To defeat the enemy we must understand who it is: interview with Robert Spencer ByNiram Ferretti

To defeat the enemy we must understand who it is: interview with Robert Spencer

ByNiram Ferretti

Posted on 7 February 2017

Following the highly contested executive order on immigration issued by the President of the United States, Donald Trump wanted to hear the clear voice of Robert Spencer, the director of Jihadwatch, who we have already had the pleasure of interviewing in the past.

Among his books on jihad and Islam we want to remember The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Coran (2009), Not Peace but a Sword (2013), The Complete Infildel's Guide to Iran (2016) and is available in Italian, Politically Incorrect Guide Islam and Crusades (2008) edited by Lindau.

I would like to start with a question about President Trump's executive order on immigration, which prevents citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States for a period of three months in order to implement security and control measures. Do you think that this provision is necessary, and if so why?

Yes, it is necessary. The choice is clear: either preventing some legitimate travelers from entering the country for a temporary period, or allowing entry to refugees, where there would certainly be an unknown number of Islamic jihadists who would kill American citizens. Those opposed to the executive order seem to be unaware of the fact that refugees have already perpetrated terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States.

President Trump's executive order has created a huge turmoil in the United States and many rebukes are also here in Europe. It was called "a Muslim banning", which obviously is not, as the countries in the list are seven in the midst of fifty-one Islamic countries in the world. In addition, these same countries were already considered dangerous by the Obama administration. What is your opinion about?

The president acted entirely in his prerogatives as outlined in US law. He is in fact responsible for limiting immigration for national security purposes. Who calls this a "Muslim ban" tries to mount the hysteria against Trump in order to discredit and destroy his ability to act.

Several people in the United States and Europe have also criticized the executive order for not including countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We know that Saudi Arabia has been a US ally since 1945 but we also know that it has sponsored terrorism in addition to spread Wahhabism. Qatar has funded terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Jabhat Al-Nusra, and Hamas. Why, according to you, were not included in the list?

I do not know why they are not included in the list but Reince Priebus (Chief of Staff of the White House) has said that other countries may be added. It is a very clever move, puts the alleged US allies like Saudi Arabia on alert.

In a recent interview with Raymond Ibrahim when I asked him what he thought of the long alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia, he replied that it was "a nauseating and scandalous alliance". Is that your opinion too?

Yes, absolutely. Saudis are the main leaders in spreading the jihadist ideology around the world, especially in those Muslim communities where a cultural Islam had developed which had minimized the role of jihad. They burned the world and are by no means the true allies of the United States.

She is one of the leading experts in Islamic jihad. What does it consider to be the largest bankruptcy of US anti-jihadist policies to date?

The biggest failure was to ignore and deny the motivational ideology behind jihadist terrorism. It was an official practice of the Obama administration to remove any references to Islam from terrorist training programs. It was an extremely self-defeating choice. You can not defeat an enemy that you do not understand.

On February 15, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington to meet President Trump on his first official visit after the election. Since its inception, Israel has been at the forefront in fighting Islamic terrorism. To what extent, in your view, can the United States and Europe benefit from Israeli experience?

Israel has undoubtedly a remarkable experience of terrorism that can benefit both the United States and the European countries.

Benjamin Netanyahu was a resolute antagonist to the Iranian nuclear agreement with President Obama. He still believes that this is a bad agreement and poses a serious threat not only for Israel but for the whole reason. Agree? And if yes, why?

Yes. The reasons why this is a bad deal have been explained in detail in my book The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran . What the agreement essentially means is to give a green light to the Iranian nuclear program after ten years. The sanctions that will endure during this ten year period are without force. In addition, lifting the economic sanctions has flooded the mullahs with billions that they are using and will use for their global jihadist terrorist network.

In recent years, IS, the so-called caliphate, has become a kind of Islamic black man, to the point that many think that if defeated, we will not have much to worry about. Do you also think that this way of thinking is profoundly illusory?

Yes it is. The thinking system of the Islamic State is supported by other Muslims. Defeating the Islamic State is important, but it will not extinguish the ideology that sustains it.

To what extent do you think that the widespread mantra that "Is Islam a Religion of Peace" has weakened Western perception that it is a real threat? And how can we explain this threat without putting all Muslims in the same category and creating phenomena of intolerance?

The false assertion that Islam is a religion of peace has generated ignorance about the global threat of jihad. We have to talk about Islamic doctrine, theology and Islamic law, not Muslims as a group. However, even when we do, we are accused of "Islamophobia," a term designed to intimidate people who are opposed to Jihadist terrorism.

Concluding a fundamental article published in 1976, Bernard Lewis, the dean of Western Islamists, wrote: "It should be remembered that Islam is not conceived as a religion in the Western sense but as a community, a loyalty, and a way of life the Islamic community is still recovering from the traumatic era in which Muslim governments and empires were overthrown and Muslim people were forcefully forced to be subject to the rules of foreigners and infidels. Today, both Saturday and Sunday people are suffering from the consequences. " Agree?

Lewis is quite right. It should also be noted that this "way of life" includes a political system and that this political system is authoritarian, suprematist, violent and intolerant.

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