Why I Am Not A Conservative

Why I Am Not A Conservative
by Robert Spencer

Many years ago,
when I interviewed the great avant-garde saxophonist Charles Gayle, I asked him
about bitter criticism he had received for his tendency to preach a pro-life
message in the middle of his concerts. “Yeah,” he said with some amusement,
“they always call me ‘right-wing.’ Man, I ain’t got no wings!” Neither do I.
And as the events of the past week have shown, I am not “right-wing,” either;
nor am I a conservative.

Throughout my
public career, of course, the mainstream media has insisted that my colleagues and
I are indeed “right-wing,” and often even “far right.” Since the “far right” is
the label generally given to advocates of authoritarian government and racist
discrimination, this label, as common as it is, is a sheer calumny, as we
are not only opponents of both of those things, but foes of a system that advances
both. If working to defend the principles of the freedom of speech, the freedom
of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law is “far
right,” then we should all be “far rightists”; but in reality this label is
just a tool of the enemies of those principles, used to discredit those who defend
them.

But I am
nonetheless generally considered to be a conservative. It is a label I have
used myself, as a way of distinguishing my position from that of the liberals
and Leftists who have generally sold out to the jihad, so blind in their hatred
of Western civilization and the United States of America that they eagerly cast
their lot with the foremost enemies of both. And on a practical level, that
identification has been easy: Regnery Publishing, a foremost conservative
publishing house, has published six of my twelve books. Many of my books have been
endorsed by the late, lamented Conservative Book Club.

Nonetheless, for
all that, I am not a conservative. You want a conservative? Mitt Romney is a
conservative. He is still a key leader of the Republican Party, the party of
conservatives, and he is addressing the Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC) this weekend. But during his presidential campaign, he called
for the creation of a Palestinian state, which I oppose on the grounds that it
will be used as a new base for jihad attacks against an Israel weakened by its
creation. During his third debate with Barack Obama, he kept agreeing with
Obama that the Syrian “rebels” and other forces of “democracy” in the Middle
East had to be aided with our tax dollars – despite the fact that jihadis
dominate the Syrian rebellion and that an Islamic state even more hostile to
the U.S. than the Assad regime is likely to be the result of their victory. He
has said that “jihadism” has nothing to do with Islam, which is just an absurd
statement.

So if Mitt Romney
is a conservative, which he undoubtedly is, then I must not be one. And then
there is Grover Norquist, who is even more of a conservative than Mitt Romney.
Norquist’s conservative bona fides are impeccable: as the leader of Americans
for Tax Reform, he has a huge base of supporters among fiscal conservatives and
the politicians who want their votes. But he also has extensive ties to Islamic
supremacists. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) called Norquist out for this on the
House floor in October 2011, saying
of the anti-tax hero: “Documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters
of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United
States and our ally Israel.” He pointed out that “around the years 2000
and 2001, Mr. Norquist’s firm represented Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was
convicted two years later for his role in a terrorist plot and who is presently
serving a 23-year sentence in federal prison.”  

Despite this, however,
Norquist remains such a powerful force among conservatives that he is a feared eminence
gris at CPAC. Last year, his protege (and another conservative with
extensive ties to Islamic supremacist Muslim Brotherhood groups) Suhail Khan
boasted to me that I had been barred from speaking at CPAC because I dared to
question the Muslim Brotherhood ties of some of its foremost figures.

And just last week,
after my website www.jihadwatch.org overwhelmingly
won a vote for CPAC’s “People’s Choice Blog Award,” John Hawkins of Right Wing
News (whether on his own initiative, as he now claims, or as the errand boy of
shadowy and unnamed higher-ups, as he initially told me over the phone) told me
that I was not to speak about the Muslim Brotherhood ties of Norquist and Khan
when I received the award. Needless to say, I could not accept this gag order,
and will not be receiving the award: the truth is more important than a trophy.

But that was the end of my identification as a conservative.
Grover Norquist is a conservative. Suhail Khan is a conservative. John Hawkins
is a conservative. Thus I must not be one. I am not acceptable either as a speaker
or an award recipient at the nation’s foremost conservative gathering. I must
not be a conservative.

So what am I? I am an advocate of freedom: of the freedom of
speech, of the equal treatment of all people under the law. Consequently, I am
a foe of the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, which are enemies of both
those principles. I know that there are many others like me, but neither party
seems interested in us right now, and neither does the conservative movement,
such as it is.

It is time for a new movement, a genuine movement of
freedom, one that is not compromised, not beholden, and not corrupted. Are
there enough free Americans left to mount such a movement? That I do not know.
But I do know that if there aren’t, all is lost, and the denouement will come
quickly – more quickly than most people expect.

Robert Spencer is
the director of Jihad Watch
and author of the New York Times bestsellers The
Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The
Truth About Muhammad. His upcoming book, Not Peace But A Sword:
The Great Chasm Between Christianity and Islam, will be available
March 25.