TUSCALOOSA — Thursday night, author and national security expert Robert Spencer delivered an address to University of Alabama students about the dangers of Iran.
The event, hosted by the University of Alabama Young Americans for Freedom chapter (UA UAF), drew a full crowd and gave the speaker a chance to explain his views while taking an open Q&A.
Spencer argued that Iran’s strategy extends beyond military confrontation, instead also focusing on weakening the United States from within.
“They’re playing the long game,” Spencer said. “They’re happy to help out people who are engaged in subversive activities in the homelands of their enemies.”
According to Spencer, that includes support, direct or indirect, for pro-Hamas activism and ideological movements that foster division in the West.
Spencer spoke specifically in the wake of campus demonstrations following the October 7 music festival attacks. He claimed Iranian leadership has openly praised such protests.
“They’re sowing hatred of the U.S. government, distrust of the whole system,” Spencer said, arguing that this kind of unrest benefits the U.S.’s enemies.
Spencer then tied that unrest to other ideas, particularly Marxism, which he described as a weapon that can erode Western institutions.
“Marxism is a wonderful corrosive,” he said. “You need to destabilize and destroy the West.”
Spencer also cited Spain's Marxist political party Podemos as having been discovered receiving funds from the Iranian government.
He pointed to historical examples of communist regimes, such as the Soviet Union, arguing that they demonstrate how such beliefs can weaken societies from within before larger political change occurs.
Spencer framed this as part of a broader effort by the Iranian regime to destroy confidence in the American government itself.
“Do you want to discredit representative government,” he said, describing what he believes are the regime’s goals, “so that you can pave the way for the widespread acceptance of Sharia [law]?”
The result, he warned, is not just foreign conflict, but an ideological struggle playing out on campuses across the country, which we’ve seen in recent years, primarily in the encampments that dotted the country after October 7.
Spencer also emphasized the rhetoric of Iran’s leadership, particularly that of the now-deceased Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“‘Death to America’ is not just a slogan,” Spencer said. “It’s a policy. … It’s the foundation for the whole regime.”
Spencer argues that this rhetoric should be taken seriously; combined with other Iranian efforts, it’s a clear-cut goal for the regime to undermine the U.S. government.
“This isn’t just happening over there,” he said. “It’s happening here.”
Isabella Dini, the spokesperson of UA YAF, also described the struggles of hosting the event.
“We know that when we put flyers up, it’s only a matter of time before someone tears them down,” Dini said,
Dini also said that when advertising this past week, someone called the police on UA YAF for “hate speech.”
“Calling UAPD because you don’t like seeing flyers for someone you disagree with is on another level of insanity. It shows that people who do this kind of thing don’t even believe in themselves to defend their own ideas.”
Trenton Buffenbarger is a senior at the University of Alabama and is the Chairman of the UA Young Americans for Freedom.
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