Robert Spencer on Islamic Supremacism, U.S. Middle East Policy, Defeating Jihad

Robert Spencer (@jihadwatchRS) is the director of the invaluable counterjihadist website, Jihad Watch, and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of eighteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.

Mr. Spencer's work sits at the nexus of a number of seminal issues, from national security and foreign policy, to identity politics and free speech, and theology and political philosophy. The battle being waged by Islamic supremacism against the West implicates all of these matters, and Mr. Spencer's insights make him uniquely qualified to discuss them. 

I had him on the Big Ideas podcast to touch on everything from Islamic supremacist ideology and the goals, tactics and strategies its adherents use to impose it, to free speech and the deplatforming of counterjihadists like Spencer himself to the Sunni v. Shia battle in the Middle East and how we can actually triumph in the global jihad being waged against the West.

What We Discussed

• Why the story of Muhammad is so integral to understanding Islamic supremacism, jihad and the Middle East today
• Mecca vs. Medina in Islamic history, and its practical consequences
• How Islam defines peace
• Spencer's view on the prospects of Islamic reformation, and separating political Islam from individual practice
• Why former CIA Director John Brennan was wrong in his definition of "jihad"
• Enforcement of Sharia speech codes in the West
• Jihad Watch's experience getting deplatformed from PayPal
• The state of the Middle East and what U.S. national interest in the region requires from a policy perspective
• What Spencer would advocate if he were named counterjihad czar
• How to vet for Sharia supremacy
• Defeating jihad, and much more

Thanks for Listening!

Check out other episodes, show notes and transcripts at benweingarten.com/bigideas.

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