Some of you may know me by my real identity; some may only know me as Marc Louis, the server and site admin here at Jihad Watch. Unfortunately, due to my nine-to-five, I need to maintain multiple identities, which is not unusual, as my main occupation is as the lead cyber security analyst for a well-known internet service provider.
I did need to disclose my part-time work assisting Robert Spencer with my employers, along with a couple of other companies who were nowhere near as controversial those eight years ago. The CTO (chief technology officer) at the time said, I know Robert Spencer, I’ve heard a few of his podcasts, that’ll be fine, and signed off the approval, no threat to the company and no conflict of interest.
Those of you who know me personally also know that my daughter was severely injured in London (UK) about 15 years ago. She was attacked by Muslims for the sole reason of being Jewish. My rabbi reminded me that the attackers were just teenagers, let the police deal with it, that the attackers were only following their scripture, justice would be done. I heard my rabbi out, and actually I found he was only partially right: the anti-Semitism that caused the fists to fall was triggered by the mainstream press, who were filling the pages with lies about Palestinian genocide and Jewish occupiers.
I took around a year off work to deal with hospital visits and the court process. We also had to pull our other kid out of school due to the unwanted media attention attached to the court case, which led to some minor instances of anti-Semitism.
I started to do a lot more research on Islam and the media’s involvement with anti-Semitism that led to this life-changing event. Following 9/11, it was a buyer’s market on the subject of Islam and jihad, much of it really very hateful and not differentiating between Islam and Muslims, the belief versus the followers. Some were clearly racist with other agendas, some were evangelists who hated Jews as much as Muslims.
But I happened upon Jihad Watch. I bought a couple of Robert’s books along with a translated Koran to fact-check, and it all checked out. It’s very clear why my daughter was attacked, and it was also very clear why Pakistani men felt entitled to use non-Muslim girls as sex slaves, also the till-then unanswered question of why Israel, despite trying so hard to find peace with its neighbors, had to use massive resources to live in a perpetual state of war. I’ve lived in Israel, and Islam was never discussed, it was just accepted that they wanted us dead.
Despite the obvious hate he has been faced with, Robert maintains his cool, and has never shown hate or violence against anyone as being a solution to anything.
The man knows his subject well, and has a way of explaining it that is easily digested. At the time, while using the site, I found that it was perpetually going down. It was also being wrongly flagged as having malware; it was obviously under huge cyber-attack.
I offered my services, as I worked in the field of cyber security, and I’ve kept it up and reliable since. I also assist with the comment moderation and other security concerns.
I fully support his responses to current events and the content, the education on Islam and jihad he freely provides. The words of the metatag description of this site are not misleading in any way.
“Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts”
I’m proud of what I’ve done to keep the site up and stable. During the days of 10gb DDoS attacks, my mitigation techniques that I shared with my peers got me a great reputation as a bonus.
So it came as a total shock to me that for all these years I have been assisting a violent extremist, which is how the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) has classified Jihad Watch. Does this include me, then? I’ve literally had thousands of discussions with Robert; he truly must be a master of disguise.
I urgently searched the site for evidence for this classification and could find nothing. I emailed outreach@gifct.org at the only email address GIFCT shares on its site besides their press email, looking for more details:
Hi,
Please share your thinking on the inclusion of JihadWatch as an violent extremist organization.
As a longtime supporter of JihadWatch, based specifically on them being a non-violent entity, this is as you can imagine of great concern to me as I am sure it would be the large number of similar supporters.
Please share any evidence that you can that this is in fact true,
Regards, marc
But they have not responded. I expect they are too busy saving the world to address my concern that I might be assisting a violent extremist, so I ask you, where is there any evidence that Jihad Watch supports or encourages violent extremism in any way?
libertyORdeath says
Thank you for your hard work and dedication Marc!
mortimer says
Yes, thank you, Marc. Your work is extremely important. It is out-and-out slander to denounce JW and mischaracterize it. JW is a human rights promoting and equality-promoting organization which also supports the human rights of Muslims. Even most Muslim governments do not wish their own people to be free, equal and protected by strong human rights legislation! JW supports the UDHR, while most Muslim governments and most Muslim organizations do not.
Who are the real ‘extremists’ here?
GIFCT is set up to be a smear and slander group and nothing else.
bill says
Dear marc
Would it be so hard to give us an EDIT facility here. They can do it on Geller Report and most other sites, so why not here?
marc says
@Bill “Would it be so hard to give us an EDIT facility here”
That’s a moderation nightmare if you think it through, while other sites may not care much about their comments section and what goes on there, we do.
I have occasionally edited comments on request if there is some embarrassing error or such.
gregbeetham says
I think the usual practise is to restrict the editing to ones own posts and nobody else’s, but deletion could be a problem if it is part of an ongoing discussion that leaves a previous response hanging without reason for its existence, so maybe just edit only but not deletion?
marc says
The concern generally why I object is someone says something, someone else responds based on those words, original commenter changes the original comment.
There is also the fact that we do in fact moderate, we get a lot of agent provocateurs looking to have us shut down (the subject of this post), and posting very inappropriate things, to have an edit function would complicate that already burdensome process requiring us to read the thread of comments to understand context on every edit.
Your request is not up for debate, this is a firm, it’s never going to happen.
wpm says
Bless you for your work ,I would not hold my breath waiting for a response to your e-mail if I were you You ask a simple question to a woke left leaning progressive organization that has a agenda to silence any knowledge that Jihadist want to subjugate ,enslave ,convert or kill us that is their endgame .Knowledge and truth are not violence or inciting to violence in normal rational thinking ,but in woke though ,pagan woke worship (the left have banished belief in God and have replace it with belief in Government control) is knowledge and truth violence. Banning or censoring the truth has lead to many a ruthless rulers raise to power and many of millions of deaths for peaceful ,law abiding citizens all over the world .
Niemoller says
I suspect these clueless overlords at GIFCT are relying on A.I. to do their thinking for them. That if enough complaints from emotionally triggered trolls, i.e., Islamists and fellow travellers on the web, come in tagging Jihad Watch as “hate content”, then where there’s smoke, there must be fire, for gosh sake. JW then gets the dreaded “violent extremist” label, ironically given to it by actual violent extremists de facto working for GIFCT.
BTeboe says
Don’t worry about getting an answer – they’ll just make a statement like it was a fact and if you are logical and intelligent their answer will be to call you names. Spencer should sue them for defamation. And thank you for helping keep this site up.
Niemoller says
I suspect these clueless overlords at GIFCT are relying on A.I. to do their thinking for them. That if enough complaints from emotionally triggered trolls, i.e., Islamists and fellow travellers on the web, come in tagging Jihad Watch as “hate content”, then where there’s smoke, there must be fire, for gosh sake. JW then gets the dreaded “violent extremist” label, ironically given to it by actual violent extremists de facto working for GIFCT.
That, or GIFCT has an in-house closet Islamist or clueless friend of Islamists who insisted on putting JW on the list.
Michael Copeland says
Many thanks for your valuable work in defending the site from cyber attacks.
In the current lemming-herd mentality it may be too much to expect a rational answer to your reasonable question..
rubiconcrest says
Take a few minutes to visit ‘Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)’ and the affiliated ‘Tech Against Terrorism’ websites. They are specifically designed to provide cover for Islam through the use of mind numbing paragraphs with opaque reasoning on everything from transparency to governance. All the MB groups online do the same thing. They’re patently easy to spot. One of the advisory committee members of GIFCT is the THE KHALIFA IHLER INSTITUTE.
That organization publishes a ‘Hate-Map’ (which won’t load.)
They describe it this way, ‘The hate Map was conceived as an idea in reaction to the uptick in far right terrorist attacks rooted in white supremacist ideology globally over the past decade. The growing trend of attacks inspired by, and building on other attacks has been especially evident in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings, but has also been evident prior to this. An issue has, however, been that attacks of the far right largely have been reported on as singular.
White perpetrators in white-majority countries, fuelled(their error) by white supremacy are often described as lone wolves, gunmen, shooters and attackers rather than terrorists. This project to map the white supremacy seeks, both to show global trends in attacks and other incidents, and to highlight the fact that the perpetrators of these incidents are organized through both formal and informal networks existing in both virtual and physical spaces and building on shared ideology, methodology and tactics that span national borders in a global movement.’
It’s quite clear what the aim is here and why Jihad Watch would be labeled extremist by GIFCT etc….. Jihad Watch should consider it a badge of honor.
gravenimage says
All true, Rubiconcrest.
Infidel says
Marc
Sorry to hear about what happened to your daughter. Actually, on my end, in 1993, I got in trouble w/ my college’s computer center admin for the way I was using Usenet – to post things that muslims and leftists hated. That was the woke era of the last century, but ever since that, I’ve been careful never to reveal my real identity in public, since I feared cancellation long before it came into vogue
As a former Indian, I had a good idea about what muslims were all about from my study of Indian history in the 80s, but it was the discovery of this site in I think 2006 or 7 that I realized that it was all islam sanctioned. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by the discussions I’ve had, previously w/ some brilliant people
I’m surprised that the GIFCT hasn’t branded the Simon Wiesenthal Center as a violent extremist organization. Maybe they will if the center starts targeting muslim fans of Hitler
Ray Jarman says
I do not remember the article but I remember being really upset and did not realize that I wrote something over the top and Marc blocked it. I sent an e-mail requesting the reason for its not being allowed and he gave me a straight answer. I am grateful for his answer which I hope has caused me to be more aware of my opines on a given subject, especially when it cause me to be extremely agitated.
James Lincoln says
Ray,
What I have found to be helpful is to not post immediately after reading a feature article – or a reader’s comment – that is emotionally triggering.
Make a mental note to come back to it after a “cooldown” period…
GreekEmpress says
Great idea, Mr. Lincoln.
I know I can’t post right away (or sometimes at all) after reading some of the articles on JW. But I’m always grateful that there’s a site that keeps us informed.
PS. And thank you Marc for all you do.
E T says
I have an old piece of 2×4, I hammer nails into sometimes – – then I read the article later, lately I have just thought too many people were dropped on their head at some point and I go outside and appreciate how God painted the earth.
I do give thanks for Robert Spencer and his team.
marc says
If I’m getting into something contentious or where I am unsure on my choice of words and it will really matter, I’ll email myself a draft and revisit later. That is exactly how I drafted this post.
E T says
If you cancel my comment, I think he is controlling the redhead with the Irish spark (temper) LOL. You are awesome Marc
marc says
I get to block 2 types of commentators, those who I can see should know better, and those we just don’t need here.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that account, Ray.
Aussie Infidel says
Marc, Thank you for the work you do to keep JW safe from the enemies of freedom. I would not be a contributor to this site either if I thought it was run by a “violent extremist”. I can honestly say that Robert has always been respectful in what he has said about Muslims,and his articles on JW have been truthful and accurate. And he does not conflate Muslims (the people) with Islam (the ideology), which tragically traps its followers in a vicious circle of hatred and violence against infidels.
Like other totalitarian ideologies, Islam maintains its hold over its followers by fear of retribution. Muslims are kept within the fold by blasphemy laws which forbid any criticism of Islam, and apostasy laws which forbid them to leave the faith. The penalty prescribed for both of these “enormities” is death – which is so often the fate of dissenters in the Islamic world.
It is not people like Robert Spencer and the contributors to this site who are the violent extremists, but those who wish to silence any opposition to their totalitarian ideology. It is not Jihad Watch which espouses hate speech and violence, but Islam itself – and its apologists in the West. Muhammad was a narcissist who hated anyone who would not accept him as a prophet, or convert to his contrived religion – as is demonstrated so clearly in its scriptures.
“O believers, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you – then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.” (Q5:51).
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip”. (Q8:12).
“And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists (Pagans & Christians) wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakat, let them go on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” (Q9:5). This is the infamous ‘Verse of the sword’. To Muslims, ‘Repent’ means to accept Islam; and then of course, there is no need for further fighting.
“Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah ; and those with him are forceful against the unbelievers, merciful among themselves.” (Q48:29).
“Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah . We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone”. (Q60:4).
These verses from the Islamic scriptures are the basis for the Doctrine of Al Walla Wal Barra (Loving and hating for Allah), which is incorporated as law in the Sharia, and one of the core tenets of Islam.
In essence, this doctrine states that Muslims must “love for the sake of Allah, hate for the sake of Allah, detest unbelievers and be hard against them, while accepting the destiny of Allah, as it is Allah’s decree”. (Reliance of the Traveller, Acceptance and Hatred w59.2).
I can understand why you have to remain anonymous, because Islam appeals to the psychopaths in the community who take delight in attacking anyone they regard as an infidel.
gravenimage says
Marc, I had no idea about your daughter–so terrible. (although I did think that “Marc Louis” might have been a pseudonym). You had a much more personal wake-up than did most of us.
Thank you for everything you do here–and thank you for the personal technical help you have rendered me over the years, which you certainly were not obliged to do. I also remember everything you did to keep Jihad Watch up and running when Robert Spencer was so ill a couple of years ago.
This against Jihad Watch and Robert Spencer is baseless calumny.
Jihad Watch is an indespensible resource–and you are a great part of it. My greatest respect to all you do.
Khushi says
According to MSM and other pro muslim organisations, this is the reason why Jihad Watch has to be marginalised – so that it’s message will not reach the fence sitters.
There are many people who are not yet sure whether they believe islam to be a violent religion or not because they know so many ‘nice’ muslims. These people would be able to educate themselves from websites like JW hence the need to classify JW as an extremist website.
Would it be possible for JW to sue such websites and demand a retraction of such an unfair classification?
I know it’s expensive and time consuming but I think this should be done. Make them retract.
gregbeetham says
Thanks for your efforts to keep this site safe against all odds.
I hold no illusions about Islam and by extension Muslims, I think we are actually engaged in a war of survival on all fronts but most don’t take that literally, unfortunately.
I’m not surprised at the classification of JW when you look at the performance of places like YouTube who ban people for criticizing Islam or Muslim activities but ignore blatant transgressions by the latter. It appears that to criticize Islam is violent hate speech in itself when the criticism is aimed at violent hate speech emanating from Muslims.
It’s like their logic centres have been switched, bad is good and good is bad to the point where you wouldn’t trust them to be able to assess anything accurately and wonder how they function at all, do they brake on a green light? Cross when railway red lights are flashing?
How far does their insanity extend?
Nearly 40 thousand murderous Muslim attacks since 9/11 isn’t the fault of Islam, it’s our fault for existing?
Is China good and the West bad?
Biden good Trump bad?
Israel bad and the lying Palestinians good?
Brian says
I know just how you feel, Marc. My Sons of the Confederate Veterans is termed racist & anti-Semitic by the adl & splc. To my knowledge we hate no one. Getting along with us is an easy 2-step process: 1) Don’t insult our ancestors. 2) Don’t try to take down our monuments. Thanks for your story.
marc says
don’t get me started on the ADL, I am sure they would class me as the worst, ironically as a kid I used to help with fundraising stuff, filling envelopes etc. They were a good org back then, but that was a long time ago.
Jram says
Thanks for sharing.
Without stories like yours, ppl will never know & believe. God Bless you & yours.