“The stories about the video of US troops burning the bodies of dead Taliban are disgusting – but not because of anything our troops may have done to the corpses of fanatical murderers. What’s disturbing is the groveling reaction of our government and military officials, who are falling all over themselves to apologize to people who cheer every time an American is killed….

“I know all the rationales for the apologies and investigations and anxious assertions of how much we respect Islam. We need to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of all those alleged ‘moderate’ Muslims who hate us only because they don’t understand us, don’t realize how much we admire their wonderful religion…. The millions of Muslims who support jihadist murder do so not because they’re ignorant of our beneficent intentions and enlightened tolerance, but because of spiritual beliefs that validate jihad, beliefs ratified by 14 centuries of Islamic jurisprudence and theology.”

Bruce Thornton at VDH’s Private Papers, 26 October 2005

“Muslims should dispense with this discredited term and instead engage in some earnest introspection. Rather than blame the potential victim for fearing his would-be executioner, they would do better to ponder how Islamists have transformed their faith into an ideology celebrating murder (Al-Qaeda: ‘You love life, we love death’) and develop strategies to redeem their religion by combating this morbid totalitarianism.”

Daniel Pipes rejects the term “Islamophobia”. He takes particular exception to the fact that he himself is regularly described as an Islamophobe. (“What I really am is an ‘Islamism-ophobe’.”)

Note the ludicrous claim that “Muslims acting in the name of Islam today make up the premier source of worldwide aggression”! Whereas US imperialism is of course a source of peace and harmony.

Note too that Kenan Malik (described as a “British Muslim”!), Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Irshad Manji get favourable name-checks.

New York Sun, 25 October 2005

Robert Spencer for his part applauds Pipes’ “cogent and much-needed observations about the spurious phenomenon of ‘Islamophobia'”. Dhimmi Watch, 25 October 2005

Robert Spencer ponders the question: “am I indeed, and is the entire Jihad Watch enterprise, ‘anti-Muslim’?” The answer, you’ll be surprised to hear, is no – though “the jihadists and their allies would say yes”.

Spencer observes: “If jihadists use the Qur’an, Sunnah, and Islamic law to justify their violence, and I explain how they do it, I do not become anti-Muslim, any more than a scholar of the Hitler period becomes a Nazi if he writes about how the Nazis appealed to ordinary Germans.”

Yusuf Smith gets a name check as someone who, in an earlier exchange with Spencer, supposedly “saw a call for equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies, including freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, and equal employment opportunities, as a challenge to his religion”.

Jihad Watch, 19 October 2005

“Just about every conscious human in the free world knows about Islamic suicide bombers, train bombers, and night club bombers. Everyone knows that Muslims flying large commercial planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon on 9/11. Those are the actions of the obvious terrorist side of Islam….

“‘Peaceful Islam’ has been just as busy as the terror wing. Large numbers of Arab-Muslims have immigrated all over the world. European countries are alarmed at the number of Muslims within their borders. The attack on America was like a fire-bell ringing, waking other countries up to the growing masses of Muslims in their midst. It was noticed that these Muslims made no effort to blend in with the local population. Instead, Muslims banded together, taking over neighborhoods and eventually driving out the non-Muslims. Any acceptance of the local culture and customs was strongly discouraged and often severely punished. These Muslim neighborhoods set up their own legal system of Islamic law, ignoring the laws of the land. Immigrants were encouraged to have very large families to form huge voting blocks to maneuver Muslims into positions of power within the government.”

Another helpful contribution to community relations from the inimitable Barbara J. Stock.

Renew America, 19 October 2005