The Real Libel--Calling a Rabbi Who's a Big Fan of Islam a "Prominent Islamophobe"

Toronto Star letter-writers are united in their derision for Rabbi Daniel Korobkin. Like the entity formerly known as CAIR-CAN, they are furious that such an "Islamophobe" and "extremist" would have been included in Stephen Harper's entourage during his recent visit to Israel. Rabbi Korobkin's "sin": it was he who introduced Pamela Geller when she and Robert Spencer appeared in these parts some months ago. As Mark Steyn observes, however, Rabbi Korobkin (who, yes, should get credit for having the guts to show up at such a politically incorrect event) is hardly the hater he's been made out to be:

Jonathan Kay, my former editor at Canada's National Post (I seem to be having a lot of disagreements with my editors these days), felt that Daniel Korobkin should not have been in the party that accompanied Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Israel. Rabbi Korobkin's sin was to have "praised" Pamela Geller, the "controversial" New York blogger and anti-jihad crusader. Actually, he didn't praise her. A year or so back, he gave a masterly demonstration of "moral turpitude and pharisaical narcissism" (as David Solway put it) all about how spiffingly marvelous Islam is and what splendid chaps his two Muslim teachers at UCLA had been — and, after 15 minutes of oleaginous multiculti boosterism, said, "And now here's Pamela Geller." But Korobkin committed the crime of being in the same room as Pamela Geller, and, therefore, the prime minister of Canada should not be permitted to be in the same room as him.

Were Rabbi Korobkin as SLAPP-happy as some, he'd have a pretty good case that his good name (and good thoughts about Islam) had been foully besmirched by the loose-lipped.