What does Robert Spencer do? An attempt at an impartial overall assessment

Spencer essentially does 4 distinct, though closely related things:

1) publishes reports about Muslims from other sources

2) publishes reports (usually from other sources) of what various Muslims write and say

3) discusses the various problems Muslims are causing based on #1 and #2, as well as on #4 (see below)

4) reproduces, in a discursive fashion interpolated usually with unremarkable paraphrastic interpretation, the writings of various Muslims of history -- including Muslim scholars of Islamic law, Muslim historians, Muslim exegetes of Islamic holy texts, and the Islamic holy texts themselves where pertinent.

It is only in part with #3, in the context of #4, where some may argue that Spencer sometimes errs, insofar as his contention or implication may be disputed: namely, that mainstream normative Islam -- not as defined solely by the holy texts of the Koran and the Sahih Hadiths themselves but also by the legal theory and codes based on legal theory, and the practice based on the theory and codes, as well as more broadly though amorphously the behaviors of large numbers of Muslims in various diverse places around the world -- is itself hostile to non-Muslims in terms of violent intolerance and supremacist expansionism.

Readers of my blog (and especially of my long retired sister blog, Jihad Watch Watch), know that I also have taken Spencer to task for poorly constructed or downright wrong interpretations radiating out of the data that documents the problem of Islam. That is not at issue here.

Returning to the point of today's essay: That there exist now, and throughout the history of Islam, innumerable Muslims who express in words and deeds such hostility to non-Muslims in terms of violent intolerance and supremacist expansionism -- and who themselves claim to base their expressions in Islam -- is indisputable fact. The only leeway for dispute here consists in the following two sets of questions:

a) Are these innumerable Muslims expressing mainstream, normative Islam? Or are they expressing a minority view that does not represent the Islam as defined by the Koran and Sunna, the Islam as theorized by the vast majority of Islamic representatives (clerics, legal scholars, etc.), and the Islam practiced by the vast majority of Muslims?

b) Whether we can answer (a) definitively or not, the following questions are pertinent:

i) are the problems caused by an indeterminable number of Muslims around the world in their inciting words and in their deeds -- both based so they claim on Islam -- of a sufficient magnitude and metastasis to render them an exigent concern for non-Muslims?

ii) How exigent is this concern?

iii) What should be done about it?

iv) And closely related to these questions is the question, are Muslims sufficiently addressing the problems that are emanating out of their Islam?

With respect to #1 and #2 above, we have ample evidence to suggest persuasively that the questions of (b) are to be answered (i) Yes, (ii) Very exigent, (iii) Measures more serious and substantive than we are taking currently, and (iv) No, respectively.

Readers of my blog know how I answer the questions of (a).

Note on #1:

This is the main activity of Jihad Watch. It probably comprises the bulk of what Spencer does. A simple sample of one month's sources on Jihad Watch verifies that for the most part, Spencer is not making stuff up, but simply re-publishing from other sources.

Consider the month of November of this year. What follows is simply a list of the sources from which Spencer and his editor Marisol derived their reports for that month. November does not remarkably differ from any other month of this, or any other, year since Jihad Watch began several years ago.

The list is nearly complete. I left out pieces that were mere interpretation essays, or blog pieces advertising or reporting on Spencer's tour of Australia, and the like. Such types of pieces constitute a tiny fraction of the overall output.

While some sources on the following list may be arguably of dubious reportorial merit (e.g., World Net Daily), and the credibility of others perhaps need to be further clarified (e.g., such Third World news sources as Compass Direct News or Free Malaysia Today, etc.) they are outweighed in quantity by the reputable sources.

Once the reader scans down the list, the charge that Spencer is making stuff up becomes absurd. Further substantiation of the merits of his sources is guaranteed when they are read; and only a severely obtuse person, or an ideologically deformed person (of the PC MC or the Islamic varieties), would not become increasingly disturbed, repulsed and horrified from reading story after story documenting the dangerous pathology of Muslims around the world.

Here's the November list:

The Times (of London)
Fox News (no one of credibility disputes that Fox News is an unremarkably mainstream and credible news source)
Associated Press
ANSAMed
Asia News
Voice of America
Minivan News
Evening Standard
Associated Press
Yahoo News
Evening Standard
CNN
Bloomberg News
Jakarta Globe
AdnKronos International
Compass Direct News
BBC News
Associated Press
Associated Press
The Telegraph
The Daily Mail
Los Angeles Times
MSNBC
The Guardian
Associated Press
Associated Press
CNN
Indo-Asian News Service
Free Malaysia Today
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
The Malaysian Insider
The Telegraph
The Guardian
Haaretz
The Telegraph
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Associated Press
The Independent
YNet News
Reuters
The West Australian
Haveeru News Service
BBC News
CNN
Asia News
NewsCore
Herald Sun
The Daily Trust via AllAfrica.com
AAP
World Net Daily
RFI
CNN
The Daily Mail
Associated Press
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
BosNewsLife
Agence France-Presse
Asia News
Associated Press
World Net Daily
Detroit News
Asia News
CNN
ANSAmed
Reuters
The Uptowner
CNN
The Jerusalem Post
Express Tribune
Associated Press
Agence France-Press
Reuters
Asia Times
Washington Post
BBC News
Asia News
Reuters
Asia News
The Guardian
ABC
New York Daily News
Washington Post
ABC News
CNN
Associated Press
ABC News
The Nation
CNN
Commentary
Agence France-Presse
New York Daily News
The Daily Mail
The New York Times
The Hill
The Daily Mail
Jakarta Post
Al-Arabiya
Reuters
Associated Press
Associated Press
Associated Press
Christian Science Monitor
The Malaysian Insider
Reuters
Reuters
New York Post
The Jerusalem Post
Reuters
Agence France-Presse
Asia News
Reuters
Agence France-Presse
BBC News
BBC News
Bloomberg News
Associated Press
Haaretz
Associated Press
RIA Novosti
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
ANSAmed
The Guardian
World Net Daily
IPT News
Charleston Post and Courier
Associated Press
Washington Post
Reuters
National Review Online
Associated Press
Associated Press
Reuters
The Telegraph
All Voices
Boston Globe
CNN
Associated Press
Jakarta Press
Asia News
AFP
The Media Line
AKI
Time Magazine
Bloomberg News
Associated Press
Israel National News
Reuters
Associated Press
Bikyamasr
The Telegraph
MEMRI
Herald Sun
Reuters
Compass Direct News
Compass Direct News
Compass Direct News
The Jerusalem Post
Associated Press
Agence France-Presse
Washington Post
Agence France-Presse
The Daily Mail
CNS News
Agence France-Presse
Reuters
UPI
YNet News
Associated Press
The Jerusalem Post
The Washington Times
Associated Press
BBC News
Asia News
Asia News
Asia News
World Net Daily
BBC News
Jakarta Globe
CBS Los Angeles
Al Quds
Express Tribune
Associated Press
YNet News
AFP
Associated Press
Compass Direct News
Ahlul Bayt News Agency
The Daily Caller
Norway News
Sydney Morning Herald
Express Tribune
Al Arabiya
Miami Herald
The Telegraph
Associated Press
New York Times
Associated Press
MSNBC
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse