Please sign the petition above asking the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sacramento, Jaime Soto, not to cave to the defamation and lies of the creepy stalker Nathan Lean, and to allow me to speak. Please also politely and courteously email Bishop Soto, informing him that Lean works for a Board member of a front group for the Islamic Republic of Iran, and has made it his business to libel those who speak out against jihad terror and Islamic supremacism. Soto’s email address is BishopSoto@scd.org.
While waiting for the Huffington Post to let me know if they’re going to run my rebuttal to stalker Nathan Lean’s latest tissue of defamation and lies (I assure you I am not holding my breath), I dashed off this letter to John Esposito:
A man named Nathan Chapman Lean is representing himself as “a researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington, D.C.” (Source: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/mailbag/kolbe-should-rescind-invitation-to-contoversial-speaker/article_d6bf8146-dd2b-11e2-851b-0019bb2963f4.html )
It is sad to see a Georgetown University entity employing a researcher with research skills far below Georgetown standards.
Mr. Lean consistently makes basic errors of fact that call into question the accuracy, to say nothing of the objectivity, of his analyses and larger claims.
A few recent examples:
1. Lean claims that the Roman Catholic diocese of Boston recently canceled a scheduled talk by me. Actually, it was the diocese of Worcester. (Source: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/mailbag/kolbe-should-rescind-invitation-to-contoversial-speaker/article_d6bf8146-dd2b-11e2-851b-0019bb2963f4.html )
2. Lean calls upon people to write to “Mrs. Kathy Rowles” at Kolbe Academy to protest my appearance at her conference. Her name is actually Mary Rowles. (Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-lean/hate-group-leader-cited-b_b_3512548.html )
3. Lean claims I received a “one-year graduate degree in early Christian history.” The University of North Carolina does not issue a one-year graduate degree, and offers no degrees in early Christian history. My MA was a standard 2-year program, in religious studies. When I informed Lean of these errors and documented my academic history, he refused to correct them. (Source: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/aei_embraces_islamophobia_20120621/ and http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/06/left-in-a-tizzy-about-long-canceled-dhfc-turkey-trip.html )
Mr. Lean has never evidenced any interest in debating ideas with me -- it is noteworthy that he has seldom, if ever, even quoted me in his many, many articles disparaging my work. Instead, they are all exercises in guilt by association and other efforts at defamation.
Instead, he publishes on Twitter material that he thinks contains personal information about my wife and the location of my home, as well as numerous other personal details, which in light of the many death threats I have received is an obvious attempt to threaten and intimidate me into silence. My address, my wife, my children, and my local church are not germane to any disagreement he and I might have -- he is clearly just trying to frighten me and others in the (vain) hope that it will make me stop my work.
It is clear that you and I have serious political and other disagreements. I do not believe, however, that such disagreements allow one a license to be sloppy with facts or to lie outright about those one opposes. Mr. Lean’s ongoing attempts to get my every speaking engagement canceled amount to a personal vendetta, which also is unworthy of someone connected with Georgetown University.
In light of Mr. Lean’s manifest carelessness with facts, lack of interest in truth and accuracy, and ongoing stalker-like behavior toward me, I ask that you dismiss him from any connection with Georgetown University immediately.
I do not have Mr. Lean’s Georgetown email address and am not sure if the two above addresses are correct. Kindly forward this email to him.
Thanks for your consideration and kindest regards
Robert Spencer
