One of my mentors on Islam–because before 9/11, who knew?–is Robert Spencer, a gifted writer whose books and journalism are informed by careful scholarship and logical analysis.

His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), made the New York Times bestseller list–with virtually no MSM reviews. Meanwhile, his website, JihadWatch, along with its sister site, DhimmiWatch, is required reading for anyone who wants to know how the world will end. Just kidding. I mean, it’s for anyone who wants to increase his awareness of, well, jihad and dhimmitude.

This falll, his new book, “The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion” (catchy title, Robert), will be published, and right smack in the middle of Ramadan (nice gift idea, Robert).

You can catch Robert this weekend (Sunday at 8pm and 11pm) on C-Span in a Brian Lamb interview. Of course, if you are a faithful C-Span viewer, you might have caught snippets of Robert’s interview already. In one of the looser interpretations of what are vaguely known as journalistic ethics, C-Span took portions of the unaired Spencer interview and showed them, in a completely separate interview that has already aired, to Akbar Ahmed, a Muslim academic from American University. Mr. Ahmed was then asked, on the air, to refute Robert’s taped analysis of jihad doctrine and other now-controversial issues. Since Robert was not given the same chance to respond to Mr. Ahmed, he has exercised his Freedom of the Blogosphere and done so here–and sent it to Mr. Ahmed. “Thank you for your response. I look forward to talking soon,” Mr. Ahmed replied.

It seems like an awful lot of trouble for Robert to have to go just to try to have a reasoned debate. Here’s a bright idea for C-Span: Invite both men back at the same time to talk this thing out face to face.

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