Sen. Kennedy denounces Mideast scholar; Muslim groups declare victory, Pipes nomination vote delayed

WorldNetDaily ^ | 07-24-03

[Brian S]

Posted: July 24, 2003
5:00 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Amid intense resistance from Muslim lobby groups and several Democratic senators, led by Edward Kennedy, a Senate committee has postponed voting on the nomination of Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which calls the Bush nominee an "Islamophobe," hailed the oppostion at a news conference after yesterday's session of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Nihad Awad

"We view the outcome of today's meeting as a victory for all those who reject bigotry and, unlike Daniel Pipes, seek negotiated resolutions to international conflicts," said CAIR executive director Nihad Awad.

The vote was postponed because fewer than half of the committee's members were present. A spokesman for committee chairman Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said there are more senators who want to speak on the nomination, and he hoped a vote will come up soon, the Jerusalem Post reported. With the summer congressional recess approaching, a vote may not take place in the current session. The White House could bypass the need for committee approval with a recess appointment, but strong Democratic opposition makes that unlikely.

CAIR is one of a number of U.S. Islamic activist groups that contend Pipes unfairly paints Muslims in broad strokes. Pipes, director of a Philadelphia-based think tank, the Middle East Forum, makes a distinction between militant Muslims and Islam in general, but the U.S. activists insist his policy views are racist.

Pipes argues since only Muslims are vulnerable to becoming militant Muslims or "Islamists," it is logical U.S. security should give more scrutiny to Muslims than others.

Sen. Edward Kennedy

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., objected to that position during yesterday's session, asserting Pipes does not fit the Institute of Peace's aim "to promote peace and curb violent international conflict."

"I believe that the statements and writings of Dr. Daniel Pipes are just the opposite," Kennedy said, according to the Post. "His writings include derogatory statements about Muslim immigrants as 'brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and not exactly maintaining Germanic standards of hygiene.'"

However, that quote, Pipes has contended, is one of many taken out of context. It came from a 1990 National Review article, which Pipes long ago explained was "my description of European attitudes, not of my own views."

Pipes has declined to comment on the nomination because it is a pending Senate matter.

Muslim backing

Supporters of Pipes have launched a website with a petition addressed to members of the committee.

Daniel Pipes

Seventy-nine Muslims, including Tashbih Sayyed, editor in chief of Pakistan Today, and Fatima Sayyed, director of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance, have signed a letter endorsing Pipes.

The Muslims say the Senate should vote for confirmation because:

• Dr. Pipes has demonstrated wide expertise in the study of Islamic history and politics, working with original source materials in languages which he has mastered.

• The USIP board is an appropriate place for his sometimes controversial views to be examined and debated.

• Organizations identified with an Islamist perspective have expressed their opposition to his appointment, claiming to speak on behalf of all Muslims.

Sayyed has named CAIR as one of those hardline groups. Two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs have described the organization from which CAIR originated as a "front" in the U.S. for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

"We wish to make clear that they represent an extremist viewpoint that does not represent all or even a majority of American Muslims," the Muslim endorsement said.

An endorsement from intellectuals and scholars includes professors Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins University, Donald Kagan of Yale University, Harvey Mansfield of Harvard University and James Q. Wilson of UCLA.

The professors say charges that Pipes is an extremist are "systematically inaccurate and inappropriate."

The endorsement says Pipes's "extensive experience as an outspoken opponent of terrorism, including Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, has earned him a following among scholars and ordinary Americans of all backgrounds. In the course of this work, he has consistently made efforts to distinguish moderate Islam from its extremist offshoots. He is no bigot."

A coalition of American Mideast organizations of mostly Christian origin issued a joint statement declaring failure to confirm Pipes would be a "slap in the face of millions of Americans from Middle Eastern descent."

Another commendation is from Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

At the committee hearing yesterday, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. James Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont, joined Kennedy in criticizing Pipes, the Post said. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D- N.Y., was present but did not speak.

Other Democratic members of the committee are John Edwards of North Carolina, Patty Murray of Washington and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. Republican members include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Warner of Virginia and Sam Brownback of Kansas.

The Post said, of all the senators present, only Sen. John Ensign, R- Nev., spoke in support of Pipes.

If approved by the Senate, Pipes would become one of 15 board members of the U.S. Institute of Peace, established by Congress in 1984 as a think tank to promote "the prevention, management and resolution of international conflicts." The panel, which meets six times a year, can have no more than eight voting members of the same political party.

Pipes, the author of 12 books, including "Militant Islam Reaches America", served in the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and directed the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

[Semper Paratus]

Clinton was able to get anybody he wanted on these boards commisions and uesed recess appointments if necessary.

Lets grow some big ones and get going..

[Courier]

CAIR always wins.

Occasionally they need to replace a few of their leaders because the FBI has carted away a few terrorists but then those are replaced with terrorists the FBI has not gotten around to yet.

You won't recognize the US in fifty years.

[Gritty]

Disgusting.

It's long past time for a thorough housecleaning not only in the American Muslim community, but in the Senate!

[American in Israel]

Amazing, democraps in bed with Moslems! Is there no limit to the moral decay of the Democratic Party in the rush to destroy America?

[Paleo Conservative]

The DemocRATS don't seem to be worried that by pandering to the Muslim extremists in CAIR, they will be driving away Jewish voters. I receive Dr. Pipes newsletters via email subscription. His newsletters seem like plain old common sense to me. Unfortunately it seems that academia and forces of politcal correctness oppose anything that is common sense.

[ken5050]

Also, let's try and pick up at least 5 seats in the US Senate...

[OldPossum]

You won't recognize the US in fifty years.

You are absolutely correct. There are some advantages to being old today.

[Dudoight]

It is not Pipes job to 'promote' peace. He is reality oriented and REALITY, rather than the advocated political correctness of the left, is what will save our butts. Kennedy is a scandalous vote mongerer he doesn't give a rats butt for reality. All dims are niche thinkers. They refuse to connect the dots.

[NativeNewYorker]

Treason!

[RLK]

I'm getting disgusted with this entire surrealistic scene.

[Malesherbes]

I'm always amazed when Ted Kennedy, an unindicted murderer, gets up and pronounces his moral judgment on some new victim. Dr. Pipes is a good man, just as were Kennedy's previous victims like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. They escaped with their lives unlike Mary Jo.

[oceanview]

no they will not, they will get 80% of the jewish vote, and 80% or the american muslim vote.

[TAP ONLINE]

Let me get this straight

If we had done more before 911 we would have prevented it.

If we had listened to views like Mr Pipes we would have profiled arabs (muslims) in the US

Since this action is now opposed by the DEMS, they would have opposed these policies on September 10, 2001.

Am I missing something here????

[syriacus]

Ted Kennedy speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

He changes his tune when it suits his "Bush bashing" aims.

Kennedy

• wants us to worry about Muslims
  and at the same time he
• doesn't want us to worry about Muslims.

Which is it, Ted?

March 7, 2003 STATEMENT OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON THE BLIX REPORT TO THE UNITED NATIONS

War with Iraq runs the very serious risk of inflaming the Middle East and provoking a massive new wave of anti-Americanism in other countries that may well strengthen the terrorists, especially if the Muslim world opposes us. What if Al Qaeda were to time the next terrorist attack to the day we go to war?

A year ago, The Wall Street Journal quoted a dissident in Saudi Arabia [snip] said that the main enemy of the Muslims and the Arabs is America -- and that they don't want us to impose things on them. He said many Arabs would rather tolerate dictatorship in their own countries than import reforms from America.

The burning of the U.S. flag has become a common ritual in Arab capitals.

Calling someone n[sic] American is now regarded as an insult in parts of the Arab world.

Well, we went to war with Iraq, Ted. You said Muslims would become more dangerous to the US if we did.

Is there a danger from Muslims, or not, Ted?

[esopman]

Surrealism is an excellent word choice. Kennedy is like some bizarre pachyderm from a parallel universe. It is stunning to me that he has ANY credibility at all. This speaks to the fact that, like most Liberals, he is what my wife calls a 'bubble person' with an audience of 'bubble people.'

Encapsulated in a universe of self-reinforcing mendacity and reality denial from fellow bubble people in the elite liberal media, civil service, etc.....he literally cannot see reality. Pipes can.

Sooner or later, the bubble pops...punctured by a real arrow from the real universe. It did for Czar Nicholas II. It did for the Japanese militarists. It did for the Millerites in pre-Civil War America. It will for Liberals.

Unfortunately, the process is at times cataclysmic and usually involves a lot of pain. These idiots will drag the rest of us into the maelstrom with them. The bubble people and their bubble audience will not recognize the arrow they have ignored, even as it pops their universe. (Matthew 24:39)

It's not nice to deny Mother Reality.

[Cicero]

The Post said, of all the senators present, only Sen. John Ensign, R- Nev., spoke in support of Pipes.

It's obvious that CAIR has put the fear of God into the Republicans, too. Probably Karl Rove has told them that if they give the Democrats a propaganda handle for accusing Republicans of being anti-Muslim bigots, he'll take away their pork.

[eniapmot]

Is there no limit to the moral decay of the Democratic Party...

You didn't see this? "Republican members include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Warner of Virginia and Sam Brownback of Kansas. The Post said, of all the senators present, only Sen. John Ensign, R- Nev., spoke in support of Pipes." (And you can be sure that there are just as many Islamist-enablers among the Republicans as among the Democrats -- Hint: it's the campaign money)

[Brian S]

Bush had a sizable portion of the muslim vote in 2000. Probably "hoping" they will remain Bush supporters in 2004.

[MissAmericanPie]

Fifty years? Heck I don't recognize it now.