Stealth Jihad

Robert Spencer

I just arrived back in Secure Undisclosed Locationville in the Jihad Watch Maxwell Roadster, after speaking earlier today at the Young America's Foundation National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C.

This is the fourth year I have had the honor of addressing this Conference, and this year there were none of the fireworks of last year's event, when I was scheduled to speak about CAIR and those estimable moderates and patriots threatened to sue YAF before I had spoken a word, if I were allowed to go on. YAF, to their everlasting credit, was defiant, and I spoke as scheduled, and spoke about CAIR, as scheduled. You can see that one here:In a year, much has changed, and not much for the better. Now, in certain ways that statement contradicts appearances: people laughed at CAIR's ham-handed attempt at censorship in 2007, and that unsavory little organization was nowhere in sight this year. And when it comes to the problem of Islamic terrorism, more Americans believe that it is not a significant threat than at any time since before 9/11 -- thanks to the surge, and to the absence of any large attack in the U.S. since 9/11.

But amid all this confidence few Americans are aware of the stealth jihad, which was the bulk of what I spoke about at the YAF today. Few are aware that what CAIR tried to do clumsily to me last year, Islamic organizations are doing much more cannily and effectively this year: they have compelled Canadian Human Rights Commissions to go after Mark Steyn for speaking accurately about the Islamic jihad. They have compelled the United Nations Human Rights Council to forbid speaking about Islam in connection with practices sanctioned by Muslims and justified by some Islamic jurists, such as female genital mutilation and honor killing. They are trying to bring pressure upon Western governments to modify existing "hate speech" laws in order to make it impossible for non-Muslims to speak openly about the ideology of those who have vowed to destroy us.

And amid all this, even conservative and self-proclaimed politically incorrect media figures have completely internalized CAIR's highly dubious contention that any honest discussion of the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify violence and supremacism, and of what can be done about them, is "bigotry" and not to be countenanced. Even when they do deal with issues related to this, they do so in a misleading way: I didn't see it, but several people told me that during Fox's recent show on honor killing O'Reilly couldn't repeat often enough that the practice had nothing to do with Islam. Now, why would anyone care whether he did or not? Because Islamic law actually specifies that a parent who kills his or her child is subject to no penalty, and unless that is confronted, the practice will continue -- simply asserting that it is un-Islamic doesn't accomplish this. Meanwhile, some of freedom's former friends and supporters have gone wobbly, and the venues in which the Islamic assault on free speech and related issues continue to grow scarcer and scarcer.

I am never going to give up, no matter what. And I am sorry to throw cold water on the parade. But our freedom of speech is in grave danger, and once that goes, the agenda of those who have, in their own words, embarked upon a "kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions” will be that much more difficult to resist. The CAIR assault on free speech at YAF 2007 was just a stalking horse for a much more sophisticated and comprehensive initiative in the same direction. But will anyone wake up to this before it's too late?