Walid Shoebat
Walid Shoebat (Arabic: وليد شعيبات) Is an anti-Muslim activist self-proclaimed "Former Muslim Brotherhood Member Now Peace Activist", ex-terrorist and terrorism expert. He's also a pretty obvious fraud and nutcase. Shoebat makes his living as a high priced touring lecturer and co-author of sensationalist books such as The Case FOR Islamophobia: Jihad by the Word; America's Final Warning[1]. He also pops up on Fox News a few times a year and runs the website shoebat.com[2] which mixes his crazy crap with a few accurate reports of Christians being discriminated against or attacked by radicals or oppressive theocrats in Muslim countries.
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[edit] The Walid Shoebat story
Walid Shoebat was born to an American mother and Palestinian father. He was pushed into radical revolutionary Islam during his childhood. In his youth he joined the PLO and firebombed the Bank Leumi near Bethlehem Square. He was arrested, but not charged (since he was an American citizen by way of his mother's nationality, which allows you to commit felonies without repercussion, apparently). He moved to the USA, joined some radical Islamist groups in college, became a computer programmer, then a Christian, then a "peace activist" who charges $5000[3] a day to lecture people about how to be more suspicious of Muslims.[4]
[edit] The real Walid Shoebat story
There are more than a few holes in Shoebat's back story, many discovered in an expose by the Jerusalem Post[5] and a follow-up by CNN[6].
There is no record in the local news, the Israeli government or at the Bank Leumi of a bombing attempt in the time period which Shoebat claimed to have made his attack.
Walid's website claims Walid is an American citizen and lives in the USA with his wife and children, under this assumed name.[7]. But he also claims to be related to deceased terrorists Arin Ahmed Shoebat and Raed Khaleel Awadallah Shoebat (Shu’aybat) [8]. The Jerusalem Post was able to track down Walid's uncle in Beit Sahur, who said that his nephew was never a Muslim radical, much less a terrorist bomber. This is different from the expected response of "Who the fuck is Walid?" that one would get when inquiring about an ex-pat with an "assumed name".
But why? Why would someone do this?
Walid has plenty of reason to make up a terrorist past because the "testimonial of delivery" is something of an art form amongst conservative Christians. Like Mike Warnke, Lauren Stratford and John Todd in previous decades, Shoebat made a career from a particularly scandalous and phony story of moving from involvement with horrible criminals to a life dedicated to Jesus and America. Though Shoebat's mid-level terrorist organization is more plausible than Warnke's tale of a multinational satanic super-conspiracy it is just the same song and dance routine reheated for the post 9-11 audience.
[edit] Of course, this guy is a birther
Unsurprisingly Walid Shoebat makes weird, off topic criticisms of Barack Obama at any given chance. Along with the normal chaff and PRATT talking points you hear from birthers Walid has some gems like "No one is called Hussein unless he is Muslim. So it is very clear that Barack Hussein Obama is definitely a Muslim."[9]
Because that's totally how reality and names work, Walid Shoebat.
[edit] The wacky wild world of Walid's words
- Walid Shoebat accused Glenn Beck and David Barton of attempting to bring about "Islamo-Mormon deistic universalism" because Islam and the Church of Latter Day Saints are basically two sides of the same coin. [10]
- The reality is that Buddhism is just as violent, just as tyrannical, just as dangerous, and just as demonic, as Islam. Anyone who thinks otherwise is dictated by the now and the present, and not by prudence. The reason why Buddhists have, for a long time now, given an aura of peace, is because Buddhism is not in a position of power from which to commence violence and war. Buddhism has the concept of the use of false peace to deceive one's enemy, just as in Islam there is the use of false peace, or hudna (temporary truce), in order to trick the opponent to buy time and regain strength. [11]
- Believes that the 9/11 attacks could have been stopped if the TSA looked for "zabibah", a sort of small callus on the forehead caused by repeated prostration, despite the fact that the zabibah is sort of rare[12] and the TSA wasn't founded until a month after the 9/11 attack. Whoops![13]
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-FOR-Islamophobia-published/dp/B00E6TNIS2/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1393504162&sr=8-16&keywords=walid+shoebat
- ↑ https://shoebat.com/
- ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/11/terrorism.expert/
- ↑ http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/04/the-three-stooges-coming-to-a-campus-near-you/
- ↑ http://www.jpost.com/Features/The-Palestinian-terrorist-turned-Zionist
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04yWUuoU7Lc
- ↑ http://shoebat.com/about/
- ↑ http://shoebat.com/shoebat-foundation/evidence-of-my-credentials/
- ↑ http://mediamatters.org/research/2010/08/18/ex-terrorist-walid-shoebat-is-too-sketchy-for-d/169441
- ↑ http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-luring-christians-islamo-mormon-deistic-universalism
- ↑ https://shoebat.com/2014/03/21/must-focus-buddhism-threat-america/
- ↑ And are often regarded as haughty, rather than honorable, see: Fashion and Faith Meet, on Foreheads of Pious, The New York Times.
- ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/11/terrorism.expert/