Andrew Bostom, editor of the essential reference works The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, had this interesting exchange with the egregious pseudo-journalist Michael Kruse of the St. Petersburg Times, who has been doing his level best to obscure the case for the convert from Islam Rifqa Bary, denigrate her defenders, and ensure that she is delivered back to the father who threatened to kill her. The exchange begins with Andy asking Kruse why he took my quoting of CAIR cofounder Omar Ahmad's notorious statement about Islam becoming dominant in America and reported it as if I had made a flat assertion that "Islam was here to take over America."
1. Bostom to Kruse:
Gosh Mike, What was this about?
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2009/09/027459print.html
2. Kruse to Bostom:
Rob Spencer posted something on his blog.
3. Bostom to Kruse:
Obviously...But why on earth would you misrepresent what he said and its clear context so egregiously?
4. Kruse to Bostom:
I'm just listening to both sides.
5. Bostom to Kruse:
You were right next to him and then misrepresented what he said. Look at the videotape at 0:47...Isn't that you??? http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2009/09/027473print.html
6. Kruse to Bostom:
It's my job to listen to everybody. It's not my job to assign everybody equal credibility. When it comes to Robert Spencer scholars of Islamic studies outright dismiss him and his body of work. They call him an unreliable ideologue at best and a divisive bigot at worst. I can't do that, though, can't just ignore him like that, because he, and Pam Geller, too, are so much a part of this story, and certainly reasons it's turned into what it's turned into. Judging from his e-mails and how he talks in person, Rob strikes me as a pretty smart guy, but he's a pretty smart guy with a very specific worldview. Everything he writes or says gets filtered through that static narrowness. Here is a relatively new dynamic: The other day in Orlando, Rob and Pam were speakers at a news conference, advocates for one "side" of this whole thing, and THEN they covered it as members of the press. They're covering a story they've helped create, or at the very least stoke. The front row of the courtroom was for media, and there was the AP, some newspaper reporters, some TV reporters, some radio reporters, and there was Pam, a woman who last fall wrote a story on her blog saying Barack Obama was the illegitimate son of Malcom X. All of it is an interesting piece of the sprawling Rifqa Bary story, worth watching and considering now, and during the next story like it, and the next one after that.
7. Bostom to Kruse:
I deal with your non-sequiturs about Robert and Pamela, below. But first, you deliberately and grossly misrepresented what Robert said and the very specific context in which he made his statement--despite standing right next to him, as one can see in the videotape. That reflects very poorly on your own credibility and your ability to judge anyone else's for that matter.
Do you not see that? Do you not see your own transparent--certainly to me-- "static narrowness?"
As for scholarship, who are you to judge? What do you know about Islamic doctrine and history??
I asked you to contact Ibn Warraq via e-mail--He says he never heard from you, and judging from your responses to my repeated questioning you never obtained his definitive scholarly assessment of apostasy, "Leaving Islam"--so clearly real scholarship on the subject matter at hand---apostasy from Islam--does not even appeal to you.
Have you attempted to contact another high profile apostate from Islam, Nonie Darwish, who recently published "Cruel and Usual Punishment," and wrote about a high profile apostasy case ongoing NOW in her native Egypt, in early August??
I have compiled, edited, and introduced two critically acclaimed scholarly compendia--one on the jihad, the other on Islamic Antisemitism. I have also read and on several occasions reviewed Robert's books, and they easily exceed most of what passes for "scholarship" on Islam in today's academy--despite targeting, deliberately, the larger lay audience. Regardless, they are solid works in their own right that are meticulously documented. Have you read them and found identifiable flaws in any of them??
As for Pamela, excuse me, but from my where I sit, she is doing the basic shoe leather investigative reporting those like yourself have thus far refused to do.
How many of Rifqa's friends have you interviewed, starting for example with the now publicly identified Jamal Jivangee? What sort of financial investigation of Mr. and Mrs. Bary's businesses have you conducted??
I think you are being very disingenuous, and your pretense of "objectivity" is simply ludicrous.
8. Kruse to Bostom:
I should stop, I know this, but I just have to ask: We've talked on the phone, we've e-mailed, and you seem like an intelligent person, so how can you possibly take Pam Geller seriously?
9. Bostom to Kruse:
Excuse me, but just as you have calumniated Spencer--with a live video record to debunk you and prove your deliberate misrepresentation---you've now done the same with Geller.
From here: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/10/how-could-stanl.html
"The 'Atlas says that Barack Obama is Malcolm X's love child' charge has gone viral among leftards and lizards. The only problem with it is that it is false. I am not the author of this post, and I posted it because the writer did a spectacular job documenting Obama's many connections with the Far Left. The Malcolm X claim is one minor part of this story, and was of interest to me principally as part of the writer's documentation that Stanley Ann Dunham could not have been where the Obama camp says she was at various times. I do not believe that Barack Obama is Malcolm X's love child, and never did -- but there remain many, many unanswered questions about his early life and upbringing."
As a scrupulously honest, painstakingly objective journalist you must know that Pamela has written "I do not believe that Barack Obama is Malcolm X's love child, and never did"? Would you even care if you did know?
We know the answer to that, as your calumny against Spencer makes plain.
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