I guess it's not so dire a dilemma after all, eh Bob...?

The other day, I quoted Robert Spencer articulating (twice!) an eminently reasonable conclusion which, by his own words, he has repeated on his site Jihad Watch "many times" -- to wit:

... a fact that we have pointed out many, many times at Jihad Watch: there is no reliable way to distinguish jihadists from peaceful Muslims.

And:

... what we have pointed out many times over the years: that there is no reliable way to distinguish between Islamic "extremists" and Islamic "moderates".

This conclusion is eminently reasonable to the careful reader of Spencer's site, by virtue of the mountain of data about the various facets of the problem of Islam which he has been amassing there for years and reporting each day.

Now Spencer, true to form, sees fit to articulate a breezy formulation that, in a glib flash, totally undermines that deadly-sober conclusion. In discussing a Muslim reality TV show, he notes that its episodes happen to:

"...depict Muslims who by their own account aren't observant, and so not reading the texts and teachings that Islamic jihadists use to justify violence..."

And from this, Spencer concludes:

"... and so they're not the kind of people who would have given rise to any suspicion of Muslims in the first place."

Well, that settles that, I guess! No need to worry about the Muslim Roulette problem any more!

Contrary to Spencer's own previous words (which he himself says he has repeated "many times"), he now contradicts himself (as he has numerous times in the past on this precise point) and asserts that, apparently, we can tell which Muslims are dangerous and which ones aren't!

So, I guess you can relax now, Bob (De Niro, that is).

A reader at Jihad Watch named "glenkille", commenting just today (December 18) on Spencer's thread concerning how much progress the anti-Islam (sorry -- the "anti-Jihad") movement is making as reflected in the wider and wider use of various terms coined (so Spencer claims) by himself and his colleague Pam Geller, wrote:

Robert, I picked up an excellent phrase here on JW a week or so ago. Unfortunately I forget who said it. The phrase, 'Muslim roulette' refers to the problem of how to distinguish between a "moderate" muslim and a jihadist.