On June 26, 2013, both Spencer and Pamela Geller were banned from entering the UK.<ref name="BBC-US-bloggers-banned-from-UK">Template:Cite news</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite video</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which said it had collected 26,000 signatures for a petition to the Home Secretary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="UK Human Rights Blog">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Spencer responded to the ban by stating that the UK had become a "de facto Islamic state".<ref name="splc"/>
The government of Pakistan previously banned Spencer's book, The Truth About Muhammad, in 2007, citing "objectionable material" as the cause.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His book Onward Muslim Soldiers was banned in Malaysia the same year.<ref name="BERNAMA">Template:Cite news</ref>
Speaking engagements
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He spoke at the University of Buffalo in May the same year, where he was shouted down and heckled.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Spencer said, "There is one kind of diversity that is not valued generally in an academic setting and that is intellectual diversity."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Spencer spoke at Stanford University in November 2017, during which a group of students walked out.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A medical report indicated he had been given MDMA and amphetamines.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name="splc"/>
Influence and criticism
Spencer is known for his anti-Muslim views. He comments on radical Islam, Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism, and Islamic supremacism.<ref name="Deland 2014 p. 162">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="splc"/> 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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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."<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Spencer condemned Breivik and said he was unfairly blamed by the media for the attack,<ref name=":2" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> likening it to Charles Manson drawing inspiration from The Beatles.<ref name="splc"/> Breivik has later admitted that he has been a neo-Nazi since the early 1990s, who only in later years exploited counter-jihad writings.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> His books were later dropped from federal training programs.<ref name="splc"/>
Bibliography
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Robert B. Spencer
- 1962 births
- Living people
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- American bloggers
- American counter-jihad activists
- American critics of Islam
- American male bloggers
- American male non-fiction writers
- American political writers
- Breitbart News people
- Christian critics of Islam
- Converts to Eastern Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy
- Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Catholicism
- FrontPage Magazine people
- Greek Orthodox Christians from the United States
- Human Events people
- Middle Eastern Christians
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni