[Peace-discuss] Daniel Pipes

[David Green]

I sent this letter to The Paper last week:

Editor:

	The December 3rd visit of the wretched Daniel Pipes
to the U of I is sponsored by IlliniPac, a Jewish
student group sprouted from the Israel Lobby to convey
Zionist propaganda. Pipes’ message of anti-Islamic
racism and rationalized hatred provokes the following
observations:

	First, Pipes right to speak should be protected from
disruption or interruption. This would be unlike the
treatment of Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi, whose
invitation and visit to Colorado College last
September were met with furor and heckling by Zionist
advocates. Pipes, brought in to counter Ashrawi’s
message, called her appearance “a grievous error,”
accusing her of being “on the side of America’s
enemies.”

	Second, Pipes’ McCarthyite “campus watch” website
smears scholars in Middle Eastern Studies programs,
identifying over 150 as “apologists for suicide
bombings and militant Islam.” Since the “dossiers” of
Pipes’ targets were posted to this website, most have
been victims of “spoofing,” with identities stolen and
thousands of e-mail messages sent in their names.
Related to this campaign of intimidation is a
frightening bill--HR 3077--recently passed by the
House of Representatives, that punishes academics who
do not support U.S. foreign policy, and demands that
university departments produce graduates who will
serve state/military interests. 

	Third, Richard Hofstadter’s classic description of
the “paranoid style” should be recalled, as it applies
perfectly to Pipes: “The paranoid spokesman sees the
fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms—he traffics in
the birth and death of whole worlds, whole systems of
human values. He is always manning the barricades of
civilization.”

	Fourth, Pipes slanderously accuses American Muslims
of pervasive disloyalty: “At huge conventions closed
to the press and public . . . nearly every Muslim
organization in the U.S. spews forth a blatant and
vicious anti-Semitism, a barrage of bias, calumny, and
conspiracy-mongering of a sort that has otherwise all
but disappeared from American discourse.” Except,
ironically, from Pipes’ discourse—as he offers no
evidence to support his claim. For good racist
measure, Pipes has written that the D.C. sniper “fits
into a well-established tradition of American blacks
who convert to Islam turning against their country.”

	Finally, Pipes’ website is maintained by an Israeli
settler who denies the existence of the Palestinian
people. Pipes’ contempt is well documented: “The
Palestinians are a miserable people . . . and they
deserve to be.” Gamla, an extremist Israeli settler
group that advocates a detailed plan for the expulsion
of Palestinians from both the occupied territories and
Israel, regularly features Pipes’ writing on its
website.

	Like many bullies, Pipes is also a crybaby who likes
nothing more than to claim he is being victimized by
those who challenge him. A calm, thoughtful, and
practical response to his visit will give neither him
nor his few and pathetic followers this opportunity.

David Green
Champaign



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