The freedom of speech is under severe attack all over the world, and the controversy that has erupted in Canada over Christine Douglass-Williams, a board member with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, writing for Jihad Watch, is ongoing. The Canadian Press reported: “With concerns about the post circulating among her fellow board members, it came to the attention of Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, whose department is responsible for the foundation.” So I sent this letter to Joly (you will not be at all surprised to learn that I have not received any reply):

Honorable Minister Joly:

I am writing in support of Christine Douglass-Williams, a member of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, who I understand has come under scrutiny for writing for my web publication, Jihad Watch.

The Canadian Press has identified as questionable one specific piece that Ms. Douglass-Williams published at Jihad Watch (among other places), in which she refers to deceptive Islamic supremacists. However, neither the Canadian Press nor anyone else has offered any evidence for why what Ms. Douglass-Williams wrote was wrong or hateful.

In the piece, she referred to Muslims who posture as moderate when they actually aren’t. Do such people actually exist? Consider the imam Fawaz Damra, who according to contemporary media reports was known in the Cleveland area “as a voice of moderate, mainstream Islam.” He “was often seen at public events with politicians and leaders of other faiths, including several prayer services after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.” Meanwhile, he was “disparaging Jews in Arabic as ‘pigs and monkeys’ and raising money for the killing of Jews by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

This is just one example of many that confirm the correctness of Ms. Douglass-Williams’ observations. Yet despite the reasonableness of her statement, the Canadian Press reports that “there are concerns that Douglass-Williams’s views are a hindrance to her work with the foundation and an affront to its legally defined mandate, which is to help eliminate racism and racial discrimination in Canada.”

There is in reality no racial issue involved here. Jihad terror and the deceptions of some terror-aligned leaders is not race. Islamic jihadists are people of all races. Ms. Douglass-Williams, in standing against jihad terror and Sharia oppression, is not only not jeopardizing the work of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, but enhancing it, but standing against the spread of an ideology that is frankly and unapologetically supremacist and violent, and set against the survival of Canadian pluralist principles.

Meanwhile, I am deeply concerned that Ms. Douglass-Williams is being smeared by association with me and Jihad Watch. I have been writing against jihad terror and Sharia-justified denial of human rights for many years, and I’ve found over the years that one tactic that the allies of jihad terror and Sharia supremacist groups frequently resort to in Canada, the U.S., and Western Europe is to smear those who expose their activities as “hatemongers,” “racists,” and “bigots.” But a false charge does not become true for being often repeated. I invite you to read any of my 17 published books (which I am happy to send you free of charge), thousands of articles, and 45,000+ posts at Jihad Watch, and am confident that you find not a trace of “hatred,” “racism,” or “bigotry” in them. All my work has been and is in defense of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law. More to the point, I invite you to read all of Ms. Douglass-Williams’ published writings at Jihad Watch, and you will see that there is no reason for anyone who is concerned about racism and about preserving pluralistic societies to be concerned.

If I can answer any questions or be of any possible service to you in your further consideration of this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kindest regards
Robert Spencer
director, Jihad Watch