|
|||||
      |
|||||
 |
|||||
|
|||||
|
| Middle East Scholar Pipes Gets
Smoked By False Accusations. By Adam Kaplan Washington D.C. Correspondent Boycott Watch Dr. Daniel Pipes (www.danielpipes.org), head of the Middle East Forum, was nominated by President Bush to serve on the U.S. Institute of Peace (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030401-1.html) on April 4. As the information below will tell you, what has happened since the nomination is that Pipes has been unfairly discredited and made to appear as an intolerant bigot by organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Council), Arab American Institute (AAI), and Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation (MAS). This is despite Pipes' years of publications which distinguish, as President Bush and most Americans agree, the differences between moderate Muslims and militant, fundamentalist Islamists. Pipes has received letters of endorsements from the ZOA, ADL, American Jewish Committee, Pakistan Today, American Mideast Associations (comprised of Muslim moderates, Christians or expats from Iran, Syria, etc.), and a plethora of academics. The letters can be viewed at (www.supportingdanielpipes.org). At the Senate Health/Education/Labor/Pensions committee nomination vote for Pipes on Wed. 7/23, Sen. Ted Kennedy came out and based his whole anti-Pipes argument on a quote that Pipes wrote in 1990. According to Kennedy (reading straight from CAIR's talking points), Pipes said that "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene…"(11/19/90)-National Review "The Muslims are coming! The Muslims are Coming." However, if you go back and read this article, the quote is taken out of context. Pipes, in a tongue and cheek manner, is referring to intolerance of Western Europeans towards immigrants, particularly the Turks. In fact, Pipes portrays an optimistic view of Muslim integration to European society, providing that the immigrants practice a moderate, non-militant form of the religion. "If handled properly, the immigrants can even bring much of value, including new energy to their best societies…if they modernize, Muslims have a good chance to become literate, affluent, and politically stable" write Pipes. What this means that the primary argument of the committee's ranking member is based on propaganda formulated by CAIR and poorly researched by Kennedy's staff. Senators Harkin, Dodd, and Jeffords went along to brand Pipes as a "highly controversial individual who is not qualified for this position." "When [Pipes] talks about Muslims being funny looking, maintaining different standards of hygiene…I don't know why we are even considering this person, Mr. Chairman," said Sen. Harkin. The other Democratic Senators present, Sen. Clinton, Murray, and Reed (RI), remained silent while one Republican, Sen. John Ensign (NV) spoke out in favor of Pipes. All of the other Republicans besides Chairman Judd Gregg (NH) left the meeting, making a vote on the Pipes nomination impossible due to there not being a quorum present. Also of note is that Sen. John Warner (VA) said after hearing Harkin's pathos-filled speech about how his mother was an immigrant and 'looked and dressed funny too', (which by the way was based on the misquote from National Review), he would look further into his decision on Pipes. Sen. Gregg then adjourned the meeting and postponed the Pipes nomination until after the recess once members had a chance to "talk to each other." It is clear that the opposition's smear campaign against Pipes is continuing. Yesterday CAIR issued a press release which claims that Pipes in a July 25th speech to a young conservative group compared all Islamic people to Nazis (http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=149&page=AA). This too was a lie. The article that CAIR opportunistically used was based on an article from Cybercast News Service which covered the Pipes 7/25 speech. After I had a conversation with CNS Executive Editor Scott Hogenson who was in the process of issuing a retraction to the article that was so opportunistically used by CAIR, CNS news put out this: http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/archive/200307/FOR20030729f.html Another one of the alleged Pipes "quotes" which Sens. Kennedy/Harkin were so appalled by had the nominee saying "The Palestinians are a miserable people…and deserve to be" to an audience at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. An article by Ira Stoll from the April 14th New York Sun refutes this allegation profusely.(article can be found on www.supportingdanielpipes.org). Basically, CAIR/AAI/AADC, etc. ran a campaign of lies and distortions to defame Dr. Pipes. After the hearing, they had an impromptu press conference in the hall of the Dirksen building, where opposition leaders such as Nihad Awad (exec. Dir. Of CAIR), Jean Abi-Nader (Arab American Institute), Mahdi Bray (Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation), and Mary Rose Oaker (AADC) gloated to Al-Jazeera reporters that they considered the postponement a major victory. "The American Muslim and Arab communities will remember who voted which way on Pipes for a long time to come. We are very pleased with the outcome of today's hearing, but the fight is not over," said MPAC spokeswoman Sarah Eltantawi. Related Articles: Frank Gaffney-Great Article supporting Pipes http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/archive/200307/FOR20030729f.html "U.S. Senate postponse vote on controversial Mideast scholar" http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13036&intcategoryid=3 "Kennedy, Dodd, Harkin speak out against controversial USIP nominee" www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=148&page=AA WorldNet Daily "Muslims try to quash Bush nominee" http://www.supportingdanielpipes.org/article/18 Support Daniel Pipes---includes all the letters of endorsement www.supportdanielpipes.org Pipes' website www.danielpipes.org CAIR www.cair-net.org |
|
|
 |