Robert Spencer Gets Attacked…by American Citizens

This evening at NYU I witnessed an act which was both disturbing and appalling. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, an erudite scholar on Islam and patriotic defender of our freedom was giving a talk on the ever-growing threat to the West of Islamists. In the midst of describing the ends of Jihad as promulgated by one of the foremost radical Islamic scholars of the 1970s, a grungy looking fellow stood up and yelled at Spencer “Should we just go bomb all the Muslims!?” and attacking him with other vitriolic and hysterical words. In creating this diversion, a couple members of the audience ran up and threw pies at Mr. Spencer and another panelist. The campus authorities quickly intervened, and as the officers dragged the cowards away from the stage, another (presumably accomplice) student filmed the the officers on his phone. Luckily, Spencer and his fellow panelist Elan Journo ended up largely unscathed.

This whole scene characterizes where we are in America today. A man gets attacked for merely repeating the words of a Muslim radical. Worse, American students are planted in auditoriums all across this country ready to quash any free speech that is not to their liking. This is especially dangerous when it comes to matters of Islam, because as Spencer later argued in his speech, by not allowing criticism of the religion, and worse censoring free speech, we are elevating Islam above our own culture. This plays right into the hands of the people who wish to impose Sharia law over us. How ironic that the leftists in this country are the useful idiots for a Jihad movement that wishes to crush all tolerance. Finally of course, it is most likely the police who will be in trouble because of a video probably bound for YouTube as we speak which will show the officers violently hauling out the innocent and naive college hippies.

Most disheartening is the fact that it is people like Spencer who are literally risking their lives to try to wake Americans up to the grave fact that our enemies both abroad and within are getting stronger, and that it is our own politically correct culture which is allowing them to do so both through violent and democratic means. Where do we stand as a nation when we have to be afraid to merely shed light on the beliefs of our enemies? Where do we stand as a nation when our own people quell free speech? Where do we stand as a nation when we cannot criticize an ideology that has been used to justify the killing of 3,000 innocents on our soil, and countless other innocents abroad? We are headed down a suicidal path if the lovers of liberty do not stand up and fight.

Update: Mr. Spencer’s Response