Spencer denies report

Apparently replying to Steven H.’s comments below, Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch insists that he did not say on the William Bennett radio program this morning that he is optimistic about the prospects of Islamic reform, and adds that he will post an audio or transcript of his remarks to prove the point as soon as he can. If his remarks turn out to be ambiguous it will probably be because of his way of constantly leaving open the door to the possibility of Islamic reform, never stating definitively that it is impossible by the very nature of Islam. Like a statement calling for a real reduction or termination of Islamic immigration, the statement that a certain non-Western religion cannot under any circumstances be assimilated into the West would take Spencer outside the circle of the dominant liberal ideology, and that is something he has so far been totally unwilling to contemplate. Meanwhile his commenters, showing more clarity on the point than he, unanimously and categorically reject any notion that the religion of Muhammad is capable of reforming itself.

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Ed L. writes:

I think that Spencer can stick with his basic strategy of letting the actual behavior of Muslims speak for itself and still refrain, in his rhetoric, from taking a categorically negative view of Islam. Where he needs to shut his mouth is in situations in which there’s a temptation, in an ecumenical spirit, to say: “If moderate Muslims meet conditions X, Y, and Z, I’ll be happy.” That way, he won’t be forced to respond positively or feign pleasant surprise when moderates make some ostensibly conciliatory gesture—however phony or insincere.

Stripping away all nonsense, the real condition X would have it that if moderate Muslims are to stand any chance at all of getting into our good graces, we will settle for nothing less than that they defect from the faith. Spencer, of course, won’t say that, since he knows that he’d then be perceived as unreasonable.

In MOST instances, Muslims will surely demonstrate the bad behavior that Spencer expects them to exhibit. On occassions when they depart from those expectations, however, he needs to play his hand more skillfully. He must be prepared to make the case that seemingly conciliatory gestures are disingenuous and totally unsatisfactory from our standpoint. Muslims being media-savvy, they’re made for no other purpose than to play to the liberal gallery. We’d be naive and foolhardy to bite the bait. It shouldn’t be difficult for Spencer to make that case, at least with his current readership.

LA replies:

This is well put. Ed should send his ideas to Spencer. However, the problem is that once Spencer says, “I’m waiting for moderate Muslims to manifest themselves,” it it difficult for him not to add, “If they do such and such, that would be a positive sign,” and then, if they do even a fraction of such and such, Spencer as a public performer eager to show his reasonableness is almost required to say that this is a positive sign.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 23, 2007 08:56 PM | Send