Smearing Daniel Pipes

The president’s recent selection of Daniel Pipes to serve on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace is noteworthy because it appears to signal that the Bush White House was sensitive after all to an important distinction: Not all Muslims are Islamists members of virulently anti-Western, intolerant and often violent extremist sects but all Islamists profess to be Muslims.

Mr. Pipes has devoted much of his highly prolific career in academia and as an author to highlighting the danger posed to the United States, her allies and interests and to non-Islamist Muslims by the radicals who seek to hijack and dominate the Islamic faith.

With the Pipes appointment, the Bush team seemed to be trying to redress an earlier and potentially strategically disastrous error namely, treating groups associated with, funded by or otherwise supportive of Islamist causes and organizations as “mainstream” Muslim entities.

This was all the more remarkable since groups like the American Muslim Council (AMC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Students Association have, to varying degrees, been quite outspoken in their opposition to many of the President’s domestic and foreign policies in the war on terror.

Surprisingly, a White House not exactly renowned for tolerating perceived disloyalty has, to date, not penalized those who have engaged in such activities. Many continue to be afforded the opportunity to meet with administration officials and, in turn, to cite such meetings in press releases and public statements as evidence that they must not be Islamist-sympathizers, after all.

Thus emboldened, the AMC, CAIR and other organizations like the Islamic Institute have launched a jihad against President Bush’s nomination of Daniel Pipes to the U.S. Institute of Peace board. Mr. Pipes’ opponents are demanding the appointment be withdrawn and urging the Senate to reject it if the president does not do their bidding.

Unfortunately for the pro-Islamists, the more they attack Mr. Pipes, the greater the likelihood that their true nature will be illuminated. It is not he who is demeaning all Muslims by pretending there is no distinction between those law-abiding, patriotic, tolerant Americans who adhere to Islam and those who are none of the above, and who want to destroy this country and the freedoms it affords all religions.