My Invitation From al-Qaeda By Robert Spencer...And my counter-offer

Folks, as I wrote here, one of the foremost experts on Islam, Robert Spencer, was singled out in the latest videot-tape released by al-Qaeda. Robert Spencers response to al-Qaeda's threat that he convert is excerpted here, from My Invitation From al-Qaeda By Robert Spencer...And my counter-offer:

In American al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn’s convert-to-Islam-or-die message to America released last Saturday, he extends a special invitation to the President, as well as to Daniel Pipes, Michael Scheuer, Steve Emerson – and me:

If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush’s crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else W. has sent you to die.

Gadahn also praises Western leftist sycophants and apologists for the global jihad, and invites them to become Muslims as well:

Why not surrender to the truth? Escape from the unbelieving army and join the winning side. As for those who have expressed their respect and admiration for Islam, and acknowledged that it is the truth and demonstrated the support and sympathy for the Muslims and their causes like George Galloway, Robert Fisk, and countless others, I say to them, isn’t it time you stopped sitting on the fence and came over to the side of truth?...Abandon unbelief and accept the truth.

It is important to note that Gadahn’s “invitation” to Islam is coupled with a threat of violence: “To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent (your) misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next….” In this, Gadahn is following the example of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, who told his followers:

“When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action…Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them…If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them” (Sahih Muslim 4294).

Muhammad’s directions here to extend an invitation to Islam and follow it with a threat were also followed recently by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For his part, Gadahn calls the Islamic prophet Muhammad “the chief and master of Adam’s children, and the embodiment of high morals and good character.”

The thuggishness of Gadahn and the supremacist creed for which he has become a salesman was evident in other parts of his message. “Islam,” he explained, “is the only religion acceptable to God and came with the revealed book, the Koran, which abrogates all previous revelations, like the Torah and Evangel [Gospel]... God recognizes no separation between religion and state.” In this he makes an expression of the Islamic supremacism that delegitimizes the religious traditions of Jews and Christians. In line with the Qur’an (3:67), Gadahn says, “Abraham was neither a Jew or a Christian, but was a Muslim hanif.” (A “hanif” is a pre-Islamic monotheist.) In other words, Judaism and Christianity as practiced today have no legitimacy, but are merely renegade corruptions of the true religion, Islam.

Read Robert Spencer's full response, here.