Bill Warner is the pen name of Bill French, an American writer, critic of Islam, and the founder of the Center for the Study of Political Islam. He is a former Tennessee State University physics professor. He is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of a core group of 10 Anti-Muslim hard-liners. Warner has said that his focus is on the political aspects of Islamicdoctrine related to kafirs rather than on the beliefs of contemporary Muslims. He differentiates Islam as a religion and what he refers to as Political Islam. Warner defines "political Islam," which he also calls Islamism, "as a belief that Islam should control society and politics, not simply personal religious life."
Warner has been compared to Geert Wilders in considering Islam a totalitarian political ideology demanding complete submission. Middlebury Institute professor and terrorism expert Jeffrey M. Bale refers to Warner as an example of writers he calls "Islam-Bashers" due to their identification of Islam with Islamism. According to Bale, these writers relate all the negative characteristics associated with Islamism with Islam as a whole, alleging that "such characteristics are intrinsic to Islam itself, and therefore that Islamism and jihadism are simply logical extensions - or simple applications in practice - of the authentic tenets and core values of Islam." He argues that, what they "fail to acknowledge is that these particular interpretations are by no means the only possible interpretations of core Islamic doctrines, traditions, and values, nor are they necessarily the most authentic, valid, or widely shared interpretations." This he says, is like claiming that Christian Reconstructionism is identical to Christianity.
Events
During the 2009-2012 protests against the building of the Murfreesboro Mosque Warner was one of the most active protestors, often seen draped in an American flag. A "Homeland Security Summit" organised by Republican gubernatorial candidate Mae Beavers to take place at Trevecca Nazarene University in January 2018 was cancelled by the university after the speakers, who included Warner, were described as a "who's who of Islamophobes" by the Council on American–Islamic Relations.
