I am surprised that Lisa Wangsness didn't shout allahu akbar at her attack and victory over the free exchange of ideas. Here's the backstory: Boston Globe's Lisa Wangsness covertly agitates to strong-arm dhimmi Catholic diocese to nix Robert Spencer
There is more. Go.JihadwatchHere is the Boston Globe's story today, with my comments interspersed. You can see my exchanges with Globe reporter Lisa Wangsness, who (I'm told) exhorted people to call the diocese to get my talk canceled, here.
Please contact the diocese of Worcester and let them know, politely and courteously, that you disapprove of their capitulation to Islamic supremacists and refusal to give me an opportunity to answer their charges or get a fair hearing.
Spokesman for the diocese Raymond Delisle: rdelisle@worcesterdiocese.org
Bishop Robert McManus: rmcmanus@worcesterdiocese.org
Diocese of Worcester: 508-791-7171"Catholic event cancels talk by Islam critic," by Lisa Wangsness for the Boston Globe, January 31:
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester rescinded an invitation Wednesday to Robert Spencer, a Catholic whose work depicts Islam as an inherently violent religion, to speak at its annual Catholic Men’s Conference in March.My work depicts Islam the way Islam is depicted in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and by Muslim leaders around the world. I just report on what they say. If they say Islam is inherently violent, and they do, in hundreds of ways, every day, in all parts of the globe, then I report on that. This is a very common Islamic supremacist tactic to try to deflect attention away from the numerous calls to hatred of and violence against Infidels by Muslim clerics: to claim that non-Muslim foes of jihad and Islamic supremacism are "linking Islam to terrorism" in some unacceptable and illegitimate way when they report on how Muslim clerics link Islam to terrorism. And here we have a Boston Globe reporter using their tactic.
The invitation was withdrawn after Muslims in Massachusetts expressed concerns to the diocese about the appearance of Spencer, scheduled to be a featured speaker at the DCU Center on March 16.They "expressed concerns," all right. They "expressed concerns" in a highly defamatory screed that you can read here. No one in the diocese of Worcester made any attempt to verify its charges. They just fell in line without question, like good dhimmis.
Note also that I have been told that Lisa Wangsness herself, the Boston Globe reporter, exhorted people to call the diocese of Worcester and ask that my talk be canceled. She denies this, but I don't know why my sources would invent such a story if it weren't true. It's extraordinarily irresponsible behavior from a "journalist," of course, but journalistic integrity is pretty much a thing of the past these days, and virtually all mainstream media journalists are propagandists for causes rather than objective reporters, so I am not all that surprised.
Spencer is director of the blog Jihad Watch and a leader of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America, both of which are seen as anti-Muslim groups by some organizations that monitor extremism.I expect that Lisa Wangsness did not mention by name the "organizations that monitor extremism" because even Boston Globe readers would recognize that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for American Progress are hard-Left propaganda groups that smear conservatives for cash, rather than engage in genuine and impartial analysis.
His books include “Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs,” “The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion,” and “Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics.” On his blog, he has argued that jihad is a central tenet of the faith.No honest Muslim would deny that jihad is a central tenet of the faith. Many in the West argue that it is solely a spiritual struggle to improve oneself, as we see in Hamas-linked CAIR's cynical and deceptive #MyJihad campaign. However, all too many of their coreligionists around the world daily confirm that they regard jihad as involving warfare against Infidels. Classic Islamic theology holds that both meanings are correct -- thus to declare that it is a spiritual struggle alone is inaccurate and deceptive, as is claiming that it is not a central tenet of Islam.
After the Globe sought comment on his scheduled appearance from the diocese and from Muslim organizations Wednesday, the Islamic Council of New England sent an e-mail urging Catholic leaders to cancel Spencer’s appearance. The diocese agreed to do so shortly after receiving the e-mail.“Although the intention of the conference organizers was to have a presenter on Islam from a Catholic’s perspective, we are asking Robert Spencer to not come to the Worcester Catholic Men’s Conference, given that his presence is being seen as harmful to Catholic–Islamic relations both locally and nationally,” Raymond Delisle, a spokesman for the diocese, said in a statement issued to the Globe.
Raymond Delisle never asked me not to come. He never communicated with me at all. He never sought my response to the Islamic Council's libelous letter. In any case, I am thinking going to the Worcester Catholic Men's Conference anyway. I am told that many of the organizers and attendees wanted to hear my presentation, so maybe I will give it in a hallway, or on the sidewalk outside.
The conference is a religious and social gathering for Catholic men, as well as their male friends and relatives, that typically includes talks from prominent Catholic men, a Mass said by the bishop, and the opportunity to attend confession.Dr. Abdul Cader Asmal, cochairman of communications for the Islamic Council of New England, called the cancellation of Spencer’s speech “very reassuring” and said it was consistent with longstanding good relations between the Muslim and Catholic communities in Massachusetts.
“Somebody may have been blindsided by Robert Spencer, not knowing exactly what kind of hatemonger he was,” he said.
Blindsided by me? I was the only one blindsided here -- as I said last night, tried, convicted and executed without any chance to tell my side of the story or clear my name. Neither Lisa Wangsness nor Raymond Delisle had the wit to ask Abdul Asmal who among critics of jihad and Islamic supremacism he does not regard as a "hatemonger" -- this kind of defamation is also a tactic, one that is used against everyone who dares speak out against Sharia-justified warfare against and persecution of non-Muslims, oppression of women, etc.
Spencer, in an e-mail late Wednesday afternoon, said the diocese had not notified him of the cancellation.“If it does turn out to be true,” he said in another e-mail, “it is new evidence of the cowardice of Roman Catholic officials in confronting the reality of Muslim persecution of Christians and their inability to grasp the importance [of] basing genuine dialogue between religions on truth, however unpleasant, rather than on wishful thinking and comforting fictions.”
In an earlier e-mail, he defended his work.
“There is nothing hateful or bigoted about what I say,” he said. “My work is in defense of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law.”
In September, the American Freedom Defense Initiative posted ads in the New York subway system that referred to Islamists who opposed the state of Israel as “savages.” The group is now running a second series of ads featuring photographs of the burning World Trade Center alongside a quotation attributed to the Koran: “Soon we shall cast terror into the hearts of unbelievers.”
Sheesh. The Qur'an is online in multiple places, and the ad gives the chapter and verse number: 3:151. Wangsness could have looked it up. Instead, she implies that I made it up. That's "journalism" for you. In any case, those who destroyed the World Trade Center were, by their own account, motivated by verses of the Qur'an like that one. So what exactly is the problem with the ad? And this fact is denied and obfuscated everywhere today, while Islamic supremacists advance the same Sharia agenda of the 9/11 hijackers by different means -- hence the need for the ad in the first place.
