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Pipes deals angry crowd { April 30 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2003:04:30:265861:LOCAL/WISCONSINhttp://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2003:04:30:265861:LOCAL/WISCONSIN
Pipes Deals With Angry Crowd At Uw Talk
Controversial Scholar Says Militant Islamism Is The Enemy Of United States.
Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL/WISCONSIN :: B1
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Lisa Schuetz Wisconsin State Journal
It's likely that controversial scholar Daniel Pipes -- called "the nation's leading Islamophobe" by some -- won't look back on his past two days in Wisconsin with affection.
On Monday, protesters repeatedly interrupted his speech to 300 at a Milwaukee-area high school. And on Tuesday at the Memorial Union, Pipes faced a crowd of 400, many armed with protest signs and angry comments.
In early April, President Bush nominated Pipes, head of the Philadelphia think tank called the Middle East Forum, to the board of the United States Institute of Peace. But many Arab-American groups are protesting the nomination, saying his stand on Islamic terrorists smears Muslims worldwide.
He was in Madison at the invitation of campus groups hoping to cultivate a dialogue on Islam and Middle East issues.
But Pipes, also a columnist for the New York Post and the author of "Militant Islam Reaches America," refused the Wisconsin Union Directorate's request to speak in a point-counterpoint format with Charles Hirschkind, a UW-Madison assistant professor.
Instead, Pipes spoke alone on stage for 25 minutes. His speech was followed by a 45-minute question-and-answer period, which got nasty on both sides of the microphone.
Pipes repeated his theory that America's enemy is militant Islamism, a terroristic version of Islam. And not until, as in World War II or the Cold War, the societies in which the ideology took hold are rebuilt, will the enemy be defeated. The rebuilding must be done by those who are also the problem's solution: moderate Muslims, he said.
Although the audience -- many from the Muslim community -- listened politely initially, many got angry when he revealed his views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The conflict, he said, "is over the existence or the destruction of the state of Israel," not land disputes or power struggles. Not until Palestinians "come to terms with the existence of Israel" will they be able to gain their own peace.
As he left the stage, Pipes was booed and applauded.
Carolyn Treeby, an organizer of the event, said Pipes' appearance was a success, despite the booing and shouting.
"We do think it's important to present differing viewpoints," she said. "Look at all the discussion it created."
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