Ali Eteraz On Robert Spencer's Emory Piece
Those of you who follow my posts here and elsewhere know that I’m a big fan of Eteraz.org. You also know that I’m not a fan of Jihad Watch. The reasons are obvious. Now while I’m a big fan of Eteraz.org and also a fan of its co-founder Ali Eteraz, I must say that there have been some few occassions in which I found Ali’s opinions to be distasteful and at times even offensive. On the other hand, I previously thought Robert Spencer to be a retarded dummy. I don’t think so anymore. For the past 3 months I followed his writings quite closely until I realized that Robert Spencer is indeed not your average hateful close-minded Islamophobe. He’s smart and he’s done a lot of reading on Islam but I certainly still do strongly disagree with his points of view. I can blog a post detailing why but it won’t come close to this one. Ali Eteraz has just written one of his best posts ever. What do you think?
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Ali’s article was BEAUTIFUL. And it’s great knowing that some students are actively refuting Spencer’s arguments. I appreciate Spencer’s interest in Islam but hell, he’s really misinformed and confused.
Salam ya 3ajeeba. Called you again. TWICE! And ya Ali’s article was indeed good. One of the reasons I really liked (besides how he refuted Spencer’s points) was because of the calm manner he did it in. He didn’t turn the issue into a personal one.
I truly enjoyed this post and the article it linked to. One of the greatest problems in our world is the tendency sometimes to focus on the past (really, past greivances) instead of looking for solutions in the present that will result in a better future. This post does a wonderful job of pointing out the argument that looking at political and legal moves from a religion’s ancient past is absurd.
Do any of us — Muslim, Christian, Jew or any other religion — want our current beliefs to be personified by the past? How do Christians feel if the Crusades or the Inquisition are trotted out to comment on modern Christianity? Of course, everyone who is rational thinks that is ridiculous. So too, the desire to cite sources from the 1400s to illustrate Islam today. The folks at Jihadwatch have a right to free speech, and as such, they can go ahead and have their web site, but they would do well to focus on actual jihadis, rather than Islam.
And Spencer’s response is why I think he’s not professional at all.
He did the same thing to Dr. Palmer when his arguments were refuted. He doesn’t argue back, instead, he is the one who resorts to insults and then blames these people for being “full of contempt.”
Ali argued with calmness the way you said, Drima. Look at the way Robert replied and then tell me you still think he’s well informed and “smart?”
Yeah. I think pulling “facts” from my butt could pass for smart in this world. I should try it!
OK, I just read Spencer’s response (thanks, Esra’a) and am totally confused. I kept going back and re-reading because I didn’t think it was written to the same person about the same article. Too bad — I would have liked the two of them to debate/discuss intelligently.
Well, Robert had to go ahead and ruin it by painting himself as the victim of Ali’s attacks. But he did say that he’s stuck in some airport and will respond to the post itself later.
For someone who is going to “reply asap” he soon did ramble on and on about nothing when he could have spent the time to refute the argument entirely. I hope he’s not going to rely on Wikipedia for his answers this time.
Now what he could’ve done is respect Ali’s religion and opinions and act like a real writer who appreciates people putting up with his books. Many people give up on him not because they can’t put up a challenge, but because he tends to make things personal. If you dislike his arguments, that means you must dislike him, and he gets all pouty which is hard to stomach after a while.
I see time and again people claiming that Muslims are not stepping in the ring and discussing these issues, but many are. And many are ridiculed by the people who are posting in these websites, who referred to Ali as a “failure” and as an “intellectual coward” despite the time and effort he put into Spencer.
Now I know these comments don’t represent Spencer’s remarks, but they do represent the typical manner in which our arguments are always greeted with. And it makes me sad that we have become so misrepresented and under appreciated.
And I would love that person who claimed that Muslims are intellectual cowards to see our “Discuss Islam with Muslims who are not afraid of criticism” section.
We are here if you need us, all I say is give us all you got and we’ll refute it with calmness, much respect and confidence. Just like millions of Muslims out there, I’m not scared. And I’m perfectly willing and capable. Kareem is one of the people who know that.