Daniel Pipes: My Day in Court

Threats of legal action in Middle East and Islamic issues are about as common as corrupt practices at the United Nations – and almost as problematic.

Personally, I have never threatened a lawsuit, preferring the court of public opinion to the court of law. If those who disagree with me have often enough raised the prospect of libel, just one person has actually gone to court against me. That would be a certain Douglas Card, adjunct professor at the University of Oregon.

His action originated from an article Jonathan Schanzer and I published in June 2002, “Extremists on Campus.” The oped discussed anti-Israel activities at American universities and referenced several faculty members, including Card. In his complaint, Card took issue with the following paragraph:

University of Oregon: In a course entitled “Social Inequality,” the sociology department’s Douglas Card reportedly called Israel “a terrorist state” and Israelis “baby-killers” and insisted that students agree with his view that Israel “stole land” on the final exam. One student said Card bashed Israel and Jews “at every opportunity.”

A few weeks after the article appeared, Card contacted me to protest this depiction, saying it caused him “great pain” and damaged his personal and professional reputation. He warned me that failing publicly to retract and apologize for this passage “would end up causing more damage to your own professional career than my own.” My reply was terse: “I note your threat to do damage to my career. On principle, I do not communicate with someone who attempts to intimidate me.”

Card responded, “I deeply regret using that phrase,” thereby opening the way for negotiations between him, Schanzer, and me. Schanzer and I offered to compromise if he took several steps, including showing us the final exam in question and writing something that “describes the dangerous atmosphere that has developed on campus, then condemn the outbreak of hatred against Jews and Israel supporters.” Were he to do so, we would publicly announce that we understand he does not condone extremism on campus.

He and we bargained over the details of this for a few rounds, going nowhere. Card then went quiet for many months and I forgot the whole matter.

Suddenly, in September 2003, he brought a libel suit against Schanzer and me, seeking a preposterously large sum of money. At the earliest possible point in the litigation, however, Card not only had his case dismissed in March 2004, but ended up owing us thousands of dollars in legal fees. Not surprisingly, he appealed the trial court’s judgment.

This fall, the appellate court suggested a mediator to explore a settlement, as it does routinely. He and we ultimately agreed to a resolution that, ironically, brought us almost precisely to where things had left off before Card resorted to litigation.

Card finally showed us his examination and, in a joint statement, Card condemned “anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism” as well as “professors who use their classrooms to promote anti-Semitic and anti-Israel beliefs.” He recognized “the danger of espousing such views - particularly on university campuses.” He expressed “his horror at the wave of anti-Semitic events around the world in recent years” and said he was “especially troubled by the attacks on Jewish students on college campuses.”

In light of these statements, Schanzer and I said we are now convinced that “Card does not condone extremism in the classroom.”

I come away from this experience with two conclusions. First, Card made a mistake in going the route of legal action, with all its nuisance and expense, for in the end he and we each did what could have done had he simply cooperated with us two years earlier. Exposing himself to the unforgiving demands of the court system turned out to be a bad idea.

Second, this libel case confirms what I noted concerning another lawsuit which I helped publicize: a cohort of smart, ambitious attorneys at major law firms are ready, even eager, to help on a pro-bono basis to fight back would-be censors such as CAIR. Freedom of speech, I am pleased to report, is still robust in these United States.

Daniel Pipes - ping.

(His career being 'threatened' by the ROP!)

Folks, the ROP is right on schedule, right here, right now.

__________________________________________________

A few weeks after the article appeared, Card contacted me to protest this depiction, saying it caused him “great pain” and damaged his personal and professional reputation.

He warned me that failing publicly to retract and apologize for this passage “would end up causing more damage to your own professional career than my own.”

My reply was terse: “I note your threat to do damage to my career. On principle, I do not communicate with someone who attempts to intimidate me.”

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith,
but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America,
and Islam the only accepted religion on earth"

--Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998

Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels.
So wound their bodies and incapacitate them
because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”

Qur’an 8:57 “If you gain mastery over them in battle,
inflict such a defeat as would terrorize them,
so that they would learn a lesson and be warned.”

ABBREVIATED PARTIAL LIST OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST MURDERS AND PLOTS

1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Saudi Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
on and on and on and on it goes .........

In one of her very first columns, a local writer titled an article, Nominee for institute of peace has a history of hate (San Antonio Express-News, May 31, 2003).

Among other unflattering things, she wrote: "His own words indict him. In July 2001, he wrote in the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, 'The Palestinians are a miserable people . . . and deserve to be.'"

The only problem is, Daniel Pipes never wrote such an article for WRMEA. There was an article written about him in which the writer claimed he made those remarks at an appearance somewhere . . . in Colorado, I think.

To evaluate our local commentator's future credibility and fact-checking reliability, I searched the WRMEA website for all articles written during July 2001 and 2002. All I found was a letter to the editor, several months later, challenging the reporter's account. Needless to say, I give our local writer low marks and read her, when I read her, for entertainment.

The real point . . . a sad one . . . is that Pipes is a target and lightning rod. It does not matter what he says, only what the Islamists say he says.

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"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth"

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith,
but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America,
and Islam the only accepted religion on earth"