“My comrade-in-arms, my pal, my buddy.”— Oriana Fallaci“Robert Spencer incarnates intellectual courage when, all over the world, governments, intellectuals, churches, universities and media crawl under a hegemonic Universal Caliphate’s New Order. His achievement in the battle for the survival of free speech and dignity of man will remain as a fundamental monument to the love of, and the self-sacrifice for, liberty.”"Perhaps the foremost Catholic expert on Islam in our country."“Robert Spencer is indefatigable. He is keeping up the good fight long after many have already given up. I do not know what we would do without him. I appreciate all the intelligence and courage it takes to keep going despite the appeasement of the West.”— Ibn Warraq“America's most informed, fearless, and compelling voice on modern jihadism.”— Andrew C. McCarthy, Senior Fellow at National Review Institute“Robert Spencer is the leading voice of scholarship and reason in a world gone mad. If the West is to be saved, we will owe Robert Spencer an incalculable debt.”— Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs "The consummate Islam critic and expert." — Bruce Bawer“Over the years, we have become friends, and I have received his assistance on several pieces of legislation I proposed.”— Former Congressman Tom Tancredo “Few people are capable of applying scholarship, analytical reasoning, and objectivity to their topic -- while simultaneously being readable and witty -- as can Robert Spencer.”“A national treasure...The acclaimed scholar of Islam.”— Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy “I am indeed honored to call him my friend.” Brad Thor , novelist“A top American analyst of Islam....A serious scholar...I learn from him.”“A brilliant scholar and writer.”— Douglas Murray"One of my best teachers."— Ashraf Ramelah, Voice of the Copts“Thank God there’s at least one man with balls left in the West.”— Kathy Shaidle, Five Feet of Fury “I read people like [Mark Steyn] and Bob Spencer and the rest of them, and I say, ‘Boortz, you’re pretending you’re an author. These people really are. They really write some entertaining, some standup stuff.’”“Robert Spencer is the Stephen King of Jihad.”“Armed with facts and fearlessness, Spencer stands up for Western civilization.”— Michelle Malkin“Widely read in conservative foreign policy circles.”— New York Times“Widely read in many quarters in Washington.”— Washington Post“A canny operative who likely has the inside track on the State Department’s Middle East affairs desk should the tea party win the White House.”— New York Magazine“A hero of the American right.”— Karen Armstrong"Spencer’s comprehensive understanding of his Christian faith and Islam along with lucidly insightful writing give the lie to his international notoriety as a bigoted 'Islamophobe.'""The leading anti-Islamic intellectual in the United States....The go-to Islam expert for the right wing."— Salon Magazine“Robert Spencer is an Edward Said turned upside down.”— Stephen Suleyman Schwartz“One of the nation's most notorious Islamophobes.”— Hamas-linked CAIR"Geller and Spencer are probably the most important propagandizing Islamophobes in the world. These people's voices speak very loudly — not just here in the United States but overseas."— Heidi Beirach, Southern Poverty Law Center“Satanic ignoramus.”— Khaleel Mohammed“The Likud anti-Christ.”— Dar al-Hayat newspaper (Saudi Arabia)“Zionist Crusader, missionary of hate, counter-Islam consultant.”— Al-Qaeda’s Adam Gadahn, “Azzam the American” ||||| Upgrade to the latest Flash Player for improved playback performance. Upgrade now or more info ||||| Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is many things: a huckster, a convenient scapegoat, a terrible filmmaker. But to the members of America’s Islamophobic fringe, the producer of “The Innocence of Muslims” is something altogether different. He’s a victim. 
 
 Nakoula is a man being punished by the Muslim extremists who have infiltrated the White House, and now want to criminalize any criticism of the Prophet, according to anti-Islam crusaders like Robert Spencer. “He is a political prisoner,” Spencer says. 
 
 Never mind the fact that Nakoula seems to have tricked his actors into making a viral video that depicted Muhammad as a child molester. Never mind Nakoula’s conviction for bank fraud, which earned him a 21-month sentence in federal custody and a ban on using assumed identities, after he used 14 different aliases. Never mind the fact that Nakoula not only appeared to violate that probation by using the identity “Sam Bacile” when producing his video, or the fact the he doesn’t even seem to have been convicted under his real name. [In court Friday, he said he was really Mark Basseley Youssef (.pdf). He changed it back in 2002 because "Nakoula is a girl's name and it cause me troubles," he claimed.] 
 
 To his defenders, it may even be kind of appropriate for Nakoula to go by so many names. To them, he’s become less of a man and more of a symbol – a prism for projecting a thousand conspiracy theories about a Muslim president gone mad with power, ready to unleash his scimitared hordes. 
 
 “He has been arrested not for the technicality of the probation violation, but for insulting Muhammad. His arrest is a symbol of America’s capitulation to the Sharia,” Spencer writes. 
 
 “I am Nakoula Basseley Nakoula,” blogger Scott Johnson adds. 
 
 “Hillary Clinton, I insist that you have me arrested. I am thinking of making a movie about Mohammed,” declares Roger L. Simon, who continues, “Any Jews who now vote for Obama are ‘useful idiots’ beyond anything ever conceived by Lenin.” 
 
 Is there a First Amendment critique to be made of the White House’s handling of Nakoula and his video? There sure is. At first, the Obama administration tried to put the blame for the current unrest in the Middle East on Nakoula — a charge we now know to be unfair. Then the Pentagon’s top general tried in vain to talk one of the video’s promoters into abandoning “Innocence.” And the White House unsuccessfully asked YouTube to pull the video from its servers. 
 
 Afterward, ACLU executive Ben Wizner said the civil liberties group was “concerned” by the federal government’s apparent attempt to “throw its weight behind a request for self-censorship.” That didn’t stop Investors’ Business Daily from fuming that “Americans might as well be living under Islamic blasphemy laws, yet the nation’s champion of free speech — the ACLU — is AWOL. That’s because it’s now largely run by Muslims.” 
 
 The rhetoric only heated up with Nakoula’s arrest on Thursday. “He was hunted down like an animal,” wrote Pamela Geller, a prominent member of the anti-Islam camp. “He is being jailed for blasphemy. This is Obama sharia enforcement in America.” 
 
 It’s a bit of an odd accusation, considering that Nakoula directly contradicted his terms of probation (.pdf), which explicitly forbade him from “us[ing], for any purpose or in any manner, any name other than his/her true legal name or names without the prior written approval of the Probation Officer.” 
 
 But what makes the Obama comment particularly odd is that U.S. Magistrate Judge Suzanne H. Segal (.pdf), who ordered that Nakoula be taken into custody, was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 — during the administration of George W. Bush. 
 
 Of course, it’s not surprising that Geller would come to the defense of Nakoula and his film. She’s a political ally of one of the men who helped make the movie. 
 
 Joseph Nassralla Abdelmasih is the president of Media for Christ, a Duarte, California-based broadcasting concern. He not only obtained the permits to shoot “Innocence” and allowed Nakoula to use his soundstage. Media for Christ’s Arabic-language television channel, “The Way TV,” also hosts a regular segment by “Innocence” consultant Steve Klein, who uses the platform to let loose a series of anti-Muslim diatribes. (A sample: “We’re just telling the truth about Muhammad being a pedophile and a murderer. Why do you want to kill us? Why do you want to come to America? Why do you want to replace our Constitution? Why do you want to replace our church?”) 
 
 Nassralla appeared alongside Geller, Rober Spencer, and “Innocence”-promoter Morris Sadek at a pair of rallies protesting a Muslim center in downtown Manhattan. ”I come from Egypt. Egypt was Coptic, was Christians. From one thousand four hundred years, Islamic conquer our country with their lies [sic],” Nasralla declared at the 2010 event. 
 
 After portions of “Innocence” aired on Egyptian television, and rioters seized on the film as an excuse to storm the American embassy there, Nasralla published a statement on Geller’s blog saying he was “shocked” that Nakoula has turned the film into an anti-Muhammad diatribe. “The work of my ministry and my television station is to expose the brutal ideology of sharia and terrorism…. We never insult anyone.” 
 
 In February of this year, Geller used her blog to promote a movie not unlike “Innocence.” The idea was to make a film so devastating to Muhammad, it would shatter the religion of his followers. “To get rid of Islam we need to reveal the truth about it,” the blog noted. ” We need to make a motion picture about Muhammad – a biopic that reveals the details of his life. The Devil is in the details.” 
 
 The post was written long after Nakoula began casting “Innocence.” But it’s not hard to see why Geller would rush to the defense of the film, and its maker. She had a similar notion herself. ||||| Hillary Clinton, I insist that you have me arrested. I am thinking of making a movie about Mohammed. 
 
 I don’t want to brag, but as a film professional with an Academy Award nomination in screenwriting, I may do a better job than Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, alleged creator of the Innocence of Muslims. 
 
 But I have to admit one thing. Hopeless and inept as Nakoula may be as a filmmaker, I agree with the intentions of his movie. I too have a serious problem with Islam because I happen to abhor misogyny and homophobia, both mainstays of that faith. And, like most Americans, I prefer freedom of religion to jihad, Sharia law, and a global caliphate. 
 
 Don’t let me criticize any of that. 
 
 I also happen to agree with Nakoula that making a movie about a faith whose prophet married a six year old and deflowered her at nine is of thematic and dramatic relevance. As a father, I am seriously concerned about child abuse, as is most of our film-going public, I would imagine. 
 
 Indeed, the beginnings of Islam are the very stuff of great theatre and cinema, reprehensible as the actions of the protagonist may be. In fact, it may be great because of those actions. After all, Richard III is not a classic for nothing. 
 
 So I am very tempted by the subject of Mohammed. 
 
 Arrest me, Hillary Clinton, before I start. Call Eric Holder! 
 
 And while you are at it, tell him to round up Salman Rushdie. His novel about Mohammed is obviously blasphemous. He was lucky to escape that fatwa. We should have one of our own. 
 
 And arrest those Danish cartoonists too – ink-stained wretches! 
 
 Arrest everyone who dares to criticize a religion that wants to take the world back to the seventh century. After all, you’re a “progressive.” You’re on the side of human rights. 
 
 And make us apologize for our work, too. We didn’t mean a word we said. I’m sure the thoughtful folks in the Arab Street will accept our apologies and return to their peaceful, meditative lives. 
 
 But most of all, arrest me because I might even make things worse. 
 
 My film is likely to be inspired by a fascinating lecture I heard by the very Rushdie during which the novelist, who read Islamic history at Cambridge, explained the origins of that faith. He said it began with Mohammed’s ruthless and violent battle with the mother cults that then controlled Medina over local trade routes. It was about money then, but, as I will show in my movie, that war evolved into a kind of perpetual “War on Women” that has been waged by Islam since. 
 
 Interesting, huh? Good cinema. Action, adventure, sex (matriarchy vs. ultra-patriarchy), even a little meaty conversation like Lawrence of Arabia. 
 
 Don’t let me do it. There’s only one “War on Women” and you know it -- the one your fellow Democrats ascribe to Mitt Romney and company. I wouldn’t want to undermine that. 
 
 So stop me, Hillary, before I write. The Bill of Rights is a fusty old document anyway, obviously subject to revision by an UN-approved committee of trans-global multi-culturalists. 
 
 Censor me all you want. I’m ready. I don’t want to cause any international incidents. I have enough sleepless nights as is. 
 
 But you will excuse me if, in the process, I think of you as the deepest of reactionaries. I knew you were a big time liar when you blamed the “right-wing conspiracy” for your husband’s obvious serial adultery. That was nothing compared to this, however. By blaming filmmakers, even the most amateurish ones, for the murderous actions of fanatical Islamists, you have placed yourself in complete opposition to everything our country ever stood for and to the essence of the U.S. Constitution. 
 
 How despicable. 
 
 ADDENDUM: For an insight to the degree to which our State Department has lied to us and to themselves about the situation in the Middle East, go here. Any Jews who now vote for Obama are "useful idiots" beyond anything ever conceived by Lenin. ||||| Islamofascism: Americans might as well be living under Islamic blasphemy laws, yet the nation's champion of free speech — the ACLU — is AWOL. That's because it's now largely run by Muslims. 
 
 The ACLU usually stands up strong for First Amendment rights. Not in the case of the Muhammad movie. 
 
 The ACLU's executive director failed to release an official statement condemning the outrageous efforts of the White House to deep-six the film, including pressuring YouTube to remove its trailer from the Web. 
 
 Amnesty International, in contrast, asserted that any Muslim hurt over the film "should not be used as a justification to curtail core freedoms or justify potential government repression." 
 
 Not until The Daily Caller contacted the ACLU did it speak out, and only meekly so. It said it was "concerned" about the White House request to censor the "repellant film." The ACLU's strangely muted response contrasts sharply with its militant reaction to post-9/11 measures to crack down on Islamic terrorists. 
 
 "The government has gone to extraordinary lengths to squelch dissent (in the Muslim community) — from censorship and surveillance to detention," it says on its website, complaining it was "encroaching" on the "free speech rights" of Muslims. 
 
 In a 200-page report on jihad fundraising, "Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity," the ACLU argued that "federal law enforcement is engaging in practices that intimidate Muslim donors and create a climate of fear that chills American Muslims' free and full exercise of their religion." 
 
 In other words, the First Amendment rights of Muslims are more precious than those of the average citizen. 
 
 Where is this bias coming from? Muslims. 
 
 The ACLU now counts at least eight on its national executive staff alone. In fact, a Muslim runs the ACLU's Center for Democracy, while another heads its National Security Project. 
 
 The irony is not lost on Steve Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. 
 
 "The ACLU was founded on the basis that there shouldn't be any blasphemy laws," said Emerson, who's airing a new documentary, "Jihad in America: The Grand Deception." "Yet in the last 10 years, they've appointed (to their boards) members of the Muslim Brotherhood who believe in blasphemy laws." 
 
 The top Muslim lawyer in ACLU's stable is Jameel Jaffer, who successfully sued the U.S. to reveal CIA secrets for interrogating terror suspects. 
 
 This national-security wrecking machine is not even American. He's Canadian. He also happens to be a Muslim activist closely tied to major Muslim Brotherhood figures and front groups.
– To America's anti-Muslim bloggers, the director of Innocence of Muslims is more of a cult hero than a criminal, Wired reports. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula "is a political prisoner," writes one, who argues that recent Arab protests are designed "to intimidate the US into criminalizing criticism of Islam." Another wants to be arrested because "I am thinking of making a movie about Muhammed"; he goes on to call Jews who vote for President Obama "''useful idiots' beyond anything ever conceived by Lenin." Not all of them are typing away in basements, either. Investors' Business Daily recently seethed that "Americans might as well be living under Islamic blasphemy laws," and a California-based broadcaster called Media for Christ has welcomed guests who slam the Muslim religion (sample here). While Wired agrees that there is a good First Amendment argument against President Obama's handling of Innocence, America's anti-Islamist movement goes much further—arguing that Muhammed is "a pedophile and a murderer" and that we should "get rid of Islam." Click for the full article.