How long will Spencer keep demanding that Muslims not be Muslims?

(Note: My repy to Kidist has been revised since it was first posted.)

Who does he think he is? Dennis Prager?

Kidist Paulos Asrat writes:

I’ve read Robert Spencer’s latest article on FrontPage Magazine three times. It is very difficult to understand. I even went to Jihad Watch for further elucidation.

Spencer is denouncing Nayyar, the “leader of the Islamic Association of Long Island,” i.e., an imam at a mosque, for not denouncing certain Koranic verses, including the one that says, “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them” (9:5). What he seems to be saying is that the literal interpretation that jihadists make of these verses should be deemed incorrect by imams such as Nayyar.

Also, Nayyar is of course being disingenuous when he publicly condemns a member of his mosque who has been charged with attacking an American military base in Afghanistan.

But Spencer, who should know by now that imams lie (since he’s pointed it out a million times himself), is saying that it is not enough that this imam (disingenuously) condemns terrorist/jihadist activities. Rather, says Spencer, the imam should also denounce all those who follow the word of Koran literally (“Slay the idolaters wherever you find them”) and thus perform their terrorist/jihadist activities.

Spencer’s article looks like a joke, for these reasons:

a. We know that imams are disingenuous, and would only mouth public denunciations of jihadism.

b. We know that imams don’t, and will never, condemn the literal interpretation of the Koran.

So, why is Spencer writing this piece, which makes it appear that he thinks that there are “moderate” imams around, contrary to all the information we’ve had to date, most especially from Spencer himself?

If he thought there were ordinary Muslims who are moderate, his appeal to moderates might be excused. But to think that imams will decline to follow the words of the Koran, and will preach to their members not to follow the words of the Koran, is either a joke (satire), or Spencer has lost it.

Spencer titles the Jihad Watch article: “A Muslim leader condemns ‘Islamist extremism,’ but does he go far enough?”

LA replies:

What else is there for Spencer to do, other than the very thing you’ve described—calling on Muslim leaders to stop believing in the literal truth of the Koran, which, from their point of view, would mean to stop being Muslims? What is it that drives him to keep repeating his futile demand on Muslims that they perform the impossible?

Here is my answer. Despite the fact that Spencer, to his credit, reiterates from time to time his support for the reduction or cessation of Muslim immigration, he has no serious interest in advancing these and other practical measures to stop and roll back the Islamic tide in the West. That’s just not his thing, as you and I have discussed. His thing is analyzing Islam, at which he is very good. The problem is, he’s already analyzed it sufficiently, showing definitively that Muslim leaders cannot renounce the jihadist teachings of the Koran, that Islam cannot become “moderate.” For non-Muslims, the inescapable logical and practical consequence of that realization is to give up the hope of reforming Islam and to acknowledge that Islam as such must be opposed. But, since Spencer refuses to oppose Islam as such, he’s left with no recourse but to keep oscillating absurdly back and forth between definitively pointing out that Muslims cannot reform Islam, and demanding that they reform it. Instead of saying that Islam is a problem, period, instead of saying that Islam does not belong in the West, period, he keeps holding out the hope for the reform of Islam, the very thing he’s indicated a thousand times cannot happen.

Spencer thus appears to have reached the end of his tether. If he is not to stagnate intellectually, he must go beyond his longstanding position of declining to oppose Islam as such. But calling on Spencer to go beyond his longstanding position on Islam is like calling on Muslims to stop being Muslims. There’s no point in trying to persuade him. Been there. Done that.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 02, 2009 02:13 AM | Send