When Muslims Become "Useful Idiots"

His posting follows all of his usual patterns and includes this statement:

Cowards. Obviously, if I were really the egregious liar Musaji and others claim that I am, it ought to be easy for a Muslim spokesman to show me up in a public forum and end my baneful influence forever. Instead, they circle the wagons and claim that it is 'non-productive' to discuss matters with me. Notice to Sheila Musaji and the Islamic establishment in the U.S.: if any of you poor dears, nervous nellies and shrinking violets ever grow some spine and become willing to defend your positions, I am ready to debate you. I am willing to stand and defend my views—why aren't you?

Actually, individuals who are qualified and represent a well-known Muslim organization, have debated him on particular topics, and not only defended their positions, but also disproved all of his arguments.

One example of such a debate with Spencer by a well-qualified Muslim individual is illustrative of the modus operandi of Spencer and his cohorts. Christina Abraham debated both Frank Gaffney and Robert Spencer on the topic of Rep. King's Muslim radicalization hearing, the civil rights of American Muslims, and claims about CAIR on Eric Bolling's program on Fox News.

Here is Abraham's bio from her personal blog:

Christina Abraham is the Civil Rights Director at CAIR-Chicago. Christina has spoken and written on issues related to Arab and Muslim civil rights, and actively works to pursue successful resolutions to incidents of discrimination through legal and non-legal channels. Christina is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights and a member of the Advisory Board of the BRussels International Tribunal. Christina holds a Masters in the Arts of Social Sciences (M.A.) at the University of Chicago where her focus was on Politics in the Middle East, and a Juris Doctorate at DePaul University where she received membership in the Order of the Barristers. She is admitted to practice in the State of Illinois.

She is knowledgeable and eminently qualified to speak on the particular topic being discussed, and is a representative of the organization being discussed. She expressed herself clearly, was not intimidated by aggressive tactics. She stuck to the facts, did not allow herself to be sidetracked, and did an excellent job of discussing legal issues and responding to particular claims and innuendos with facts.

Nevertheless, after the debate, Bolling had a panel of "experts," including Spencer's partner Pamela Geller, who attempted to keep the audience clearly focused on the agenda of maligning American Muslims.

On her Atlas Shrugs site, Geller posted the video of the debate and her comments, and said this:

Today's CAIR spokesperson was a doozy. Going by the name 'Christina Abraham' (got that? looks like she's got the Christians and the Jews covered with that name), an uncovered Western-looking woman unleashed her fury on Robert. Apparently she is a devout Muslim, because in undercover footage of her urging Muslims not to co-coperate [sic] with law enforcement, she is in full Muslim garb. Muhammad said, "war is deceit." Indeed.

When faced with facts, they respond, not with a consideration of those facts, but with a tabloid-style personal attack on the name, appearance, and character of the Muslim participant in the debate. Spencer and Geller are both fond of claiming that people are making "ad hominem" attacks on them. This response by Geller to Christina Abraham's statements is a textbook example of an ad hominem attack.

If even a well-qualified individual like Abraham is treated in this despicable manner, what does that tell us about engaging with these Islamophobes?

These are not individuals who hold respectable, if controversial opinions. These are bigots, and engaging them in such a forum only provides them with some veneer of respectability.

Hosts like Hannity or Bolling can claim that they have been "fair and balanced" because they included a Muslim. And, full time, paid mercenaries in a "holy war" against Islam like Spencer, will claim "victory" no matter what the outcome. If they have no "facts" that will stand up to scrutiny, they will stoop to ridiculous slurs, as they did with Abraham.

I believe that it is not "cowardly" to leave these folks alone, just sensible. It is not that their claims cannot be, and have not been answered, but rather that they have proven themselves time and time again to be untrustworthy and dishonorable in both their tactics and their responses to reasoned argument.

This edited version of Musaji's article has been reprinted with permission from The American Muslim.