Copyright 2009 DanielPipes.org Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:15:27 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.danielpipes.org/blog webmaster@danielpipes.org en-us Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/cair-distributes-100000-korans-overtly-proselytizes.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/cair-distributes-100000-korans-overtly-proselytizes.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST The Hamas-founded Council on American-Islamic Relations has long pretended to be a civil rights organization, comparing itself at times to the NAACP, but a close look at its record reveals the real CAIR agenda to be – in common with all Islamists – promoting the Shari'a. This can be achieved two ways. The more circuitous method influences American public opinion through the educational system, the media, the arts, the courts, and the political process. The more direct method converts Americans Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/conspiracy-theories-in-irans-unrest.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/conspiracy-theories-in-irans-unrest.html Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST "Iran is the world's most conspiracy-minded country" I declared in my book, The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. An entire chapter of that study focused on the Islamic revolution of 1978-79, documenting how "Regardless of political complexion, Iranians interpret the revolution not as an act of will but as the manifestation of mysterious forces. They debate less the causes of the upheaval than the identity of those forces." Another chapter took up the Iran-Iraq war. In both cases, I Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/ahmadinejad-threatens-obama.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/ahmadinejad-threatens-obama.html Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST Nearly lost in the exchange of invective between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Barack Obama is the former warning to put the latter on trial. Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin offer details at "Iran's President Rebukes Obama; Candidates Reject Election Review" in the Washington Post today. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/the-national-jewish-democratic-council-and-me.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/the-national-jewish-democratic-council-and-me.html Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST Back in February 2008, in the thick of the U.S. presidential primaries, Ira N. Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Democratic party's Jewish outreach organization, castigated me in the Philadelphia Jewish Voice as a "conservative flack," called my writings on Barack Obama having been raised a Muslim "ridiculous and offensive," and characterized my work as a "back-alley political mugging." Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/washington-to-tehran-you-cant-come-to-my-birthday-party.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/washington-to-tehran-you-cant-come-to-my-birthday-party.html Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST Iranians bravely take the streets by the hundreds of thousands, confronting the police, the Pasdaran, and the basiji thugs of the Islamic republic – and what, other than words, does the Obama administration actually do to respond to these momentous events? It disinvites Iranian diplomats from the July 4 festivities to be held at U.S. embassies, consulates, and missions. I kid you not. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/bibliography-my-writings-on-the-mujahedeen-e-khalq.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/bibliography-my-writings-on-the-mujahedeen-e-khalq.html Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST Like many other Middle East analysts, I for many years kept my distance from the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, an Iranian opposition group. But I changed my mind in 1993, on receipt of Islamic Fundamentalism: The New Global Threat (Washington, D.C.: Seven Locks Press, 1993) by Mohammad Mohaddessin, a foreign affairs specialist for the organization. His book showed me that the MeK could be a useful and important ally in the common effort against the Islamic Republic of Iran; the fact that the mullahs so Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/ahmadinejad-or-mousavi.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/ahmadinejad-or-mousavi.html Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST A throwaway line of mine at the Heritage Foundation on June 3 has turned into a minor internet sensation. Here it is, as presented by the left-wing journalist who broke the story: "I'm sometimes asked who I would vote for if I were enfranchised in this election, and I think that, with due hesitance, I would vote for Ahmadinejad," Pipes said. The reason, Pipes went on, is that he would "prefer to have an enemy who's forthright and obvious, who wakes people up with his outlandish statements." Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/assessing-binyamin-netanyahus-speech-at-bar-ilan-university.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/assessing-binyamin-netanyahus-speech-at-bar-ilan-university.html Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST In a major speech today at the Begin-Sadat Center of Bar-Ilan University, Binyamin Netanyahu laid out his vision to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. In brief, it's a fine speech, making many needed points, but it fails on the critical point of prematurely accepting a Palestinian state. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/assessing-the-iranian-election.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/assessing-the-iranian-election.html Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST Better put, the Iranian "selection," as the exercise yesterday appears to have been window dressing for Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i, the real power in Iran, to re-appoint Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. According to the authorities, Ahmadinejad received 63 percent of the vote, Mir-Hossein Mousavi 35 percent, and the remaining two candidates each about 1 percent. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/rooting-for-ahmadinejad.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/rooting-for-ahmadinejad.html Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:52:00 EST The heart and the head sometimes go in different directions, and they do for me today as Iranians go to the polls to vote in their country's semi-legitimate presidential elections. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/fulsome-us-government-praise-for-unrwa.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/fulsome-us-government-praise-for-unrwa.html Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST According to WAFA, the PLO news agency, not only did the U.S. taxpayer today contribute $55.3 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, bringing the total 2009 U.S. contribution to UNRWA to $154.5 million, but Liana Brooks-Rubin, head of the U.S. delegation to the the bi-annual meeting in Amman of the Advisory Commission for UNRWA, had some very kind words to say about the agency. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/islam-in-obamas-cairo-speech.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/islam-in-obamas-cairo-speech.html Thu, 4 Jun 2009 10:59:00 EST Barack Obama took the official U.S. discussion of Islam to new heights by traveling to Cairo today and delivering a highly publicized speech to the Muslim world, formally titled "Remarks by the President on a New Beginning." Noteworthy elements in it included (along with my comments): Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/assessing-obamas-cairo-speech.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/06/assessing-obamas-cairo-speech.html Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST Barack Obama's mention of "seven million American Muslims" in the course of his rambling and complex six-thousand-word address to the Muslim world from Cairo symbolizes the whole message. Study after study has found that demographic figure about three times too high. But Islamist organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America relentlessly promote the notion of seven or even ten million American Muslims. Obama's accepting their version Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/05/a-history-of-muslim-terrorism-against-jews-in-the-united.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/05/a-history-of-muslim-terrorism-against-jews-in-the-united.html Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 EST The arrest yesterday of four would-be jihadis before they could attack two synagogues in New York City brings to mind a long list of terrorist assaults in the United States by Muslims on Jews. These began in 1977 and have continued regularly since, as suggested by the following list of major incidents (ignoring lesser ones that did damage only to property, such a series of attacks on Chicago-area synagogues): Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/05/the-jews-are-going-the-arabs-are-coming.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/05/the-jews-are-going-the-arabs-are-coming.html Sun, 17 May 2009 23:13:00 EST That phrase comes from an analysis of settlement patterns in "Little Israel" (i.e. pre-1967 Israel) by Nadav Shragai in Ha'aretz, titled "Settling Jaffa, Acre, Lod and Ramle." Shragai finds that Israel is losing its grip on these cities with mixed Arab-Jewish populations: Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/dhimmitude-at-british-midland-airways.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/dhimmitude-at-british-midland-airways.html Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST British Midland Airways Limited, known as BMI, has taken two steps toward Islamization recently that should set off alarm bells. Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/finding-rashad-khalifas-killer.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/finding-rashad-khalifas-killer.html Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST One of the first killings on U.S. soil connected to the Islamic religion took place in 1990. Here is how Khalid Durán and I described it in 1993 in Muslims in the West: Can Conflict Be Averted?: Rashad Khalifa, 55 years old at the time of his death, was Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/drag-racing-vs-islamic-civilization.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/drag-racing-vs-islamic-civilization.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST In an amusing article, "Drag Racing's Patron Sheik: Speed-Crazy Prince From Qatar Spends Millions in Bid to Dominate Sport; Sushi at the Dragstrip," Matthew Futterman writes in the Wall Street Journal about Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani, 22, a son of the emir of Qatar, and his well-funded love for car-racing. The most important figure in drag racing this year isn't some good-ol' boy who grew up hot-rodding around the sport's birthplace in southern California. … A drag-racing fanatic since Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/bibliography-my-writings-on-left-right-and-islamists.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/bibliography-my-writings-on-left-right-and-islamists.html Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:04:00 EST I am especially interested in the topic of warm Leftist-Islamist relations, but also with their bad relations and the Right's connections to Islamists. Here, with later writings added as required, is a listing of my writings on these topics: Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/islamists-and-the-left-working-together-in-muslim-majority.html http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/04/islamists-and-the-left-working-together-in-muslim-majority.html Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST The Iranian revolution of 1978-79 influenced relations between Islamists and the Left in two ways: Muslim-majority countries: The falling out of Khomeini and the Tudeh (communist) party created bad relations. For a recent example: If one opposes the Islamist AK Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) in Turkey, one votes for a leftist party. The West: Michel Foucault's delighted response to an actual revolution brought the two together. For a recent example: The Socialist Party in Belgium now