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The core contradiction Spencer still hasn’t acknowledged
Erich, the author of the website Jihad Watch Watch, the only other conservative writer I know of who actually looks for intellectual consistency from prominent Islam critics, writes: You wrote: “I’m also not interested in reading Robert Spencer say for the ten thousandth time, “I’m still waiting for a moderate Muslim with real authority in the Islamic community to oppose jihadist teachings and thus prove the existence of a genuine moderate Islam, I’m still waiting, still waiting … gosh, they’ve disappointed me again …” Now consider these two quotes from Spencer: The first: “… a fact that we have pointed out many, many times at Jihad Watch: there is no reliable way to distinguish jihadists from peaceful Muslims.” The second: “There are millions upon millions of people who are culturally Muslim but are not interested in advancing the jihad agenda or even necessarily aware of it…” If the first statement is true, then the second—even if true—is useless for our pragmatic purposes of self-defense, because we have no reliable way to determine which of those millions upon millions of cultural Muslims are not in fact interested in jihad. So why does Spencer stubbornly persist in maintaining the second statement whenever people challenge him to condemn Islam? For a fuller analysis, see my blog essay “Contradiction Watch”.
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