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Daniel Pipes Op/ed
By Thomas
On April 27th another fire will hit VCU. This time however it will not be on Broad Street, but in the VCU Student Commons as unapologetic racist, Daniel Pipes, will spew his extremist fires of hatred and intolerance at the VCU community. The poster boy of the far-right, Pipes will be speaking at a forum sponsored by Supporters of a Safe Israel in a forum entitled “US, Israel, and the Politics of Peace”. Unfortunately for everyone involved with this event, and with the University as a whole, Pipes is the antithesis to peace, moderation, and tolerance. A vicious and violent advocate of racial profiling, military force, and neo-McCarthyism, Pipes has spent his life inciting hatred against Muslims, liberals, and Palestinians. In an article in the 1990 National Review Pipes declared that “Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene ... All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most” (National Review, 11/19/90). In 2000 he claimed that “black converts [to Islam] tend to hold vehemently anti-American, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic attitudes" (Commentary, 6/1/2000).
Pipes is not content with just verbally inciting hatred against Muslims, he also supports active measures of discrimination against Muslims based upon religion. In a radio debate with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! He claimed “that most Muslims in the United Stated are a threat and should be kept under surveillance”. Responding to her question whether that was a form of racism, he said: "No, they can be of any race or ethnicity, as long as they are Muslim." Pipes has also voiced his support for racial profiling on aircraft. In response to an incident where two Arab graduate students were arrested on a plane, then released with an apology from the airline, Pipes said “It seems well worth it in order to keep would-be terrorists off guard”, (The Baltimore Sun, 11/24/1999, Page 1A) and in another article stated “If Muslims have jobs in the military, law enforcement or diplomacy, they need to be watched for connections to terrorism”.
Daniel Pipes does not seem to be content with just advocating racism, hatred, and the shredding of the American constitution, he is engaged in actively pursuing those ends. Daniel Pipes has founded an organization called “Campus Watch” which is essentially a 21st century reincarnation of the McCarthy blacklists of the 1950’s. Campus Watch actively compiles lists of Muslim, Pro-Palestinian, and liberal professors at Universities around the nation in order to direct pressure and anger towards them. Obviously free speech is not a part of the constitution that Pipes holds dear.
Not only is Pipes’ racist anti-Muslim rhetoric of serious concern, so is his violent attitude towards the Palestinian people. Pipes, a right-wing Pro-Israeli, who rejects any type of peace between Israel and the Palestinians has said that "What war had achieved for Israel, diplomacy has undone." Pipes, who is admired as a larger than life “hero” for the right wing Israeli lobby in the United States, has said that the only solution to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis is for the Israeli military to force a “change of heart” on the Palestinians in the Israeli occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Pipes argues that this “change of heart” can be “achieved by an Israeli victory and a Palestinian defeat, The Palestinians need to be defeated even more than Israel needs to defeat them." (http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2003/22/we_420_01.html)
This extreme anti-Palestinian rhetoric has put Pipes at odds with both the Bush administration, which continues to press for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, (where Israel would withdraw from some or all of the occupied territories and allow the Palestinians to have self-determination and independence) and even the right-wing Israeli government of Ariel Sharon which has begun a disengagement plan in the occupied territories. Pipes is even at odds with the majority of the Israeli people who by a majority of 65% support the idea of the “roadmap” to a Palestinian state. Pipes acknowledges that the Israeli people want peace, not his plan, and has said that “It is Israel's burden to be tough, the Israelis must be encouraged to defeat the Palestinians." With speech like this Pipes has angered people on all sides of the conflict and as Susannah Heschel, Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Dartmouth points out “Daniel Pipes is not a peacemaker”.
The greatest thing about America is our freedom. We have the freedom to practice our religions without scrutiny and pressure. We have the freedom to use mass transport without racial profiling. We have the freedom to engage in any profession without pressure to change our political views. We have the freedom to protest any injustice without fear of harassment and intimidation. On April 27th Pipes, a man who does not hold any of these values sacred will be speaking at our University, which is a bastion of racial and religious tolerance and integration. As true Americans who respect the constitution the student body of VCU will, without a doubt support Pipes’ constitutional right to free speech, but as we do, we will stand shoulder to shoulder in support of our brothers and sisters who have and will be targeted by this man and his vicious hate speech.
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