Nathan Lean Gets Publicly Challenged By Asra Nomani For His Abuse Towards Muslims

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Nathan Lean is an American author who has been dining out on the popularity afforded to the meaningless term ‘Islamophobia’ for several years now after releasing his book ‘The Islamophobia Industry’.

Lean essentially caricatures the discussion on Islamism as ‘Muslims Vs. Racists’ at every opportunity. There’s one massively inconvenient obstacle to his narrative however: non-white Muslim reformers and ex-Muslims. They too have noticed that not all is well within the Muslim world and that there are a number of things in Islamic orthodoxy that are deserving of criticism and challenge.

These courageous voices risk everything in defence of liberal principles. Rather than engage with the arguments of reformers, Nathan Lean opts for smear campaigns and derogatory labelling instead – once referring to Maajid Nawaz as a ‘Muslim Validator’ and ‘Lapdog’.

Asra Nomani is a Muslim reformer and staunch liberal. She took it upon herself to publically hold Lean to account for his behaviour, which you can watch below:

 

 

Remarkably, Nathan Lean isn’t particularly keen to answer questions about the things he’s said and done. One thing struck me as particularly interesting though. Is Nathan Lean a Muslim?

This has never occurred to me before as I don’t tend to care about peoples’ personal beliefs. However, this question is entirely justifiable given Nathan enjoys the presumption of impartiality from his readers, both professionally and publicly when he writes about Islam. Will Nathan declare his interests?

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

11 comments

  • What a gutless little man. These are people who’ve hived off a little far-left safe-space for themselves where they are never required to justify their opinions, where they’re never put on the spot, where if you respond with a “next question” to an audibly emotional woman it won’t hurt your credibility in the slightest. They have created a comforting, morally monochrome bubble for themselves and any attempts that reality makes to pierce it are warded off by their careful avoidance of open, honest debate.
    However, one thing I believe strongly is that people like Lean, who are part of a social milieu that does nothing but reinforce its own beliefs and prejudices, are complacent. They forget that the majority of people looking on are neither for nor against. They’re undecided.
    And they’re not stupid – they can make their own inferences when Lean simply dismisses a perfectly reasonable question(a question that many neutrals would believe he had a moral duty to engage with). The same goes for campus tantrums that lead to decent liberals being sacked, no-platformed, smeared; or racist slurs about Maajid Nawaz; or apparently-leftist gender equality societies ganging up with conservative Muslim students to intimidate and mischaracterise ex-Muslim liberals…the illiberal left forget that it’s more than just them and their opponents watching. Most people are not invested at all – they’re simply trying to make up their minds – and in that context videos like this are crucial. Nathan Lean is a walking, talking, unending PR victory for genuine liberals. All we have to do is allow him further licence to indict himself.

  • Beautifully put Saul. I wonder why other members of the audience did not interject and ask for a response.

  • Nathan Lean doesn’t have the courage to validate his own comments made against Asra Normani.

  • Someone needs to round up everything Nathan Lean has done and put it together in a blog or video. This man is completely deplorable. Consider the breadth of everything he’s done. Are Muslim Reformers people who can, in any way, be justified being treated so poorly? There simply isn’t a case to be made for his level of obsession and animosity. There is truly something wrong with this man. Try to imagine the thought process behind a white non-Muslim who decides to study “Arab Studies” and dedicate his entire life to fighting “Islamophobia”, targeting and harassing anyone who dares fight against Islamism, all while working for a University department funded by a rich Saudi prince. This isn’t a sane person.

    {this comment was originally posted on the YT vid}

  • The key problem with Lean is that his entire career and identity are wrapped in this false anti-Islamophobia industry. It’s the equivalent of a Jerry Falwell or any other religious professional: if they admit they’re wrong once, their whole body of work is revealed as a great fraud. Lean would literally lose his position. Same with Greenwald, Aslan, etc. It’s not just an argument they can concede on the Internet. They’ve invested too much. They disgust me, but I also pity them.

  • Thank you for raising the point about his religious affiliation. People have assumed he is a non-Muslim defending Islam but Lean has never identified publicly either way. It certainly is less interesting to see a convert tribally defend religious orthodoxy. In any case, since he does research entirely related to Islam, he should be transparent with any potential bias.

    He ignored Asra’s question about being a Muslim. I asked him directly on Twitter and he ignored me there as well. He was quick to insult me previously, however.

  • What a little cowardly man versus a brave and smart woman.

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  • Every idea or ideology deserves and must accept criticism in the West and Islam is getting a pass by a lot of cowardly leftists because of the violence their adherents use when their bully prophet is depicted. No, that’s no excuse for being a thug. If you want to be a thug for Islam, stay in the middle east.

    Oh, and the programming of regressive leftists by the Muslim brotherhood helps their plan continue. They are using progressives to eventually get rid of all the ideas progressives hold dear. ]Tolerance to intolerant ideologies will lead to intolerance if the ideology grows. Cuz math. Did you take math? Are our public schools that bad these days?

    http://shariahthethreat.org/a-short-course-1-what-is-shariah/a-short-course-14-the-muslim-brotherhood’s-strategic-plan/

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