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ROBERT SPENCER: Co-Founder, Stop Islamization of America; Director, Jihad Watch

Name: Robert Spencer

Organization: Stop Islamization of America; Jihad Watch

Background: Robert Spencer, 49, received his Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He says he has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history in depth since 1980. He has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the U.S. intelligence community. The FBI even listed one of his Islamophobic books, The Truth About Muhammad, as “recommended reading” about Islam in its 62-slide PowerPoint presentation used to train new bureau recruits for “successful interviews/interrogations with individuals from the M.E. [Middle East].”

Spencer is the director of the website Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. As a subsidiary of the Freedom Center, Jihad Watch’s primary purpose is to“track the attempts of radical Islam to subvert Western culture.” Spencer has written 10 books, including the New York Times bestseller The Truth About Muhammad. His books are heavily promoted by the Islamophobia network.

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Robert Spencer and his blog were cited 162 times in the nearly 1,500-page manifesto of Anders Breivik, the confessed Norway terrorist who claimed responsibility for killing 76 people, mostly youths.

Funding: Spencer’s activities are funded in large part through the David Horowitz FreedomCenter. Spencer’s salary at Jihad Watch was about $140,000 in 2010, according to an investigative report by Politico’s Kenneth Vogel and Giovanni Russonello. Donations to Stop Islamization of America appear to be collected by Jihad Watch’s PayPal account. In 2005 and 2006, the Fairbrook Foundation contributed a total of $253,250 to Jihad Watch.

Key Quotes: “Of course, as I have pointed out many times, traditional Islam itself is not moderate or peaceful. It is the only major world religion with a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers.” [Source]