By Aisha Akhtar
Director of jihadwatch.org and author of eight books, Robert Spencer, gave a lecture: 'Stealth Jihad: What it Means and Why it Matters.' His talk reflected a history of the Muslim Brotherhood, and how their activities have extended to bring destruction to the Western world.
Why invite Spencer to speak? 'It should have every American of every stripe trying to understand the causes and motivations for the aggression and animosity directed towards us and our allies,' said Alexander Chamessian, President of the Enduring Freedom Alliance and Editor-in-chief of 'The Patriot'.
'Robert Spencer offers one compelling analysis of the problem, although he does not offer the only one,' said Chamessian.
'It is painfully clear that terrorism poses a grave threat to the West and in particular to the United States; with 9-11, the Madrid bombing, and countless other acts that were carried out under the banner for the destruction of the West,' he adds.
Spencer has made numerous appearances on campuses all around the nation, stirring much controversy over Islam and its tolerance of the West.
'It's an ongoing puzzle of how any of this is controversial because everything I will tell you tonight, I will give you a source for,' said Robert Spencer.
'Mr. Spencer's words may not have been as controversial as it might have seemed, but he sowed the seeds of hatred and paranoia against Muslims across Stony Brook's campus,' said sophomore Ibrahim Khwaja.
'Some might find what Mr. Spencer says hard to swallow. This is no reason to discount or disregard what he has to say,' said Chamessian. 'Attempts to silence him under guides of 'hate speech' are almost as frightening as the terrorists are to all of us and the Americans who so greatly cherish our right to the freedom of speech.'
Spencer began his lecture by saying, 'Probably everyone that is here tonight is because you are interested in justice and protecting the rights of individuals and particularly individuals who are threatened.' He continued to give a history of how the Western rights have been, and continue to be, attacked.
In 1928, in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was founded by 'Hassan al-Banna, because he believed an important element of Islam was not being put into practice by Muslims around the world and he was determined to fix that,' said Spencer. This non-existent practice is political Islam, where states needed to follow the Sharia, or Islamic law, for political purposes.
Spencer says that the brotherhood formed as a result of the changes in the Turkish government.
Founder of modern secular Turkey, [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk, wanted to create, in Turkey, after World War I, a state according to western European, 'western secular government,' said Spencer, 'in which religion would play a role in society, but the government would not be organized according to religion but would be separate from the government, which was not seen anywhere in the Islamic world.'
'He removed secular Islam in Turkey by above-all removing the caliphate,' said Spencer. 'So those like Hassan [al-Banna] and others founded the Muslim brotherhood to bring back political Islam, and called upon all Muslims to encompass Islam as a way of life.'
Spencer talked about the current plans of the brotherhood. He quotes Muhammad Akram, a sheikh of Islamic Sufism, and a writer/interpreter of sharia; 'the Muslim brotherhood must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand plot in eliminating and destroying the western civilization.'
Spencer said that there were documents uncovered at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a charity organization. A trial followed.
'Documents mapped out a general strategy for how the Muslim brotherhood was going to proceed in the United States,' said Spencer, 'what's interesting about these trials are the larger initiatives that are going on within these organizations and individuals who are active.'
Spencer listed organizations that were linked with the Muslim Brotherhood and their cause, one of which is the Muslim Student Association, located on campuses across the country. The MSA was founded by the brotherhood in 1963.
'I find that regardless of whether you're the director of Jihad Watch and an author of over 300 articles and 8 books on Jihad and Islamic Terrorism, or just a typical student or faculty member attending an event hosted in the Student Union building, the best kind of awareness you can offer to anyone interested in discovering what Muslims are really doing on college campuses, is by actually taking the time to attend an event run by Muslims on a college campus- especially at a campus that you're going to lecture at,' said Omar Shareef, Vice President of the Muslim Student Association.
'It's interesting that the first outreach event the MSA had was a fast-a-thon, an event uniting Muslims with non-Muslims to experience hunger and help the poor, while this event promotes disunity and paranoia of innocent people,' said junior Haseena Sahib.
Islam has laws that cover every aspect of life. 'This is the vision of Islamic law, sharia,' said Spencer, 'Unfortunately this contradicts some human rights that have hithered to prevail, including freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and equality of all rights of people before the law.'
'Freedom of conscience, declared by the UN declaration of human rights in Article 18, a person should be able to change his religion or to have no religion at all,' said Spencer, 'Muslim brotherhood wants to put an end to that.'
He only mentions how a specific few Muslims threaten it even though there are many things in today's world that do the same,' said freshman Hamna Zafar, 'Yet if anything, The Patriot Act threatens our rights more than anything; our right to privacy has been greatly limited since it has been passed by the American government, and yet Spencer claims that Islam or Muslims are trying to limit our rights?'
'Do I say that every Muslim is following the same agenda? No, that would be rather stupid.' said Spencer, 'Many Muslims don't have the interest to conquest Europe or the West, but the appeal is made to them under the purity of Islam.'
Mr. Spencer's thesis really resonated with me, as I feel that extremism in all ways of life (be them religious or not) can be dangerous,' said senior Kevin Ankney, 'Unfortunately, it is difficult to not seem hypocritical when condemning extremism while condoning moderation, especially in matters of faith, since everyone is 'entitled' to believe what he/she wants. It is a constant balancing act we must play.'
Spencer believes that fundamental rights can be taken away from people, and they will not even know that it is happening. 'I think it is an initiative that is being proceeded with stealth, and not by some covert activity,' said Spencer. This brings us to Spencer's point on 'stealth' jihad.
'Things are going on in the ways you would not notice,' said Spencer. Spencer gave the example of the cab system that was implemented at the Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport. At the airport, cabs were color-coded for those that would carry passengers with alcohol, and those that would not.
'The idea that the brotherhood is trying to put forward is that the Islamic law and American law are in collision with one another and it's the American law that has to give way,' said Spencer. This is one of the examples Spencer gave to show that stealth jihad is making progress.
Another example is the Swift & Co. meat packing industry in Nebraska and Colorado. During the month of Ramadan, Muslim workers requested to open their fast, at the appropriate time. Therefore, break times were switched and the other workers had to work longer hours to compensate for the alternative break time.
'To offer one group rights the other doesn't have is to go completely against American rights that were earned by the civil rights movement and I'm going to oppose that,' said Spencer.
'I was impressed by the conviction with which he asserts that the Stealth Jihad movement is making progress within Western civilization,' said Ankney, 'However, I would've liked to hear a few more tangible examples to illuminate this assertion. At the very least, Mr. Spencer's fear of this movement has intrigued me to the point where I want to investigate it in more detail.'
