Fresh on the heels of the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 17 people, American Muslim leaders
will gather in Texas this weekend for the annual “Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect” conference, which, according to the
website, blames “Islamophobes in America” for turning Islam’s prophet Muhammad “into an object of hate” and promises to build “a movement” to develop “effective responses to anti-Islamic attacks.” And who will be delivering the keynote speech? None other than John Esposito, founding director of the Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and radical Islam
apologist par excellence. As Martin Kramer, president of Shalem College in Jerusalem,
put it:
John Esposito favors “incitement to hatred” legislation, under the rubric of religious freedom that would effectively trump freedom of expression. . . . Rallies such as the one Esposito will address have one purpose: granting Islam a protected status, and denying that protection to its critics.
