Mastercard ordered Jihad Watch President Robert Spencer’s account with the web-based funding site, Patreon, be closed without explanation, and the critic of jihad insists that it is due to an ultra-left group’s smear campaign against him.

Shortly after setting up an account a few weeks ago, Spencer was notified by Patreon on Tuesday that his account was banned – following Mastercard’s directive.

“My name is April and I’m on the Trust & Safety team here at Patreon,” the notice began, according to Jihad Watch. “I’ve been notified by Mastercard that we must remove your account from Patreon, effective immediately. Mastercard has a stricter set of rules and regulations than Patreon, and they reserve the right to not offer their services to accounts of their choosing. This is in line with their terms of service, which means it’s something we have to comply by.”

Victim of a far-left conspiracy?

Spencer – who has been targeted by the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for exposing the truth behind Islamic terrorism – is confident that the organization’s influence is what incited Mastercard’s call to end his account. The group has wrongfully labeled Spencer as a hater of Islam and its adherents.

“The author of 18 bestselling books, Robert Spencer is known for regularly pointing out that the perpetrators of more than 33,000 terrorist attacks since 9/11 have cited Islamic scripture as the motivation for their often deadly acts of violence,” WND reported. “His critics charge – without evidence – that he hates Muslims.”

The critic of Islamic terrorism explained the discriminatory treatment he received by Patreon and Mastercard – insisting that his line of work that is critical of Islamic terrorism was behind the unfair move.

“I’d been given no warning before this of anything amiss with my account, which at the time consisted of that single video announcing the [Jihad Watch Videos] initiative – along with a note announcing that I would be starting a livestream – I had planned weekly livestreams [titled], ‘This Week In Jihad.’” Spencer recounted. “This nascent series will now, of course, be discontinued … that was it.”

His call for Patreon to justify its reasoning behind banning his account was ultimately ignored.

“So, what violated their rules?” Spencer rhetorically posed. “They hadn’t explained, but when I went to my Patreon account, I got this [pop-up]: ‘Your account has been disabled. If you believe this is in error, please visit our Help Center …”

After the whistleblower announced the unjust cancellation on Twitter, however, Patreon tweeted back – only to give him evasive answers and falsely claim that it will “continue” to respond to him via email.

“They had not ‘been emailing’ with me – never explained why Mastercard objected to my account or why they had to comply with Mastercard’s wishes, and didn’t answer my request for an explanation,” Spencer pointed out. “I don’t have a Mastercard and didn’t have one attached to my Patreon account, so Mastercard really wasn’t involved – unless it owns Patreon, which is apparently the case.”

SPLC’s influence at work

Spencer contended that Mastercard’s worldview and politics are intimately aligned with SPLC and its ultra-left agenda that attacks all things that are rooted in conservative or Christian values.

“Of course, what is almost certainly going on here is that Mastercard/Patreon is deleting accounts that have been smeared by the hard-left propaganda hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – despite the fact that the SPLC has been resoundingly discredited,” Spencer noted. “The SPLC defames me as a ‘hate group leader’ and ‘anti-Muslim extremist.’”

And Mastercard is by no means the only company that has adopted the ideologies behind SPLC’s politically correct smear campaigns condemning anyone or anything conservative or biblical.

“[M]any companies and organizations – including Amazon.com – have relied on the far-left SPLC’s ‘hate list’ to determine whether or not they will do business with a person or organization,” WND’s Art Moore explained. “While the ‘hate list’ includes movements such as the Ku Klux Klan, in recent years, it has included organizations that promote traditional marriage – such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Family Research Council (FRC).”

It is reported that SPLC’s influence on Mastercard and Patreon has predated its singling out of Spencer.

“Patreon has previously banned conservative author Lauren Southern and commentator Brittany Pettibone,” Breitbart News recounted.

Spencer insisted that Patreon’s cancellation of his account is just the tip of the iceberg of a proliferating trend heading into November’s midterm elections.

“This seems to me to be all part of the general attempt to silence all dissenting voices and leave only leftists speaking in the runup to the 2018 elections,” the head of Jihad Watch told Breitbart.

Lamenting the deteriorating state of Americans’ free speech, Spencer still argued that companies blacklisting individuals and groups over their dissenting worldviews will not effectively work to silence their political opponents.

“If only approved viewpoints can be aired, we live in a totalitarian state – not a free society – and the effects of this will reverberate in our lives in ways we cannot imagine,” Spencer contended on his Jihad Watch report. “If you think that the banning will stop when those who are deemed ‘crazy’ or ‘extremist’ are all banned, you’re in for a surprise.”

Fending off SPLC’s false claims

Spencer then listed a number of bogus and unsubstantiated charges SPLC has waged against him.

“Spencer is one of the most prolific anti-Muslim figures in the United States,” SPLC declared, according to Jihad Watch.

The conservative leader was quick to debunk this claim.

“I am not ‘anti-Muslim,’” Spencer responded, as reported by Jihad Watch. “I oppose jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, non-Muslims and others. I am no more ‘anti-Muslim’ than foes of the Nazis were ‘anti-German.’”

Here’s another false accusation that SPLC hurled at Spencer.

“A career anti-Muslim figure, Spencer has devoted much of his life to writing books, countless articles and producing other content – all with the goal of vilifying and maligning Muslims and the Islamic faith,” the far-left group deceptively declared.

Again, Spencer put SPLC’s misleading pronouncement to rest.

“My goal is not now – and has never been – ‘vilifying and maligning Muslims and the Islamic faith,’” the head of Jihad Watch contended. “My goal is to convey Islamic doctrines and beliefs accurately – in order to help people understand the phenomenon of Islamic jihad terror.”

SPLC also attempted to misleadingly portray Spencer as sensationalizing Islam and its adherents as being 100-percent disposed to violence.

“He considers these texts to be innately extremist and violent and refuses to acknowledge nonviolent passages and centuries of adapted interpretations,” the so-called social justice group proclaimed.

Spencer noted that this could not be further from the truth, as evidenced in many of his works.

“Actually, I’ve published online a commentary on the entire Qur’an – including the nonviolent passages – and written extensively within it about nonviolent interpretations of various passages,” he noted.

SPLC also touched on Spencer’s handling of notorious Islamic terrorists and groups – claiming that he used them to make sweeping generalizations about Islam and all its adherents.

“Spencer argues that extremists – like Osama bin Laden and ISIS – are the most authentic interpretation and practice of Islam – despite being actively rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world’s Muslims,” the leftist group argued. “He brushes this fact off by bombastically claiming the majority of Muslims either do not understand their own holy book or are masking their extremism.”

Spencer set the record straight on this fabricated claim, as well.

“I’ve never made such claims and have, in fact, spoken of a spectrum of belief, knowledge and fervor among Muslims that accounts for why most do not wage jihad,” Spencer contended.