"Welcome to the address that the Council on American Islamic Relations does not want you to hear," Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch said Thursday, opening a speech to the Young America's Foundation that caused CAIR to send a letter Wednesday demanding "that YAF cancel the subject session.

The Washington Times obtained a text of Mr. Spencer's speech, excerpts of which follow:

It is a common tactic of both the Left and the Islamic advocacy groups in America: to accuse every critic of purveying hatred and bigotry. But I am not intimidated by their threats, or troubled by their smears -- because I know I do not advocate hatred and bigotry, but a realistic appraisal of the Islamic jihad threat. ...

Look at the threatening letter CAIR's lawyers, Sandler, Reiff and Young, sent to the YAF about this very talk. This is just the latest example of a larger attempt to silence critics and those who say things about Islam and jihad that they don't like. Look at the campaigns of intimidation that CAIR has carried out against Paul Harvey, the producers of Fox's "24," National Review magazine, and others who have said things CAIR doesn't like. ...

This campaign of intimidation has had its effect. Many mainstream media figures, even those who think of themselves as fearless conservatives, have not wanted to discuss the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify their actions. ... They fear the wrath of CAIR. ...

If CAIR succeeds in smearing and silencing all those who dare to speak about the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify their actions, and who dare to call upon CAIR itself and other groups to go beyond vaguely-worded condemnations of terrorism to real efforts to teach against the jihad ideology in schools and mosques, what chance do we have to resist the spread of that ideology? ...

And so I conclude today by asking the CAIR officials ... to set aside the weapons of legal threats and intimidation, and the reckless purveying of personal smears and defamation, and enter into a genuine public discussion of the material I have presented here. ... Let's have a dialogue, or a debate, whenever and wherever you say. Or you can sue me now, or sue the YAF, and try to silence me. But you won't be able to sue or silence all the American people who are deeply concerned about what you are doing. ...

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times

UPDATE 5:35 p.m.:
Apparently, I missed Michelle Malkin covering Mr. Spencer's speech at the YAF conference. I showed up, got a quick interview with Mr. Spencer and got a copy of the text of speech, then had to drive crosstown in rush-hour traffic to The Washington Times' office. Michelle quotes Mr. Spencer closing his speech with: "Come and kill me if you want, but I'm not going to submit."

UPDATE 6:30 p.m.:
At Hot Air, Mrs. Malkin writes: "Multiple standing ovations. I'd say Spencer was the hit of the YAF conference, hands-down."

-- RSM

UPDATE 9:30 p.m:
Hot Air's Bryan Preston scored a brief video interview with Mr. Spencer and YAF spokesman Jason Mattera. And Little Green Footballs has video of Brit Hume reporting on the CAIR-YAF conflict on Fox News.

-- RSM

UPDATE 10:05 p.m.:
Wednesday night -- actually, early Thursday morning -- I talked to Alec Mouhibian, a young writer who is covering the YAF conference. Mr. Mouhibian blogged about the Spencer speech today, and passes along a little bit of trivia:

Michelle Malkin sat down in front of me to live-blog the speech, and I heard her ring-tone. It's "How To Save a Life" by The Fray.

UPDATE 12:25 a.m.:
At Protein Wisdom, Jeff Goldstein reduces the problem to a syllogism:

An interest group, given license to define its own narrative of authenticity by a PC culture under the thrall (often legally) of the social project of multiculturalism, presuming to use our laws to punish those of us who criticize them in ways they find troublesome by turning "tolerance" into "intolerance," and reducing free speech to "speech sanctioned by groups deemed authentic"?

Why, whoever could have seen that coming?

-- RSM