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February 13, 2012
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Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
June 23, 2003
/ 23 Sivan, 5763
Pipes's effective path to peace
By
Jeff Jacoby
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
Ninety-nine Americans out of 100 have probably never heard of the United States Institute for Peace, but that hasn't stopped a pitched battle from breaking out over President Bush's nomination of Daniel Pipes to the institute's board of directors.
The USIP was created by an act of Congress in 1984 "to promote international peace and the resolution of conflicts among the nations and peoples of the world." Its bipartisan board reflects a multiplicity of ideologies and opinions, but each director must, by law, "have appropriate practical or academic experience in peace and conflict resolution."
What Pipes offers the institute is a deep knowledge of Islam and the Middle East and the conviction that confronting Islamism -- the radical, fundamentalist, and often violent ideology exemplified by Osama bin Laden and the Ayatollah Khomeini -- is the key to resolving some of the world's worst conflicts.
To hear his critics tell it, Pipes is an "Islamophobe" and an anti-Muslim bigot whose ignorance about Islam is matched only by his hostility toward it. Their smears of him are poisonous. "Daniel Pipes has a problem -- his obsessive hatred of all things Muslim," writes James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute. "Pipes . . . goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning worried about the Muslim under his bed and all things Arab. . . . Pipes is to Muslims what David Duke is to African Americans."
But these are gross and vicious libels, as anyone who reads or listens to Pipes's own words will quickly discover.
He is not one to keep his views to himself. His hundreds of essays on terrorism, Islam, and the Middle East have appeared in scores of publications, from the Atlantic Monthly to The Jerusalem Post to Foreign Affairs. He has written countless book reviews, many of them for the Middle East Quarterly, a journal he founded in 1994. He is the author or editor of 13 books, he lectures nationwide, and he is a frequent guest on news and public-affairs TV shows. In short, he has compiled a vast public record. (Much of which can be inspected at www.danielpipes.org). If he were in fact the hater his foes decry, it would be pretty hard to disguise.
| (w)E-THE PEOPLE |
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Let your voice be heard! To express your concerns about the administration's plan for the Holy Land, you may contact
President George W. Bush by fax: (202) 456-2461, (Andrew Card, Chief of Staff)
or by e-mail.
Dr. Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor, FAX (202) 456-2883, PHONE (202) 456-9491
Mr. Elliot Abrams, the Director for Near East and North African Affairs, at FAX (202) 456-9120, and by phone through his secretary Joanna, (202) 456-9121
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, 1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000 or by e-mail form:
http://www.defenselink.mil/
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1010 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1010 or by e-mail form
http://www.defenselink.mil
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The truth, however, is that far from nursing a "hatred of all things Muslim," Pipes has devoted most of his life to an appreciation and understanding of Islamic culture. He earned two degrees in medieval Islamic history from Harvard, traveled widely in the Muslim world, and lived for three years in Egypt. He even wrote a book on Arabic grammar.
"I fully intended to go into scholarship," Pipes told me the other day, "but in 1978, the year I got my PhD, Ayatollah Khomeini appeared on the scene and so did the need for an understanding of Islam in politics. So I responded to that."
Over the ensuing quarter-century, his "response" has comprised a great array of issues. But one theme has predominated: the menace of Islamism. "Militant Islam is the problem," Pipes says. "Moderate Islam is the solution."
He has been forthright in his denunciation of Islamist extremism and relentless in calling attention to the threat posed by the likes of bin Laden and his adherents in the West. If his admonitions had been heeded, there might never have been a 9/11. (Pipes in 1995: "Unnoticed by most Westerners, war has been unilaterally declared on Europe and the United States.") He has been, at times, eerily prescient. Just four months before the attack on the Twin Towers, he and Steven Emerson wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Al-Qaeda was "planning new attacks on the US" and that Iranian operatives "helped arrange advanced . . . training for Al-Qaeda personnel in Lebanon where they learned, for example, how to destroy large buildings."
But just as there is no contradiction between President Bush's determination to wipe out international terrorism and his frequent expressions of solidarity with American Muslims, neither is there any conflict between Pipes's hard line on militant Islamist radicals and his support for the traditional, moderate Muslims who are generally the radicals' first victims. Indeed, some of those moderates are among his strongest supporters.
"The Pipes nomination has become a test of strength for Islamists who wish to paint the war against terrorism as a war against Islam," Hussai Haqqani, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote recently. "Pipes is not always right in all his arguments. As a Muslim, I disagree with several of his policy prescriptions. But his views are neither racist nor extremist; they fall within the bounds of legitimate scholarly debate."
Tashbih Sayyed, the Muslim editor of Pakistan Today magazine, concurs. Pipes "does not bash Muslims," he stresses. "What he attacks is a fascist interpretation of Islam. Daniel Pipes, to me, is the voice of reason."
The most effective champions of peace are frequently notable for their realism and refusal to succumb to political correctness. Those are precisely the hallmarks of Daniel Pipes's career. The USIP will be enriched by his presence.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
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Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist. Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, Boston Globe
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