For such a controversial figure, Daniel Pipes’ U of T lecture turned out to be pretty tame.
Prior to Pipes’s lecture, on the subject of “Radical Islam and the War on Terror,” at Brennan Hall last Tuesday, 80 U of T professors wrote an open letter to The Varsity condemning Pipes and his talk. The letter accused Pipes of using “freedom of speech in order to restrict the academic freedom of those whom he attacks” and of “xenophobic, racist and sexist speech.”
Another flyer circulated around campus accusing Pipes of believing in ‘racial profiling’ and featured a picture of a KKK member and a photo of Pipes, both with lines drawn through them.
Pipes brushed off the controversy with smiles and laughs at his lecture at St. Mike’s on March 29. He said that the professors hadn’t done their homework.
“This is the shoddy scholarship Campus Watch is out to expose,” he said.
Campus Watch is an organization headed by Pipes that monitors and criticizes Middle East scholarship at North American universities. Pipes said that academics should not be threatened by Campus Watch, as he does not have the power to limit academic freedom of speech, and only wishes to provide a counterpoint to what he sees as the current academic orthodoxy.
The Middle East Forum at U of T, the group which hosted the lecture, is also an offshoot of Pipes’s efforts.
Pipes, and the Middle East Forum, believe that North America should take a special interest in affairs in the Middle East. This includes the rise of radical Islam, which is the cause, Pipes said, of the September 11 attacks and our current “war on terror.”
Radical Islam, which is only practiced by 10-15% of Muslims, is a relatively new phenomenon with roots in the 1920s, Pipes told his audience.
“The general response to these attacks were to see them as crimes, not to see them as warfare,” said Pipes, referring to attacks on Westerners in the past three decades.
Neither, he contended, has the response since 9/11 been any better. While the West has responded to the violent side of radical Islam, Pipes said, “It is more the non-violent side of Islam that is more dangerous, particularly for us in the West.” ‘Islamists,’ as Pipes refers to radical Muslims, are working in our media, lobbying in our government and influencing our schools. The only way to defeat this radical strain, he said, is to counter it in kind, with ideology.
“The goal is to marginalize it, like fascism and communism,” said Pipes. “The second goal is to strengthen moderate Islam.”
Westerners must then work to help moderate Muslims, he said. “Muslims in the end must convince each other there’s another way. We on the outside can only help them,” said Pipes, who also cautioned that the enemy is not Islam, only radical Islam.
A question-and-answer period followed the lecture. The audience was strongly warned to provide no ‘speeches’ or ‘lists of facts’ and to only ask 15- to 30-second questions. The audience members who spoke were mostly in support of Pipes.
One questioner asked Pipes what students should do when a course entitled ‘Symbols of Evil’ included a book on Palestine. Pipes mentioned Campus Watch but refused to comment further. Pipes is a supporter of complete military victory in the Middle East by Israel.
Another audience member asked Pipes why he is accused of being a racist. He responded that the focus of his work is not on race but political ideology.
“This appellation of being called a racist is amusing,” he said, “since there’s no element of race in this discussion.”
The evening ended in confusion as those with remaining questions flocked to the book-signing table where Pipes was stationed.
