Robert Bruce Spencer

Three of Spencer's books reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Reports that two of Spencer's books were listed in FBI training materials and that he had given seminars to various law enforcement units in the United States stirred controversy. In 2013, the UK Home Office barred Spencer from travel to the United Kingdom for three to five years for "making statements that may foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence". He has frequently appeared on Fox News.

• Name — Robert Spencer • Birth Name — Robert Bruce Spencer • Born — 27 February 1962 • Education — University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MA) • Occupation — * Author • blogger • Years Active — 2002–present • Organization — * David Horowitz Freedom Center • Stop Islamization of America • Known for — Anti-Muslim views, Jihad Watch, books

Spencer was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church and joined the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1984. Spencer has stated that, under the reign of President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, his grandparents were forced to emigrate from an area that is now part of Turkey because they were Christians. Spencer's father worked for Voice of America during the Cold War, and in his younger days, Spencer himself worked at Revolution Books, a Maoist bookstore in New York City founded by Robert Avakian. Spencer received an M.A. in 1986 in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His masters thesis was on monophysitism and the history of the Catholic Church. Spencer has been harshly criticized by several clerics of the Roman Catholic Church because of his views on Islam. In 2016, as a result of "personal reflection and historical study", Spencer returned to the Greek Orthodox Church.

On June 26, 2013, both Spencer and Pamela Geller were banned from entering the UK. They were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, south London, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed by two Muslims. Home Secretary Theresa May informed Spencer and Geller that their presence in the UK would "not be conducive to the public good". A letter from the UK Home Office stated that this decision is based on Spencer's statement that Islam "is a religion or a belief system that mandates warfare against unbelievers for the purpose of establishing a societal model that is absolutely incompatible with Western society....Because of media and general government unwillingness to face the sources of Islamic terrorism, these things remain largely unknown." The decision was to stand for between three and five years. The ban followed a concerted campaign by the UK anti-racism organization Hope not Hate, which said it had collected 26,000 signatures for a petition to the Home Secretary. Spencer and Geller contested the ban, but in 2015 the British Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal, arguing that "this was a public order case where the police had advised that significant public disorder and serious violence might ensue from the proposed visit." The ban was criticized by author Douglas Murray. He has stated his belief that because Islamic supremacist hate preachers were and are still allowed to enter the UK, and because what Geller and Spencer say is much less objectionable than the views and statements of extremist Muslim clerics such as Muhammad al-Arefe (who was allowed to enter the UK shortly before Spencer and Geller were banned), the ban is unjust. Spencer responded to the ban by stating that the UK had become a "de facto Islamic state". The government of Pakistan previously banned Spencer's book, The Truth About Muhammad, in 2007, citing "objectionable material" as the cause. His book Onward Muslim Soldiers was banned in Malaysia the same year.

• Illustration — Spencer as guest of a webinar by the Middle East Forum in 2020 Spencer spoke at Truman State University in April 2017 despite protests and a petition against him, having been invited by the Young America's Foundation. He spoke at the University of Buffalo in May the same year, where he was shouted down and heckled. He also spoke at Gettysburg College two days later; 375 alumni urged the college president Janet Morgan Riggs to cancel the speech, but the event went on as planned. Spencer said, "There is one kind of diversity that is not valued generally in an academic setting and that is intellectual diversity." Spencer spoke at Stanford University in November 2017, during which a group of students walked out. Spencer has said that "a young Icelandic Leftist" poisoned him in 2017 in Reykjavik, Iceland, after a speaking event where he warned Icelanders of the dangers of "the impact of Islam" on Icelandic society. A medical report indicated he had been given MDMA and amphetamines. Spencer became a senior fellow of Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy in 2020, after years of consultations with the group. He is also a frequent guest on Gaffney's Secure Freedom Radio and Securing America TV.