Bush nominates Daniel Pipes to board of US Institute of Peace

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AP. 11 April 2003. Muslim Groups Protest Bush Peace Nominee.

PHILADELPHIA -- Muslim groups were stunned last week when President Bush
nominated Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute of
Peace, a federal think tank.

For years, the outspoken director of the Middle East Forum in
Philadelphia has called for a war on Islamic extremism, declaring in one
post-Sept. 11 interview: "What we need to do is inspire fear, not
affection."

The Harvard-trained scholar has declared Islamic extremists are
conspiring to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Koran, that one in
10 American Muslims are militants and suggested the government needs to
monitor Muslims and mosques across the country.

"Militant Islam is comparable to Fascism and Communism," he says. "It is
a threat to our way of life."

In articles with titles such as "Why the left loves Osama," and "Profs
Who Hate America," Pipes has accused anti-war academics such as Noam
Chomsky of being terrorist sympathizers [which, considering what a rabid
anti-communist Pipes is, should teach anti-communist Chomsky a fuckin'
lesson!].

The statements have led to accusations of bigotry from groups such as
the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Arab American
Institute.

"For someone like that to be nominated to the Institute of Peace is
astounding," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for The Council on American
Islamic Relations.

If Pipes is actually appointed, Hooper said, it would confirm suspicions
in that the war on Iraq and the war on terrorism "is really a war on
Islam."

Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy
studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Pipes "is
perhaps the most extreme hawk that you could find."