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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Daniel Pipes</title>
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		<title>Viscount Samuel, Meet Secretary Hagel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/viscount-samuel-meet-secretary-hagel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=viscount-samuel-meet-secretary-hagel</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:15:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Chuck Hagel]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Chuck Hagel's conspicuous about-face on Israel. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_187164" style="width: 224px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2240.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-187164" alt="2240" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2240-267x350.jpg" width="214" height="280" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Sir Herbert Samuel.</p></div>
<p><strong>Reprinted from <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2013/04/viscount-samuel-meet-secretary-hagel">DanielPipes.org</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Emerging from intense controversy, the British politician Herbert Samuel (1870-1963) was appointed the first High Commissioner of Palestine, where he served 1920-25. A Jew and an influential Zionist, Samuel bent over backwards not to favor the Yishuv, to the point that he forwarded the interests of the Palestinians most hostile to the Jewish presence. Most notoriously, Samuel appointed Amin al-Husseini as mufti of Palestine, a position which Husseini used to become the most powerful figure in the mandate and the Palestinian who did the most-ever damage to Zionism (yes, even more so than his nephew Yasir Arafat).</p>
<p>This century-old history comes to mind in watching the first months in office of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. During his confirmation hearings, Hagel denounced many of his prior statements about Israel and Iran and then, as I have <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2013/03/the-hagelian-dialectic">noted elsewhere</a>, he chose to have his first face-to-face meeting in March with a foreign counterpart with Israel&#8217;s Defense Minister Ehud Barak.</p>
<blockquote><p>Despite major cuts to the American defense budget, Hagel promised in his meeting with Barak his intent to ensure <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=7739">continued funding</a> for the Iron Dome and Arrow missile defense systems. Pentagon press secretary George Little explained that &#8220;during the meeting, Hagel expressed his strong commitment to Israel&#8217;s security, including maintaining Israel&#8217;s qualitative military edge and continued U.S. support for missile and rocket defense systems in spite of fiscal constraints.&#8221; Little also reported Hagel&#8217;s saying that he and Barak have had an outstanding working relationship.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hagel also had <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8129">warm words</a> for Israel: &#8220;I appreciate the strategic relationship between our two nations and look forward to strengthening cooperation between the two defense establishments.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hagel has now gone to Israel – his <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-20/world/38691693_1_pro-israel-groups-mckeon-defense-secretary-chuck-hagel">first visit</a> to a foreign country other than Afghanistan, where he focused on U.S. troops – and met with the leadership. He both did things and said things that please Israel. Here is the <i>New York Times</i> account, &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/middleeast/hagel-in-israel-presses-us-agenda-in-iran.html?_r=0&amp;pagewanted=print">Hagel, in Israel, Presses U.S. Agenda on Deterring Iran</a>&#8220;:</p>
<blockquote><p>Mr. Hagel, who was subject to intense, even hostile scrutiny during his confirmation process over whether he was sufficiently supportive of Israel, hailed the &#8220;very special relationship&#8221; between the United States and Israel. He also repeatedly emphasized Israel&#8217;s right to defend itself &#8220;in a very dangerous, combustible region of the world.&#8221; …</p>
<p>Mr. Hagel acknowledged that there might be &#8220;minor&#8221; differences between the United States and Israel on the timeline in which Iran might develop nuclear weapons. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s important that we all keep our eye focused on the objective,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And there is no daylight there at all — that Iran is prevented from acquiring that nuclear capacity.&#8221; …</p>
<p>During his travels, Mr. Hagel will be pushing forward with a $10 billion arms package intended to further increase Israel&#8217;s military edge over other powers in the region while also bolstering the armed forces of two important Persian Gulf allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Included in the weapons deal for Israel are tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft, which can be used for transporting troops and patrolling borders and nearby seas, as well as advanced radars for Israeli warplanes. …</p>
<p>And two systems to be sold to Israel — a new generation of aerial refueling tankers and advanced missiles that home in on radar signals to destroy air-defense sites — would be important in any attack on Iran&#8217;s nuclear facilities. Mr. Hagel said the weapons sales served as &#8220;another very clear signal to Iran.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Here is Hagel&#8217;s <a href="http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5224">statement</a> before a meeting with Netanyahu (I bolded some words that bear special attention):</p>
<blockquote>
<div id="attachment_187165" style="width: 255px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2238.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-187165" alt="2238" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2238.jpg" width="245" height="167" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Binyamin Netanyahu and Chuck Hagel, best of friends.</p></div>
<p>I&#8217;ve always <b>appreciate this country, the people, the leadership and the courage that you represent and what has been produced in Israel</b>. It is <b>a model for the world</b>, and the relationship between our two countries, just as you have noted, is <b>as strong as it&#8217;s ever been</b>, not only measured by the military-to-military, all the other metrics that apply to relationships, but as you also noted, Prime Minister, it is based on <b>common values and respect for others</b>, and that is the foundation of any relationship. …</p>
<p>This is a time when friends and allies <b>must remain close, closer than ever</b>. I&#8217;m <b>committed to continue to strengthen this relationship</b>, secure this relationship, and as you know, one of the main reasons I&#8217;m here is to do that. … I was able to take a long tour up in the north and the eastern borders here, and once again it reminds me of <b>the dangers and difficulties and challenges</b>. But I believe together, working with our allies and our friends, we will be able to do what is right for your country, my country, and make this region a better region and a more secure region, and make Israel more secure.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hagel then answered press questions and became buddies with the IDF. <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8809"><i>Israel Hayom</i></a> reports:</p>
<blockquote><p>On Monday, Hagel was asked whether he believed it would be advisable for Israel to attack Iran on its own. &#8220;That calculation has to be made by Israel,&#8221; he replied after noting, &#8220;Israel is a sovereign nation; every sovereign nation has a right to defend itself.&#8221; Hagel did not mention a concern that U.S. officials have voiced in the past—that an Israeli strike would run the risk of igniting a wider war that could draw in the U.S.</p>
<p>Hagel wrapped up his three-day trip to Israel by visiting a special forces unit that trains military dogs to find hidden explosives and weapons. He mingled with the soldiers and watched a brief demonstration of the dogs&#8217; skills.</p></blockquote>
<p>We&#8217;re likely to hear more friendly words for Israel when Hagel addresses the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy on May 9 in a speech titled &#8220;U.S. Defense Policy in the Middle East.&#8221; (Historically, American politicians make pro-Israel pronouncements before pro-Israel organizations.)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2239.jpg"><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-187167" alt="2239" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2239-450x145.jpg" width="360" height="116" /></a></p>
<p><i>Comments</i>: (1) Henry Kissinger also fit the Samuel pattern, leaning more against Israel to offset perceptions of him as pro-Israel. (2) As the Samuel and Hagel trajectories suggest, politics is an ironic business. (3) Sometimes one is better off when an opponent feels compelled to prove his bona fides. (April 25, 2013)</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Explaining the Denial</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/explaining-the-denial/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=explaining-the-denial</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:29:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Denial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Napolitano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nidal Hasan]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Denying Islam's role in terror.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_181704" style="width: 290px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/explaining-the-denial/hold-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-181704"><img class=" wp-image-181704 " title="hold" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/hold.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="210" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">U.S. officials&#8217; denials of Islam&#8217;s role in terrorism might be humorous if they were not so frightening. During congressional testimony in May 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder repeatedly sparred with his congressional questioners over the possible part played by &#8220;radical Islam&#8221; in inciting the actions of domestic terrorists and refused to acknowledge its decisive role.</p></div>
<p><strong>Reprinted from <a href="http://www.meforum.org/"><em>Middle East Quarterly</em></a>.</strong></p>
<p>Over three years after Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan&#8217;s massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, the classification of his crime remains in dispute. In its wisdom, the Department of Defense, supported by law enforcement, politicians, journalists, and <a id="_GPLITA_3" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#">academics</a>, deems the killing of thirteen and wounding of forty-three to be &#8220;workplace violence.&#8221; For example, the 86-page study on preventing a repeat episode, <a href="http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/DOD-ProtectingTheForce-Web_Security_HR_13jan10.pdf"><em>Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood</em></a>, mentions &#8220;workplace violence&#8221; sixteen times.<a name="_ftnref1" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn1"></a>[1]</p>
<p><a id="_GPLITA_2" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#">Indeed</a>, were the subject not morbid, one could be amused by the disagreement over what exactly caused the major to erupt. Speculations included &#8220;<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/fort.hood.suspect.muslim/index.html">racism</a>&#8221; against him, &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/us/06suspect.html">harassment</a> he had received as a Muslim,&#8221; his &#8220;sense of <a href="http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/11/fort_hood_shooter_attacked_muslims_too.html">not belonging</a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fort-hood-hasan7-2009nov07,0,3477020,print.story">mental problems</a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/us/08investigate.html?_r=3&amp;sudsredirect=true&amp;pagewanted=print">emotional problems</a>,&#8221; &#8220;an inordinate amount of stress,&#8221; the &#8220;<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/11/06/2009-11-06_why_did_fort_hood_killer_snap.html">worst nightmare</a>&#8221; of his being deployed to Afghanistan, or something fancifully called &#8220;<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120162816">pre-traumatic stress disorder</a>.&#8221; One newspaper <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/mindset-of-rogue-major-a-mystery/story-e6frg6so-1225795172816">headline</a>, &#8220;Mindset of Rogue Major a Mystery,&#8221; sums up this bogus state of confusion.<a name="_ftnref2" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn2"></a>[2]</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/06/military-growing-terrorist-target-lawmakers-warn/">members of congress</a> ridiculed the &#8220;workplace violence&#8221; characterization and a coalition of 160 victims and family members recently released a <a id="_GPLITA_4" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#">video</a>, &#8220;<a href="http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/fort-hood-shooting-victims-want-attack-called-terror-1.193553">The Truth about Fort Hood</a>,&#8221; criticizing the administration. On the third anniversary of the massacre, 148 victims and family members <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/05/148-victims-family-members-sue-government-over-fort-hood-shooting/?test=latestnews">sued the U.S. government</a> for avoiding legal and financial responsibility by not acknowledging the incident as terrorism.<a name="_ftnref3" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn3"></a>[3]</p>
<p>The military leadership willfully ignores what stares them in the face, namely Hasan&#8217;s clear and evident <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/7763/major-nidal-hasan-islamist-life">Islamist inspiration</a>; <em>Protecting the Force</em> mentions &#8220;Muslim&#8221; and &#8220;jihad&#8221; not a single time, and &#8220;Islam&#8221; only once, in a footnote.<a name="_ftnref4" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn4"></a>[4] The massacre officially still remains unconnected to terrorism or Islam.</p>
<p>This example fits in a larger pattern: The establishment denies that Islamism—a form of Islam that seeks to make Muslims dominant through an extreme, totalistic, and rigid <a id="_GPLITA_1" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#">application</a> of Islamic law, the Shari&#8217;a—represents the leading global cause of terrorism when it so clearly does. Islamism reverts to medieval norms in its aspiration to create a caliphate that rules humanity. &#8220;Islam is the solution&#8221; summarizes its doctrine. Islam&#8217;s public law can be summarized as elevating Muslim over non-Muslim, male over female, and endorsing the use of force to spread Muslim rule. In recent decades, Islamists (the adherents of this vision of Islam) have established an unparalleled record of terrorism. To cite one tabulation: TheReligionOfPeace.com counts 20,000 assaults in the name of Islam since 9/11,<a name="_ftnref5" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn5"></a>[5] or about five a day. In the West, terrorist acts inspired by motives other than Islam hardly <a id="_GPLITA_0" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#">register</a>.</p>
<p>It is important to document and explain this denial and explore its implications. The examples come predominantly from the United States, though they could come from virtually any Western country—except Israel.</p>
<h3>Documenting Denial</h3>
<p>The government, press, and academy routinely deny that Islamist motives play a role in two ways, specific and general. Specific acts of violence perpetrated by Muslims lead the authorities publicly, willfully, and defiantly to <a id="_GPLITA_5" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#">close</a> their eyes to Islamist motivations and goals. Instead, they point to a range of trivial, one-time, and individualistic motives, often casting the perpetrator as victim. Examples from the years before and after 9/11 include:</p>
<ul>
<li>1990 assassination of Rabbi <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/09/nyregion/police-say-kahane-suspect-took-anti-depression-drugs.html">Meir Kahane</a> in New York: &#8220;A prescription drug for … depression.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref6" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn6"></a>[6]</li>
<li>1991 murder of Makin Morcos in Sydney: &#8220;A robbery gone wrong.&#8221;</li>
<li>1993 murder of Reverend Doug Good in Western Australia: An &#8220;unintentional killing.&#8221;</li>
<li>1993 attack on foreigners at a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/egypt-ten-die-in-cairo-attack-on-tourists-1239899.html">hotel in Cairo</a>, killing ten: Insanity.<a name="_ftnref7" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn7"></a>[7]</li>
<li>1994 killing of a Hasidic Jew on the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/77/murder-on-the-brooklyn-bridge">Brooklyn Bridge</a>: &#8220;Road rage.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref8" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn8"></a>[8]</li>
<li>1997 shooting murder atop the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/02/explaining-the-murder-rampage-atop-the">Empire State Building</a>: &#8220;Many, many enemies in his mind.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref9" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn9"></a>[9]</li>
<li>2000 attack on a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/2396/denying-islamist-terrorism">bus of Jewish schoolchildren</a> near Paris: A traffic incident.</li>
<li>2002 plane crash into a <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001641,00.html">Tampa high-rise</a> by an Osama bin Laden-admiring Arab-American (but non-Muslim): The acne drug Accutane.<a name="_ftnref10" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn10"></a>[10]</li>
<li>2002 double murder at <a href="http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Terror_in_LA$.asp">LAX</a>: &#8220;A work dispute.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref11" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn11"></a>[11]</li>
<li>2002 <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/493/the-snipers-crazy-or-jihadis">Beltway snipers</a>: A &#8220;stormy [family] relationship.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref12" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn12"></a>[12]</li>
<li>2003 <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1042/hasan-akbar-and-murder-in-the-101st-airborne">Hasan Karim Akbar</a>&#8216;s attack on fellow soldiers, killing two: An &#8220;attitude problem.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref13" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn13"></a>[13]</li>
<li>2003 mutilation murder of <a href="http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=15223">Sebastian Sellam</a>: Mental illness.<a name="_ftnref14" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn14"></a>[14]</li>
<li>2004 <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2004/03/italy-mcdonalds-jihad-foiled.html">explosion in Brescia, Italy</a>, outside a McDonald&#8217;s restaurant: &#8220;Loneliness and depression.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref15" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn15"></a>[15]</li>
<li>2005 rampage at a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64176-2005Jan10?language=printer">retirement center</a> in Virginia: &#8220;A disagreement between the suspect and another staff member.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref16" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn16"></a>[16]</li>
<li>2006 murderous rampage at the <a href="http://google.com/search?q=cache:voqer71Lt1cJ:articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/nation/na-shootings30+%22Some+speculated+he+might+have+sought+to+cloak+an+animus+toward+women+%22&amp;cd=3&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk">Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle</a>: &#8220;An animus toward women.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref17" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn17"></a>[17]</li>
<li>2006 killing by a man in an <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/30/MNGVQKRSQC1.DTL">SUV in northern California</a>: &#8220;His recent, arranged marriage may have made him stressed.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref18" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn18"></a>[18]</li>
</ul>
<p>This pattern of denial is all the more striking because it concerns distinctly Islamic forms of violence such as <a href="http://www.meforum.org/1003/the-religious-foundations-of-suicide-bombings">suicide operations</a>, <a href="http://www.meforum.org/713/beheading-in-the-name-of-islam">beheadings</a>, <a href="http://www.meforum.org/2067/are-honor-killings-simply-domestic-violence">honor killings</a> and the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?pagewanted=print">disfiguring of women&#8217;s faces</a>. For example, when it comes to honor killings, Phyllis Chesler has established that this phenomenon differs from domestic violence and, in Western countries, is almost always perpetrated by Muslims.<a name="_ftnref19" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn19"></a>[19] Such proofs, however, do not convince the establishment, which tends to filter Islam out of the equation.</p>
<p>The generalized threat inspires more denial. Politicians and others avoid mention of Islam, Islamism, Muslims, Islamists, mujahideen, or jihadists. Instead, they blame evildoers, militants, radical extremists, terrorists, and al-Qaeda. Just one day after 9/11, U.S. secretary of state <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2001/09/not-calling-islamism-the-enemy">Colin Powell</a> set the tone by asserting that the just-committed atrocities &#8220;should not be seen as something done by Arabs or Islamics; it is something that was done by terrorists.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref20" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn20"></a>[20]</p>
<p>Another tactic is to obscure Islamist realities under the fog of verbiage. George W. Bush referred once to &#8220;the great <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/4739/shoeless-george-bush-discusses-islam">struggle against extremism</a> that is now playing out across the broader Middle East&#8221;<a name="_ftnref21" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn21"></a>[21] and another time to &#8220;the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec04/snapshot_8-6.html">struggle against ideological extremists</a> who do not believe in free societies and who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref22" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn22"></a>[22] He went so far as to dismiss any Islamic element by asserting that &#8220;Islam is a great religion that <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/10/bush-returns-to-the-religion-of-peace">preaches peace</a>.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref23" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn23"></a>[23]</p>
<p>In like spirit, <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/03/acd.01.html">Barack Obama</a> observed that &#8220;it is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations, but that those organizations aren&#8217;t representative of a broader Arab community, Muslim community.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref24" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn24"></a>[24] Obama&#8217;s attorney general, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOQt_mP6Pgg">Eric Holder</a>, engaged in the following exchange with Lamar Smith (Republican, Tex.) during congressional testimony in May 2010, repeatedly resisting a connection between Islamist motives and a spate of terrorist attacks:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Smith</em>: In the case of all three [terrorist] attempts in the last year, … one of which was successful, those individuals have had ties to radical Islam. Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam?</p>
<p><em>Holder</em>: Because of?</p>
<p><em>Smith</em>: Radical Islam.</p>
<p><em>Holder</em>: There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions. It&#8217;s one, I think you have to look at each individual case. I mean, we are in the process now of talking to Mr. [Feisal] Shahzad to try to understand what it is that drove him to take the action.</p>
<p><em>Smith</em>: Yes, but radical Islam could have been one of the reasons?</p>
<p><em>Holder</em>: There are a variety of reasons why people &#8230;</p>
<p><em>Smith</em>: But was radical Islam one of them?</p>
<p><em>Holder</em>: There are a variety of reasons why people do things. Some of them are potentially religious&#8230;<a name="_ftnref25" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn25"></a>[25]</p></blockquote>
<p>And on and on Holder persisted, until Smith eventually gave up. And this was not exceptional: An almost identical denial took place in December 2011 by a senior official from the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU6n1mrpAGY">Department of Defense</a>.<a name="_ftnref26" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn26"></a>[26]</p>
<p>Or one can simply ignore the Islamist element; a study issued by the Department of Homeland Security, &#8220;Evolution of the Terrorist Threat to the United States,&#8221; mentions Islam just one time. In September 2010, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/23/remarks-president-united-nations-general-assembly">Obama</a> spoke at the United Nations and, using a passive construction, avoided all mention of Islam in reference to 9/11: &#8220;Nine years ago, the destruction of the World Trade Center signaled a threat that respected no boundary of dignity or decency.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref27" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn27"></a>[27] About the same time, <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/testimony/testimony_1285168556484.shtm">Janet Napolitano</a>, the secretary of homeland security, stated that the profiles of Americans engaged in terrorism indicate that &#8220;there is no &#8216;typical&#8217; profile of a homegrown terrorist.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref28" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn28"></a>[28]</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newt.org/newt-direct/video-america-risk-camus-national-security-and-afghanistan">Newt Gingrich</a>, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, rightly condemns this mentality as &#8220;two plus two must equal something other than four.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref29" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn29"></a>[29]</p>
<h3>Exceptions to Denial</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2001/09/calling-islamism-the-enemy">Exceptions</a> to this pattern do exist; establishment figures on occasion drop their guard and acknowledge the Islamist threat to the civilized world. Gingrich himself delivered a uniquely well-informed speech on Shari&#8217;a in 2010, noting, &#8220;This is not a war on terrorism. Terrorism is an activity. This is a struggle with radical Islamists in both their militant and their stealth form.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref30" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn30"></a>[30]</p>
<p>British prime minister <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.number10.gov.uk/Page9948">Tony Blair</a> offered a stirring and eloquent analysis in 2006:</p>
<blockquote><p>This is war, but of a completely unconventional kind. … What are the values that govern the future of the world? Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, division and hatred? … It is in part a struggle between what I will call Reactionary Islam and Moderate, Mainstream Islam. But its implications go far wider. We are fighting a war, but not just against terrorism but about how the world should govern itself in the early 21<sup>st</sup> century, about global values.<a name="_ftnref31" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn31"></a>[31]</p></blockquote>
<p>The current British prime minister, <a href="http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/560.pdf">David Cameron</a>, gave a fine analysis in 2005, long before he reached his current office:</p>
<blockquote><p>The driving force behind today&#8217;s terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence.<a name="_ftnref32" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn32"></a>[32]</p></blockquote>
<p>In <a href="http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2011/02/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference-60293">2011</a>, as prime minister, Cameron returned to this theme when he warned that &#8220;we need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of these terrorist attacks lie. That is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref33" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn33"></a>[33]</p>
<p>The former foreign minister of the Czech Republic, <a href="http://www.meforum.org/1714/alexandr-vondra-radical-islam-poses-a-major">Alexandr Vondra</a>, spoke his mind with remarkable frankness:</p>
<blockquote><p>Radical Islamists challenge practically everything that our society claims to stand for, no matter what the Western policies were or are. These challenges include the concept of universal human rights and freedom of speech.<a name="_ftnref34" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn34"></a>[34]</p></blockquote>
<p>George W. Bush spoke in the period after <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/3026/bush-declares-war-on-radical-islam">October 2005</a> about &#8220;Islamo-fascism&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/3848/at-war-with-islamic-fascists">Islamic fascists</a>.&#8221; <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300420668558244.html?">Joseph Lieberman</a>, the U.S. senator from Connecticut, criticized those who refuse &#8220;to identify our enemy in this war as what it is: violent Islamist extremism&#8221;<a name="_ftnref35" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn35"></a>[35] and sponsored an excellent <a href="http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/Fort_Hood/FortHoodReport.pdf">Senate study</a> on Maj. Hasan. <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2001/12/calling-islamism-the-enemy">Rick Santorum</a>, then a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, gave a notable analysis:</p>
<blockquote><p>In World War II, we fought Naziism and Japanese imperialism. Today, we are fighting against Islamic fascists. They attacked us on September 11<sup>th</sup> because we are the greatest obstacle to their openly declared mission of subjecting the entire world to their fanatical rule. I believe that the threat of Islamic fascism is just as menacing as the threat from Nazism and Soviet Communism. Now, as then, we face fanatics who will stop at nothing to dominate us. Now, as then, there is no way out; we will either win or lose.<a name="_ftnref36" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn36"></a>[36]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1195.ZD1.html">Antonin Scalia</a>, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, observed in an opinion that &#8220;America is at war with radical Islamists.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref37" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn37"></a>[37] A New York Police Department study, <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf"><em>Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat</em></a>, discusses &#8220;Islamic-based terrorism&#8221; in its first line and never lets up. It contains explicit references to Islamism; it states, &#8220;Ultimately, the jihadist envisions a world in which jihadi-Salafi Islam is dominant and is the basis of government.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref38" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn38"></a>[38]</p>
<p>So, reality does on occasion poke through the fog of denial and verbiage.</p>
<h3>The Mystery of Denial</h3>
<p>These exceptions aside, what accounts for the persistent denial of Islamic motives? Why the pretense that no elephant fills the room? An unwillingness to face the truth invariably smacks of euphemism, cowardice, political correctness, and appeasement. In this spirit, <a href="http://www.newt.org/newt-direct/video-america-risk-camus-national-security-and-afghanistan">Gingrich</a> argues that &#8220;the Obama Administration is willfully blind to the nature of our enemies and the forces which threaten America. … it&#8217;s not ignorance; it&#8217;s determined effort to avoid [reality].&#8221;<a name="_ftnref39" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn39"></a>[39]</p>
<p>These problems definitely contribute to denial, but something more basic and more legitimate goes further to explain this reluctance. One hint comes from a 2007 Ph.D. dissertation in politics submitted by <a href="http://arts.monash.edu.au/politics/pgrad/postgrad-politics.php">Gaetano Ilardi</a> to Monash University in Melbourne. Titled &#8220;From the IRA to Al Qa&#8217;eda: Intelligence as a Measure of Rational Action in Terrorist Operations,&#8221; it refers frequently to Islam and related topics; Ilardi has also been quoted in the press on the topic of <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/from-a-human-to-a-terrorist/story-e6frg8yx-1225759148419">radicalization</a>. Yet in 2009, as acting senior sergeant of the Victoria police, he was the most vociferous of his twenty law enforcement colleagues insisting to this author that the police not publicly mention Islam in any fashion when discussing terrorism. In other words, wanting not to refer to Islam can come from someone who knows full well the role of Islam.</p>
<p>Confirming this point, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575321110472029620.html">Daniel Benjamin</a>, the Obama administration&#8217;s coordinator for counterterrorism in the U.S. State Department, explicitly refutes the idea that silence about Islam means being unaware of it:</p>
<blockquote><p>Policymakers fully recognize how al Qaeda&#8217;s ideologues have appropriated Islamic texts and concepts and fashioned them into a mantle of religious legitimacy for their bloodshed. As someone who has written at length about how al Qaeda and the radical groups that preceded it have picked and chosen from sacred texts, often out of all context, I have no doubt my colleagues understand the nature of the threat.<a name="_ftnref40" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn40"></a>[40]</p></blockquote>
<p>Ilardi and Benjamin know their stuff; they avoid discussing Islam in connection with terrorism for reasons deeper than political correctness, ignorance, or appeasement. What are those reasons? Two factors have key importance: wanting not to alienate Muslims or to reorder society.</p>
<h3>Explaining Denial</h3>
<p>Not wanting to offend Muslims, a sincere and reasonable goal, is the reason most often publicly cited. Muslims protest that focusing on Islam, Islamism, or jihad increases Muslim fears that the West is engaged in a &#8220;war against Islam.&#8221; <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300420668558244.html?">Joseph Lieberman</a>, for example, notes that the Obama administration prefers not to use the term &#8220;violent Islamist extremists&#8221; when referring to the enemy because using such explicit words &#8220;bolsters our enemy&#8217;s propaganda claim that the West is at war with Islam.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref41" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn41"></a>[41]</p>
<p>Questioned in an interview about his having only once used the term &#8220;war on terror,&#8221; <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/03/acd.01.html">Barack Obama</a> confirmed this point, stating that &#8220;words matter in this situation because one of the ways we&#8217;re going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds.&#8221; Asked, &#8220;So that&#8217;s not a term you&#8217;re going to be using much in the future?&#8221; he replied:</p>
<blockquote><p>You know, what I want to do is make sure that I&#8217;m constantly talking about al Qaeda and other affiliated organizations because we, I believe, can win over moderate Muslims to recognize that that kind of destruction and nihilism ultimately leads to a dead end, and that we should be working together to make sure that everybody has got a better life.<a name="_ftnref42" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn42"></a>[42]</p></blockquote>
<p>Daniel <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575321110472029620.html">Benjamin</a> makes the same point more lucidly:</p>
<blockquote><p>Putting the emphasis on &#8220;Islamist&#8221; instead of on &#8220;violent extremist&#8221; undercuts our efforts, since it falsely roots the core problem in the faith of more than one billion people who abhor violence. As one internal government study after another has shown, such statements invariably wind up being distorted in the global media, alienating Muslim moderates.<a name="_ftnref43" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn43"></a>[43]</p></blockquote>
<p>This concern actually has two sub-parts for two types of Muslims: Those who would otherwise help fight terrorism feel insulted (&#8220;<a href="http://www.tahir-ul-qadri.com/islam-religion-of-peace-love-and-mercy-session-16.html">a true Muslim can never be a terrorist</a>&#8220;) and so do not step forward while those who would not normally be involved become radicalized, some even becoming terrorists.</p>
<p>The second reason to inhibit one&#8217;s talk about Islam concerns the apprehension that this implies a large and undesirable shift away from how secular Western societies are ordered. Blaming terrorist attacks on drugs gone awry, road rage, an arranged marriage, mental cases going berserk, or freak industrial accidents permits Westerners to avoid confronting issues concerning Islam. If the jihad explanation is vastly more persuasive, it is also far more troubling.</p>
<p>When one notes that Islamist terrorism is <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/03/non-muslims-who-help-islamist-terrorists">almost exclusively</a> the work of Muslims acting out of Islamic convictions, the implication follows that Muslims must be singled out for special scrutiny, perhaps along the lines this author suggested in 2003:</p>
<blockquote><p>Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism, as do Muslim chaplains in prisons and the armed forces. Muslim visitors and immigrants must undergo additional background checks. Mosques require a scrutiny beyond that applied to churches and temples.<a name="_ftnref44" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn44"></a>[44]</p></blockquote>
<p>Implementing such a policy means focusing law enforcement attention on a community that is defined by its religion. This flies in the face of liberal, multicultural, and politically correct values; it also will be portrayed as illegal and perhaps unconstitutional. It means distinguishing on the basis of a person&#8217;s group characteristics. It involves <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/06/bibliography-my-writings-on-profiling-to">profiling</a>. These changes have unsettling implications that will be condemned as &#8220;<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/3144/anti-muslim-racism">racist</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/3075/islamophobia">Islamophobic</a>,&#8221; accusations that can ruin careers in today&#8217;s public environment.</p>
<p>Islam-related explanations may offer a more persuasive accounting than turning perpetrators into victims, but the imperative not to tamper with existing social mores trumps counterterrorism. This accounts for police, prosecutors, politicians, and professors avoiding the actual factors behind Islamist attacks and instead finding miscellaneous mundane motives. Those soothing and inaccurate bromides have the advantage of implying no changes other than vigilance against weapons. Dealing with unpleasant realities can be deferred.</p>
<p>Finally, denial appears to work. Just because law enforcement, the military, and intelligence agencies tiptoe around the twin topics of Islamic motivation and the disproportionate Islamist terrorism when addressing the public does not stop these same institutions in practice from focusing quietly on Islam and Muslims. Indeed, there is plenty of <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1018/mosque-mischief-and-counting-mosques">evidence</a> that they do just this, and it has led to an effective counterterrorism effort since 9/11 with close scrutiny on everything from mosques to <em>hawala</em>s (informal Muslim financial exchanges). As a result, with rare exceptions (such as the Fort Hood shooter), Islamist terrorist networks tend to be stymied and successful assaults tend to come out of nowhere from perpetrators characterized by sudden jihad syndrome.</p>
<h3>Arguing against Denial</h3>
<p>While respecting the urge not to aggravate Muslim sensibilities and acknowledging that the frank discussion of Islam can have major consequences for ordering society, this author insists on the need to mention Islam. First, it is not clear how much harm talking about Islam actually does. Genuine anti-Islamist Muslims insist on Islam being discussed; Islamists posing as moderates tend to be those who feign upset about a &#8220;war on Islam&#8221; and the like.</p>
<p>Second, little evidence points to Muslims being radicalized by mere discussion of Islamism. Quite the contrary, it is usually something specific that turns a Muslim in that direction, from the way <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/terror-mom-son-good-boy-force-good/story?id=11601852">American women dress</a> to <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/8536/faisal-shahzad-jihadi-explains-terrorism">drone attacks</a> in Somalia, Yemen, and Pakistan.</p>
<p>Third, while conceding that discussion of Islam has costs, ignoring it costs more. The need to define the enemy, not just within the counsels of war but for the public, trumps all other considerations. As the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu observed, &#8220;Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles.&#8221; Karl von Clausewitz&#8217;s entire theory of war assumes an accurate assessment of the enemy. Just as a medical doctor must identify and name a disease before treating it, so must politicians and generals identify and name the enemy to defeat it.</p>
<p>To censor oneself limits one&#8217;s ability to wage war. Avoiding mention of the enemy&#8217;s identity sows confusion, harms morale, and squanders strengths. In brief, it offers a recipe for defeat. Indeed, the annals of history record no war won when the enemy&#8217;s very name and identity may not be uttered; this is all the more so in modern times when defining the enemy must precede and undergird military victory. If you cannot name the enemy, you cannot defeat him.</p>
<p>Fourth, even though law enforcement et al. find that saying one thing in public while doing another in private works, this dishonesty comes at the high price of creating a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1018/mosque-mischief-and-counting-mosques">disconnect</a> between the high-flying words of politicians and the sometimes sordid realities of counterterrorism:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Government employees at risk</em>: On the one hand, out of fear of being exposed, public servants must hide or lie about their activities. On the other, to do their work effectively, they must run afoul of studiously impartial government regulations, or even break the law.</li>
<li><em>A confused public</em>: Policy statements piously reject any link between Islam and terrorism even as counterterrorism implicitly makes just such a connection.</li>
<li><em>Advantage Islamists</em>: They (1) point out that government declarations are mere puffery hiding what is really a war against Islam; and (2) win Muslim recruits by asking them whom they believe, straight-talking Islamists or insincere politicians.</li>
<li><em>&#8220;</em><a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/7866/airport-security-theater"><em>Security theater</em></a><em>&#8221; and other pantomimes</em>: To convince observers that Muslims are not specifically targeted, others are hauled in for show purposes, wasting finite time and resources.<a name="_ftnref45" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn45"></a>[45]</li>
<li><em>An increase in resentments and prejudices</em>: People keep their mouths shut but their minds are working. An open public discussion, in which one could condemn Islamists while supporting moderate Muslims, would lead to a better understanding of the problem.</li>
<li><em>Vigilance discouraged</em>: The campaign of &#8220;<a href="http://www.dhs.gov/if-you-see-something-say-something-campaign">If You See Something, Say Something</a>&#8221; is fine but what are the costs of reporting dubious behavior by a neighbor or a passenger who turns out to be innocent? Although <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/11/suspicious-neighbors-prevent-terrorism">vigilant neighbors</a> have been an important source of counterterrorism leads, anyone who reports his worries opens himself up to vilification as a racist or &#8220;Islamophobe,&#8221; <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/2564/zacarias-moussaoui-asked-can-an-airplane-pilot-shut-off">damage to one&#8217;s career</a>, or even <a href="http://www.meforum.org/1809/exposing-the-flying-imams">a law suit</a>.<a name="_ftnref46" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn46"></a>[46]</li>
</ul>
<p>Thus does the unwillingness to acknowledge the Islamist motives behind most terrorism obstruct effective counterterrorism and render further atrocities more likely.</p>
<h3>When Denial Will End</h3>
<p>Denial is likely to continue until the price gets too steep. The 3,000 victims of 9/11, it turns out, did not suffice to shake Western complacency. 30,000 dead, in all likelihood, will also not suffice. Perhaps 300,000 will. For sure, three million will. At that point, worries about Muslim sensibilities and fear of being called an &#8220;Islamophobe&#8221; will fade into irrelevance, replaced by a single-minded determination to protect lives. Should the existing order someday be in evident danger, today&#8217;s relaxed approach will instantly go out the window. The popular support for such measures exists; as early as 2004, a <a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec04/Muslim.Poll.bpf.html">Cornell University poll</a> showed that 44 percent of Americans &#8220;believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans.&#8221;<a name="_ftnref47" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftn47"></a>[47]</p>
<p>Israel offers a control case. Because it faces so many threats, the body politic lacks patience with liberal pieties when it comes to security. While aspiring to treat everyone fairly, the government clearly targets the most violent-prone elements of society. Should other Western countries face a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/4644/american-intifada">comparable danger</a>, circumstances will likely compel them to adopt this same approach.</p>
<p>Conversely, should such mass dangers not arise, this shift will probably never take place. Until and unless disaster on a large scale strikes, denial will continue. Western tactics, in other words, depend entirely on the brutality and competence of the Islamist enemy. Ironically, the West permits terrorists to drive its approach to counterterrorism. No less ironically, it will take a huge terrorist atrocity to enable effective counterterrorism.</p>
<h3>Addressing Denial</h3>
<p>In the meantime, those who wish to strengthen counterterrorism by acknowledging the role of Islam have three tasks.</p>
<p>First, intellectually to prepare themselves and their arguments so when calamity occurs they possess a fully elaborated, careful, and just <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/79/fighting-militant-islam-without-bias">program</a> that focuses on Muslims without doing injustice to them.</p>
<p>Second, continue to convince those averse to mentioning Islam that discussing it is worth the price; this means addressing their concerns, not bludgeoning them with insults. It means accepting the legitimacy of their hesitance, using sweet reason, and letting the barrage of Islamist attacks have their effect.</p>
<p>Third, prove that talking about Islamism does not lead to perdition by establishing the costs of not naming the enemy and of not identifying Islamism as a factor; noting that Muslim governments, including the Saudi one, acknowledge that Islamism leads to terrorism; stressing that moderate Muslims who oppose Islamism want Islamism openly discussed; addressing the fear that frank talk about Islam alienates Muslims and spurs violence; and demonstrating that profiling can be done in a constitutionally approved way.</p>
<p>In brief, even without an expectation of effecting a change in policy, there is much work to be done.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Daniel Pipes</strong> (<a href="http://www.DanielPipes.org">www.DanielPipes.org</a>) is president of the Middle East Forum. He initially delivered this paper at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel.</p></blockquote>
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref1"></a>[1] <a href="http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/DOD-ProtectingTheForce-Web_Security_HR_13jan10.pdf"><em>Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood</em></a>, Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., Jan. 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn2" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref2"></a>[2] <cite>The Australian </cite>(Sydney)<cite>, </cite>Nov. 7, 2009.<br />
<a name="_ftn3" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref3"></a>[3] Associated Press, Nov. 5, 2012.<br />
<a name="_ftn4" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref4"></a>[4] <a href="http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/DOD-ProtectingTheForce-Web_Security_HR_13jan10.pdf"><em>Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood</em></a>, p. 18, fn. 22.<br />
<a name="_ftn5" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref5"></a>[5] &#8220;<a href="http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/TheList.htm">List of Islamic Terror Attacks</a>,&#8221; TheReligionOfPeace.com, accessed Dec. 19, 2012.<br />
<a name="_ftn6" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref6"></a>[6] <em>The New York Times</em>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/09/nyregion/police-say-kahane-suspect-took-anti-depression-drugs.html">Nov. 9. 1990</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn7" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref7"></a>[7] <em>The Independent</em> (London), Sept. 19, 1997.<br />
<a name="_ftn8" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref8"></a>[8] Uriel Heilman, &#8220;<a href="http://www.meforum.org/77/murder-on-the-brooklyn-bridge">Murder on the Brooklyn Bridge</a>,&#8221; <em>Middle East Quarterly</em>, Summer 2001, pp. 29-37.<br />
<a name="_ftn9" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref9"></a>[9] <em>The Houston Chronicle</em>, <a href="http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1997_1397181/skyscraper-gunman-s-letter-shows-he-targeted-enemi.html">Feb. 26, 1997</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn10" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref10"></a>[10] <em>Time Magazine</em>, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001641,00.html">Jan. 21, 2002</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn11" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref11"></a>[11] &#8220;<a href="http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Terror_in_LA$.asp">Terror in LA?</a>&#8221; <em>Honest Reporting</em> (Toronto), July 8, 2002.<br />
<a name="_ftn12" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref12"></a>[12] <em>Los Angeles Times</em>, Oct. 26, 2002.<br />
<a name="_ftn13" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref13"></a>[13] Daniel Pipes, &#8220;<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1042/hasan-akbar-and-murder-in-the-101st-airborne">Murder in the 101<sup>st</sup> Airborne</a>,&#8221; <em>The New York Post</em>, Mar. 25, 2003.<br />
<a name="_ftn14" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref14"></a>[14] Brett Kline, &#8220;<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=166298">Two Sons of France</a>,&#8221; <em>The Jerusalem Post Magazine</em>, Jan. 21, 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn15" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref15"></a>[15] &#8220;<a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2004/03/italy-mcdonalds-jihad-foiled.html">Italy: McDonald&#8217;s Jihad Foiled</a>,&#8221; Jihad Watch, Mar. 30, 2004.<br />
<a name="_ftn16" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref16"></a>[16] <em>The Washington Post</em>, Jan. 11, 2005.<br />
<a name="_ftn17" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref17"></a>[17] <em>Los Angeles Times</em>, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30">July 30, 2006</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn18" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref18"></a>[18] <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em>, Aug. 30, 2006.<br />
<a name="_ftn19" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref19"></a>[19] Phyllis Chesler, &#8220;<a href="http://www.meforum.org/2067/are-honor-killings-simply-domestic-violence">Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence</a>?&#8221; <em>Middle East Quarterly</em>, Spring 2009, pp. 61-9.<br />
<a name="_ftn20" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref20"></a>[20] <em>Dateline</em>, NBC, <a href="http://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2001/4883.htm">Sept. 21, 2001</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn21" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref21"></a>[21] Remarks, The Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., <a href="http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rm/2007/87430.htm">June 27, 2007</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn22" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref22"></a>[22] Remarks, UNITY 2004 Conference, Washington D.C., <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec04/snapshot_8-6.html">Aug. 6, 2004</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn23" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref23"></a>[23] Al-Arabiya News Channel (Dubai), <a href="http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/10/05/39989.html">Oct. 5, 2007</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn24" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref24"></a>[24] <em>Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees</em>, <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/03/acd.01.html">Feb. 3, 2009</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn25" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref25"></a>[25] Testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Washington, D.C., <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOQt_mP6Pgg">May 13, 2010</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn26" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref26"></a>[26] Testimony before the U.S. House Committee for Homeland Security, Washington, D.C., <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU6n1mrpAGY">Dec. 13, 2011.</a><br />
<a name="_ftn27" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref27"></a>[27] Remarks, U.N. General Assembly, New York, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/23/remarks-president-united-nations-general-assembly">Sept. 23, 2010</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn28" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref28"></a>[28] &#8220;<a href="http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/testimony/testimony_1285168556484.shtm">Nine Years after 9/11</a>: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland,&#8221; statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Washington, D.C., Sept. 22, 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn29" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref29"></a>[29] Newt Gingrich, &#8220;America Is at Risk,&#8221; American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., July 29, 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn30" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref30"></a>[30] Ibid.<br />
<a name="_ftn31" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref31"></a>[31] Speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, <a href="http://Aug">Aug</a>. 1, 2006.<br />
<a name="_ftn32" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref32"></a>[32] Speech at the Foreign Policy Centre, London, <a href="http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/560.pdf">Aug. 25, 2005</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn33" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref33"></a>[33] Munich Security Conference, <a href="http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2011/02/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference-60293">Feb. 5, 2011</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn34" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref34"></a>[34] Alexandr Vondra, &#8220;<a href="http://www.meforum.org/1714/alexandr-vondra-radical-islam-poses-a-major">Radical Islam Poses a Major Challenge to Europe</a>,&#8221; <em>Middle East Quarterly</em>, Summer 2007, pp. 66-8.<br />
<a name="_ftn35" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref35"></a>[35] Joseph Lieberman, &#8220;<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300420668558244.html?">Who&#8217;s the Enemy in the War on Terror?</a>&#8221; <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>, June 15, 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn36" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref36"></a>[36] &#8220;<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/218260/great-test-generation/nro-primary-document">The Great Test of This Generation</a>,&#8221; speech to the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., <em>National Review Online</em>, July 20, 2006.<br />
<a name="_ftn37" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref37"></a>[37] <em><a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1195.ZD1.html">Scalia J.</a>, dissenting, Lakhdar Boumediene, et al., Petitioners, Supreme Court of the United States v. George W. Bush, President of the United States, et al.; Khaled A. F. Al Odah, next friend of Fawzikhalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah, et al., Petitioners v. United States, et al.</em>, June 12, 2008.<br />
<a name="_ftn38" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref38"></a>[38] New York: 2007, p. 8.<br />
<a name="_ftn39" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref39"></a>[39] Gingrich, &#8220;America Is at Risk.&#8221;<br />
<a name="_ftn40" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref40"></a>[40] Daniel Benjamin, &#8220;<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575321110472029620.html">Name It and Claim It, or Name It and Inflame It?</a>&#8221; <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>, June 24, 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn41" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref41"></a>[41] Lieberman, &#8220;<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300420668558244.html?">Who&#8217;s the Enemy in the War on Terror?</a>&#8221;<br />
<a name="_ftn42" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref42"></a>[42] <em>Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees</em>, <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0902/03/acd.01.html">Feb. 3, 2009</a>.<br />
<a name="_ftn43" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref43"></a>[43] Benjamin, &#8220;<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895204575321110472029620.html">Name It and Claim It, or Name It and Inflame It?</a>&#8221;<br />
<a name="_ftn44" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref44"></a>[44] Daniel Pipes,<strong> &#8220;</strong><a href="http://www.meforum.org/pipes/1009/the-enemy-within-and-the-need-for-profiling">The Enemy Within and the Need for Profiling</a>,&#8221; <em>The New York Post</em>, Jan. 24, 2003.<br />
<a name="_ftn45" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref45"></a>[45] Daniel Pipes, &#8220;<a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339404286&amp;pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull" target="_blank">Security Theater</a> Now Playing at Your Airport,&#8221; <em>The Jerusalem Post</em>, Jan. 6, 2010.<br />
<a name="_ftn46" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref46"></a>[46] M. Zuhdi Jasser, &#8220;<a href="http://www.meforum.org/1809/exposing-the-flying-imams">Exposing the &#8216;Flying Imams,&#8217;</a>&#8221; <em>Middle East Quarterly</em>, Winter 2008, pp. 3-11.<br />
<a name="_ftn47" href="http://www.meforum.org/3466/islam-terrorism-denial#_ftnref47"></a>[47] &#8220;<a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec04/Muslim.Poll.bpf.html">Fear Factor</a>,&#8221; <em>Cornell News</em> (Ithaca), Dec. 17, 2004.</p>
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		<title>&#8216;A Stew of Anti-Muslim Bile and Conspiracy-Laden Forecasts&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/a-stew-of-anti-muslim-bile-and-conspiracy-laden-forecasts/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-stew-of-anti-muslim-bile-and-conspiracy-laden-forecasts</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:39:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assassination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attempt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Denmark]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lars Hedegaard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Shame on the New York Times for smearing Lars Hedegaard after his narrow escape from an Islamic assassin. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/a-stew-of-anti-muslim-bile-and-conspiracy-laden-forecasts/picture-10-11/" rel="attachment wp-att-180200"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-180200" title="Picture 10" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Picture-10-450x295.png" alt="" width="216" height="142" /></a>At 11:20 a.m. on Feb. 5, Lars Hedegaard answered his door bell to an apparent mailman. Instead of receiving a package, however, the 70-year-old Danish historian and journalist found himself face to face with a would-be assassin about one third his age. The assailant shot him once, narrowly missing his head. The gun locked, Hedegaard wrestled with him, and the young man fled.</p>
<p>Given Hedegaard’s criticism of Islam and his even being taken to court on criminal charges of “hate speech,” the attack reverberated in <a href="http://cphpost.dk/news/national/islam-critic-survives-assassination-attempt">Denmark</a> and beyond. The <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/06/the-bullet-flew-past-my-right-ear-danish-islam-critic-narrowly-escapes-assassination-attempt/">Associated Press</a> reported this incident, which was featured prominently in the British press, including the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/danish-critic-islam-attacked-gunman"><em>Guardian</em></a>, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2273988/The-bullet-flew-past-ear-Danish-anti-Islam-writer-narrowly-survives-doorstep-assassination-attempt.html"><em>Daily Mail,</em></a> and the <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8842941/i-may-be-killed-if-i-write-this/"><em>Spectator</em></a>, as well as in Canada’s <a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/02/27/george-jonas-making-excuses-for-an-aggrieved-gunman/"><em>National Post</em></a>. The <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424127887323495104578314751130285998.html?KEYWORDS=Lars+Hedegaard+"><em>Wall Street Journal</em></a> published an article by him about his experience.</p>
<p>When the <em>New York Times</em> belatedly bestirred itself on Feb. 28 to inform its readership about the assassination attempt, it did not so much report the event itself but an alleged Muslim support for Hedegaard to express himself. As implied by the title of Andrew Higgins’ article, “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/lars-hedegaard-anti-islamic-provocateur-receives-support-from-danish-muslims.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">Danish Opponent of Islam Is Attacked, and Muslims Defend His Right to Speak</a>,” he mainly celebrates Danish Islam: “Muslim groups in the country, which were often criticized during the cartoon furor for not speaking out against violence and even deliberately fanning the flames, raised their voices to condemn the attack on Mr. Hedegaard and support his right to express his views, <em>no matter how odious</em> [emphasis added].” This theme pervades the piece; for example, Karen Haekkerup, the minister of social affairs and integration, is quoted pleased that “the Muslim community is now active in the debate.”</p>
<p>(For a close dissection of this agitprop, see <a href="http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2430/The-NYT-on-the-Would-Be-Might-Have-Been-Assassination-of-Lars-Hedegaard.aspx">Diana West</a>’s evisceration; and see <a href="http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2013/02/28/times-demonizes-hedegaard-lionizes-danish-muslim-instigator-of-murderous-cartoon-riots/">Andrew Bostom</a>’s analysis for a comparison of Higgins to Walter Duranty, the <em>NYT</em> reporter who whitewashed Stalin’s crimes.)</p>
<p>Secondarily Higgins delegitimizes Hedegaard, my topic here. In addition to the snarky “no matter how odious” reference, Higgins dismisses Hedegaard’s “opinions” as “a stew of anti-Muslim bile and conspiracy-laden forecasts of a coming civil war” and claims the Dane has “fanned wild conspiracy theories and sometimes veered into calumny.”</p>
<p>These characterizations of Hedegaard’s work are a vicious travesty. A few specifics:</p>
<p>1. What Higgins airily dismisses as Hedegaard’s “opinions” is in fact a substantial oeuvre in several academic books and articles laden with facts and references dealing with Islamic ideology, Muslim history, and Muslim immigration to Denmark. Those books include:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>I krigens hus: Islams kolonisering af Vesten </em>[In the House of War: Islam’s colonization of the West] (with Helle Merete Brix and Torben Hansen). Aarhus, Hovedland, 2003</p>
<p><em>1400 års krigen: Islams strategi, EU og frihedens endeligt </em>[The 1400 Year War: Islam’s strategy, the EU and the demise of freedom]<em> </em>(with Mogens Camre). Odense, Trykkefrihedsselskabets Bibliotek, 2009</p>
<p><em>Muhammeds piger: Vold, mord og voldtægter i Islams Hus. </em>[Muhammad’s girls: Violence, murder and rape in the House of Islam] Odense, Trykkefrihedsselskabets Bibliotek, 2011</p></blockquote>
<p>Hedegaard’s major articles include:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Den 11. september som historie” [September 11 as history] in Helle Merete Brix and Torben Hansen (eds.), <em>Islam i Vesten: På Koranens vej?</em> Copenhagen, Tiderne Skifter, 2002.</p>
<p>“The Growth of Islam in Denmark and the Future of Secularism” in Kurt Almqvist (ed.), <em>The Secular State and Islam in Europe. </em>Stockholm, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, 2007</p>
<p>“Free Speech: Its Benefits and Limitations” in Süheyla Kirca and LuEtt Hanson (eds.), <em>Freedom and Prejudice: Approaches to Media and Culture.</em> Istanbul, Bahcesehir University Press, 2008</p>
<p>“De cartoon-jihad en de opkomst van parallelle samenlevingen” [The cartoon jihad and the emergence of parallel societies] in Hans Jansen and Bert Snel (eds.), <em>Eindstrijd: De finale clash tussen het liberale Westen en een traditionele islam.</em> Amsterdam, Uitgiverij Van Praag, 2009</p></blockquote>
<p>To the best of my knowledge, no one has claimed these writings contain sloppy scholarship or wrong references. As Hedegaard puts it, “I am a university-trained historian and take my craft seriously.” The real criticism of Hedegaard is not about his scholarship – but that he raises difficult and even unpleasant questions.</p>
<p>And, as someone who has written <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/books/hidden.php">two</a> <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/books/conspiracy.php">books</a> on conspiracy theories, I judge Hedegaard’s writings innocent of that intellectual sin.</p>
<p>2. Higgins ascribes to him “forecasts of a coming war”; but these are not his forecasts, only his reporting what Islamist texts and spokesmen themselves predict and advocate.</p>
<p>3. Higgins writes that Hedegaard “for several years edited a mainstream Danish daily, <a href="http://www.information.dk/"><em>Information</em></a>, is a major figure in what a study last year by a British group, Hope Not Hate, identified as a global movement of ‘Islamophobic’ writers, bloggers and activists whose ‘anti-Muslim rhetoric poisons the political discourse, sometimes with deadly effect’.”</p>
<p>“Islamophobia” is a silly neologism intended to vilify anyone who criticizes Islam or even Islamism.</p>
<p>As for “sometimes with deadly effect”: that is applied to the whole group of 100 organizations and individuals in the Hate not Hope listing, not to Hedegaard individually. Higgins nastily insinuates that Hedegaard is responsible for deadly attacks on Muslims when, in fact, he was the victim not the perpetrator of an attack. (Hope not Hate, by the way, lists both the Middle East Forum and me in its <em>Counter-Jihad Report</em>; it <a href="http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/counter-jihad/country/USA">flatters me</a> as the “Powerhouse behind the international counter-jihadist movement.”)</p>
<p>In conclusion, it’s not “a stew of anti-Muslim bile and conspiracy-laden forecasts” but “a cocktail of sensible critiques and unsettling analyses.” Higgins has written a stew of shoddy aspersions of a brave, distinguished, and accomplished writer with whom I co-authored an article “<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/450/something-rotten-in-denmark">Something Rotten in Denmark?</a>” in 2002 and who is currently a colleague at the Middle East Forum.</p>
<p>Shame on Higgins for this article and shame on the <em>New York Times</em> for publishing him.</p>
<p><strong>Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org) is president of the Middle East Forum. <em>© 2013 All rights reserved by Daniel Pipes.</em></strong></p>
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		<title>Philadelphia&#8217;s Burqa Crisis</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/philadelphias-burqa-crisis/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=philadelphias-burqa-crisis</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/philadelphias-burqa-crisis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:31:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[burqa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[niqab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philadelphia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178613</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The more full-body coverings around, the more likely they will facilitate criminal activity.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/daniel-pipes/philadelphias-burqa-crisis/black-burqa/" rel="attachment wp-att-178689"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-178689" title="black-burqa" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/black-burqa-441x350.jpg" alt="" width="170" height="134" /></a>Reprinted from <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/12553/philadelphia-burqa">DanielPipes.org</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Philadelphia, the city where I live, has quietly and unassumedly become the capital of the Western world as regards female Islamic garb as an accessory to crime.</p>
<p>First, a tutorial on Islamic coverings, all of which tend to be called <em>veils</em> in English but fall into three main categories. Some (the <em>abaya</em>, <em>hijab</em>, <em>chador</em>, <em>jilbab</em>, or <em>khimar</em>) cover parts of the body, especially the hair, neck, and shoulders, but reveal the face and identity of the woman; some cover the face (the <em>yashmak</em>) but show the body shape; and some hide the whole body, including the identity and gender of the wearer. The latter – our topic here – is better described as a full-body cover than a veil: it in turn has two types, those that cover the person entirely (the <em>chadari</em> or <em>burqa</em>) or those with a slit for the eyes (the <em>haik</em> or <em>niqab</em>).</p>
<p>By <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/11/niqabs-and-burqas-as-security-threats">my count</a>, the Philadelphia region has witnessed 14 robberies (or attempted robberies) of financial institutions in the past six years in which the thieves relied on an Islamic full-body cover. They took place in January 2007, June 2007, May 2008, November 2009, October 2010 (two), February 2011, June 2011, December 2011, January 2012, March 2012 (two), and April 2012 (two). The most violent attack took place on May 3, 2008, when Police Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski was killed with an AK-47 in a shoot-out following a successful robbery using burqas; the police then killed one of the criminals.</p>
<p>As the Middle East Forum&#8217;s <a href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/10420/philadelphia-and-the-burqa-bandits">David J. Rusin</a> points out in his detailed <a id="_GPLITA_0" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.danielpipes.org/12553/philadelphia-burqa#">survey</a> of Philadelphia burqa crimes, Muslim garb holds two great advantages over other forms of disguise: First, many full-body covered women walk the streets without criminal intent, thereby inadvertently providing cover for thieves; the more full-body coverings around, the more likely that these will facilitate criminal activity. Second, the very strangeness and aloofness of these garments affords their wearers, including criminals, an extraordinary degree of protection. As in other cases (three purchases of alcohol in <a href="http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/featured/news/868018287001/how-to-buy-alcohol-when-underage-wear-a-burka/1750786164001">Toronto state liquor stores</a> by a 14-year-old boy in a burqa; Muslim women not checked at <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/08/niqab-security-outrages-at-canadian-airports">Canadian airports</a>), clerks so fear being accused of racism or &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; that they <a id="_GPLITA_2" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.danielpipes.org/12553/philadelphia-burqa#">skip</a> state-mandated procedures, such as requiring niqabis to show their faces and establish their identities.</p>
<p>To <a id="_GPLITA_3" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.danielpipes.org/12553/philadelphia-burqa#">their credit</a>, some banks no longer allow head coverings. For example, a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/01/banks-and-stores-push-back-against-head-coverings#PNC">PNC Bank</a>office in Philadelphia boasts a front-door sign stating: &#8220;The safety of our employees and customers is our foremost concern. We request that you remove any hats, caps, sunglasses or hoods while inside this financial institution.&#8221; Such policies should reduce burqa bank robberies.</p>
<p>But as <a id="_GPLITA_4" title="Click to Continue &gt; by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.danielpipes.org/12553/philadelphia-burqa#">banks</a> become harder targets, Islamic garb presents a more general danger to soft targets. For example, in the Philadelphia area, assailants donned Islamic garb to rob a <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2008-05-02/news/25261086_1_police-officer-silver-handgun-carjacked">real estate office</a> in 2008 and commit murder at a <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/05/15/news/doc4fb1d0e86dbbf515204165.txt">barber shop</a> in 2012.</p>
<p>Not fatal but equally horrific, was the Jan. 14-15 abduction and rape of a 5-year-old child in Philadelphia. A niqabi signed <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-pa-girl-abducted-school-found/story?id=18217095">Nailla Robinson</a> out from the Bryant Elementary School pretending to be her mother taking her to breakfast. Investigators believe the two walked a few blocks to where a man awaited them. Nailla then disappeared for nearly a day and was only found the next morning shivering half-naked in a park by a passerby. Last week, the police arrested <a href="http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/abduction-girl-philadelphia-191243971.html%27">Christina Regusters</a>, 19, an daycare center employee with prior contact with Nailla. The fourteen charges against her include kidnapping, rape, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, and criminal conspiracy.</p>
<p>The usual two factors noted above were critical to this crime&#8217;s commission: the spread of full-body gear (Nailla&#8217;s mother, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/missing-philly-girl-found-article-1.1240265">Latifah Rashid</a>, wears Islamic garb, meaning the abductor could plausibly pretend to be her) and the Bryant school staff deferring to a niqabi (completely <a href="http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/20596507/kidnapping-at-school-what-went-wrong">ignoring the many rules</a>pertaining to the escorting of a child from school).</p>
<p>This survey of Philadelphia&#8217;s crisis prompts several reflections: First, almost any Western city at any time could have Philadelphia&#8217;s problems. Second, this is deadly serious issue, involving violent robberies, rapes, and murders. Third, as full-body Islamic covers spread, criminals increasingly depend on them. Fourth, government workers need to surmount their timidity and apply normal procedures even to those wearing full-body covers, even in liquor shops, airports, and elementary schools. Finally, this problem has an obvious solution: <a href="http://www.meforum.org/2777/ban-the-burqa">ban the niqab and burqa</a> in public places, as the national governments in <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/08/europes-burqa-wars">France and Belgium</a> have recently done.</p>
<p>Mr. Pipes (<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/">DanielPipes.org</a>) is president of the Middle East Forum. <em>© 2013 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.</em></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>A Palestinian in Texas</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-pipes/a-palestinian-in-texas/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-palestinian-in-texas</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:47:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[child]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lawsuit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palestinian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Riad Elsolh Hamad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suicide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[welfare]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=163658</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The lurid tale of Riad Elsolh Hamad.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-pipes/a-palestinian-in-texas/pols_feature18/" rel="attachment wp-att-163664"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-163664" title="pols_feature18" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/pols_feature18-410x350.gif" alt="" width="287" height="245" /></a>Originally published by <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/12062/riad-elsolh-hamad">The American Spectator</a>.</em></p>
<p>On April 14, 2008, Riad Elsolh Hamad, 55, left his family&#8217;s apartment in Austin, Texas, to get some prescription drugs. The immigrant from Lebanon and middle school computer teacher never returned home. Three days later, the <a href="http://home.kxan.com/news_PDFs/4.17.08APD-hammad.pdf">police</a> found his body, bound with tape, floating in nearby Lady Bird Lake, and concluded that &#8220;all signs indicate this may have been a suicide.&#8221;</p>
<p>His family indicated that he had been under stress lately and even <a href="http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2008/04/17/authorities_identify_man_found.html">suicidal</a>. And with good reason: the <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/18/0418body.html">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> along with the Internal Revenue Service had searched his house on February 27, 2008, when the FBI declared him a &#8220;person of interest&#8221; in a criminal investigation.</p>
<p>Despite this cloud around the dead man, local news outlets reported nothing but kind words and high praise for him. After Hamad&#8217;s <a href="http://www.kvue.com/news/mmcguire/stories/041708kvueAISDteacher-cb.7215ba7a.html">family</a> issued a statement describing Riad as a &#8220;peace activist who worked tirelessly on behalf of those less fortunate than him and was loved and admired by many members of the local, as well as international community,&#8221; the press duly picked up on this moniker and regularly called him a &#8220;<a href="http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2008/04/17/authorities_identify_man_found.html">peace</a> <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2008-05-09/621848/">activist</a>&#8221;</p>
<p>Television station KVUE quoted <a href="http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/041708kvuebody2-bkm.745e13f5.html">Joshua Howell</a>, assistant manager at the office where Hamad had a postal box, recalling him as &#8220;always in a good mood. Never upset. Never even heard him say a harsh word about anybody.&#8221; The principal at the school where he taught sent a letter to students&#8217; parents calling Hamad &#8220;a longtime and valued&#8221; member of the faculty whose &#8220;love and passion for education touched us all.&#8221; At Hamad&#8217;s memorial service, retired Episcopal Priest <a href="http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&amp;file=article&amp;sid=1238">Edward M Hartwell</a> praised &#8220;his humanitarian work to help the children of Palestine [as] some of the most creative and effective work that I know of.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hamad himself boasted of his <a href="http://www.newsradioklbj.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=89252">peaceable approach to politics</a>: &#8220;All of our work is very transparent. We don&#8217;t work with any militant group or violent group, or anybody with a militant affiliation.&#8221;</p>
<p>That was the Riad Hamad praised by family, friends, admirers, and even himself. But Hamad had another side, the one that brought the FBI to search his house, that got him fired from <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=17684">Austin Community College</a> for &#8220;making racist slurs and sexist jokes in the classroom,&#8221; and that made him a foul and unwelcome presence in my life. Thanks to the recent testimony by a former ally of Hamad who has turned against him, several years later, we now know something approaching his full story.</p>
<p><strong>The Summons</strong></p>
<p>Hamad brought himself to my attention in early June 2006 by sending me, via certified mail, a<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/rr/hamad-summons.pdf"> summons</a> to appear in court in Austin. The document bore a scrawled, unkempt handwriting on a form issued by the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, informing me that Hamad was suing me and Campus Watch for libel. (Campus Watch being a project of the Middle East Forum, he was effectively suing the Forum.)</p>
<p>This turned out to be the second amended complaint; I found myself in good company, as the summons also listed the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (now known as the David Horowitz Freedom Center), David Horowitz personally, the Center for Jewish Community Studies, the State of Texas, Joe Kaufman, Americans Against Hate, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, and an internet provider called CB Accounts. Hamad proceeded to file another three amended complaints and in them he tacked on yet more defendants (Freerepublic LLC, Jim Robinson, Laurence Simon, and Dotster Inc.)</p>
<p>His was a <em>pro se</em> summons, meaning that Hamad, a non-lawyer, had filled it out by himself and was representing himself – i.e., it cost him next to nothing to sue one and all.</p>
<p>Hamad charged each of us with 21 offences: libel and slander, malicious libel, malicious slander, defamation of character, defamation of character with intent to cause mental anguish, libeling and slandering a business name, defamation through fraud of a business name, interference with a business contract, tortious interference with a business contract, conspiracy to interfere with a business contract, interference with interstate commerce, interference with Internet commerce, conspiracy to interfere with Internet commerce, intentional infliction of mental anguish with the intent to injure, invasion of privacy, fraud, negligence, gross negligence, disparagement of a business name, disparagement of business products, and dilution of a business name.</p>
<p>In compensation for this long list of alleged abuses, Hamad demanded from his many defendants US$5 million in compensatory damages, $10 million for his loss of income, and $50 million in exemplary and punitive damages. Nor was that all: he sought a permanent injunction against our calling his business an &#8220;Islamic charity&#8221; or he personally a &#8220;Muslim fundamentalist.&#8221; He wanted a Department of Justice investigation into us for &#8220;criminal and racketeering work as lobbyists for a foreign country [i.e., Israel] without the proper permits and licenses.&#8221; He also insisted on public apologies by us in ten media outlets chosen by him, as well as payment for his court costs and &#8220;any and all other relief that Plaintiff might show that he is entitled to in a jury trial.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hamad gave insight into his mentality and his motives in the course of his lawsuit. His <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/rr/hamad-horowitz.pdf">discovery requests of David Horowitz</a> are particularly colorful, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Document the &#8220;Religious affiliation of members of the board of CSPC, its affiliates and editors of Frontpagemag.org.&#8221;</li>
<li>Provide a &#8220;Blood and urine sample of David Horowitz &#8230; to identify his ethnicity and religious affiliations.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Identify any and all staff of the Israeli embassy that David Horowitz and CSPC are associated with, amounts of money paid for their services by the Israeli embassy.&#8221;</li>
<li>Answer whether &#8220;David Horowitz is a devout Jews [sic] and observes the Sabbath.&#8221;</li>
<li>Answer whether &#8220;David Horowitz eats pork and violates Jewish traditions.&#8221;</li>
<li>Answer whether &#8220;David Horowitz is not a Semite and pretends to be Jewish to gain sympathy for his views and make money.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p>This summons came as a total surprise, as a I had previously never heard of or mentioned Riad Hamad. Sleuthing revealed only the slightest and most indirect connection between us: Hamad had created and headed an organization called the Palestine Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund (PCWF) and in a January 18, 2004, weblog entry, &#8220;<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/187">Lamyaa Hashim, Supporting Burqas and Suicide Bombers</a>,&#8221; I had quoted Joe Kaufman who alluded to PCWF as follows:</p>
<blockquote><p>The site belongs to the medical director for the Palestine Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund, Rosemary Davis</p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s it. I quoted 15 words from someone who mentioned someone who worked for Hamad&#8217;s organization. For this glancing reference, my pro-rated share of payments to Hamad would come to my share of at least $65 million, or about a million dollars per word.</p>
<p>What is the PCWF? NGO Monitor <a href="http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/palestine_children_s_welfare_fund_pcwf_0">analyzed the organization in 2003</a> and found its primary mission to be &#8220;propagating the delegitimization of Israel.&#8221; As a <a href="http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/_court_dismisses_frivolous_case_against_ngo_monitor_">2007 summary</a> by NGO Monitor put it, &#8220;Gaza-based PCWF openly exploits children&#8217;s issues for radical politicized agendas that promote the conflict. These activities are entirely inconsistent with its claims to be a humanitarian organization.&#8221; By way of example, NGO Monitor tells about PCWF&#8217;s children&#8217;s drawing contest in which</p>
<blockquote><p>The judges rewarded, almost without exception, entries that featured fierce and violent hatred of Israel. The winning picture features a fire, in the shape of a map of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, consuming the Star of David with the word &#8220;Israel&#8221; written inside the flag. Another entry depicted a Palestinian flag dropping flames on an Israeli flag and burning Israelis standing next to it. Such activities serve only to advance a culture of violence and hatred.</p></blockquote>
<p>In brief, PCWF is as crude and hate-mongering as its leader.</p>
<p><strong>The Lawsuit</strong></p>
<p>Hamad might have been a <em>pro se</em> plaintiff but I could not take the chance of being a <em>pro se</em> defendant and so turned for representation to the law office of Levine Sullivan Koch &amp; Schulz, L.L.P., which specializes in defamation issues. We responded to Hamad with a motion to dismiss on June 29, 2006, citing three grounds:</p>
<blockquote><p>First, this Court lacks personal jurisdiction over Pipes and MEF. Neither Pennsylvania defendant has had any contact with Texas that would establish either general or specific jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Second, even if the Court had jurisdiction, plaintiff himself admits that his defamation claim is barred by the one-year statute of limitations because any alleged publication occurred &#8220;as late as July 2004.&#8221;</p>
<p>Third, plaintiff has not pled facts sufficient to allege that Pipes and MEF published any defamatory statements about him. Indeed, he cannot do so: Neither defendant has ever written a word about him or engaged in any action that would justify plaintiff&#8217;s hauling them into a Texas court.</p></blockquote>
<p>My motion also noted that Hamad is a <em>pro se</em> plaintiff with a history of filing what one judgment against him (<em>Hamad v. Austin Community College</em>) called &#8220;patently frivolous&#8221; litigation efforts that &#8220;repeatedly abuse the legal system.&#8221;</p>
<p>Three days before this motion to dismiss, Judge Sam Sparks of the Western District of Texas had already dismissed with prejudice Hamad&#8217;s case against David Horowitz. On July 25, he dismissed the case against me and later awarded me court costs. For good measure, Sparks called Hamad a litigant with &#8220;a history in this Court of filing lawsuits without merit for the purpose of harassment and making outrageous allegations.&#8221;</p>
<p>Undaunted by his failure to gain any legal traction, Hamad appealed. This prompted Judge Sparks to issue an even more vehement order on September 6 in which he characterized Hamad&#8217;s complaints as espousing &#8220;no legal theory for which recovery can be made against any of the multitude of defendants sued in this case&#8221; and dismissed his pleadings on the grounds that they were &#8220;not filed for any purpose and simply harass and cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation.&#8221; Sparks again granted my motion to dismiss, agreeing with all three of my claims, ruling that the court cannot exercise jurisdiction over the Middle East Forum or myself (because of our lack of connections to Texas); that Hamad filed after the statute of limitations had expired; and that I never made defamatory statements concerning Riad Hamad. He also ordered Hamad to pay me a $1,000 penalty.</p>
<p>For a second time, Hamad responded belligerently, this time going public with his claims against us defendants. Talk about libel! He announced to the world on Sept. 14 (including a comment sent to the Campus Watch website) that we</p>
<blockquote><p>are engaged in criminal activities and fraud upon the public by collecting donations amounting to tens of millions of dollars. The donations are being used to fund illegal activities in the United States and Israel and with the knowledge of the government of the United States and the judicial branch.</p></blockquote>
<p>Four days later, Hamad sent out an appeal to his mailing list, stating that &#8220;closely linked&#8221; websites &#8220;are using false information and collection donations … to attack and discredit Arabs, Muslims&#8221; and asking for at least one thousand people to call the office for internet crimes belonging to the attorney general of Illinois.</p>
<p>Encouraged by the court&#8217;s attitude toward Hamad, I requested on Oct. 6 that he be compelled to pay my court costs. On January 17, 2007, Judge Sparks delivered his final judgment and granted my request for fees totaling $12,915. Sparks made clear his intense irritation with Hamad:</p>
<blockquote><p>Plaintiff Riad Elsolh Hamad first filed this wholly frivolous claim on April 13, 2006. Since that time, his &#8220;Petition&#8221; has gone through five revisions. None of the five Amended Petitions was authorized by the Federal Rules or leave of this Court, and not one version of Hamad&#8217;s complaint states any claim for which relief can be granted under any law of the United States or the State of Texas against any defendant. The Court dismissed Hamad&#8217;s complaint with prejudice in its second incarnation in an Order dated June 26, 2006. Nevertheless, Hamad has continued to file Amended Petitions presenting claims for relief identical to the ones dismissed in the Second Amended Petition. Each Amended Petition merely drags yet another group of defendants into the same unintelligible morass of vitriolic accusations for which no basis in law has ever been established. Moreover, Hamad continues to name dismissed parties as defendants in his repetitive pleadings.</p></blockquote>
<p>The next fourteen months saw several more rounds of the same: Hamad appealing and all the judges turning down every aspect of every effort of his, culminating with a March 12, 2008, judgment by the 5<sup>th</sup> Circuit Court of Appeals slamming Hamad for his &#8220;ten year history of filing frivolous suits in this court.&#8221; The appeals court upped the award to me to $32,944.50 in attorney&#8217;s fees.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/_court_dismisses_frivolous_case_against_ngo_monitor_">Gerald Steinberg</a> of NGO Monitor noted, Hamad&#8217;s lawsuit &#8220;was a clear attempt to use the courts and intimidation to prevent independent analysis and exposure of the incitement by anti-Israel NGOs.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>The Search</strong></p>
<p>By early 2008, however, Hamad had other and larger concerns on his mind. Two weeks before, on February 27, 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service had jointly raided his house. <a href="http://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2010/04/13/exclusive-radical-awakening-from-america-hater-to-hero/">Brandon Darby</a>, a former leftist, anti-Zionist, and longtime friend of Hamad who now works for <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/05/29/brandon-darby-moves-from-radical-leftist-to-conservative-activist/">conservative causes</a> and on behalf of Israel, has <a href="http://biggovernment.com/bdarby/2012/01/12/thoughts-from-a-former-leftist-revolutionary-a-day-at-the-national-holocaust-museum-and-memorial/">explained</a> how this raid came to pass:</p>
<p>Darby, who had helped Hamad raise money and recruit &#8220;human shields&#8221; against the Israel Defense Forces and himself almost went to the Palestinian territories for that purpose, wanted to create a group, to be called Critical Response, to send medics into war zones such as Lebanon and Darfur to help civilians. Hamad liked this idea, regaling Darby with plans to use the cover of medics to place explosives on motorcycles and booby-trap ambulances in Israel to kill Jews. Hamad also devised a plan using the PCWF to send money to Hamas and Hezbollah. Darby recounted at Breitbart.com:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hamad had approached me and shared that he had been able to skim off money [from PCWF] that he intended sneak to Palestinian comrades in Israel. I asked him why he needed to sneak anything when he was able to send funds legally. He responded with a detailed analysis of all the ways suicide bombers could get through checkpoints and achieve their goals. I declined and he told me that I had fallen back into my white privilege, but would come back to the revolution soon.</p></blockquote>
<p>This talk of violence, Darby reports, caused him to rethink his relationship with Hamad. &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t sleep and I debated within myself if I should go to the FBI.&#8221; Learning from another left-wing activist about Hamad&#8217;s plans to set up &#8220;a fake business to help Hamad funnel money for Palestinians&#8221; then nudged Darby to confront Hamad. The two met for coffee. On hearing of Darby&#8217;s disapproval, &#8220;Hamad responded by saying it would be good for white people to get caught in the war on terror and that people would limit what the government could do if the war on terror had whites in Guantanamo instead of just Arabs.&#8221;</p>
<p>This settled matters. Darby agonizing over his past actions – &#8220;wondering if my previous support and efforts for the Palestinian Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund meant I had blood on my hands&#8221; – and resolved to stop Hamad. &#8220;I ended up meeting with the FBI. They were kind and gracious. Hamad and the Palestinian Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund were raided.&#8221;</p>
<p>The search warrant focused on fraud, not terrorism, as indicated by the supporting financial affidavit:</p>
<blockquote><p>RIAD ELSOLH HAMAD failed to file his federal income tax returns for the years 1999 through 2003 and 2005, evaded payment of his federal income taxes for the years 1999 through 2006, and is engaged in preparing false documents used to obtain federally subsidized loan from various University of Texas campuses. The affidavit will show that HAMAD earned taxable income from the Austin Independent School District (AISD). HAMAD also runs/operates the Palestinian Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund (PCWF) which he claims raises money for the children of Palestine. HAMAD sends large amounts of money to the Middle East and/or to charities that forward the funds to the Middle East. The disposition of these funds is unknown at this time, A large amount of these &#8220;donated&#8221; funds have also been traced into various stock accounts controlled by Riad Hamad and/or his son Abdullah Hamad.</p></blockquote>
<p>An investigator with the <a href="http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&amp;file=print&amp;sid=1222">Internal Revenue Service</a> put the last part more bluntly: &#8220;Riad Hamad, with the assistance of his son, Abdullah Hamad, his ex-wife, Diana Hamad, and his daughter, Rita Hamad, are using the &#8216;donated funds&#8217; for personal use and not paying federal income taxes on these funds.&#8221;</p>
<p>Lacking a news account, here is <a href="http://progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&amp;forum=222&amp;topic_id=1438">how Hamad himself reported</a> the raid on his house: a dozen federal agents, armed with a search warrant based on probable cause to investigate wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, &#8220;searched every nook and cranny&#8221; of his apartment and took away &#8220;more than forty boxes of papers, files, computers and CDs.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>The Suicide</strong></p>
<p>After the raid, Darby recounts,</p>
<blockquote><p>I heard from Hamad one last time. He called me and said it was &#8220;just a matter of time.&#8221; I asked what he meant. He told me of the raids and said they had taken all of his documents, and that I would know soon. He said he had to go and he did. His body was found in Austin, TX in Lady Bird Lake a few days later. He apparently chose not to face the consequences of his actions.</p></blockquote>
<p>Even in death, Hamad perpetuated a fraud. First, he <a href="http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/04/18/a_friend_brother_comrade_has_either_comm">wrote a letter</a> to his circle, creating the premise for violence against him (all spellings and ellipses exactly as in the original):</p>
<blockquote><p>besides the government harassment, the hateful environment from some students at school because I am an Arab and a Muslim&#8230;and their racist comments, I have been getting phone calls around midnight by some one saying &#8220;where is your camel..&#8221; and last&#8230;a car was vandalized about two years ago&#8230;.last night around 1 30 in the morning..someone rang the bell and ran away&#8230;.and you could hear all the dogs in the neighborhood barking when the person who rang the bell ran away&#8230;A real loving environment towards Arabs and Muslims&#8230;.</p></blockquote>
<p>(Reflecting back on his lawsuit, one sees the source of his fantasies about harassment, hateful environment, and racism.)</p>
<p>Second, evidence suggests that Hamad staged his death to make it appear that he wanted the honor of being murdered when in fact he checked out on his own. Based in part on the <a>autopsy</a>, a <a href="http://home.kxan.com/news_PDFs/4.17.08APD-hammad.pdf">police statement</a> asserted:</p>
<blockquote><p>When the body was removed from the lake, tape was found around the eyes, and the hands and legs were loosely bound. The bindings of his hands and legs and placement of the tape were consistent with Hamad having done this to himself. Detectives know that Hamad walked from his vehicle to the water on his own based on evidence retrieved from the scene.</p>
<p>At this time, the Austin Police Department does not suspect foul play was involved. Witnesses and family members have confirmed with police that Hamad had extreme stressors in his life. This incident is still an ongoing investigation, but all signs indicate this may have been a suicide. According to the preliminary results from the Medical Examiner&#8217;s Office there were no signs of trauma to the body or signs of a struggle.</p></blockquote>
<p>Even <a>Paul Larudee</a>, Hamad&#8217;s colleague and the last known person to speak to Hamad before his death, says that Hamad &#8220;did take his own life but he took it with a view of fueling the speculation that has in fact accompanied his death.&#8221; Translation: He wanted it to appear like a hit job. Despite his skepticism about Hamad&#8217;s demise, <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2008-05-09/621848/">Larudee insists</a> &#8220;I still think he was a hero.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>The Conspiracy Theory</strong></p>
<p>Palestinian extremists, Islamists, leftists, and assorted conspiracy theorists accepted Hamad&#8217;s fakery. According to <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7989635686215905989">Ibrahim Dremali</a> of the Islamic Center of Greater Austin, who says after an autopsy he washed Hamad&#8217;s body, which was &#8220;cut all from the right shoulder all the way to the stomach, and from the left shoulder all the way to the stomach again, and from the stomach all the way to the bladder, … from all the back of his skull is completely cut, is empty completely, empty. … His wrists were all slit open and cut. … His eyes actually dropped all the way down. … It is a barbaric act. … Like somebody is eating the body. … This is a message for all Muslims.&#8221; Dremali said it appeared as &#8220;something in the jungle, an animal attacking another animal.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.infowars.com/?p=1582&amp;cp=2">Kurt Nimmo</a>, a prominent conspiracy theorist, asked &#8220;Is it possible a neocon hit team or as likely a Mossad &#8216;bayonet&#8217; team took out the school teacher Riad Hamad?&#8221; Radio host Alex Jones and others spoke ominously of Israeli hit teams surveilling Hamad&#8217;s house. <a href="http://pastebin.com/EF4UFMMh">Some</a> even accused &#8220;sociopathic FBI informant Brandon Darby&#8221; of killing Hamad. A Twitter site (riad_hamad) keeps these theories alive almost five years later.</p>
<p>In contrast to these lurid accounts, the Travis Country medical examiner, David Dolinak, who inspected Hamad&#8217;s body on the morning of April 17, found nothing alarming. Quite contrary to Dremali&#8217;s description of the body being variously cut up, the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/rr/hamad-autopsy.pdf">medical examiner</a> reporter found little to report:</p>
<blockquote><p>IDENTIFYING MARKS AND SCARS:</p>
<p>A 10 inch vertical scar is in the lateral aspect of the right thigh. There are no tattoos.</p>
<p>EVIDENCE OF THERAPY [meaning needle puncture marks, surgical stitches, etc.]</p>
<p>None.</p>
<p>EVIDENCE OF INJURY:</p>
<p>None. …</p>
<p>BODY CAVITIES:</p>
<p>The organs are normally developed and are in their normal locations. The diaphragms are intact. There is no fluid accumulation in the pleural cavities or the pericardial sac. There is no fluid accumulation in the peritoneal cavity. There are no pleural adhesions or abdominal adhesions.</p>
<p>HEAD:</p>
<p>There is no subscalp blood extravasation. The calvarium is intact. The dura is intact. There is no epidural or subdural blood. …</p>
<p>MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM:</p>
<p>No fractures of the clavicles, sternum, ribs, vertebrae, pelvis or extremities are detected.</p></blockquote>
<p>Dolinak concluded that he saw &#8220;No evidence of traumatic injury,&#8221; that Hamad &#8220;died as the result of drowning.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>Hamad died as he lived, in a miasma of hate and duplicity. Darby informs me that &#8220;Riad publicly claimed to be a Christian but when he died it became evident that he had been lying and was actually a Muslim.&#8221; We, the victims of his lurid and manic lawsuits never saw a dime of the money he owed us. His embezzlement and skipping on taxes having caught up with him, he perpetrated his final and grandest fraud – a pretend-murder. Not surprisingly, his venomous Palestine Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund is now defunct, reduced to a homepage plaintively stating that &#8220;PCWF website coming again soon to carry on some of the great work of Riad Hamad.&#8221;</p>
<div id="attachment_163663" style="width: 460px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-pipes/a-palestinian-in-texas/attachment/1946/" rel="attachment wp-att-163663"><img class="size-medium wp-image-163663" title="1946" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/1946-450x71.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="71" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The Palestine Children&#8217;s Welfare Fund&#8217;s defunct website.</p></div>
<p>Some observations about Hamad: First, the lofty praise for this wretch would make one think him a decent man, pointing to how political sympathy creates blinders. Second, even as he lived in the civilized quiet of Austin, Texas, Hamad contaminated his adopted home by importing political nihilism from the Middle East. Third, I may be out nearly $33,000 in court costs, but it was not all lost; Hamad&#8217;s legal assault inspired me to expose this malign excrescence of anti-Zionism. Finally, if one truly is judged by the quality of one&#8217;s opponents, we who defend Israel are thriving.</p>
<p>Most Muslim immigrants are law-abiding and constructive citizens in the West. But Hamad&#8217;s case fits into a persistent pattern of immigrants who bring with them the bad habits imbued by the tyrannical politics and radical ideologies. Combining Islamic supremacism with nihilist disdain, they despise all that is non-Muslim, import a mélange of extremist ideas, and feel free of moral constraints. Consequently, they engage disproportionately in antisocial behavior, criminal activities, and terrorism. Reluctantly, I concluded <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1009/the-enemy-within-and-the-need-for-profiling">almost a decade ago</a> that &#8220;Muslim visitors and immigrants must undergo additional background checks.&#8221; I reiterate this now, lest more Riad Hamads be allowed in.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>CAIR Can Expel You &#8216;For Any Reason&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-pipes/cair-can-expel-you-for-any-reason/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=cair-can-expel-you-for-any-reason</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Oct 2012 04:54:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al sharpton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CAIR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dennis Kucinich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sharia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siraj Wahhaj]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=146294</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A totalitarian movement lets its mask slip. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/14328429_BG11.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-146323" title="14328429_BG1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/14328429_BG11.gif" alt="" width="338" height="219" /></a>This past Saturday, folks, was a big day for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Its “Leadership Conference &amp; 18th Annual Banquet” at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Va. lasted from 9 am until past 10 pm.</p>
<p>Sadly, I missed the event. Not that I wouldn’t eagerly have plunked down my $199.00 for a ticket to hear <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/03/popping-linda-sarsours-balloon">Linda Sarsour</a>, Nihad Awad, Siraj Wahhaj, Al Sharpton, and <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/10906/dennis-kucinich-radical-islam">Dennis Kucinich</a>. Even better, I could have learned CAIR’s “Strategies for Challenging Anti-Islam Legislation and Campaigns” from the horse’s mouth. However, this little clause stopped me short:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">CAIR Leadership Conference &amp; 18th Annual Banquet is/are private CAIR event(s) and CAIR reserves the right to refuse admittance to anyone for any reason. CAIR also reserves the right to eject anyone from the private event(s) for any reason. Rejected guests will not receive a refund for their tickets or be compensated in any way for their loss.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">All audio, visual and audio/visual devices and photography, filming, recording and taping are strictly prohibited.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given that CAIR’s been on my case since 1999, calling me all sorts of names, it seemed likely that it would refuse me admittance and keep my money, so I stayed home. But these 42 words inspire a few thoughts about my least-favorite American Muslim organization:</p>
<p>(1) That warning is not a one-time thing but CAIR’s standard legalese; for example, it used precisely the same wording for its 2011 conference &amp; banquet, as can be seen quoted <a href="http://shark-tank.net/2011/09/27/19871/">here</a> (search for the word “disclaimer”).</p>
<p>(2) Paraphrasing <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2012/04/26/mccain-most-dangerous-place-washington-between-sen-schumer-and-tv-camera">Bob Dole</a>, “the most dangerous place in Washington is between CAIR and a television camera.” Why, then, the sudden shyness from a publicity hound, strictly prohibiting “All audio, visual and audio/visual devices”? Because live events have unscripted moments and CAIR, I suspect, shudders at a random Islamist wandering off the reservation. Its own <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/04/cair-and-the-san-ramon-valley-herald">chairman did this in 1998</a>, announcing in public that “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” a burst of bluntness that still today impedes CAIR.</p>
<p>(3) CAIR’s disclaimer brings to mind the flap in 2003 at the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/11/lets-import-middle-eastern-ideas-of-free">University of Toronto</a>. Al-Awda, an anti-Zionist group that seeks to eliminate Israel by flooding it with Arabic-speakers, required that all those attending its event sign a spooky “Basis of Unity” statement. In other words, it demanded that all participants subscribe to Al-Awda’s beliefs, including “We support the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli colonialism by any means of their choosing.” Hey, CAIR, I&#8217;m offering you this idea gratis.</p>
<p>(4) CAIR does have reason to worry about opponents infiltrating its events. Not only did <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/7689/cair-inner-workings-exposed">Chris Gaubatz</a> spend six months undercover in CAIR’s Washington headquarters but, more on point, in at least one instance an anti-Islamic activist attended a CAIR event in disguise. That would be <a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/16306/abu-ratibs-detention-hearing-i-was-there-meet-my-hamas-fundraising-neighbor/">Debbie Schlussel</a>, who donned a tight black hijab, presented herself as “Zainab Salih,” and went to a town hall meeting for political candidates in Detroit on Oct. 10, 2004, only to be recognized as herself and called out.</p>
<p>(5) I don’t know if CAIR has actually expelled someone who bought a ticket but <a href="http://www.newenglishreview.org/Jerry_Gordon/David_Gaubatz,_CAIR_and_the_ISNA/">David Gaubatz</a> (father of Chris) reports that it had him blocked from attending an Islamic Society of North America event in 2009. As Gaubatz explains, four days before the ISNA conference, CAIR’s attorney “contacted me with a threatening letter demanding that I not attend the ISNA Conference in DC”; and ISNA, which had sent him a confirmation number and welcome letter, in fact did not let him in.</p>
<p>(6) CAIR’s reserving the right to deny someone entry to the event, without compensation, “for any reason” appears to be legal. But it’s unheard of for an outfit claiming to be a human rights organization. This blatant thought control reflects <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/2811/cair-founded-by-islamic-terrorists">CAIR’s origins in Hamas</a>, the totalitarian Palestinian movement, and points to how Islamists threaten a free society – in addition to their primary effort to apply the Shari`a, a medieval law code.</p>
<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter" style="text-align: center;">
<dl id="attachment_146312" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 549px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/aaa2012-09-29-CAIR-warning.126-11.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-146312    " title="aaa2012-09-29 CAIR warning.126 (1)" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/aaa2012-09-29-CAIR-warning.126-11.png" alt="" width="539" height="58" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd">Screenshot of CAIR’s warning to those about to purchase a ticket to its annual dinner.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_146300" style="width: 385px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2004-10-10-Shlussel-in-hijab-at-CAIR.126.gif"><img class="size-full wp-image-146300" title="2004-10-10-Shlussel-in-hijab-at-CAIR.126" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2004-10-10-Shlussel-in-hijab-at-CAIR.126.gif" alt="" width="375" height="309" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Debbie Schlussel at a CAIR event in Detroit in October 2004, as her name was called out.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_146298" style="width: 385px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-29-SharptonA-at-CAIR.126.gif"><img class="size-full wp-image-146298" title="2012-09-29-SharptonA-at-CAIR.126" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-29-SharptonA-at-CAIR.126.gif" alt="" width="375" height="290" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Al Sharpton gave the keynote speech at the CAIR event.         (Credit: Danielle Avel)</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_146299" style="width: 385px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-29-WahhajS-at-CAIR.126.gif"><img class="size-full wp-image-146299" title="2012-09-29-WahhajS-at-CAIR.126" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-29-WahhajS-at-CAIR.126.gif" alt="" width="375" height="347" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Siraj Wahhaj raised money for CAIR. (Credit: Danielle Avel)</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Mr. Pipes (<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/">www.DanielPipes.org</a>) is president of the Middle East Forum. <em>© 2012 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>South Sudan, Israel&#8217;s New Ally</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-pipes/south-sudan-israels-new-ally/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=south-sudan-israels-new-ally</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:10:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[imperialism]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[A long time in the making. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/south-sudan-independence.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-117999" title="south-sudan-independence" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/south-sudan-independence.gif" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></a></p>
<p><em>This <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/10486/south-sudan-israel-allies">article</a> originally appeared in</em> <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/2/south-sudan-israels-new-ally/">The Washington Times</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not every day that the leader of a <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39034&amp;Cr=South+Sudan&amp;Cr1">brand-new country</a> makes his maiden foreign voyage to Jerusalem, capital of the most besieged country in the world, but Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan, accompanied by his foreign and defense ministers, did just that in late December. Israel&#8217;s President <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=250635">Shimon Peres</a> hailed his visit as a &#8220;moving and historic moment.&#8221; The visit spurred talk of South Sudan locating its embassy in Jerusalem, making it <a href="http://www.science.co.il/embassies.asp">the only government anywhere</a> in the world to do so.</p>
<p>This unusual development results from an unusual story.</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s Sudan took shape in the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Empire controlled its northern regions and tried to conquer the southern ones. The British, ruling out of Cairo, established the outlines of the modern state in 1898 and for the next fifty years ruled separately the Muslim north and Christian-animist south. In 1948, however, succumbing to northern pressure, the British merged the two administrations in Khartoum under northern control, making Muslims dominant in Sudan and Arabic its official language.</p>
<p>Accordingly, independence in 1956 brought civil war, as southerners battled to fend off Muslim hegemony. Fortunately for them, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion&#8217;s &#8220;periphery strategy&#8221; translated into Israeli support for non-Arabs in the Middle East, including the southern Sudanese. The government of Israel served through the first Sudanese civil war, lasting until 1972, as their primary source of moral backing, diplomatic help, and <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/leaving-bitterness-behind-1.339712">armaments</a>.</p>
<p>Mr. Kiir acknowledged this contribution in Jerusalem, noting that &#8220;Israel has always supported the South Sudanese people. Without you, we would not have arisen. You struggled alongside us in order to allow the establishment of South Sudan.&#8221; In reply, Mr. <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/israel-to-send-delegation-to-assist-south-sudan-1.402593?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.216%2C2.217%2C">Peres recalled</a> his presence in the early 1960s in Paris, when then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and he initiated Israel&#8217;s first-ever link with southern Sudanese leaders.</p>
<p>Sudan&#8217;s civil war continued intermittently from 1956 until 2005. Over time, Muslim northerners became increasingly vicious toward their southern co-nationals, culminating in the 1980-90s with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/world/hundreds-of-villagers-reported-slain-in-the-sudan.html?pagewanted=print&amp;src=pm">massacres</a>, <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/escapefromslavery/FrancisBok">chattel slavery</a>, and <a href="http://www.yale.edu/gsp/sudan/index.html">genocide</a>. Given Africa&#8217;s many tragedies, such problems might not have made an impression on compassion-weary Westerners except for an extraordinary effort led by two modern-day American abolitionists.</p>
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		<title>Ambitious Turkey</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:01:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=90702</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Aspiring to reshape Muslim countries in its Islamist image. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IRAN-Turkey-deal-nuclear1.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-90706" title="IRAN-Turkey-deal-nuclear" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IRAN-Turkey-deal-nuclear1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="326" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published at <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9671/ambitious-turkey">National Review Online</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>Turkey&#8217;s Foreign Minister <a href="http://www.hudson-ny.org/2027/turkey-more-democratic-than-some-eu-members">Ahmet Davutoğlu</a> grandiloquently proclaimed recently that, &#8220;If the world is on fire, Turkey is the firefighter. Turkey is assuming the leading role for stability in the Middle East.&#8221;</p>
<p>Such ambition is new for Ankara. In the 1990s, it contentedly fulfilled its NATO obligations and followed Washington&#8217;s lead. Starting about 1996, <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/293/a-new-axis-the-emerging-turkish-israeli-entente">relations with Israel</a> blossomed. In all, Turkish policy offered an attractive exception to the tyrannical, Islamist, and conspiracist mentality generally dominating Muslim peoples. That the country&#8217;s political leaders were corrupt and fumbling seemed of little consequence.</p>
<p>Those faults, however, proved extremely consequential, leading to the repudiation of long-established political parties and the victory of an Islamist party, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), in the elections of November 2002. By March 2003, in advance of the coming war in Iraq, the new government signaled that a new era had begun by refusing to permit American troops to traverse Turkish territory.</p>
<p>Over the next eight years, Turkish foreign policy become increasingly hostile to the West in general, the United States, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/24/turkey-france-clash-libya-campaign">France</a>, Israel in particular, even as it warmed to governments in Syria, Iran, and Libya. This shift became particularly evident in May 2010, when Ankara both helped Tehran <a href="http://www.mideastweb.org/teheran_declaration_2010.htm">avoid sanctions</a> for its nuclear program and injured Israel&#8217;s reputation with the <a href="http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/05/31/pictures-of-weapons-found-on-the-mavi-marmara-flotilla-ship-31-may-2010/">Mavi Marmara-led flotilla</a>.</p>
<p>But the full extent of Ankara&#8217;s Middle East ambitions emerged in early 2011, concurrent with the region&#8217;s far-reaching upheavals. Suddenly, Turks were ubiquitous. Their recent activities include:</p>
<p><em>Providing a model</em>: The Turkish president,<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=president-gul-turkey-must-raise-its-standards-to-be-regional-model-2011-04-07">Abdullah Gül</a>, holds that Turkey can have a &#8220;great and unbelievable positive effect&#8221; on the Middle East – and he has some takers. For example, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=tunisian-islamist-leader-embraces-turkey-praises-erbakan-2011-03-03">Rached Ghannouchi</a>, leader of Tunisia&#8217;s newly legalized Ennahda movement, has stated: &#8220;We are learning from the experience of Turkey, especially the peace that has been reached in the country between Islam and modernity.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>Offering an economic lifeline to Iran</em>: Gül paid a <a href="http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&amp;tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=37534">state visit to Tehran</a> in February, accompanied by a large group of businessmen, capping an evolution whereby, according to the Jamestown Foundation, &#8220;Turkey is becoming a major [economic] lifeline for Iran.&#8221; In addition, Gül <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171353.html">praised the Iranian political system</a>.</p>
<p><em>Obstructing foreign efforts in Libya</em>: Starting on <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=an-external-intervention-to-libya-would-make-the-situation-worse-turkish-fm-davutoglu-says-2011-03-02">March 2</a>, the Turkish government objected to any military intervention against Mu&#8217;ammar al-Qaddafi&#8217;s regime. &#8220;Foreign interventions, especially military interventions, only deepen the problem,&#8221; Davutoğlu put it on <a href="http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/turkeys-pm-erdogan-voices-opposition-to-any-nato-operation-in-l">March 14</a>, perhaps worrying about a similar intervention to <a href="http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/world/news/64904/">protect Kurds in eastern Turkey</a>. When military operations began on<a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-238700-turkish-minister-says-turkey-did-not-join-operation.html">March 19</a>, Turkish forces did not take part. Turkish opposition <a href="http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=126461">delayed NATO</a>&#8216;s engagement in Libya until <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1629882.php/Rasmussen-NATO-has-taken-full-control-of-Libya-operations">March 31</a> and then freighted it with conditions.</p>
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		<title>Four Middle Eastern Upheavals</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/daniel-pipes/four-middle-eastern-upheavals/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=four-middle-eastern-upheavals</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:04:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=89274</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On all fronts, Islamists have an opportunity to expand their power. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Picture-43.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-89275" title="Picture-4" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Picture-43.gif" alt="" width="375" height="281" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published at <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9630/middle-eastern-upheavals">FoxNews.com</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>After decades of stasis, the Middle East is in uproar. With too much going on to focus on a single place, here&#8217;s a review of developments in four key countries.</p>
<p><em>Libya</em>: With most Americans not quite realizing it, their government haphazardly went to war on Mar. 19 versus Mu&#8217;ammar al-Qaddafi&#8217;s Libya. Hostilities were <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2011/mar/25/barack-obama-libya">barely acknowledged</a>, covered with <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/white-house-libya-fight-not-war-its-kinetic-military-action">euphemism</a> (&#8220;kinetic military action, particularly on the front end&#8221;) and without a clear goal. Two Obama administration principals were out of the country – the president in Chile, the secretary of state in France. Members of Congress, not consulted, responded angrily <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/159400/ten-calls-congress-debate-about-war">across the political spectrum</a>. Some analysts discerned a precedent for <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18676.xml">militarily attacking Israel</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps Obama will be lucky and Qaddafi will<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fg-libya-gates-20110327,0,2856199,print.story">collapse quickly</a>. But no one knows <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/eastern-libyas-tribes-jihadism-did-u-s-consider-its-own-libya-intel/?singlepage=true">who the rebels are</a> and the open-ended effort could well become protracted, costly, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703292304576212893002664106.html?">terroristic</a>, and<a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2011/34_now_support_u_s_involvement_in_libya">politically unpopular</a>. If so, Libya risks becoming <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSzHxBfI3i8">Obama&#8217;s Iraq</a> – or worse if Islamists take over the country.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/21/remarks-president-obama-and-president-sebastian-pinera-chile-join-press-">Obama</a> wants the United States to be &#8220;one of the partners among many&#8221; in Libya and wishes he were <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/03/14/michael-goodwin-does-obama-wish-president-china/print">president of China</a>, suggesting that this war offers a grand experiment for the U.S. government to pretend it is Belgium. I admit to some sympathy for this approach; <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/292/why-go-it-alone">in 1997</a>, I complained that, time and again, because Washington rushed in and took responsibility for maintaining order, &#8220;The American adult rendered others child-like.&#8221; I urged Washington to show more reserve, letting others come to it and request assistance.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s what Obama, in his clumsy and ill-prepared way, has done. The results will surely influence future U.S. policy.</p>
<p><em>Egypt</em>: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces sponsored a constitutional referendum on Mar. 19 that passed 77-23. It has had the effect of boosting the Muslim Brotherhood as well as remnants of Hosni Mubarak&#8217;s National Democratic Party, while shunting aside the Tahrir Square secularists. In so doing, the new military leadership confirmed its intention to continue with the government&#8217;s subtle but long-standing <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9388/copts-pay-the-price">collusion with Islamists</a>.</p>
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		<title>Islam and Democracy &#8211; Much Hard Work Needed</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/daniel-pipes/islam-and-democracy-much-hard-work-needed/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islam-and-democracy-much-hard-work-needed</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Feb 2011 04:26:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Can the Muslim world overcome its anti-democratic Islamist movement? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Sharia.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-84344" title="Sharia" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Sharia.gif" alt="" width="375" height="283" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published at the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9435/islam-democracy">National Post</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>With anti-regime demonstrations raging in Egypt, and the possibility of a new government led by or involving the Muslim Brotherhood, many are asking whether Islam is compatible with democracy? The answer is yes, it potentially is, but it will take much hard work to make this happen.</p>
<p>Present realities are far from encouraging, for tyranny disproportionately afflicts Muslim-majority countries. Swarthmore College&#8217;s <a href="http://www.meforum.org/1763/are-muslim-countries-less-democratic">Frederic L. Pryor</a> concluded in a 2007 analysis in the <em>Middle East Quarterly</em> that, with some exceptions, &#8220;Islam is associated with fewer political rights.&#8221; <a href="http://www.meforum.org/970/quantifying-arab-democracy">Saliba Sarsar</a>looked at democratization in 17 Arabic-speaking countries and, writing in the same journal, found that &#8220;between 1999 and 2005 … not only is progress lacking in most countries, but across the Middle East, reform has backslid.&#8221;</p>
<p>How easy to jump from this dismal pattern and conclude that the religion of Islam itself must be the cause of the problem. The ancient fallacy of <em>post hoc, ergo propter hoc</em> (&#8220;after something, therefore because of it&#8221;) underlies this simplistic jump. In fact, the current predicament of dictatorship, corruption, <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/6364/caught-on-tape-middle-east-culture-of-cruelty">cruelty, and torture</a> results from specific historical developments rather than the Koran and other sacred scriptures.</p>
<p>A half millennium ago, democracy reigned nowhere; that it emerged in Western Europe resulted from many factors, including the area&#8217;s Greco-Roman heritage, rendering-unto-Caesar-and-God tensions specific to Christianity, geography, climate, and key breakthroughs in technology and political philosophy. There was nothing fated about Great Britain and then the United States leading the way to democracy.</p>
<p>Put differently: of course, Islam is undemocratic in spirit, but so was every other premodern religion and society.</p>
<p>Just as Christianity became part of the democratic process, so can Islam. This transformation will surely be wrenching and require time. The evolution of the Catholic Church from a reactionary force in the medieval period into a democratic one today, an evolution not entirely over, has been taking place for 700 years. When an institution based in Rome took so long, why should a religion from Mecca, replete with its uniquely problematic scriptures, move faster or with less contention?</p>
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		<title>Turmoil in Tunisia</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:29:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Could the recent Tunisian coup embolden the Arab Islamist movement throughout the region? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/tunis.n.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-82429" title="tunis.n" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/tunis.n.gif" alt="" width="375" height="281" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published in the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9326/tunisia-turmoil">Washington Times</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>The sudden and as-yet-unexplained exit of Tunisia&#8217;s strongman, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, 74, after 23 years in power has potential implications for the Middle East and for Muslims worldwide. As an<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/tunisia-unrest-street-clashes"> Egyptian commentator</a> noted, &#8220;Every Arab leader is watching Tunisia in fear. Every Arab citizen is watching Tunisia in hope and solidarity.&#8221; I watch with both sets of emotions.</p>
<p>During the first era of independence, until about 1970, governments in Arabic-speaking countries were frequently overthrown as troops under the control of a discontented colonel streamed into the capital, seized the presidential quarters and the radio station, then announced a new regime. Syrians endured three<em>coups d&#8217;état</em> in 1949 alone.</p>
<p>Over time, regimes learned to protect themselves through overlapping intelligence services, reliance on family and tribal members, repression, and other mechanisms. Four decades of sclerotic, sterile stability followed. With only rare exceptions (Iraq in 2003, Gaza in 2007), did regimes get ousted; even more rarely (Sudan in 1985) did civilian dissent have a significant role.</p>
<p>Enter first Al-Jazeera, which focuses Arab-wide attention on topics of its choosing, and then the internet. Beyond its inexpensive, detailed, and timely information, the internet also provides unprecedented secrets (e.g., the recent <a href="http://wikileaks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/13/wikileaks_and_the_tunisia_protests">WikiLeaks</a> dump of <a href="http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/06/08TUNIS679.html">U.S. diplomatic cables</a>) even as it connects the likeminded via <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/tunisian-president-pushed-power-country-rocked-riots/story?id=12617025">Facebook and Twitter</a>. These new forces converged in Tunisia in December to create an intifada and quickly ousted an entrenched tyrant.</p>
<p>If one exults in the power of the disenfranchised to overthrow their dull, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/16/tunisia-gun-battle-army-tunis">cruel</a>, and <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1612284.php/Report-Ben-Ali-s-wife-picked-up-1-5-tons-of-gold-before-fleeing">greedy</a> master, one also looks ahead with trepidation to the Islamist implications of this upheaval.</p>
<p>The first worry concerns Tunisia itself. For all his faults, Mr. Ben Ali stood stalwart as a foe of Islamism, battling not only the terrorists but also (somewhat as in pre-2002 Turkey) the soft jihadists in school rooms and in television studios. A former interior minister, however, he underestimated Islamists, seeing them more as criminals than as committed ideologues. His not allowing alternate Islamic outlooks to develop could now prove a great mistake.</p>
<p>Tunisian Islamists had a minimal role in overthrowing Mr. Ben Ali but they will surely scramble to exploit the opportunity that has opened to them. Indeed, the leader of Tunisia&#8217;s main Islamist organization, <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2011/01/16/01003-20110116ARTFIG00268-le-nouveau-pouvoir-tunisien-face-a-l-inconnue-islamiste.php">Ennahda</a>, has announced his first return to the country since 1989. Does Interim President Fouad Mebazaa, 77, have the savvy or political credibility to maintain power? Will the military keep the old guard in power? Do moderate forces have the cohesion and vision to deflect an Islamist surge?</p>
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		<title>Is Saudi Arabia Opening Up?</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:25:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[One of the most retrograde countries on earth has made surprising -- but reluctant -- progress in recent years. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/arabia_saudita_-_donne_al_volante_555_x_416.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-81266" title="arabia_saudita_-_donne_al_volante_(555_x_416)" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/arabia_saudita_-_donne_al_volante_555_x_416.gif" alt="" width="375" height="317" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published at <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9274/saudi-arabia-opening-up">National Review Online</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>On Jan. 1, 1996, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz became regent and effective ruler of Saudi Arabia. His 15<sup>th </sup>anniversary this week offers an opportunity to review the kingdom&#8217;s changes under his leadership and whither it now heads.</p>
<p>His is perhaps the most unusual and opaque country on the planet, a place without a public movie theater, where women may not drive, where <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2008/04/strange-sex-stories-from-the-muslim-world#lingerie">men sell women&#8217;s lingerie</a>, where a single-button <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/2601/might-the-saudis-blow-up-their-oil-infrastructure">self-destruct system</a> can perhaps destroy the oil infrastructure, and where rulers spurn even the patina of democracy. In its place, they have developed some highly original and successful <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/05/dont-underestimate-the-saudis">mechanisms to keep power</a>.</p>
<p>Three features define the regime: controlling the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, subscribing to the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, and possessing by far the world&#8217;s largest petroleum reserve. Islam defines identity, Wahhabism inspires global ambitions, oil wealth funds the enterprise.</p>
<p>More profoundly, wealth beyond avarice permits Saudis to deal with modernity on their own terms. They shun jacket and tie, exclude women from the workspace, and even aspire to replace Greenwich Mean Time with <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2008/04/mecca-mean-time">Mecca Mean Time</a>.</p>
<p>Not many years ago, the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1098/arabias-civil-war">key debate</a> in the kingdom was that between the monarchical and Taliban versions of Wahhabism – an extreme reading of Islam versus a fanatical one. But today, thanks in large part to Abdullah&#8217;s efforts to &#8220;<a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7664/is_200704/ai_n32220621/">tame Wahhabi zeal</a>,&#8221; the most retrograde country has taken some cautious steps to join the modern world. These efforts have many dimensions, from children&#8217;s education to mechanisms for selecting political leaders, but perhaps the most crucial one is the battle among the ulema, the Islamic men of religion, between reformers and hardliners.</p>
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		<title>Pouring Cold Water on WikiLeaks</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/pouring-cold-water-on-wikileaks-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=pouring-cold-water-on-wikileaks-2</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:18:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Are the Saudis manipulating the U.S. through diplomacy? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/alg_wikileaks.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-79439" title="alg_wikileaks" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/alg_wikileaks.gif" alt="" width="375" height="297" /></a></p>
<p>Of all the WikiLeaks revelations, the most captivating may be learning that several <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/print/2010/nov/29/world/la-fg-wikileaks-iran-20101129">Arab leaders</a> have urged the U.S. government to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. Most notoriously, King <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AS02B20101129">Abdullah of Saudi Arabia</a> called on Washington to &#8220;cut off the head of the snake.&#8221; According to nearly universal consensus, these statements unmask the real policies of Saudi and other politicians.</p>
<p>But is that necessarily so? There are two reasons for doubts.</p>
<p>First, as <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/52501/the-game/?print=1">Lee Smith</a> astutely notes, the Arabs could merely be telling Americans what they think the latter want to hear: &#8220;We know what the Arabs tell diplomats and journalists about Iran,&#8221; he writes, &#8220;but we don&#8217;t know what they really think about their Persian neighbor.&#8221; Their appeals could be part of a process of diplomacy, which involves mirroring one&#8217;s allies&#8217; fears and desires as one&#8217;s own. Thus, when Saudis claim Iranians are their mortal enemies, Americans tend uncritically to accept this commonality of interests; Smith maintains, however, that &#8220;the words the Saudis utter to American diplomats are not intended to provide us with a transparent window into royal thinking but to manipulate us into serving the interests of the House of Saud.&#8221; How do we know they are telling the truth just because we like what they are saying?</p>
<p>Second, how do we judge the discrepancy between what Arab leaders tell Western interlocutors <em>sotto voce</em> and what they roar to their masses? Looking at patterns from the 1930s onwards, I noted in a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/233/both-sides-of-their-mouths-arab-leaders-private-vs-public">1993 survey</a> that whispers matter less than shouts: &#8220;Public pronouncements count more than private communications. Neither provides an infallible guide, for politicians lie in both public and private, but the former predict actions better than the latter.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Arab-Israeli conflict, for example, would have ended long ago if one believes confidences told to Westerners. Take the example of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt&#8217;s strongman from 1952 to 1970 and arguably the politician who most made Israel into the abiding obsession of Middle Eastern politics.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Ipt1AAAAMAAJ&amp;dq=editions:HCgMAAAAIAAJ">Miles Copeland</a>, a CIA operative who liaised with Abdel Nasser, the latter considered the Palestine issue &#8220;unimportant.&#8221; In public, however, Abdel Nasser relentlessly forwarded an anti-Zionist agenda, riding it to become the most powerful Arab leader of his era. His confidences to Copeland, in other words, proved completely misleading.</p>
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		<title>Oklahoma Says No to Sharia</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/oklahoma-says-no-to-sharia/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=oklahoma-says-no-to-sharia</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[But the Islamists won't go quietly. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sharia_110810-thumb-640xauto-14961.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-77103" title="sharia_110810-thumb-640xauto-1496" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sharia_110810-thumb-640xauto-14961.gif" alt="" width="375" height="313" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published at </strong><a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9068/oklahoma-sharia"><strong>National Review Online</strong></a><strong>.]</strong></p>
<p>As Americans learn more about Islam, the aspect they find most objectionable is not its theology (such as whether <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/2714/is-allah-god">Allah is God or not</a>) nor its symbolism (such as an Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan) but its law code, called the Sharia. Rightly, they say no to a code that privileges <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/12/dhimmitude-in-practice">Muslims over non-Muslims</a>, <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2008/04/strange-sex-stories-from-the-muslim-world">men over women</a>, and contains many elements inimical to modern life.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aei.org/docLib/Address%20by%20Newt%20Gingrich07292010.pdf">Newt Gingrich</a>, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, gave the danger of Sharia unprecedented public attention in July when he blasted its &#8220;principles and punishments totally abhorrent to the Western world&#8221; and called for a federal law that &#8220;says no court anywhere in the United States under any circumstance is allowed to consider Sharia as a replacement for American law.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite some <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.6975:">stirrings</a> in this direction, no such federal law exists. But legislatures in two states,<a href="http://state.tn.us/sos/acts/106/pub/pc0983.pdf">Tennessee</a> and <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18499.xml?cat_id=200">Louisiana</a>, recently passed laws effectively blocking applications of Sharia that violate existing laws and public policy. And, in a referendum on Nov. 2, the voters in Oklahoma likewise voted 70 to 30 percent to amend their state constitution.</p>
<p>Although applauded by moderate Muslims such as <a href="http://www.aifdemocracy.org/news.php?id=6302">Zuhdi Jasser</a>, passage of the &#8220;Save Our State Amendment&#8221; alarmed Islamists. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, accurately <a href="http://www.anti-cair-net.org/Dismissed">accused of</a> aiming &#8220;to overthrow constitutional government in the United States,&#8221; nevertheless convinced a federal district judge to impose a <ins datetime="2010-11-13T16:12" cite="mailto:MEF"><a href="http://www.politico.com/static/PPM152_101109_shariah_tro.html">temporary restraining order</a></ins> on the state election board from certifying the amendment.</p>
<p>A full court hearing could helpfully stimulate further public debate over applying the Sharia. In this spirit, let&#8217;s look more closely at the just-passed Oklahoma amendment, State Question 755. It limits Oklahoma courts to relying exclusively &#8220;on federal and state law when deciding cases.&#8221; Conversely, it rejects &#8220;international law&#8221; in general and it specifically &#8220;forbids courts from considering or using Sharia Law,&#8221; where it defines the latter as Islamic law &#8220;based on two principal sources, the Koran and the teaching of Mohammed.&#8221;</p>
<p>Popular criticism of the amendment vacillates between two contradictory responses, claiming it&#8217;s either discriminatory or superfluous.</p>
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		<title>Germany&#8217;s Freiheit Party Joins the Fray</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/germanys-freiheit-party-joins-the-fray/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=germanys-freiheit-party-joins-the-fray</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Nov 2010 04:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[A new German political party seeks to resist Islamization and support Israel.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Frein.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-75796" title="Frein" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Frein.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="197" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9022/germany-freiheit-party">This article first appeared</a> in the Nov. 2 edition of <em>National Review Onlin</em>e.]</strong></p>
<p>A new German political party, Die Freiheit (The Freedom), had its <a href="http://www.diefreiheit.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/pm-die-freiheit-2010-10-29.pdf">inaugural meeting</a> on October 28 in Berlin. I was in town, so its leadership invited me to  be the only non-member of the nascent party to witness and report on  its founding constituent assembly.</p>
<p>As a reminder of how freedoms have eroded in Europe in this age of  Islamist terror, a political party that resists Islamization and  supports Israel cannot come into existence in broad daylight. So, like  the other 50-plus attendees, I learned of the event&#8217;s time and location  only shortly before it took place. For good measure, the organizers  operated undercover; the hotel management only knew of a board election  for an innocuously named company. Even now, for security reasons, I  cannot mention the hotel&#8217;s name.</p>
<p>Much of the time was taken up with the legalisms required to register a  political party in Germany: attendance was taken, votes counted,  organizational procedures explained, steps enumerated to contest Berlin  elections in September 2011, and officers elected, including the  chairman, René Stadtkewitz, 45. Of East German background, he is a  member of the Berlin parliament who belonged to the ruling conservative  Christian Democratic Union party until his expulsion a month ago for  publicly hosting the Dutch politician <a href="http://www.pi-news.net/2010/10/rede-von-geert-wilders-in-berlin/">Geert Wilders</a>.</p>
<p>For me, of chief interest was his oral summary of party policies plus the distribution of a 71-page <a href="http://www.diefreiheit.org/grundsatzprogramm/"><em>Grundsatzprogramm</em></a> (&#8220;Basic Program&#8221;) setting out party positions in detail. Stadtkewitz <a href="http://www.diefreiheit.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/pm-die-freiheit-2010-10-29.pdf">explained the need for a new German party</a> on the grounds that &#8220;The established parties, unfortunately, are not  ready to take a clear stand but instead abandon the people to their  concerns.&#8221; The program neither minces words nor thinks small. Its  opening sentence declares that &#8220;Western civilization, for centuries a  world leader, faces an existential crisis.&#8221;</p>
<p>The new party, whose slogan is &#8220;the party for more freedom and  democracy,&#8221; speaks candidly about Islam, Islamism, Islamic law, and  Islamization. Starting with the insight that &#8220;Islam is not just a  religion but also a political ideology with its own legal system,&#8221; the  party calls for scrutiny of imams, mosques, and Islamic schools, for a  review of Islamic organizations to ensure their compliance with German  laws, and condemns efforts to build a parallel legal structure based on  the Shari&#8217;a. Its analysis forcefully concludes: &#8220;We oppose with all our  force the Islamization of our country.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Israel and Congressional Democrats</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/whos-voting-for-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=whos-voting-for-israel</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Oct 2010 04:19:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The two U.S. parties grow further apart.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/1269541205.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74905" title="1269541205" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/1269541205.gif" alt="" width="375" height="314" /></a></p>
<p><em>[This article was originally published at <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/8994/israel-congressional-democrats">National Review Online</a>.]</em></p>
<p>How should American voters concerned with Israel&#8217;s welfare and security vote in the U.S. Congressional elections on Nov. 2?</p>
<p>This much is clear after almost two years of Democratic control over the executive and legislative branches of government: Democrats consistently support Israel and its government far less than do Republicans. Leaving Barack Obama aside for now (he&#8217;s not on the ballot), let&#8217;s focus on Congress and on voters.</p>
<p><em>Congress</em>: The pattern of weak Democratic support began just a week after Inauguration Day 2009, right after the Israel-Hamas war, when <a href="http://olver.house.gov/index.php?view=article&amp;catid=8%3Apress-releases&amp;id=50&amp;format=pdf&amp;option=com_content&amp;Itemid=25">60 House Democrats</a> (including such left-wingers as Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, and Maxine Waters) and not a single Republican wrote the secretary of state to &#8220;respectfully request that the State Department release emergency funds to [the anti-Israel organization] UNRWA for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance&#8221; in Gaza.</p>
<p>In the same spirit, <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/54474/ellison-oberstar-and-mccollum-urge-lifting-of-gaza-blockade">54 House Democrats</a> and not a single Republican signed a letter to Barack Obama a year later, in January 2010, asking him to &#8220;advocate for immediate improvements for Gaza in the following areas&#8221; and then listed ten ways to help Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization.</p>
<p>In dramatic contrast, <a href="http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Final_Flotilla_Letter_to_PM_Netanyahu_June_11_2010_2.pdf">78 House Republicans</a> wrote a &#8220;Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu&#8221; letter a few months later to express their &#8220;steadfast support&#8221; for him and Israel. The signatories were not just Republicans but members of the <a href="http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/aboutrsc/whatisrsc.htm">House Republican Study Committee</a>, a conservative caucus.</p>
<p>So, count 54 Democrats for Hamas and 78 Republicans for Israel.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the March 2010 crisis when Joe Biden went to Jerusalem, <a href="http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/Signatories_to_Hoyer-Cantor_Letter.pdf">333 members</a> of the House of Representatives signed a<a href="http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/HoyerCantorLetterDC.pdf"> letter</a> to the secretary of state reaffirming the U.S.-Israel alliance. The <a href="http://zionism-israel.com/ezine/Hoyt-Cantor.htm">102 members</a> who did not sign included 94 Democrats (including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi) and 8 Republicans, a 12-to-1 ratio. Seventy-six <a href="http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/Signatories_to_Boxer-Isakson_Letter.pdf">senators</a> signed a similar letter; the 24 who did not sign included 20 Democrats and 4 Republicans, a 5-to-1 ratio.</p>
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		<title>Age of the Facebook Fatwah</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/age-of-the-facebook-fatwah/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=age-of-the-facebook-fatwah</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:11:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[How powerful is the Internet in aiding Islamist death threats? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/burnmollynorrisweb.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-73451" title="burnmollynorrisweb" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/burnmollynorrisweb.gif" alt="" width="375" height="325" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>[This piece is reprinted from </strong></em><em><a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/8942/dueling-fatwas"><strong>DanielPipes.org</strong></a></em><em><strong>]</strong></em></p>
<p>Reciprocal death sentences raging between Yemen and the United States offer a glimpse of warfare in the internet age.</p>
<p>The topic opens with <em>South Park</em>, an iconoclastic adult cartoon program on Comedy Central, which in April mocked the prohibition on depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad. An obscure website, RevolutionMuslim.com (whose proprietor was subsequently <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=11221667">arrested</a> on terrorism-related charges), responded by threatening the show&#8217;s writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Panicked, Comedy Central censored further mention of Muhammad.</p>
<p>Enter Molly Norris, a cartoonist at the <em>Seattle Weekly</em>, who showed solidarity with Parker and Stone by posting a facetious &#8220;Everyone Draw Muhammad Day&#8221; appeal on Facebook, <a href="http://seattlest.com/2010/04/27/seattle_cartoonists_everybody_draw.php">hoping</a> that a host of caricaturists would &#8220;counter Comedy Central&#8217;s message about feeling afraid.&#8221; To Norris&#8217; surprise, dismay, and <a href="http://thegodlessmonster.com/2010/05/22/good-golly-miss-molly-sure-like-to-bawl/">confusion</a>, others took her idea seriously, prompting <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/05/20/14026241.html">Facebook campaigns</a> for and against her &#8220;day&#8221; and the <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/After-Facebook-and-Youtube-Pakistan-blocks-Twitter/articleshow/5957939.cms">Pakistani government</a> temporarily to block Facebook. Norris disowned her initiative, apologized for it, and even befriended the local <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2012937189&amp;zsection_id=2002119691&amp;slug=danny19&amp;date=20100918">Council on American-Islamic Relations representative</a>, to little avail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/Awlaki_Inspire0710-.pdf">Anwar al-Awlaki</a>, an Islamist leader in Yemen, responded in July by issuing a death sentence on Norris, <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/828/fatwa-violence-and-discourtesy">inaccurately</a> but pungently <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/09/19/2010-09-19_everybody_draw_mohammed_day_cartoonist_molly_norris_goes_into_hiding_after_radic.html">called a fatwa</a>. On consulting with the police, Norris in September not only went underground but &#8220;went ghost&#8221; and disappeared entirely, including her name and her profession.</p>
<p>Awlaki&#8217;s &#8220;fatwa&#8221; on Norris, however, is only half the story. The other half concerns a U.S. government &#8220;fatwa&#8221; on Awlaki.</p>
<p>Awlaki was born in New Mexico in 1971 to well-connected Muslim Yemeni parents. His father, Nasser, studied and worked in the United States until 1978, when the family returned to Yemen. Anwar went to the United States as a student in 1991 and spent the next decade in various degree programs (engineering, education), only to emerge as an Al-Qaeda-style Islamist figure, comparable to Osama bin Laden both in his ideological fanaticism and his operational involvement in terrorism. Arrested in connection with the 9/11 attacks, he was inexplicably released and allowed to move to a remote region of Yemen, beyond government control, where he currently lives.</p>
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		<title>When Israel Stood Up to Washington</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:08:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Thirty years ago, in contrast to Netanyahu’s repeated apologies, Menachem Begin adopted quite a different approach.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/begin.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-57396" title="begin" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/begin.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="312" /></a></p>
<p>As U.S.-Israel tensions climb to unfamiliar heights, they recall a prior round of tensions nearly thirty years ago, when Menachem Begin and Ronald Reagan were in charge. In contrast to Binyamin Netanyahu’s repeated apologies, Begin adopted a quite different approach.</p>
<p>The sequence of events started with a statement from Syrian dictator Hafiz al-Asad that he would not make peace with Israel “even in a hundred years,” Begin responded by making the Golan Heights part of Israel, terminating the military administration that had been governing that territory from the time Israeli forces seized it from Syria in 1967. <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Golan+Heights+Law.htm">Legislation</a> to this effect easily passed Israel’s parliament on Dec. 14, 1981.</p>
<p>This move came, however, just two weeks after the signing of a U.S.-Israel <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/US-Israel+Memorandum+of+Understanding.htm">Strategic Cooperation Agreement</a>, prompting much irritation in Washington. At the initiative of Secretary of State Alexander Haig, the U.S. government suspended that just-signed agreement. One day later, on Dec. 20, Begin summoned Samuel Lewis, the U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv, for a dressing-down.</p>
<p>Yehuda Avner, a former aide to Begin, provides atmospherics and commentary on this episode at “<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=116641">When Washington bridled and Begin fumed</a>.” As he retells it, “The prime minister invited Lewis to take a seat, stiffened, sat up, reached for the stack of papers on the table by his side, put them on his lap and [adopted] a face like stone and a voice like steel.” Begin began with “a thunderous recitation of the perfidies perpetrated by Syria over the decades.” He ended with what he called “a very personal and urgent message” to President Reagan (available at the Israeli <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign+Relations/Israels+Foreign+Relations+since+1947/1981-1982/91+Statement+by+Prime+Minister+Begin+on+US+Measure.htm">Ministry of Foreign Affairs website</a>).</p>
<p>“Three times during the past six months, the U.S. Government has ‘punished’ Israel,” Begin began. He enumerated those three occasions: the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor, the bombing of the PLO headquarters in Beirut, and now the Golan Heights law. Throughout this exposition, according to Avner, Lewis interjected but without success: “Not punishing you, Mr. Prime Minister, merely suspending &#8230;,” “Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, it was not &#8230;,” “Mr. Prime Minister, I must correct you &#8230;,” and “This is not a punishment, Mr. Prime Minister, it’s merely a suspension until &#8230;”</p>
<p>Fully to vent his anger, Begin drew on a century of Zionism:</p>
<blockquote><p>What kind of expression is this – “punishing Israel”? Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic? Are we youths of fourteen who, if they don’t behave properly, are slapped across the fingers? Let me tell you who this government is composed of. It is composed of people whose lives were spent in resistance, in fighting and in suffering. You will not frighten us with “punishments.” He who threatens us will find us deaf to his threats. We are only prepared to listen to rational arguments. You have no right to “punish” Israel – and I protest at the very use of this term.</p></blockquote>
<p>In his most stinging attack on the United States, Begin challenged American moralizing about civilian casualties during the Israeli attack on Beirut:</p>
<blockquote><p>You have no moral right to preach to us about civilian casualties. We have read the history of World War II and we know what happened to civilians when you took action against an enemy. We have also read the history of the Vietnam war and your phrase “body-count.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Referring to the U.S. decision to suspend the recently signed agreement, Begin announced that “The people of Israel has lived 3,700 years without a memorandum of understanding with America – and it will continue to live for another 3,700.” On a more mundane level, he cited Haig having stated on Reagan’s behalf that the U.S. government would purchase $200 million worth of Israeli arms and other equipment “Now you say it will not be so. This is therefore a violation of the President’s word. Is it customary? Is it proper?”</p>
<p>Recalling the recent fight in the U.S. Senate over the decision to sell AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia, Begin noted that it “was accompanied by an ugly campaign of anti-Semitism.” By way of illustration, he mentioned three specifics: the slogans “Begin or Reagan?” and “We should not let the Jews determine the foreign policy of the United States,” plus aspersions that senators like Henry Jackson, Edward Kennedy, Robert Packwood, and Rudy Boschwitz “are not loyal citizens.”</p>
<p>Responding to demands that the Golan Heights law be rescinded, Begin sourced the very concept of rescission to “the days of the Inquisition” and reminded Lewis that:</p>
<blockquote><p>Our forefathers went to the stake rather than “rescind” their faith. We are not going to the stake. Thank God. We have enough strength to defend our independence and to defend our rights. … please be kind enough to inform the secretary of state that the Golan Heights Law will remain valid. There is no force on earth that can bring about its rescission.</p></blockquote>
<p>The session ended without Lewis responding. As Avner recounts, “Faced with this unyielding barrage, which to the ambassador seemed somewhat hyperbolic and, in part, even paranoid, he saw no point in carrying on, so he took his leave.”</p>
<p><em>Comments</em>:</p>
<p>(1) Late 1981 marked the nadir of <a href="http://www.mitchellbard.com/articles/reagan.html">U.S.-Israel relations during the Reagan administration</a>. In particular, strategic cooperation made headway in subsequent years.</p>
<p>(2) The ministry website calls Begin’s blast “an unprecedented move”; to which I add, it was not just unprecedented but also unrepeated.</p>
<p>(3) Begin’s sense of destiny, combined with his oratorical grandeur impelled him to respond to current policy differences by invoking 3,700 years of Jewish history, the Inquisition, the Vietnam War, and American antisemitism. In the process, he changed the terms of the argument.</p>
<p>(4) Notwithstanding intense American aggravation with Begin, his blistering attack improved Israeli pride and standing.</p>
<p>(5) Politicians in other countries quite frequently attack the United States. Indeed, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/world/asia/30karzai.html?sudsredirect=true&amp;pagewanted=print">Hamid Karzai</a>, the president of Afghanistan, did so last week. But his purpose – to convince his countrymen that he is not, in fact, a <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/10/karzai-brother-washington-kept-politicians">kept politician</a> – differed fundamentally from Begin’s of asserting Israel’s dignity.</p>
<p>(6) It is difficult to imagine any other Israeli politician, Binyamin Netanyahu included, who would dare to pull off Begin’s verbal assault.</p>
<p>(7) Yet that might be just what Israel needs.</p>
<p><em>Mr. Pipes (<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/">www.DanielPipes.org</a>) is director of the Middle East Forum and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.</em></p>
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		<title>CAIR Attacks the Foreign Policy Research Institute</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/cair-attacks-the-foreign-policy-research-institute/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=cair-attacks-the-foreign-policy-research-institute</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:05:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cincinnati chapter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[civil rights director]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[civil rights group]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mail exchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mason crest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim civil rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim names]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[philadelphia chapter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[philadelphia office]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[world of islam]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The infamous Muslim “civil-rights” group is up to its usual assault on the discussion of Islam.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Hooper.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54785" title="Hooper" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Hooper.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>CAIR’s Philadelphia chapter is holding a <a href="http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&amp;title=Penn.+Muslims+to+Challenge+Anti-Islam+Bias+in+Children%27s+Books+--+PHILADELPHIA%2C+March+16+%2FPRNewswire-USNewswire%2F+--&amp;expire=&amp;urlID=422826652&amp;fb=Y&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prnewswire.com%2Fnew">press conference</a> tomorrow (Wednesday, March 17) at which it plans “to announce the launch of a nationwide campaign to challenge anti-Islam bias in a series of children’s books that the Washington-based Muslim civil rights group says promote ‘hostility toward Islam and suspicion of Muslims’.”</p>
<p>The reference is to a ten-volume series for middle-schools and high schools titled the “<a href="http://www.masoncrest.com/series_view.php?seriesID=90">World of Islam</a>” produced by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and published by Mason Crest Publishers. (For the record, in 1986-93, I served as director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute; I had no role in the “World of Islam” series.)</p>
<p>In advance of the press conference, it may be helpful to review an incriminating e-mail exchange among the CAIR staff about the series. It took place on December 9, 2009, when Moein M. Khawaja, “civil rights director” for CAIR’s Philadelphia office, sent a memo to the CAIR staff. Khawaja reported that he had gone through some of the Mason Crest volumes and flagged materials he disapproved of (such as, “The burqa is a visible symbol of European Muslims resistance to assimilation in society”).</p>
<p>Relying on an informant at Mason Crest, Khawaja then wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;ve been given the entire order list for this series (orders that came in up until yesterday).  This list shows which school districts and libraries have purchased the individual books or entire series &#8211; It is a nationwide campaign.  This is valuable information because we can contact each of them and explain that they really got propaganda. I&#8217;m not sure what legal issues there are here &#8211; but there has to be some sort of thing about masked propaganda in schools and libraries?</p></blockquote>
<p>Karen Dabdoub of CAIR’s Cincinnati chapter replied later that day that she shared Khawaja’s concerns:</p>
<blockquote><p>Many of these authors have names that at the very least sound Jewish and none that sound like Muslim names. While I know we can’t judge a book by its cover it still gives me reason to doubt the balance of the information in these books. I also noticed another book [<a href="https://www.masoncrest.com/reviews.php?method=all">published by Mason Crest</a> &#8211; <em>DP</em>] on <em>Islamic Fundamentalism</em> and the glowing review they quote is from the Association of Jewish Libraries.</p></blockquote>
<p>Still on December 9, Babak Darvish of CAIR’s Columbus office replied:</p>
<blockquote><p>Good call Sr. Karen, the names do sound like that&#8230;one of them sounds almost Serbian/Romanian.  It sounds like everybody that has a beef with Islam is producing books to brainwash the youth with for the next generation.  This is really hateful and would be like Neo-Nazis writing books to teach about Judaism in Public schools.</p></blockquote>
<p>Presumably the “almost Serbian/Romanian” name is that of the late Michael Radu, my <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/178/chads-victory-over-libya-is-also-a-victory-for-the-us">onetime co-author</a> and author of the recently published book, <a href="http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/europes-ghost/?display=reviews"><em>Europe’s Ghost:  Tolerance, Jihadism, and the Crisis of the West</em></a> (Encounter).</p>
<p><em>Comments</em>:</p>
<p>(1) This episode raises unsettling questions: What is CAIR doing with an “informant” inside Mason Crest Publishers? How many other publishing houses has it penetrated? And which other cultural institutions have staff more loyal to CAIR than to their employers?</p>
<p>(2) Remarks about authors’ names “that at the very least sound Jewish” and one that “sound almost Serbian/Romanian” give a sense of how CAIR staff think and write when they think they are not being watched, with biased and even racist attitudes toward Jews and Balkan peoples very much at odds with their usual public face. (That public face too sometimes lapses, as I documented at “<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/08/look-now-whos-profiling-cairs-staff-is" target="_top">Look Now Who&#8217;s Profiling &#8211; <em>CAIR&#8217;s</em> Staff Is</a>.”)</p>
<p>(3) Even more alarming is the conclusion from the authors’ names that the Mason Crest series “is really hateful” and a comparison of it to “Neo-Nazis writing books to teach about Judaism in Public schools.” Implicit to this reasoning is the false and demeaning assumption that Jews and Balkan peoples may not write about Islam.</p>
<p>(4) I challenge Mason Crest Publishers to investigate which employee smuggled its proprietary information to CAIR and then inform the public of his or her identity.</p>
<p>(5) And I challenge CAIR to disown and disavow its staff’s anti-Semitic and racist statements.</p>
<p><em>Mr. Pipes (<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/">www.DanielPipes.org</a>) is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.</em></p>
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		<title>Security Theater Now Playing at Your Airport &#8211; by Daniel Pipes</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/daniel-pipes/security-theater-now-playing-at-your-airport-by-daniel-pipes/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=security-theater-now-playing-at-your-airport-by-daniel-pipes</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:23:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aftermath]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Airlines]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Ann-Marie Doreen Murphy]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Neil C. Livingstone]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Nizar]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Is America willing to embrace the strategies necessary to stop terrorism?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-44800" title="security" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/security.jpg" alt="security" width="355" height="262" /></p>
<p>As hands are wrung in the aftermath of the near-tragedy on a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit, a conversation from London&#8217;s Heathrow airport in 1986 comes to mind.</p>
<table style="margin-left: 12px; margin-bottom: 5px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="337" align="right">
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<td style="border: 1px solid black;"><img src="http://www.danielpipes.org/pics/new/large/1077.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="337" height="208" /><!-- caption begin --></p>
<p style="margin: 4px; font-size: smaller;">Nizar al-Hindawi and Ann-Marie Murphy.</p>
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<p>It consisted of an <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1064/terrorism-the-syrian-connection#Murphy">El Al security agent quizzing one Ann-Marie Doreen Murphy</a>, a 32-year-old recent arrival in London from Sallynoggin, Ireland. While working as a chambermaid at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane Murphy met Nizar al-Hindawi, a far-leftist Palestinian who impregnated her. After instructing her to &#8220;get rid of the thing,&#8221; he abruptly changed his tune and insisted on immediate marriage in &#8220;the Holy Land.&#8221; He also insisted on their traveling separately.</p>
<p>Murphy, later described by the prosecutor as a &#8220;simple, unsophisticated Irish lass and a Catholic,&#8221; accepted unquestioningly Hindawi&#8217;s arrangements for her to fly to Israel on El Al on April 17. She also accepted a wheeled suitcase with a false bottom containing nearly 2 kilograms of Semtex, a powerful plastic explosive, and she agreed to be coached by him to answer questions posed by airport security.</p>
<p>Murphy successfully passed through the standard Heathrow security inspection and reached the gate with her bag, where an El Al agent questioned her. As reconstructed by Neil C. Livingstone and David Halevy in <em>Washingtonian</em> magazine, he started by asking whether she had packed her bags herself. She replied in the negative. Then:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;What is the purpose of your trip to Israel?&#8221; Recalling Hindawi&#8217;s instructions, Murphy answered, &#8220;For a vacation.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Are you married, Miss Murphy?&#8221; &#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Traveling alone?&#8221; &#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Is this your first trip abroad?&#8221; &#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Do you have relatives in Israel?&#8221; &#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Are you going to meet someone in Israel?&#8221; &#8220;No.</p>
<p>&#8220;Has your vacation been planned for a long time?&#8221; &#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Where will you stay while you&#8217;re in Israel?&#8221; &#8220;The Tel Aviv Hilton.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;How much money do you have with you?&#8221; &#8220;Fifty pounds.&#8221; The Hilton at that time costing at least £70 a night, he asked:</p>
<p>&#8220;Do you have a credit card?&#8221; &#8220;Oh, yes,&#8221; she replied, showing him an i.d. for cashing checks.</p></blockquote>
<p>That did it, and the agent sent her bag for additional inspection, where the bombing apparatus was discovered.</p>
<p>Had El Al followed the usual Western security procedures, 375 lives would surely have been lost somewhere over Austria. The bombing plot came to light, in other words, through a non-technical intervention, relying on conversation, perception, common sense, and (yes) profiling. The agent focused on the passenger, not the weaponry. Israeli counterterrorism takes passengers&#8217; identities into account; accordingly, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3238101,00.html">Arabs endure an especially tough inspection</a>. &#8220;In Israel, security comes first,&#8221; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-harris/what-israel-can-teach-the_b_408720.html">David Harris</a> of the American Jewish Committee explains.</p>
<p>Obvious as this sounds, overconfidence, political correctness, and legal liability render such an approach impossible anywhere else in the West. In the United States, for example, one month after 9/11, the <a href="http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/rules/20011012.htm">Department of Transportation</a> issued guidelines forbidding its personnel from generalizing &#8220;about the propensity of members of any racial, ethnic, religious, or national origin group to engage in unlawful activity.&#8221; (Wear a <em>hijab</em>, I semi-jokingly advise women wanting to avoid secondary screening at airport security.)</p>
<p>Worse yet, consider the panicky Mickey-Mouse, and <a href="http://www.judithmiller.com/6755/tsa-withdraws-subpoenas-against-journalists">embarrassing</a> steps the U.S. <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/7840/detroit-northwest-near-tragedy">Transportation Security Administration</a> implemented hours after the Detroit bombing attempt: no crew announcements &#8220;concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks,&#8221; and disabling all passenger communications services. During a flight&#8217;s final hour, passengers may not stand up, access carry-on baggage, nor &#8220;have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap.&#8221;</p>
<p>Some crews went yet further, keeping cabin lights on throughout the night while turning off the in-flight entertainment, prohibiting all electronic devices, and, during the final hour, requiring passengers to keep hands visible and neither eat nor drink. Things got so bad, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/29/business/AP-US-Airline-Attack-Passenger-Confusion.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=print">Associated Press</a> reports, &#8220;A demand by one attendant that no one could read anything … elicited gasps of disbelief and howls of laughter.&#8221;</p>
<p>Widely criticized for these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Clouseau">Clouseau-like</a> measures, TSA eventually decided to add &#8220;enhanced screening&#8221; for travelers passing through or originating from <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iY9DulyOxxf4IdXndcN-BDM-FvIA">fourteen &#8220;countries of interest&#8221;</a> – as though one&#8217;s choice of departure airport indicates a propensity for suicide bombing.</p>
<p>The TSA engages in &#8220;<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security">security theater</a>&#8221; – bumbling pretend-steps that treat all passengers equally rather than risk offending anyone by focusing, say, on religion. The alternative approach is <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother"><em>Israelification</em></a>, defined by Toronto&#8217;s <em>Star</em> newspaper as &#8220;a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.&#8221;</p>
<p>Which do we want – theatrics or safety?</p>
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