I've noticed Robert Spencer doing this for years. Now I've seen it crop up at least 3 or 4 times this month of June. What is this niggling rhetorical meme of which you speak, my 3.5 readers may ask...? Well, Pepe (all my readers, strangely enough, are named Pepe), glad you asked. Here are a couple of recent examples, and they all involve Muslims who were found out -- by the Western country they happened to be inhabiting -- to be plotting some kind of terror attack, and were arrested:
Five years. And he will be out way before that. What will be done in prison to disabuse him of his jihadist sentiments? Nothing, of course. To do anything like that would be “Islamophobic.”
Ashiqul Alam may cop a plea and walk free fairly soon, no doubt after expressing remorse and asserting, now that he faces jail time, that he now rejects his previous understanding of his peaceful religion. But what steps will be taken to ensure that he will not act again upon the murderous ideology that led him to plot a jihad massacre in Times Square? It is virtually certain that nothing will be done in that regard. To take such steps would be “Islamophobic.”
Moreover, if we want to see more examples of Robert's rhetorical meme over time, we can search for the word "disabused" (a word Robert likes to use for this particular rhetorical meme) and specify only Jihad Watch in our search, and doing so, we find many similar stories:
1.
South Carolina: Muslim teen plotted jihad murder of military personnel ...
But what was done while he was in juvi to disabuse him of his jihadist beliefs? Nothing at all, of course. To have attempted such a thing would have been “Islamophobic.” And now he will go to prison, and once again, the views that led him to wage jihad in the first place will not be challenged. If anything, they’ll be reinforced.
2.
UK: Muslim gets life in prison (i.e. 16 1/2 years) for plotting jihad
Will he emerge from prison disabused of his jihadist proclivities? That's extremely unlikely. Prisons are hotbeds of jihadist recruitment.
3.
UK: Five Muslim leaders linked to London Bridge jihad attack to be released from prison by the end of the year
After all, haven't they been disabused of their jihad sentiments and “deradicalized” while in prison? What's that? No attempt was made to do that whatsoever? Now, why is that?
4.
Texas: Jailed jihadi, just freed, discussed bomb-making procedures
All that time in prison clearly did him good and disabused him of his jihad sentiments. In reality, nothing was done to change his mindset ...
5.
And, on a story about the infamous Anjem Choudhary:
In prison nothing whatsoever was done to disabuse him of his jihadist notions. Any such action would have been “Islamophobic.”
So what's the problem, exactly, with Robert's niggling meme? Well, the most obvious flaw is that it seems based upon an expectation that efforts to try to "disabuse" jihadists of their Islam will work. Closely on the heels of this flaw is the lack of specificity that surrounds Robert's meme like a vague gauze: What exactly would an effective attempt of "disabusing" jihadists look like? What procedures would be applied? Surely, Robert knows that there is no version of Islam that does not affirm the goal and tactics (other than technical matters of tangential details) of the jihadists; so on what basis would authorities "disabuse" these jihadists of Islam? What Robert is so casually (and frequently) calling for are efforts to convince jihadists to apostasize from Islam. If anyone touts this as easy (let alone practical), they should not be taken seriously. Sure, such efforts might work with a tiny fraction of the mujahideen captured and in Western prisons. But a tiny fraction does not make for a workable management of the macro problem.
Even worse, the repetition of this meme by Robert, who holds an influential position in the (still incoherent) Counter-Jihad, reinforces the tendencies of too many even in the Counter-Jihad to think that the problem isn't as bad as it is -- where the management of it is not a matter of unrealistically persuading Muslims to cease their fanaticism, but of persuading our fellow Westerners that nothing short of deportation of Muslims will save the West in the long run.
Related to the above, we have Robert's editorial remark, after this headline posted at Jihad Watch --
Illinois: Muslim migrant worked at O’Hare Airport, sent tactical gear to ISIS, wanted to “bury unbelievers alive”
-- where he observes the following:
And any O’Hare Airport official who questioned her about her thoughts regarding jihad against unbelievers would have been denounced as “Islamophobic,” and probably would have been fired.
Robert's meme here is that vetting Muslims is still a viable goal, implying that we just have to get used to their numbers aggrandizing in our societies and if we only implement vetting procedures -- like asking Muslims what their thoughts are about "jihad against unbelievers" -- this is going to be successful in whacking the only moles who mean us harm amongst the millions of Muslims flooding into the West in our century.
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