Robert Spencer (author) - Controversies

Controversies

On December 20, 2006, the government of Pakistan announced a ban on Spencer's book, The Truth About Muhammad, citing "objectionable material" as the cause. Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was likewise highly critical of Spencer's work. In his response to Bhutto's criticism, Spencer notes that the passage she cites was in fact written by Ibn Warraq.

In 2009, Spencer was asked to participate in an information session about Islam and Muslims designed for ethnic and multicultural librarians entitled "Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping", at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Library Association, which was sponsored by the ALA's Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT). After objections were raised by ALA members and the general public, the three other panelists withdrew in protest and the session was ultimately canceled.

In August 2010 The Washington Post cited Spencer, along with Pamela Geller as conservative bloggers who have been influential in challenging the construction of the Park51 project, which he calls the "Ground Zero mosque". Spencer and Geller's organization Stop Islamization of America launched their first public protest outside of the Park51 location on June 6, 2010. See Park51 controversy article.

In September 2010, on ABC's This Week show, Reza Aslan said that SIOA is an offshoot of SIOE, which he said had been referred to as a neo-Nazi organization by the European Union. Spencer later challenged Aslan to produce any evidence of his claim.