CAIR
CAIR is urging people of conscience nationwide to contact the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to ask that committee members reject the nomination of Muslim-basher Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
The USIP is a federal taxpayer-funded institution created by Congress to promote the peaceful resolution of international conflicts. Its board of directors is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. (No date for the Senate nomination hearing has been set.)
During a recent radio interview, Pipes supported the profiling of Muslims and Arabs, refused to condemn the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and justified his previous suggestion that Israel "raze" Palestinian villages. In a post-9/11 interview, Pipes said: "What we need to do is snarl, not be nice. What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection."
A recent article in todays Forward newspaper states: "[Pipes] espouses a theory of conflict resolution that rests on the assumption that peace usually is achieved only by one side defeating the other with military force or other pressure, and only rarely through reconciliation or negotiation."
Pipes, regarded by many Muslims as Americas leading Islamophobe, has called for increased surveillance of ordinary American Muslims and claims 10 to 15 percent of Muslims are "potential killers." He has also decried any positive portrayal of Islamic history and beliefs in public schools and termed the PBS documentary "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet" an "outrage."
In an October 21, 2001, speech before the convention of the American Jewish Congress, Pipes stated: "I worry very much from the Jewish point of view that the presence, and increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims...will present true dangers to American Jews."
Last year, Pipes faced a storm of criticism when he launched Campus Watch, a web site that included "dossiers" on professors and academic institutions thought to be too critical of Israel or too sympathetic to Islam and Muslims.
CAIR has urged President Bush to rescind Pipes nomination because of his "long history of advocating the political disenfranchisement and marginalization of Americas Islamic community."
In his letter to the president, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote: "Unfortunately, no credible Muslim leader in the United States or around the world could cooperate with an organization in which Pipes has a decision-making role…Pipes bigoted views have been instrumental in widening the divide between faiths and cultures."
