My months of silence are over

["Alain St-Amour" <alainstamour@xxxxxxxx>]

http://tinyurl.com/l837

My months of silence are over
Daniel Pipes
National Post
Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Etiquette called on me, as a nominee of the President of the United States, not 
to talk about my nomination to the board of the United States Institute of 
Peace while it was in process. Although the nomination was contested, I found 
myself having to remain mute as opponents said what they would about me.

During five months of enforced quiet, I endured U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy 
borking me as someone not "committed to bridging differences and bringing 
peace," a Washington Post editorial criticizing me as "a destroyer" of cultural 
bridges, and other slings. Fortunately, others responded on my behalf; for 
example, Senator Chuck Schumer and the Los Angeles Times both endorsed my 
nomination.

My months of silence finally came to an end last Friday, when President W. Bush 
invoked his constitutional authority (Article II, Section 2) to recess appoint 
me and eight other persons; we will serve through the end of the current 
session of Congress, or January, 2005.

But, as someone who has spent two-thirds of his life studying the Middle East, 
these public accusations remain painful to me. I have learned the Arabic 
language, travelled the Muslim world, lived three years in Cairo, taught 
courses on the region at Harvard, and specialized on it at the State and 
Defence departments. My career has been exactly devoted to "bridging 
differences and bringing peace."

So, how did it come to be that some people discern me as hostile to Islam? I 
see this resulting from two main developments.

Distortion: My political opponents -- Islamists, Palestinian irredentists, the 
far left -- cherry-pick through my record to find snippets, then triumphantly 
brandish these to embarrass me.

Consider the following sentence, from a 1990 article of mine. Although I 
pooh-poohed the idea of a Muslim threat, I acknowledged there could be problems 
in Western Europe (as opposed to the United States) relating to Muslim 
immigration because Europeans "are unprepared for the massive immigration of 
brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards 
of hygiene."

On its own, this would seemingly confirm my hostility to Muslims. But my 
opponents:

- Ignore my having explained that "brown-skinned peoples" and "strange foods" 
were quotes of then-current European views, not my own sentiments. (In 
retrospect, I should have placed those words in quotation marks.)

- Never quote two subsequent sentences: "The movement of Muslims to Western 
Europe creates a great number of painful but finite challenges; there is no 
reason, however, to see this event leading to a cataclysmic battle between two 
civilizations. If handled properly, the immigrants can even bring much of 
value, including new energy, to their host societies."

It is on the basis of such distortions that my critics built their case.

Confusion: I strenuously draw a distinction between the religion of Islam and 
the ideology of militant Islam; "militant Islam is the problem and moderate 
Islam is the solution" has virtually become my mantra. But these are novel and 
complex ideas. As a result, my enmity toward militant Islam sometimes gets 
misunderstood as hostility toward Islam itself.

For example, on Saturday the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a front-page story about 
my appointment in which I am quoted saying that, "Conflict without violence is 
the goal. We have differences with all our allies, but there is no possibility 
of resorting to force with them, and that is the goal which we all hope for. 
But that is not where we find ourselves now, as we found in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. We cannot always rely on nonviolent methods."

Not understanding my argument, the headline writer paraphrased this analysis as 
"Pipes says Muslim war might be needed." In fact, it should have been "Pipes 
says war on militant Islam might be needed."

I believe the Islam versus militant Islam distinction stands at the heart of 
the war on terror and urgently needs to be clarified for non-specialists. The 
most effective way of achieving this, I expect, is by giving voice to the 
Muslim victims of Islamist totalitarianism.

Come to think of it, that sounds like the sort of activity that the USIP might 
wish to consider undertaking as part of its mission to "promote the prevention, 
management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts."

Proposing projects like this is one reason why I look forward to serving on the 
USIP board.

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam 
Reaches America (W.W. Norton).

http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=833D5870-08D6-4B16-BDCE-75294402346E