Less than two weeks after the Norway massacre and the murder of 77 people, Islamophobe Robert Spencer appeared on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” to talk about Islam. Spencer and his blog, “Jihad Watch,” were mentioned 162 times in Norway shooter Anders Breivik’s manifesto, but Robertson nevertheless found it fitting to welcome Spencer on his show to talk about the “cult” of Islam.

Robertson, completely disregarding the overwhelming evidence that Robert Spencer’s writings inspired Anders Breivik’s thinking about Islam, wondered why the U.S. media is so anti-American:

ROBERTSON: Tell me what it is about the media today that seems to be in favor of radical Islam. Why do they want to put down anybody who tells the truth about this cult.

SPENCER: Well I tell you, I think the unpleasant truth about it is the media being hard left is essentially anti-American and so anything that’s American, that’s western, that’s Christian, that’s Judeo-Christian, they hate. And so they see Islam and it’s non-western and non-Christian and they love it.

ROBERTSON: But how can they love murderers? These people are murderers. They kill American soldiers. They kill innocent civilians.

SPENCER: Well, you know, to be sure it’s not that they’re approving of that directly because they are propagating the propaganda line that Islam is a religion of peace, that it’s been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists. They constantly gloss over and sometimes outright deny that fact that Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to promote violence and incite peaceful Muslims to commit acts of violence. These things are matters of fact. It’s pretty obvious from what jihadists themselves say.

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Spencer’s rationale for blaming Islam for all terrorism committed by Muslims is interesting because he doesn’t hold himself to the same standard. According to Spencer, if a Muslim terrorist justifies his violence with Quranic verses, then Islam as a religion should be held responsible for the killer’s actions.

But Spencer and his blog had numerous citations in Anders Breivik’s manifesto and, while Spencer has never explicitly advocated violence, Brevik clearly interpreted his writings as a call to action. While Robertson and the “700 Club” may offer a safe venue for Islamophobes to go unchallenged, Spencer is falling back on repeating his hate filled message while applying a ludicrous double-standard to himself and his allies. (HT: Right Wing Watch)

“No other state has produced more guns seized by police in the brutal Mexican drug wars than Texas,” the Washington Post reported last year in a lengthy investigative report on guns in America. And while some statistics vary, a Senate report released last month said that 70 percent of recovered firearms handed over to the U.S. from Mexican authorities for tracing came from the U.S.

The illegal gun flow from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels prompted the Justice Department to announce last month that all gun dealers in the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas will be required to alert the government when “purchases of two or more of some types of rifles [are made] by the same person in a five-day span.” Now, the National Rifle Association is suing to reverse that policy, the New York Times reports today. NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre claimed the Justice Department’s move was just another part of the conspiracy theory that President Obama wants take away everyone’s guns:

“N.R.A. has always viewed this as a blatant attempt by the Obama administration to pursue their gun-control agenda through back-door rule making, and the N.R.A. will fight them every step of the way,” said Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the gun-rights group.

As the Times notes, “Firearms dealers across the United States have long been required to report similar bulk sales of handguns.” Yet the NRA argues that the federal government “has no authority to impose such a requirement on long guns.” A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms official responded:

[The official] noted that the licensing statute that requires dealers to keep records on the sale of guns of all types, and it also says the attorney general can require dealers to report whatever part of such records as he “may specify.” He also said courts had upheld similar regulations in the past — including the rule requiring reports about bulk handgun sales, which he said was an A.T.F.-only regulation for years before Congress, in 1986, passed legislation codifying it in statute.

So while the NRA tries to prevent smart gun regulation in the name of some false narrative that the government wants to do away with the Second Amendment, it seems unfazed by illegal guns fueling the violent drug war in Mexico and on the U.S. border. After all, LaPierre and his powerful gun lobby actually agree with the President on guns, they just don’t want you to know that.

ThinkProgress filed this report from the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, CO.

Soon after the horrific terror act in Norway last month, it was revealed that the killer was neither a jihadist nor Muslim, but rather a right-wing Christian Norwegian named Anders Breivik.

Breivik’s 12-minute video manifesto outlined the killer’s conservative beliefs, including that President Obama is a Marxist and that “Christian soldiers” and “cultural conservatives” should rise up against “multiculturalism” and Muslims. ThinkProgress examined the sources Breivik used in his manifesto and found, unsurprisingly, a glut of Islamophobic bloggers and pundits among the citations.

ThinkProgress spoke with one of the conservative figures Breivik cited, Frank Gaffney, during the Western Conservative Summit last weekend. We asked Gaffney if it was concerning that his rhetoric was being used for violent ends.

Rather than reconsidering his outlandish views, Gaffney eschewed Occam’s Razor and took a far different view: Breivik’s manifesto may actually be a hoax planted by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Center for Security Policy president called for a “thorough investigation as to whether it was in fact an authentic piece of his own creation, whether it’s a false flag operation, whether it actually was meant to do anything other than to contribute to Sharia’s efforts to suppress criticism and awareness of its agenda.” He closed by noting he could “absolutely” see the Muslim Brotherhood perpetrating this kind of fraud.

THINKPROGRESS: Obviously we saw some horrific acts in Norway. I read in news reports that you yourself and the CSP had been mentioned seven separate times. Is that concerning that some people are using your rhetoric for violent ends?

GAFFNEY: I think there’s a lot yet to be determined about who this individual was and what exactly his agenda was. What’s very peculiar to me is the nature of this so-called manifesto, which seems about as unrelated to anything having to do with Norway or Norwegian nationalism as you can imagine. It’s basically entirely made up of, it’s a pastiche, a very eclectic pastiche at that, of American writers and some non-American writers but of a similar mind. It cries out for a thorough investigation as to whether it was in fact an authentic piece of his own creation, whether it’s a false flag operation, whether it actually was meant to do anything other than to contribute to Sharia’s efforts to suppress criticism and awareness of its agenda. Until we know the answers to some of those questions, I’m not going to go too far down the road of saying what its consequences might be.

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For those keeping score at home, Gaffney’s list of those influenced or infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood now includes:

- Anders Breivik
- Herman Cain
- CPAC
- Grover Norquist
- David Petraeus
- President Obama
- The federal government
- Elena Kagan
- James Clapper
- Janet Napolitano
- The Pentagon’s missile defense logo
- The conservative movement

Neocons don’t like that the United States has an ambassador in Syria. Last year, Republican hawks blocked Robert Ford’s nomination to represent the U.S. in Damascus. But President Obama installed him in a recess appointment and Ford’s presence there during the pro-democracy uprising has been “impressive” — particularly his visit to Hama last month, where Syrian activists welcomed him with open arms. Nonetheless, Republicans and neocons aren’t giving up and still want him pulled anyway.

Ford is in Washington this week for his confirmation hearings and testified yesterday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell and Josh Rogin wrote before the hearing that Ford “will face a panel of Republican senators…who are eager to criticize what they see as the administration’s timidity in Syria.” Yet none showed up. In fact, one single senator, Democrat Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, had questions for Ford.

During the hearing, Ford stressed how important his presence in Syria is because he provides “more space for the Syrian people to express themselves” and works with the Syrian opposition. “It’s really important now to give Syrians an ear and to amplify their voices especially when the international media is barred from Syria,” he said. Later, he described his visit to Hama — which he described as one of the most “fascinating” experiences of his career — and reiterated how vital his role in Syria is:

FORD: First of all the protesters there are peaceful. As I think I mentioned, the one weapon I saw a slingshot. As I said these men are not gunmen. … But the second point I came with was, they are not against foreigners. We told them we were American diplomats and they said, “Oh! America! Great! Go ahead! Please pass!” … They’re not anti-American at all. In fact I think they appreciated the attention that the United States showed to their cause and that they were peaceful.

But the people in Hama and elsewhere are quite committed to change and I don’t think they’re going to stop. And so I think we owe it to them to remain supportive and it try to build that support wisely, carefully but to build that support.

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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has sharply criticized Obama on Syria and has called on him to withdraw Ford from Damascus. “I don’t understand their Syria policy,” he told Rogin yesterday, adding, “I wish there was a little more clarity on it, I’m sorry there isn’t.” Yet Rubio did not show up to hear Ford’s testimony or to ask him questions about the administration’s policy.