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Dissing the Debate over Sami Al-Arian

by Daniel Pipes
October 19, 2004

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My column today, "Coddling a Terrorist Costs Votes," considers the astonishing centrality of Sami Al-Arian, an indicted ringleader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in the Florida race for U.S. Senate between Republican Mel Martinez and Democrat Betty Castor. I approve of this focus, seeing in the debate over Islamist violence a chance to discuss a key topic of American life in a direct and specific way.

Well, I seem to be nearly alone in approving of this debate. Here are some other reactions, ranging from negative to scornful to deprecating:

Betty Castor, Democratic candidate for Senate: "It's very unfortunate that this has become such a trigger issue in the campaign."
The Associated Press: terrorism has "drowned out contrasting views held by the candidates on [other] issues."
The Miami Herald: the ad campaign is a "distraction" because Florida's next senator "will deal with far more important issues than the fate of professor Sami al-Arian."
The Palm Beach Post: the campaign is a "single-themed shoutfest" which focuses on a topic the paper finds not "relevant" to a U.S. Senate race.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "The incident has been blown way out of proportion."
The Orlando Sentinel: the debate has "spun nearly out of control."
The St. Petersburg Times: the candidates are "fearmongering" and they must "stop trying to exploit the Al-Arian case for political gain and focus on more important issues."
The Tallahassee Democrat: "attack ads have threatened to turn the contest into a referendum on national security" (implying this is a bad thing).

Then there is this insightful comment:

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: "The Martinez-Castor race is now the single dumbest Senate race in America."

Even Tim Russert of NBC, the moderator of a debate between the two candidates, tried to get them to stop their campaign advertising about Al-Arian.

Comment: Why do all these influential voices so disapprove of the Sami Al-Arian debate? Could it be that, along with Betty Castor, they just don't think Islamist terror is all that important? (October 19, 2004)

Related Topics: Conservatives & Liberals, Counter-terrorism, US politics receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.