Anti-Muslim extremist Robert Spencer calls peaceful student protesters "children" of "Nazis" at Stanford
Notorious Muslim-basher and pretend expert on Islam Robert Spencer faced a tough crowd earlier this week at聽. Hosted by the Stanford College Republicans, Spencer was unprepared for a peaceful student walkout.听
Spencer聽started calling students Nazis as soon as they began their silent protest. :听
Shortly after this comment, the majority of the auditorium got up and left, accompanied by loud Arabic music and Spencer鈥檚 speech into the microphone.
Stanford Against Islamophobia clarified that the music was not associated with the original protest, which it said was intended to be a peaceful and silent reaction to the University鈥檚 decision to allow Spencer to speak on campus in the first place.
Spencer proceeded to speak loudly into the microphone, calling the students 鈥渘eo-brown shirts鈥� and 鈥渃hildren and heirs of the fascists and the Nazis.鈥�
Thus ended another enlightening campus event sponsored by the billionaire-backed .听
Spencer鈥檚 ludicrous outburst and attempt to play the victim is of course a lie. According to the听顿补颈濒测, the campus opposition to the event, while fierce, was聽peaceful.听It seems that what was most upsetting to Spencer was his opponents practicing their First Amendment rights.
In the run up to the event, faculty聽and local faith leaders raised their own voices against Spencer's message of hate by publishing op-eds. Even the president of the Stanford聽College Republicans made a statement by when the club鈥檚 board decided to sponsor the event.
At the same time, Spencer and his supporters were provided multiple platforms to voice their views. Spencer published an 鈥�open letter鈥� to the Stanford community, which was placed as a paid advertisement in the Daily, and his supporters published their own op-eds in multiple campus publications.听
Overlooked in much of the ongoing controversy surrounding student protest is the astroturf funding of hateful provocateurs.听In addition to the Young America鈥檚 Foundation, another source of support for Spencer鈥檚 act is professional bigot David Horowitz聽and his聽鈥淔reedom Center.鈥� Between 2006 and 2015, the David Horowitz Freedom Center paid Spencer and his Jihad Watch blog around $2.78 million. Anti-Muslim bigotry clearly pays well. And the Horowitz connection is telling: he's聽no advocate for academic freedom or free speech.
Horowitz鈥檚 book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America 鈥渇or actions that are entirely within their rights and entirely appropriate in an atmosphere that promotes the free exchange of ideas.鈥� In the book, Horowitz spoke approvingly of students who created 鈥淲atch Lists鈥� and defended noted free speech icon Sen. Joseph McCarthy. More recently, Horowitz's group has taken to posting flyers around the University of Chicago calling聽professors and students, including Muslims, "."听
Spencer and Horowitz's records make it clear that they're not interested in reasoned debate or the free exchange of ideas.
