Jihad Watch reader A. asked Saudi-funded dhimmi academic John Esposito about this post, in which I detail some of his unsavory associations. Esposito responded by sending his bio, along with this:
Robert Spencer has no credentials/training in the fields of Islamic studies, Middle East Studies, Muslim studies and runs a "madwatch" website. I attach my bio info. The fact that Spencer now criticizes Dinesh D'Souza shows his desperation.
Heh. I guess that means I've been desperate for some time now -- or rather, that Dinesh himself is desperate, since he started the whole thing between him and me with a gratuitous attack on my work in his farrago The Enemy At Home.
But in the real world, how exactly does the question of my academic credentials have anything to do with whether or not John Esposito has said these things about Sami Al-Arian and worked with Azzam Tamimi?
In other words, if I don't have a PhD, does that mean John Esposito hasn't been palling around with PIJ and Hamas operatives?
I will debate John Esposito on Islam and Jihad anytime or anyplace. Or Dinesh D'Souza, for that matter. Of course, I have already debated him, and I doubt he would be willing to repeat the experience.
If I am wrong in what I say, it should be easy for John Esposito to mop the floor with me and discredit me once and for all, ridding the world of my baneful influence.
But it's easier to deflect questions about one's associations and allegiances by casting aspersions on the one who asks the questions, isn't it?
I'm still waiting for John Esposito, for all his vaunted training in Islamic studies and Saudi millions, or anyone else to establish that even one thing I have ever said about Islam or jihad is false. This would require, of course, that he actually read what I say instead of relying on the venomous caricatures of his character-assassination-minded friends.
I won't be holding my breath. But I have written this to John Esposito himself.
Thankfully Robert Spencer does not have a PhD, along with loving his own pompous behind like some. A degree doesn't make reality more real or vice versa.
Arch Dhimmi Esposito, always ready, willing and able to keep the truth at bay to earn his pay. The Saudis no doubt own him.
Hype: Here's my latest Pigman piece, dealing with Symmetrical Warfare:
PIGMAN: Breaking the 'Golden' Rules of Engagement
The camps of apologists like Esposito are swelling like never before. Which is why highlighting any and all Ad hominem arguments and challenging their bought and paid for take on this belief system and it's historical track-record of subjugation, where ever it holds a majority populace,is critical in the "dis-information" age.
RUMBLE!!!
The professor should know better than to indulge argumentum ad verecundiam.
Once again those who profess to be wise reveal where the term "academic idiots" comes from. Esposito tries to deflect the facts while Robert consistently sticks to and causes such wailing a knashing of teeth with the TRUTH. Robert- Never quit; never surrender!
Education is no substitute for intelligence.
Dr. Esposito is a poltroon sheltering behind the flimsy wall of his degree. Will he come out and dispute like a man? Not bloody likely. Anyone who does not have his academic credientials is not worthy of his steel. What an elitist snob.
I am His Majesty's Dog at Kew.
Pray Tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
Esposito and Georgetown University.Bought and paid for by the Kingdom's gold.
I am an admitted fool and dupe. Yet, soon after 9/11 I began learning about Islam. I think the pivotal moment was when Mayor Guiliani rejected the money offered by the Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/rec.giuliani.prince/index.html). I woke up that day.
The ONLY way men like Esposito can defend the bringers of Islam is that he owned by them or he is of them. Either he is chattel or he is a muslim. He is definitely not a citizen.
Yep Terp. It's a pure appeal to authority, or absolute dismissal due to a supposed lack of authority.
Same thing I guess, but to Esposito, I don't count because I only have a 4 year degree.
Maybe if I licked the boots of a politically corect doctoral panel, and then accepted money from one of the most backwards regimes on earth, I might earn some credibility in his sorry mind.
It always cracks me up when people put so much weight into 'credentials/training'.
You might want to point out to Mr. Esposito that Mohummad had NO training or credentials and he created a MAD religion. Are we to discredit him for having NO credintials?
On the other hand, Osama Bin Laden has great credintials and training and he is killing people, as are most of the muslim terrorists that have Islamic training and credintials. Are we to give them credit for HAVING credintials?
Yep Terp. It's a pure appeal to authority, or absolute dismissal due to a supposed lack of authority.
Same thing I guess, but to Esposito, I don't count because I only have a 4 year degree.
Maybe if I licked the boots of a politically corect doctoral panel, and then accepted money from one of the most backwards regimes on earth, I might earn some credibility in his sorry mind.
Christianity has much experience with lay theologians who surpass those with academic training. William Stringfellow's fine work on the nature of the "principalities and powers" is a prime example.
This said, Robert Spencer makes good arguments, and readers such as myself who have a masters in theology find his insights, challenges, and even polemics, to be based upon solid rational argument that is worthy of respect.
I suspect what is occurring is that Mr. Spencer is getting too close to the underlying false truths girding current "Islamic research" and the so called "learned professors" must resort to character assassinations.
I think it very telling that Muslim scholars and their dupes, are unwilling to engage Mr. Spencer in a debate.
In the end, I also must point out that the common man (and woman) knows that "shit stinks", even if it is Islamic shit. An African friend who had limited formal education, when asked about Muslim/Christian relations in his home country, replied, "You just can't talk with them James." Supremacists are rarely willing to engage in dialog with "inferiors". Such is the case with most of today's Islamic scholars. They use demands for respect to shut down debate which would expose their supremacist, sexist, abuse of homosexuals, and the host of affirmations of violence within the Koran/Hadith/Sura etc.
Keep up the good fight Robert!
In response to someone's relaying criticism levelled at him by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, John Esposito did not bother to respond. Or rather, his response consisted of an attack on the "scholarly" background of Robert Spencer -- no Ph.D. in Islamic or MIddle Eastern studies -- and to enclose what in Esposito's worldview, constitutes an unanswerably impressive curriculum vitae that supposedly means game, set, match, without any need to actually adduce evidence of any kind, about anything: "I attach my bio info" was the elegant phrase which was intended to answer all critics.
That won't do.
Esposito allows himself to believe that mere credentialism – defense by inflated C. V.-- will be enough to protect him from detaile criticism . With the credulos, admiring Dinesh D'Souzas of this world, who live by such things (and carefully put down every article, every lecture in their own comically ever-expanding c.v.s) that may indeed work. For intelligent people, well-versed in the tragicomic and deceptive aspects of curricula vitae, and skeptical of those suffering from elephantiasis, such a defense will elicit only contempt..
And Esposito certainly didn't act as if he thought his “credentials” would be enough to protect him when he hurriedly went back and interpolated the word "Jihad" into post-9/11/2001 editions of his books, even though he continued to mislead readers about the standard, accepted, main meaning of that word (for Muslims, not for non-Muslim apologists such as...John Esposito).
Esposito is a "scholarly" colleague of, defender of, friend of, Azzam Tamimi, a Hamas supporter, whose quality of mind and thought can be gauged from this YouTube entry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh6q02J6dJk
He calls another “Palestinian” Muslim fanatic, Al Farooqi (stabbed to death, along with his wife, by one of his own disciples), his “ustadh” or teacher.
Esposito has been on the Arab gravy-train ever since he convinced a Lebanese contractor – an islamochristian who, had he survived, might not have quite as happy with Esposito as he might have been a decade or two ago – to fund his “Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.” There is no “understanding” – or rather, in a nice reversal, it’s an understanding that passeth peace, and serves as a long-running fount of apologetics for war, the war of Jihad, conducted not only or even, nowadays, mainly by qitaal (combat) but also by many other means, including “pen, speech.” And the propagandistic nonsense put out by the “pen, speech” – in articles (including one with the piquant title that was published, in timely or untimely fashion depending on your point of view, in September 2001) – of John Esposito is used to keep Infidels in a state of unwariness, distraction, and confusion. He’s an updated Lord Haw-Haw, but at least the traitor William Joyce had to go all the way to Berlin to broadcast his propaganda on beahlf of the enemy. Esposito can conduct his own operation -- the Prince Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, right in the heart of Washington, D.C., just a mile or two from the Capitol and the White House. And he can continue to do this at a Jesuit institution, though one can be sure that the view of Esposito held by two well-educated clerics, Professor James V. Schall, S.J. and Pope Benedict VI, is not one whit less critical than that to be found at this or similar websites.
What is to be done about the scandal of John Esposito and his exploitation of the Georgetown connection? Perhaps alumni contemplating gifts to Georgetown will have second thoughts, if made aware of the scandalous Saudi-funded operation run by John Esposito, and make known that they will not be making such gifts after all, until such time as Georgetown severs the ties, and make such gifts contingent on the university severing the ties, and removes the deceptive glitter of reflected glory that Esposito glories in and exploits whenever he refers to his “Georgetown Center” or, alternatively, his “Center at Georgetown," the one now being paid for by Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal, he of the facial tic and the check ostentasiously handed to Rudolph Giuliani.
Let him have his Saudi-funded operation. But let it be free-standing, without any further disgrace to Georgetown. Let the ghosts of Snouck Hurgronje and Joseph Schacht be properly propitiated at long last, for those highly intelligent ghosts -- oh, have you seen their c.v.s, by the way? Place a paragraph by Snouck Hurgronje or Schacht on one side of the balance, and the collected works, coffee-table picture-books and all, of John Esposito on the other side, and see which side kicks the beam -- surely are not pleased with the way John Esposito has been allowed to flourish and to exploit every kind of trust and naivete that the Western world, and even the supposedly keen-minded Jesuits, have displayed, in his regard, for so long.
Didn't Omid Safi also come on the scene with a song & dance about credentials and tenure?
I think it is abominable that we have Sowdi trained 'scholars' with doctor titles doing da'awa (proselytizing) in institutions of hihger learning.
We have a few such cases in Australia, especially this one:
http://sheikyermami.com/2008/04/27/griffith-update-hand-back-saudi-cash-uni-urged/
http://sheikyermami.com/2008/04/24/griffith-daawa-centre-draws-more-fire-over-saudi-cash/
A textbook "red herring".
The world is awash with knowledge and education, but it often contains little wisdom. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts both useful and useless. Alas, Mr. Esposito equates wisdom with intelligence, titles and degrees but wisdom is not measured by degrees acquired. Wisdom is moral insight with an understanding about the practical application of knowledge. It seems to me Mr. Esposito comes up short on moral insight when being an apologist for the Islamification of Western Civilization. My money is on Robert and Hugh.
And yet, somehow or other, presto, handy-dandy, abracadabra, John Esposito will retain the standing of a universally acknowledged authority, while Robert Spencer remains marginalized.
Obfuscation, mendacity, unsavoury associations, talking beside the point - maybe Robert should try some of that. It gets the respect, and the money.
Amazing as we find people with: "no credentials/training in the fields of Islamic studies, Middle East Studies, Muslim studies" stating with conviction that:
'Islam is a Religion of Peace and Tolerance.'
Training/credentials seem to qualify you for collective delusion through futher education indoctination centers, just look at man made global warming.
You can usually identify a collective delusion by looking at who gets the most deluded prize of the year award. Sometime ago Yasser Arafat got the Nobel collective delusion award for 'Peace' and last year Al Gore also got a collective delusion award for Peace.
For this year I nominate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or should I go each way with Hassan Nasrallah? After they have carried out ther nefarious schemes there will be 'Peace'. Ok hudna then, short peace.
Just a note to make more transparent the logic of this exchange, which should be obvious to every Georgetown student who has taken Intro to Logic.
In Spencer's article he makes a series of factual claims, and reference to an article by Kramer, which points out inconsistencies in Esposito's selective use of survey data, among other things. And, the conclusion is, of course, that Esposito's opinions and at least some of his work on Islam (strictly speaking this argument does not go beyond Kramer, although it could) are dangerously biased.
Esposito, when confronted with this argument, argues that Spencer is unqualified to hold credible views on Islam. This does not respond to the argument, it engages another, namely, that the lack of a Ph.D., 'appropriate training' in 'Islamic studies, and evidently running this Website are sufficient conditions for lack of credibility.
The response to Spencer is a classic 'red herring', and a rather vicious one at that, because the premises of Spencer's argument are largely factual. So, a cogent argument, based on factual claims, is dismissed with the 'stinky fish' that Spencer lacks qualifications and therefore should not be trusted in his opinion on Islam. But Spencer did not voice any opinions on Islam in this argument. He has argued from factual statements, and Kramer's arguments, which also reference mostly facts regarding selective and inconsistent use of data, that Esposito is biased.
Now, the red herring used to dismiss Spencer's argument is itself a veiled appeal to authority, similar to what Safi and Ernst have argued in the past. Esposito does not refute anything Spencer has ever said about Islam, he merely claims that Spencer must hold erroneous views because he is not qualified--does not hold a Ph.D. and all that. This assumes that 'being qualified', in the appropriate sense, is a necessary condition to holding credible views on Islam. And this necessary condition, of course, can be used to insulate debate on Islam; if you are not 'qualified' you are not worth talking to. Debate ends, a critical response to Spencer is irrelevant, and discourse among 'experts' begins.
And so it goes.
James, you're right on the money.
The question is, why isn't there a university to offer Robert Spencer tenure or an honorary doctorate on his work?
But, as we all know, critique of Islam (which should be the only study permitted about this blood-cult) automatically disqualifies you from teaching on our PC-infested institutions of higher learning.
Why are our universities in the West infiltrated by Islamic headbangers from the ME who do nothing but proselytize and obscure the doctrine of the Islamic belief system?
Correction:
should read 'critical examination' of Islam...
John Esposito knowing full well that he cannot refute the validity of Spencer's statements with regards to Esposito's association with the likes of al-Arian and Tamimi, tries to attack his degree of scholarship.
He can't even use the term jihad in his ad hominem attack of "madwatch" as a play on words to jihadwatch. This is probably because his Saudi puppet-masters forbid that word in his scripts, for the "internal spritual struggle" facade only goes so far with the sentient.
Esposito apparently has, which his pal D'Souza likes to throw around quite often, been educated beyond his intelligence, to engage in such a low-brow response to Robert's still yet unchallenged accusations to Esposito's character as established by his associations.
This is the modus operandi of Esposito, to discredit not only Robert, but Bat Ye'or, for their lack of "credentials". He refuses to comment on the contents of Ye'or's work...he simply dismisses her because she doesn't have a Doctorate on Islam.
He's a coward, pure and simple, hiding behind his Ivory Tower.
And, just in case anyone missed it, John Esposito is on record as saying we (America) should not hinder Islamists coming to power in the Muslim world....that Islamism is fully compatible with democracy. More than just a dhimmi, he is an active abettor of Jihad and Sharia.
I've translated Esposito's response into plainer English. Here it is:
"I love Saudi Arabian money, and I will defend my pay masters all the way!"
Thanks in large part to Mr. Spencer's efforts, adding 2+2, one still comes up with 4 . Way too many others seem to just let any answer do. Pick a number, any number. Some where in the Koran there is a reason to justify the difference.
Might as well write a book titled "1001 Reasons Why the Koran doesn't Say What It Says"
Nobody has to have "credentials" in Islamic Studies to understand Islam, just as no one has to have "credentials" in Naziism Studies to understand Naziism.
John Esposito is a fake, a fraud, and a creep, just like his idol, Mohammed. In addition, he's insane.
John Esposito accepts money from Barbarians. Wow, that's really something to be proud of! Way to go, Dhimmi Whore John!
Robert - you may wish to share these quotes with John Esposito.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. (Daniel Patrick Moynihan)
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. (Abraham Lincoln)
These days, sadly, a degree in Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, or a related field is a *dis*qualification for saying anything worth hearing about Islam.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: A college degree is no guarantee its owner is not an idiot.
George: "I am Doctor; A.B, M.A, Ph.D...Abmaphd. Abmaphd has been variously describe as a wasting disease of the frontal lobes and as a wonder drug. It is actually both."
Edward Albee, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?"
How much truth can $20 million buy? One more person just found you out Professor Esposito! One more chop at the base of your tree, trust me one of these chops and someone will be hearing 'timber!'
How many books(including best sellers), for other than the self-annointed minutiantists, has Mr. Esposito, PhD, published?
Who had heard of Mr. Esposito, PhD, (other than a few fellow obscuratntist-credentialists from the wide wide world of ivory towers) before he became caretaker of 20 million dollars from the family of Saud?
What is the value of a PhD - in post 60's USA?
A great education and lots of degree's does not guarantee a decent human being...
Esposito is a pseudoscholar because his opinions run contrary to facts. He is a Saudi ass-kisser. His work is a great help in the cause of stupifying Americans, and the free world is a worse place because of him.
"We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children." - from the Pact of Umar
Isn't Esposito breaking this clause of the pact? Naughty Dhimmi!
I guess people like Esposito will be useful to their masters - for a while.
In other words, if I don't have a PhD, does that mean John Esposito hasn't been palling around with PIJ and Hamas operatives?
I hold a couple of advanced degrees and I know a number of PhD's. not all of whom are dumb, but not all of whom are very bright either.
The fancy degree only impresses those who don't hold such things but the reality is that "letters" behind one's name doesn't mean the person is "educated" (and some of the doctoral dissertations you hear are just plain crazy -- yet everyone applauds.)
In anycase, the mere fact that someone points out that another person, holding a different position doesn't have "academic creditials" such as a PhD., indicates to me that such a person is an arrogant idiot; and I don't give a damn how many PhD's or post docs the imbecile has appended to his or her name; nor what fancy university they hail from either!
I would consider Spencer a scholar on the subject of islam even if he has nothing more than a High School diploma to his name!
I would not say the same of some of the critics mentioned here.
Frank Zappa:
"that's right: you get nothing with your college degree.."
Now take that and rub it, Esposito Johnny!
Winston Churchill didn't have a PhD either. I wonder if Esposito would dismiss Churchill's writings on topics ranging from medieval England to the Duke of Marlborough. Wow, what a snob the guy at Georgetown is. Coward too.
Sorry Robert you are not certified to think. As a matter of fact you have been thinking without a license for some years now.
Esposito Johnny:
"The fact that Spencer now criticizes Dinesh D'Souza shows his desperation."
So in the world of this Sowdi whore Dinesh D'Souza, this intellectual flyweight, is above criticism?
Strange world we live in.
Out of curiosity, but also wanting to add something meaningful (?) to this discussion (?) of John Esposito's demerits, I looked up the meaning of his surname, and found this
Excerpt:
Whoa! Whodathunkit? All kinds of Freudian significances can be read into this, but not being lettered in Psychoanalysis, I dare not hazard a guess as to how this history may have actually DETERMINED that the victim of circumstance John Esposito would become ivory tower (pure phallic symbol) fixated. I'll leave that clinical determination to my betters, the Ph.D's.
Maybe not entirely apropros but Mr. Esposito's response reminded me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when the Scarecrow gets a brain.
WIZARD
Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a
very mediocre commodity. Every
pusillanimous creature that crawls on the
earth -- or slinks through slimy seas has
a brain!
MCU -- Wizard -- shooting past the Scarecrow at right --
WIZARD
From the rock-bound coast of Maine to the
Sun.... oh - oh, no -- -- ah - Well, be
that as it may. Back where I come from we
have universities, seats of great
learning -- where men go to become great
thinkers. And when they come out, they
think deep thoughts -- and with no more
brains than you have.... But! They have
one thing you haven't got! A diploma!
MS -- The Wizard reaches back and obtains several diplomas --
selecting one and presents it to the Scarecrow as Dorothy,
Tin Man and the Lion look on --
WIZARD
Therefore, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Universitatus
Committeeatum e plurbis unum, I hereby
confer upon you the honorary degree of
Th.D.
SCARECROW
Th.D.?
MCU -- Wizard -- shooting past the Scarecrow at right --
WIZARD
Yeah -- that...that's Dr. of Thinkology!
Excuse me, I should say, "I'll leave that clinical determination to my betters, the Th.D's."
thanks to eve_anne_gelical
Credential-waving is so much fun.
Josef Mengele had a medical degree.
Guess that made him a paragon of doctorly virtue.
Esposito sounds desperate.
Trying the old 'bait and switch' routine instead of simply answering the question.
And hissing:
My diploma is bigger than your diploma!
Pathetic, puny and pedestrian.
Compared to the great Robert spencer, john es-bought-by-saudio is a bumbling idiot who can only be believed by the most brain dead leftest lib or a KKK'r.
Darcy - excellent point you made above:
"Nobody has to have "credentials" in Islamic Studies to understand Islam, just as no one has to have "credentials" in Nazism Studies to understand Nazism."
Says it all.
However, just a thought: what would happen if some university, somewhere in the Infidel world, could screw up the courage to confer upon Robert Spencer an Honorary Doctorate in Islamic Studies?
I think I shall write to Cardinal George Pell and suggest, very strongly, that the Australian Catholic University should consider doing exactly that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Darcy - excellent point you made above:
"Nobody has to have "credentials" in Islamic Studies to understand Islam, just as no one has to have "credentials" in Nazism Studies to understand Nazism."
Says it all.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at April 28, 2008 9:46 PM
Yes, Darcy is a beast. That is why I love her.
Mr Spencer, I doubt if Esposito has the courage to confront you given your encyclopedic knowledge and mastery of rhetoric. Hacks like him hiding behind PhDs are more comfortable brainwashing 18-year old know-nothings and collecting baksheesh from the Arabs in return.
I think that one of the reasons why Prof. Esposito is full of himself these days has to do with the fact that important people in our government have been retaining his services as a consultant expert on Islam. It doesn't get any headier than this! Of course, what do you get when you hire a paid whore of our enemies to help you continue to lie to the people about what is really going on? Somehow I don't think I would put even that product in an outhouse.
"...my bio." Hilarious,
Esposito: Don't you KNOW who I AM?!?!
Spencer: Why, yes, in fact. And WHAT you are, as well!
for a lots of yearsthe cry in academia has been publish or perish among Ph.Ds most of their class are being taught by student assistants who are either Masters or doctoral candidates themselves and their not going to say a thing against their doctoral sponsors who are often like Dr. Esposito too busy to teach but instead are off writing their latest work of a endless circle jerk off that they can point to and say their work has been evaluated by their peers translation of whole bunch of Phds agreed with what they had to say as long as it goes along with their own bias so in reality Dr. Espositos cry that Mr. Spencer does not have the academic credentials to say anything about Islam is just a cry in my opinion a one more idiot that got their doctorate by regurgitating the opinions and biases of their professors, in fact there was a student a few years back that got his Ph.D. by regurgitating in his own words what his professor had published and did not open a text book at any time
The saudis are buying people – politicians, businessmen and media. Quite a lot of the movies produced here are saudi financed. Indian readers here will be well aware that we are bombarded by Islamic music videos and soundtracks (eg. “inshallah” and “assalam walekum”). New actors that cannot act to save their life like imraan hashmi are cropping up. The movies are flops but they do get to act with Infidel actresses and most of these movies are of the intimate kind. That means, (at least to the ummah) that a “believer” has violated an Infidel woman), and therefore they are triumphant. If you have muslim “friends”, do talk to them and get this stuff firsthand. The ones I have are very happy that imraan hashmi has ****** Mallika and saif is ******* Kareena. One actually said that saif is a pathan, and after getting Amrita, it was only natural that he will marry Kareena. (They can marry 4 of them over here, since the muslim personal law over here is different from the Civil Code that applies to us Infidels.)
Edward Albee, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?"
Posted by: USBeast at April 28, 2008 6:22 PM
Woolf.
Darcy - excellent point you made above:
"Nobody has to have "credentials" in Islamic Studies to understand Islam, just as no one has to have "credentials" in Nazism Studies to understand Nazism."
Says it all.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at April 28, 2008 9:46 PM
Yes, Darcy is a beast. That is why I love her.
Posted by: awake at April 28, 2008 10:12 PM
Thank You, dumbledoresarmy! "Says it all" is quite a compliment. Thank You, again.
As for awake - Hello! So, I'm a beast?! Well, I'm glad you love me, anyway. Luv, Darcy
Darcy,
Twas intended as a compliment, though I can understand your confoundment. I am sure I could have used a better term to address your directness.
"Robert Spencer has no credentials/training in the fields of Islamic studies, Middle East Studies, Muslim studies and runs a "madwatch" website"
superb!!! :)
do a lil research on robert spencer and you find he really has no qualifications on Islam whatsoever. he spent the 80s & 90s bashing catholicism then after 9/11 turned his attention on Islam.
While waving one's degree about to silence opponents has a long and foul tradition in certain academic subjects, there is one other point which should not be overlooked here.
Any Islamist, in any debate with infidels, will counter with the usual arguments that one doesn't really know the Qur'an, and need to study it before one's allowed to say anything.
What Esposito did is in principle the same: 'You, Mr Spencer, have not studied sufficiently to even think of argueing with me ... you have no Ph.D. in Islamic studies ...'
It would seem to me that the teachings of islam have well penetrated into Esposito's thought processes.
How someone like that can actually teach his students a critical approach to that subject is beyond me.
Isn't it becoming obvious that Saudi moneys are destroying academic freedom?
Isn't it time that Academia woke up and did something about it?
(Don't hold your breath .....)
Smelly troll alert!
Copy that, Sheik. This troll has been here before, under another alias. Same bee in its bonnet.
Copy that, Sheik. This troll has been here before, under another alias. Same bee in its bonnet.
For the record, in every book I've purchased written by Robert Spencer, I have referenced every reference he makes to the Qur'an and he has not been in error at any time under any circumstances. Not once. Ditto for Bat Ye'or's references to Islamic history, jihad, and dhimmitude. Ditto for Andrew Bostom and also Serge Trifkovic. None of these people, whom Prof. Esposito would impugn with reckless abandon, have committed error when they cite the primary sources.
I long ago concluded that Prof. Esposito either does not know nearly as much as Robert does, while claiming to be a scholar, or he does in fact know more than he lets on and is deliberately cooperating with taqiyya and kitman. Methinks it is probably a blend of the two, which makes him a scurrilous and dangerous traitor to our civilization and our country.
It pains me, being that I am a former Jesuit seminarian, that Jesuit institutions have provided for his employment and the platform from which to launch his offensive smears of our religions, our country, our civilization, and our rights. This man HAS to know that there is a direct connection between his views and who pays him. Also, shame on the Society of Jesus for suffering this lout.
Darcy,
Twas intended as a compliment, though I can understand your confoundment. I am sure I could have used a better term to address your directness.
Posted by: awake at April 29, 2008 8:52 AM
No, I get it, awake! Thanks! Love, Darcy
*
"do a lil research on robert spencer and you find he really has no qualifications on Islam whatsoever. he spent the 80s & 90s bashing catholicism then after 9/11 turned his attention on Islam.
Posted by: skouti at April 29, 2008 10:05 AM
That's a bunch of crap. RS is a committed Catholic. You're a liar. In addition, as I said earlier, no one needs "qualifications" to understand Islam. Islam = Naziism. Very easy to understand. And, oh yeah, after the mass-murders of 9/11, courtesy Islamic Barbarians, EVERYONE "turned their attention" to Islam. You jerk. "Smelly troll alert" is right-on-target." Begone, Smelly Islamic Barbarian Troll!
darcy,
As I seem to recall, a troll calling itself "johnnah" mindlessly spewed the same drivel--"what are robert spencers qualifications?" "so then robert spencer has no qualifications" "before 9/11 robert spencer was bashing catholics"--monotonously. Am I right? Has johnny-one-nit reappeared? Who really GAFF (gives a flying f___)?
Where is the Muslim equivalent of Esposito? Of Koran Armstrong?
Shouldn't the Saudi-funded John Esposito have to declare a conflict of interest every time he writes or speaks about Islam? I mean, if he ever spoke critically about Islam, the Saudis would cut off more than just his funding.
Of course, the Islamo-Christian Esposito shows no indications of wanting to be anything other than an Islamic activist.
Excerpts from Hillel Fradkin’s brief review (Apr. 10) of the Esposito & Mogahed book, “Who Speaks for Islam?” [Also see Martin Kramer's review of the same book, Apr. 9]
“[…]So who does speak for Islam? Apparently, Esposito and Mogahed do. For the book does not actually present the poll. It provides a very small and partial account of the responses to some questions, but fails to include even one table or chart of data. It does not even provide a clear list of the questions that were asked. The appendix, where one might expect to find questionnaires, charts, and tables, provides only a short narrative discussion of Gallup’s sampling techniques and general mode of operation.
"To a certain degree, the authors admit the bias of their presentation: “The study revealed far more than what we could possibly cover in one book, so we chose the most significant, and at times, surprising conclusions to share with you. Here are just some of those counterintuitive discoveries.” But this admission is ridiculously inadequate. After all, this is a book, not an article. In the end, the authors betray their own standard that “data should lead the discourse,” because there is no data. A reader without deep pockets cannot easily remedy this deficiency: the Gallup Organization charges $28,500 to access the data.[…]”
“But to accept this book as an extended op-ed is not quite adequate. After all, Esposito claimed to apply a higher standard—that of “a man [who] should look for what is, and not what he thinks should be.” Seen in this light, the book is a confidence game or fraud, of which Esposito should be ashamed. So too should the Gallup Organization, its publisher.”
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/04/who_does_speak_for_islam/
did i upset upset the MAD WATCH LOSERS like darcy n johnny :)
what a bunch of saddos indeed.
"RS is a committed Catholic"
yep you got that right. spencer is no expert on Islam. totally shunned by all. so all he has left is his hate site here.
As I said, who Gives A Flying Fiqh?
Speaking as one who has a PhD and is considered (so many colleagues in my field have indicated on various occasions) very respectable in my field of expertise:
The main thing you learn by having a PhD in academia is that it DOESN'T make you infallible or necessarily more authoritative in your field than someone who doesn't. As part of my professional responsibilities I do peer review of work by my fellow PhD's. The drivel that (often) passes for scholarship in some academic circles is disgusting beyond measure.
You might be able to wow some unschooled hick with your CV John, but nobody with any decent post-secondary education is at all impressed by on-paper academic credentials on their own.
I, for one, am just as impressed by several folks who DON'T have graduate degrees in my field yet have become very serious contributors even though they are amateurs. Quite often they show up my fellow "professionals" for the self-serving frauds they are (I should say "we are" -- for my credentials have made me quite self-aware about the fact that just being a "pro" doesn't make me the top banana. We academics can be a pretty lame bunch at times!).
I even have colleagues who avoid having to interact with some of these amateurs precisely because they fear having their shortcomings exposed. Their behavior reminds me a lot of Mr. Espositos here.
Judge a man's work on its own merit, not by his CV. In general, an academic only pulls out his degrees and awards to wave them around: (a) when applying for jobs, promotion or tenure; or (b) when losing an argument with someone less qualified "on paper" and feeling the need to prop up their own credibility.
If all he can produce is a string of testimonials, awards and accolades, you can be sure the emperor has no clothes.
Esposito suggests that his bio affixes an unbreakable wax seal on Middle Eastern Studies to dismiss further examination much like the sealed Gates of Itjihad prevent further examination of Islamic doctrine. Such arrogance may have suffered ignorant fools in prior decades, but the internet and the free flow of information burns through such pomposity with ease.
Prove us all wrong Mr. Esposito. Debate Robert Spencer.
I applaud Robert Spencer, Hugh Fitzgerald, and their JW/DW crew for demonstrating how to shake off the creeping inshallah fatalism infecting our universities. Translating, compiling and exposing Islam using subject material vetted by the highest authorities in Islam throughout history, persistently and effectively turn up the heat (so to speak) eliminating the effectivness of such pretentious 'seals' of approval.