Daniel Pipes, was once nominated by George W. Bush to head the board of the Institute of Peace, which didn't quite work out as his long standing anti-Muslim views came to light. Views that included him making statements like,
Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene...All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most. (National Review, 11/19/90)
However, he didn't allow that to stop him, he has made a comfortable living with such David Horowitz funded projects as the Middle East Forum, and Campus Watch. He runs a popular personal blog and also pontificates regularly on Jerusalem Post, where you can usually find him whitewashing and apologizing for Israeli policy.
Recently, Pipes has increased his ire towards law-abiding American Muslims, in particular Rep. Keith Ellison, who he first said is a greater threat to Western Civilization than Al-Qaeda and then subsequently went on to equate to Hitler.
Read about it here: Daniel Pipes Equates Keith Ellison to Hitler
On November 25th, we wrote about a wacky article that the failed academic and full time Likud apologist, Daniel Pipes wrote for the Jerusalem Post, in which he argued that US Congressman Keith Ellison, intellectual Tariq Ramadan and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan were a greater threat to Western Civilization than Al-Qaeda.
We wrote at the time,
According to the illogic of Pipes the greatest threat doesn’t come from Al-Qaeda, Ayatollah Khomeini or Nidal Hasan but rather from people like Dr. Tariq Ramadan and Congressman Keith Ellison. He accuses the two of being part of something he terms "Islamism 2.0." This ridiculous term translates essentially into what Islamophobe Robert Spencer calls "Stealth Jihad," or the subtle takeover of the West by peaceful, law-abiding Muslims who have a secret, sinister (stealth) goal to takeover the West and replace Democracy with Shariah law: in other words it’s a conspiracy theory.
Ayatollah Khomeini, Osama bin Laden, and Nidal Hasan represent Islamism 1.0, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (the prime minister of Turkey), Tariq Ramadan (a Swiss intellectual), and Keith Ellison (a US congressman) represent Islamism 2.0. The former kill more people but the latter pose a greater threat to Western civilization. (emphasis mine)
That Erdogan, Ramadan and Ellison can even be mentioned in the same sentence as equivalent to, or even more dangerous and threatening to the West than Bin Laden speaks volumes about Pipes’ preposterous agenda. Would Bin Laden have Turkey make peace with Armenia as Erdogan did? Would Bin Laden affirm Democracy as the way forward to better governance and equal rights as all three do? Would Bin Laden pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America on Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an as Keith Ellison did?
We never imagined Daniel Pipes would offer a response, as he usually isn’t too keen to get into a debate with anyone who challenges his weak and biased arguments. However, it seems this time Pipes couldn’t hold himself back. Prompted by a reader of his website, Aliya, who alerted Pipes to our rebuttal of his article, he responded by bringing the all too familiar response of those who have no arguments: comparing your subject to Hitler.
Submitted by Aliya (United Kingdom), Nov 27, 2009 at 06:49
Dr Pipes
Loon Watch, the Islamist Jewish/Eurabian (apparently George Soros and Saudi funded) website which wrote about your report
Daniel Pipes says Keith Ellison is a threat to Western Civilization
http://www.loonwatch.com/...
They’re asking, because Ellison is a Westerner, and Turkey will join the EU soon, Turks are European, Westerners already, so how can you say theTurkish President and Congressman Ellison are enemies of the West when they are westerners?
What would be your response to this?
Kind Regards
Aliya
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Daniel Pipes replies:
Hiitler was a Westerner too, and he arguably did more to destroy Western civilization than anyone else in history.
The questioner sounds like another loon that we know, Pamela Geller who surmised that Loonwatch was a George Soros funded website, but she takes it a step further and includes all the possible conspiracy theories she can think of, not only are we George Soros funded but we are an, "Islamist Jewish/Eurabian (apparently George Soros and Saudi funded) website." I love these loons, if half of what they said were true (Alas, my meager pockets) we would be rolling in the dough!! Soros and company we are still waiting on our checks!
Notice that Daniel Pipes really didn’t answer any of the arguments or questions in our article, my guess is he probably didn’t even read it. He looked at the way Aliya framed the question and answered it by equating Keith Ellison, Tariq Ramadan and Recep Erodogan, all fierce proponents of Democracy to the greatest mass-murderer of the 20th century. Quite despicable, and it seems to have become Daniel Pipes’ forte to side on the side of the despicable.
The real question however is, if Pipes is truly interested in "protecting Western Civilization," why is he as silent as a mouse on the real threat: the new little Hitler’s springing up all over Europe? Why does Pipes ignore neo-fascist Geert Wilders who calls for the deportation of Mooslims, banning of the Quran, taxing the hijab, etc? Why does he not speak out against the fascist Northern League, why does he give his tacit approval of the minaret ban in Switzerland which he charachterizes as a vote against "Islamization?"
The new amendment also validates and potentially encourages resistance to Islamization throughout the continent.
The reality is ever clearer, Mr.Pipes doesn’t give two hoots about Democracy, for him Democracy is convenient when it fits his agenda but should be discarded the moment it is no longer of use.
One might attribute Pipes' increasingly extremist rhetoric to his, and the mainstream right-wing's continuing descent into madness and irrelevance, as his comment comes on the heels of another report out recently showing that Rep.Keith Ellison is considered one of the most liked and respected members of Congress.