Daniel Pipes is a Harvard educated historian who has worked, at various time, for the Departments of State and Defense. He was appointed by recess appointment to the United States Institute of Peace. He is the founder and director of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank which seeks to promote U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East, and Campus Watch, a group which seeks to “out” university professors who have pro-Palestinian, anti-Iraq War or anti-U.S. views. Pipes support for the blacklisting of Middle East Studies professors who don’t agree with his philosophy has echos of HUAC and is often compared to modern day McCarthyism.
Pipes has written that the internment of Japanese during World War II was the right thing to do, although he says he does not support the internment of Muslims today. He does however support restricting Muslim immagration to the U.S. and he supported not allowing Tariq Ramadan into the country.
Pipes claims that his work is an effort to protect American interests at home and abroad, yet his actions seek to restrict fundamental freedoms such as speech. To debate a belief is one thing, to attempt to restrict your opponents ability and right to debate by blacklisting them is as un-American as it gets.
In the future I intend to discuss more of the activities of Daniel Pipes and fellow cohorts such as Robert Spencer and David Horowitz.
0 Responses to “Daniel Pipes”
Leave a Reply