An old libel appears after my cancelled UCLA talk: pro-Hamas activists try to shut me down again at Patreon

Amid all the controversy over my abortive appearance at UCLA, the old claim that I inspired the mass murderer Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011, has resurfaced. Some who pressed UCLA to cancel the event brought up Breivik, and are now trying to get me banned again from Patreon for the same reason. The impression they want to give people is that, if I inspired Breivik, what I say must be so incendiary and dangerous that I must be silenced. Then, when I actually am silenced as at UCLA (read about what happened here), the fascists can claim that they had ample justification in banning such an inflammatory speaker. The whole thing, however, is a massive lie.

One reason why the Breivik charge is being hauled out again is because it’s all they’ve got. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of quotes illustrating how terrible I am is really a list of demonstrably true statements that leftists don’t like. The ADL defames me as an “extremist,” while ignoring the reality of Islamic jihad violence and Islamic antisemitism altogether. So Breivik is the only thing that seems really damaging. The kids at UCLA today were about eight years old when Breivik did his shooting, so they likely have never heard of it, and are thus vulnerable to deceptive and misleading propaganda. And thus it’s time to answer it yet again.

Breivik does quote me many times in the bizarre manifesto, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” that was found online after his murders. He also quotes many, many other people, including Barack Obama and other idols of the left, but he quotes me more often than anyone. This means I inspired him to commit mass murder, right? No. He appears to quote me more often than anyone else because he plunks down whole in his manifesto the transcript of a documentary in which I was featured in the early 2000s. Every time I speak in the transcript, what I say is preceded, after the manner of all play and movie scripts, with “ROBERT SPENCER.” Thus when one does a search of my name in the manifesto, it looks as if he is quoting me multiples times, when actually it’s just because I speak a great deal in the documentary.

Also, there is something highly questionable about the documentary transcript being in the manuscript in the first place. No transcript of the film was ever published. In fact, no transcript was ever even made. So where did Breivik get it? It’s a flawless transcript, and of course all in English; yet elsewhere in his manifesto, Breivik demonstrates that his command of English is shaky at best. So: where did he get the transcript? Who gave it to him, and why? Did he even put it in his manifesto, or was it dropped in by someone else? These are questions that will likely never be answered.

Also, while the whole idea of claiming that I inspired Breivik is to give the impression that my writing is dangerous and leads to violence, Breivik himself explicitly refutes this. He actually criticizes me for not calling for violence, saying of me and other critics of jihad terror: “If these authors are to [sic] scared to propagate a conservative revolution and armed resistance then other authors will have to.” (Breivik, p. 753) Breivik explains in his manifesto that he was radicalized by his experiences with Muslim immigrants in the early 1990s, before I had published anything about Islam, and says: “I first got involved with the armed European Resistance Movement when I was 21/22 years old, in 2001/2002.” (P. 1400) My first book about Islam, Islam Unveiled, was published on October 25, 2002; it is likely, since Breivik says he joined his armed group “in 2001/2002,” that nothing I had written had anything to do with his decision to join.

Breivik also demonstrated that he was clearly not operating under my influence, as he recommended making common cause with jihadis: “An alliance with the Jihadists might prove beneficial to both parties but will simply be too dangerous (and might prove to be ideologically counter-productive). We both share one common goal.” (p. 958). He even called for making common cause with Hamas in plotting jihad terror: “Approach a representative from a Jihadi Salafi group. Get in contact with a Jihadi strawman. Present your terms and have him forward them to his superiors….Present your offer. They are asked to provide a biological compound manufactured by Muslim scientists in the Middle East. Hamas and several Jihadi groups have labs and they have the potential to provide such substances. Their problem is finding suitable martyrs who can pass ‘screenings’ in Western Europe. This is where we come in. We will smuggle it in to the EU and distribute it at a target of our choosing. We must give them assurances that we are not to harm any Muslims etc.” (p. 958-9)

Yet Breivik does say: “About Islam I recommend essentially everything written by Robert Spencer.” (p. 762). That’s damning, right? It means that all my work is tainted, because a mass murderer praises it, right? All right. Let’s go with that. A lot of the people who like to tar me with Breivik are great admirers of the far-left ideologue Noam Chomsky. Here’s a quote from one of Chomsky’s fans: “This war [in Afghanistan and Iraq, 2007] was entirely unnecessary, as testified to by your own reports. And among the most capable of those from your own side who speak to you on this topic and on the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice prior to the war, but the leader of Texas [George W. Bush] doesn’t like those who give advice.” He also said: “And if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing of your war against us, then read the book of Michael Scheuer in this regard.” The same man praised Chomsky again in 2010, saying: ““Noam Chomsky was correct when he compared the U.S. policies to those of the Mafia.” Who praised Chomsky and Scheuer? Osama bin Laden. Yet has anyone ever called for Chomsky and Scheuer to be banned because a foremost jihad mass murderer praised them? Never. It is universally recognized that if a mad or evil man likes something, that tells us something about the mad or evil man, but nothing about what he likes. Except when it comes to me.

One more case: in 2019, a man named Connor Betts murdered nine people in Dayton, Ohio. CNN reported this about Betts’ Twitter account: “The account retweeted messages supporting Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.” Are Sanders and Warren ever blamed for Betts’ actions? Never. Why not? Because this is a tactic the left uses. Patriots, being more rational thinkers, do not use it.

Anyway, the fascists at UCLA are trying to use Breivik to shut me down from Patreon again. I was banned from Patreon once, but Patreon backed down after they heard from my attorneys. We will fight this battle again if necessary. Meanwhile, please do support us at Patreon here; expenses have been very high lately, some previously reliable sources of funding have dried up, and we need your help to keep going.