Walid Shoebat

{{Islamophobia|1}}
{{hatnote|For a shit apple that didn't fall far from this shit tree, see our article on [[Theodore Shoebat]]}}
'''Walid Shoebat''' (Arabic: وليد شعيبات) is an anti-[[Islam|Muslim]] activist and self-proclaimed "Former [[Muslim Brotherhood]]
Member Now Peace Activist", ex-terrorist and terrorism expert. He's also a pretty obvious fraud and nutcase. Shoebat makes his living as a high-priced touring lecturer and co-author of sensationalist books such as ''The Case FOR Islamophobia: Jihad by the Word; America's Final Warning''.<ref>''The Case For Islamophobia: Jihad by the Word; America's Final Warning'' by  Walid Shoebat & Ben Barrack (2013) Top Executive Media. ISBN 0982567960.</ref> He also pops up on [[Fox News]] a few times a year and runs the website shoebat.com<ref>https://shoebat.com/</ref> which mixes his crazy crap with a few accurate reports of [[Christian]]s being discriminated against or attacked by radicals or oppressive theocrats in Muslim countries.

He is also the father of [[Theodore Shoebat]], whose batshit-insane-over-the-top preaching videos contain huge piles of [[bullshit|colossal absurdities]] that may provoke anger...or humor instead.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8XEyeBdEfg RWW News: Theodore Shoebat Declares That 'Women Have No Place In Politics'] Right Wing Watch, YouTube, 2016.</ref>

==The Walid Shoebat story==
Shoebat was born to an [[United States|American]] mother and [[Palestine|Palestinian]] father. He was pushed into radical revolutionary Islam during his childhood. In his youth he joined the {{wpl|Palestinian Authority|Palestinian Authority}} and firebombed the Bank Leumi near Bethlehem Square. He was arrested, but not charged (since he was an American citizen by way of his mother's nationality, which allows you to commit felonies without repercussion, apparently). He moved to the USA, joined some radical Islamist groups in college, became a computer programmer, then a Christian, then a "peace activist" who charges $5000<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20110714202324/http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/11/terrorism.expert/</ref> a day to lecture people about how to be more suspicious of Muslims.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20090601214102/http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/04/the-three-stooges-coming-to-a-campus-near-you/</ref>

==The real Walid Shoebat story==
There are more than a few holes in Shoebat's back story, many discovered in an expose by the ''Jerusalem Post''<ref>http://www.jpost.com/Features/The-Palestinian-terrorist-turned-Zionist</ref> and a follow-up by [[CNN]].<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04yWUuoU7Lc</ref>

There is no record in the local news, the Israeli government or at the Bank Leumi of a bombing attempt in the time period which Shoebat claimed to have made his attack.

Walid's website claims ''Walid is an American citizen and lives in the USA with his wife and children, under this assumed name.''<ref>http://shoebat.com/about/</ref> But he also claims to be related to deceased terrorists Arin Ahmed Shoebat and Raed Khaleel Awadallah Shoebat (Shu’aybat).<ref>http://shoebat.com/shoebat-foundation/evidence-of-my-credentials/</ref> The ''Jerusalem Post'' was able to track down Walid's uncle in Beit Sahur, who said that his nephew was never a Muslim radical, much less a terrorist bomber. This is different from the expected response of "Who the fuck is Walid?" that one would get when inquiring about an ex-pat with an "assumed name".

But why? Why would someone do this?

Walid has plenty of reason to make up a terrorist past because the "testimonial of delivery" is something of an art form among conservative Christians. Like [[Mike Warnke]], [[Lauren Stratford]] and [[John Todd]] in previous decades, Shoebat made a career from a particularly scandalous and phony story of moving from involvement with horrible criminals to a life dedicated to [[Jesus]] and America. Though Shoebat's mid-level terrorist organization is more plausible than Warnke's tale of a multinational Satanic super-conspiracy, it is just the same song and dance routine reheated for the post [[9/11]] audience.

==Of course, this guy is a birther==
Unsurprisingly Walid Shoebat makes weird, off-topic criticisms of [[Barack Obama]] at any opportunity. Along with the normal chaff and [[Point refuted a thousand times | PRATT]] talking-points you hear from [[birthers]], Walid has some gems like ''"No one is called Hussein unless he is Muslim. So it is very clear that Barack Hussein Obama is definitely a Muslim."''<ref>
http://mediamatters.org/research/2010/08/18/ex-terrorist-walid-shoebat-is-too-sketchy-for-d/169441
</ref>

Because that's totally how reality and names work.  You'd think someone named "Walid" would know better than to make statements like that.

==The wacky wild world of Walid's words==

{{cquote|The reality is that [[Buddhism]] is just as violent, just as tyrannical, just as dangerous, and just as [[demon]]ic, as Islam. Anyone who thinks otherwise is dictated by the now and the present, and not by prudence. The reason why Buddhists have, for a long time now, given an aura of peace, is because Buddhism is not in a position of power from which to commence violence and war. Buddhism has the concept of the use of false peace to deceive one's enemy, just as in Islam there is the use of false peace, or hudna (temporary truce), in order to trick the opponent to buy time and regain strength.|||Walid Shoebat<ref>[https://shoebat.com/2014/03/21/must-focus-buddhism-threat-america/ Why We Must Focus On Buddhism As A Threat To America]</ref>}}

*Shoebat accused [[Glenn Beck]] and [[David Barton]] of attempting to bring about "Islamo-Mormon deistic universalism" because Islam and the [[Church of Latter Day Saints]] are basically two sides of the same coin.<ref>http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-luring-christians-islamo-mormon-deistic-universalism</ref>

*He believes that the 9/11 attacks could have been stopped if the [[TSA]] looked for "zabibah", a sort of small callus on the forehead caused by repeated prostration, despite the fact that the zabibah is sort of rare<ref>And are often regarded as haughty, rather than honorable, see: [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/world/africa/18egypt.html?pagewanted=all Fashion and Faith Meet, on Foreheads of Pious], ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> and the TSA wasn't founded until a month after the 9/11 attack. Whoops!<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20110714202324/http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/11/terrorism.expert/</ref>

*In spite of his usual anti-Muslim bigotry, Shoebat believes the 2016 Brussels attacks were deserved due to people in the city criticizing [[Donald Trump]] for calling the city a hellhole. He also refused to condemn the ''[[Charlie Hebdo]]'' attacks due to ''Charlie Hebdo'' insulting the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] and he praised 'the Muslim world' for both attacks.<ref>http://shoebat.com/2016/03/22/brussels-is-a-city-led-by-a-bunch-of-really-dumb-people-who-insulted-donald-trump-and-deserved-what-they-got/</ref> Because violent extremism is okay when it's on ''your'' side of an issue.

*In the aftermath of the [[2016 Orlando nightclub shooting|Orlando Shooting]], Walid seemed to be ambiguous over the fact that more people died than in any other mass shooting and refused to offer sympathy for the people murdered, due to their sexuality, saying 'The only ones moaning over fifty [[Homosexuality|gays]] slaughtered are [[liberal]]s, idiots and gay lovers', as well as 'I don’t care about gays who are Muslim loving anti-gun liberals. Stupid people who hate life die. Stupid people who hate life always die'.<ref>http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/walid-shoebat-only-ones-moaning-over-fifty-gays-slaughtered-are-liberals-idiots-and-gay-love</ref> Really sounds like a "counter terrorism" expert doesn't it?

*Walid is a proud [[Islamophobia|Islamophobe]] and [[Homophobia|homophobe]] and was ecstatic about the fact that his website was voted as one of the 33 most Islamophobic websites on the Internet as well as the third most homophobic website, even extending his thanks to the LGBT community.<ref>http://shoebat.com/2016/06/21/hip-hip-hurray-shoebat-com-made-it-on-the-top-list-of-33-islamophobes-as-well-as-the-top-3-homophobes-in-america/</ref>

*Walid believes the zika virus is [[God]]'s punishment for promiscuity. The justice of punishing innocent children born disabled due to zika before they are old enough to have any kind of sex is unclear.<ref>Hemant Mehta, [https://archive.ph/9tS4D Christian Convert Walid Shoebat: The Zika Virus Is a “Punishment From God For Sexual Promiscuity”]. Archived from patheos.com, 21 June 2016.</ref>

*The [[List of predictions of the end of the world|world will 100% end]] on the [[Halloween|31st of October]] 2016.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20161009053602/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epk40SC3wNI&gl=US&hl=en</ref> Spoiler alert: it didn't.

==Like father, like crank==
{{main|Theodore Shoebat}}
Shoebat's son, Theodore, takes his father's bigotry and turns the knob up to 11.  The most common theme of his vlogs is that the non-Christians and Christians he disagrees with should all be put to death.  Some of his gems include:  
*Jesus would personally beat homosexuals to death.<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/theodore-shoebat-says-jesus-would-personally-beat-gays-death Theodore Shoebat Says Jesus Would Personally Beat Gays To Death]</ref>
*The hope that [[Donald Trump]] would [[Dominionism|turn the US into a "Christian Supremacist" society]] and execute Muslims.<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/theodore-shoebat-hopes-president-trump-will-institute-christian-supremacist-society-where-mu Theodore Shoebat Hopes President Trump Will Institute A 'Christian Supremacist' Society Where Muslims Are Put To Death]</ref>
*Those killed in the November, 2015 {{wpl|November_2015_Paris_attacks|Bataclan Massacre}} deserved to die for being [[Satanism|Satanists]].<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/shoebat-those-killed-paris-rock-concert-were-devil-worshippers-who-got-what-they-deserved Shoebat: Those Killed At Paris Rock Concert Were Devil Worshippers Who Got What They Deserved]</ref>
*Every employee of [[Chick-fil-A]] deserves to be burned at the stake. This came after the fried chicken chain walked back on some of the anti-[[Same-sex marriage|gay marriage]] stances of its owner and sponsored an LGBT film festival.<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/theodore-shoebat-everyone-chick-fil-should-be-burned-stake Theodore Shoebat: Everyone At Chick-fil-A Should Be Burned At The Stake]</ref>
*Theo calls himself a "proud [[Fascism|fascist]]" and admires [[Francisco Franco]].<ref name="fash">Ed Brayton, [https://archive.ph/n45Ny Shoebat Admits to Being a ‘Proud Fascist’]. Archived from patheos.com, 8 December 2015.</ref>
*He openly opposes democracy and calls for the establishment of a [[Caliphate|global Christian superstate]] with an "inquisition" to put gays to death.<ref>http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/theodore-shoebat-calls-global-inquisition-put-gays-death</ref>

Several anti-gay Christian wingnuts (like [[Matt Barber]] and [[Peter LaBarbera]]) [[stopped clock| condemned Theodore's statements as too over the top, even for them]] (these were guys who advocated for and helped write [[Uganda]]'s anti-gay death penalty laws). Walid defended his son by stating that it was actually Jesus who destroyed [[Sodom and Gomorrah]], and therefore his son was correct in stating that Jesus would personally beat homosexuals to death, if given the chance.  Walid also called LaBarbera a "filthy pig" and a "traitor".<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jesus-killed-sodomites-walid-shoebat-furiously-attacks-anti-gay-activists-who-criticized-his 'Jesus Killed The Sodomites': Walid Shoebat Furiously Attacks Anti-Gay Activists Who Criticized His Son]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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Categories: Authors, Birtherism, Christians, Conspiracy theorists, Fascists, Fundamentalists, Homophobes, Islamophobes, Living people, Muslims, Purity culture, Racists, Right-wing activists, Sexists, Shysters, Terrorism, Transphobes