' Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review April 22, 2003 / 20 Nisan, 5763

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

Gaffney
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

ISLAMIST POWER PLAY


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | President Bush recently nominated a distinguished scholar to serve on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Ordinarily, such a step would not engender much notice, let alone controversy.

The President's selection of JWR's Dr. Daniel Pipes to serve in that capacity was immediately noteworthy, however, insofar as it appeared to signal that the Bush White House was sensitive after all to an important distinction: Not all Muslims are Islamists -- members of virulently anti-Western, intolerant and often violent extremist sects -- but all Islamists profess to be Muslims. Dr. Pipes has devoted much of his highly prolific career in academia and as an author to highlighting the danger posed to the United States, her allies and interests and to non-Islamist Muslims by the radicals who seek to hijack and dominate the Islamic faith.

With the Pipes appointment, the Bush team seemed to be trying to redress an earlier and potentially strategically disastrous error -- namely, treating groups associated with, funded by or otherwise supportive of Islamist causes and organizations as "mainstream" Muslim entities. By so doing, the latter were repeatedly afforded access to the President and other senior Administration officials and aided in their efforts to lay otherwise-unwarranted claim to leadership of the American Muslim and Arab communities.

This was all the more remarkable since groups like the American Muslim Council (AMC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Students Association have, to varying degrees, been quite outspoken in their opposition to many of the President's domestic and foreign policies in the war on terror.

For example, pro-Islamist groups have strenuously opposed Mr. Bush's liberation of Iraq, playing leading roles in the anti-war movement's mass demonstrations and organizational activities. Their agenda has lately been preoccupied with denouncing and undermining any Bush law-enforcement and homeland security initiatives they can portray as unfair to Muslims. They deny compelling evidence contained in a 50-count indictment against one of their most prominent spokesmen, Professor Sami Al-Arian, that he and a number of his associates were directly involved in and/or supportive of Palestinian Islamic Jihad's international terrorist activities. Some are even suing the President, Attorney General John Ashcroft and others to block some of the Administration's efforts to protect the American people from further Islamist attacks.

Surprisingly, a White House not exactly renowned for tolerating perceived disloyalty has, to date, not penalized those who have engaged in such activities. Many continue to be afforded the opportunity to meet with Administration officials and, in turn, to cite such meetings in press releases and public statements as evidence that they must not be Islamist-sympathizers, after all.

(w)E-THE PEOPLE
Let your voice be heard! To express your concerns about the attack on Dr. Pipes' nomination, 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

United States Institute of Peace
1200 17th St., NW
Washington, DC 20036 or by e-mail form: http://www.usip.org/aboutus/contactus/emailform.html

or, FAX (202) 429-6063, PHONE (202) 457-100

Thus emboldened, the AMC, CAIR and other organizations like the Islamic Institute have launched a jihad against President Bush's nomination of Daniel Pipes to the U.S. Institute of Peace board. Pipes' opponents are demanding that the appointment be withdrawn and urging the Senate to reject it if the President does not do their bidding.

Unfortunately for the pro-Islamists, the more they attack Dr. Pipes, the greater the likelihood that their true nature will be illuminated. It is not he who is demeaning all Muslims by pretending there is no distinction between those law-abiding, patriotic, tolerant Americans who adhere to Islam and those who are none of the above, and who want to destroy this country and the freedoms it affords all religions.

Dr. Pipes' calls for greater scrutiny of the latter who may be masquerading as the former -- notably in the context of the recent alleged fragging of the 101st Airborne leadership in Kuwait by a Muslim sergeant named Hasan Akbar -- is not evidence of racism or bigotry. Most of us recognize that it is, rather, simple prudence in light of the now-indisputable determination of Islamists to shed American blood.

The effort to smear Daniel Pipes and to derail his nomination is overreaching by the pro-Islamist groups. Heretofore, their largely behind-the-scenes pressure campaigns have induced the Clinton and/or Bush administrations to allow them to: place extremist Wahhabi or like-minded clerics to proselytize in the U.S. and state prison systems; certify Islamists as chaplains for the military; and even conduct "sensitivity training" for the FBI With this open assault on the President's nominee, however, the wisdom of these decisions -- to say nothing of that of making such organizations the favored interlocutors with the American Muslim community -- can no longer escape critical public examination.

President Bush is to be commended for recognizing the valuable contribution Dr. Pipes can make to understanding the threats to peace we will confront in the 21st Century. By rebuffing demands that he abandon this nomination and by securing its approval in the Senate, Mr. Bush can reinforce the powerful message the Pipes' appointment sends to Muslims and non-Muslims, alike: This Administration will resist -- here at home, as elsewhere around the world -- those who seek to pervert and dominate the Islamic faith towards radical, intolerant and anti-American ends.

Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. heads the Center for Security Policy. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

Up

04/15/03: Who's next?
04/08/03: Winning the peace
04/01/03: 'EMBED' FREE IRAQIS, NOW!
03/05/03: A friend in need
02/25/03: The plot thickens
02/18/03: Who's 'with' President Bush?
02/11/03: Islamists' White House gatekeeper
02/04/03: The Powell report
01/28/03: Bush's finest hour
01/14/03: North Korean scorecard
01/07/03: Nuclear meltdown
12/17/02: Serious about defending America
12/03/02: Defining 'regime change'
11/26/02: With friends like the Saudis...
11/19/02: The Jayna Davis files
11/12/02: Could Israel die of thirst?
11/04/02: Against us
10/22/02: Too clever by half?
10/17/02: 'Drain the swamps'
10/08/02: The temptations of George Bush
10/01/02: Return of the San Francisco Dems
09/24/02: The next crusader?
09/17/02: It is no accident that advocates of coercive inspections have opposed prez's goal of regime change
09/10/02: A model for Iraq
08/27/02: Beware 'consensus leadership'
08/20/02: To Iraq or not to Iraq?
08/13/02: Trading with the 'enemy'
07/30/02: Who's trashing Ashcroft?
07/23/02: Wall Street's 'poisoned apples'
07/16/02: Back on the China front
07/09/02: See no evil?
07/02/02: Rethinking peacekeeping
06/25/02: Political moment of truth on defense
06/19/02: Inviting losses on two fronts
06/12/02: Make missile defense happen
06/04/02: The next 'Day of Infamy'?
05/29/02: Bush's Russian gamble
05/21/02: The 'next war'
05/15/02: Ex-presidential misconduct
05/07/02: When 'what if' is no game
05/02/02: Careful what we wish for
04/24/02: The real 'root cause' of terror
04/02/02: First principles in the Mideast
03/26/02: 'Renounce this map'
03/20/02: The inconvenient ally
03/12/02: Adults address the 'unthinkable'
03/05/02: The Saudi scam
02/26/02: Rumsfeld's 'now hear this'
02/19/02: Where's the outrage?
02/12/02: Post-mortem on 'Pearl Harbor II'
02/05/02: Spinning on the 'Evil Axis'
01/29/02: A challenge for the history books
01/22/02: Who pulled the plug on the Chinese 'bugs'?
01/15/02: No 'need to know'
01/08/02: Sentenced to de-nuclearize?
12/18/01: Missile defense mismanagement?
12/11/01: Is the Cold War 'over'?
12/04/01: A moment for truth
11/29/01: Send in the marines -- with the planes they need
11/27/01: 'Now Hear This': Does the President Mean What He Says?
11/20/01: Mideast 'vision thing'
11/13/01: The leitmotif of the next three days
11/06/01: Bush's Reykjavik Moment
10/30/01: Say it ain't true, 'W.
10/23/01: Getting history, and the future, right
10/16/01: Farewell to arms control
10/05/01: A time to choose
09/25/01: Don't drink the 'lemonade'
09/11/01: Sudan envoy an exercise in futility?
09/05/01: Strategy of a thousand cuts
08/28/01: Rummy's back
08/21/01: Prepare for 'two wars'
08/14/01: Why does the Bush Administration make a moral equivalence between terrorist attacks and Israel's restrained defensive responses?
08/07/01: A New bipartisanship in security policy?
07/31/01: Don't go there
07/17/01: The 'end of the beginning'
07/10/01: Testing President Bush
07/03/01: Market transparency works
06/27/01: Which Bush will it be on missile defense?
06/19/01: Don't politicize military matters
06/05/01: It's called leadership
06/05/01: With friends like these ...
05/31/01: Which way on missile defense?
05/23/01: Pearl Harbor, all over again
05/15/01: A tale of two Horatios
05/08/01: The real debate about missile defense
04/24/01: Sell aegis ships to Taiwan
04/17/01: The 'hi-tech for China' bill
04/10/01: Deal on China's hostages -- then what?
04/03/01: Defense fire sale redux
03/28/01: The defense we need
03/21/01: Critical mass
03/13/01: The Bush doctrine
03/08/01: Self-Deterred from Defending America
02/27/01: Truth and consequences for Saddam
02/21/01: Defense fire sale
02/13/01: Dubya's Marshall Plan
02/05/01: Doing the right thing on an 'Arab-Arab dispute'
01/30/01: The missile defense decision
01/23/01: The Osprey as Phoenix
01/17/01: Clinton's Parting Shot at Religious Freedom
01/09/01: Wake-up call on space
01/02/01: Secretary Rumsfeld
12/27/00: Redefining our Ukraine policy
12/19/00: Deploy missile defense now
12/12/00: Sabotaging space power
12/05/00: Preempting Bush
11/28/00: What Clinton hath wrought
11/21/00: HE'S BAAAACK
11/14/00: The world won't wait

© 2001, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.