Robert Spencer On The Current Controversy

Yesterday, Fjordman posted an essay at Gates of Vienna which gave his perspective on whether the current rift in the blogosphere (between Gates of Vienna/Atlas Shrugs on one side and LGF/IBA, etc. on the other side.

Fjordman's essay was well-reasoned, and I think it is worth reading. I note with satisfaction that Fjordman agrees with me on the one matter which has really stuck in my craw this whole time; that Filip DeWinter, the leader of Vlaams Belang is, apparently, enamored of Jean-Marie Le Pen:

... of all the information published by LGF, a lot of which is nonsense
or outdated or both, the one piece of information that I disliked the most was
VB’s connection to Jean-Marie Le Pen from the FN in France through the Identity,
Tradition, Sovereignty group at the European Parliament. I don’t like Le Pen at
all and consider it to be poor judgment by the VB to have even a formal link to
that party. They should seriously consider cutting that link in the future. It’s
not helpful.

Now, Fjordman doesn't go any further than that. There is no call for action, no request that DeWinter immediately recscind his tacit, if not outright, support for Le Pen. And, maybe Fjordman has his reasons. I'm guessing he believes the rest of the points he makes in his essay are reason enough.

Ok, fine.

Anyway, it seems that everyone is quoting Robert Spencer's essay on the controversy today. What's funny is everyone is pulling quotes from the essay to make it look as if the essay supports their point of view. Both Pamela at Atlas Shrugs and Charles from Little Green Footballs have used this tact without being completely forthright about the fact that the essay is more nuanced than being a simple support of either side.

That being said, I think I'll tell you outright, I'm pulling the quote which most supports my position. And, if you are interested, you ought to click on the link above and read the whole thing.

Here's my favorite quote from Spencer's essay:

The neofascist character of the anti-jihad parties in Europe also keeps
many decent people from joining the counterjihad movement, when they otherwise would. This is the great weakness of the argument that, well, there is no one
else fighting this fight, so we have to join forces with people we would
otherwise regard with distaste: some people simply will not and will never do
that, and it limits the power of the movement and its ability to
grow.

So then we come to Vlaams Belang and the Sweden Democrats. The
controversy has revolved around the sincerity of their break with the past:
their supporters maintain that they have broken with Nazi links in their pasts,
and they are undeniably pro-Israel. The counterjihad conference that touched all
this controversy off -- since VB and SD reps attended it -- was openly
pro-Israel, featuring an address by Andrew Bostom on antisemitism and another by
the decidedly non-dhimmi Israeli politician Aryeh Eldad. There was nothing white
supremacist or neo-Nazi about it, and in fact it seemed to herald a new phase of
cooperation between European and American anti-jihadists, although its genuine
work has been completely overwhelmed by the ensuing controversy. In any case,
did VB and SD reps meet with Bat Ye'or, Bostom, Eldad and others in order to
deceive people as to their true intentions, or did they do so in order to herald
a clean break with their pasts?

If it was a clean break, it needs to be a completely clean break.
The VB in particular has many clear-eyed and sensible supporters in the U.S.,
including many people I respect very highly. But much has come to light since
the conference -- much of which I was unaware before I went, and of which I
think most people in the U.S. were unaware. Charles' points in his post on
Fjordman's piece yesterday are well taken: "Nothing" -- that is, in Fjordman's
article -- "about the White Power symbols in the Vlaams Belang youth magazine,
nothing about the connections between unrepentant Nazi collaborator Leon
Degrelle and top Vlaams Belang officials, nothing about the top VB leaders who
fought with police in order to lay flowers on the graves of SS soldiers, nothing
about the White Power symbol on Filip DeWinter’s bookshelf, nothing about
DeWinter’s calls for a 'white Europe.'"

... I am just watching and waiting for what VB and SD will do now, and I hope that tempers will cool on both sides and we can all continue to work together against the jihad and Islamic supremacism. There are few enough of us as it is.