Rustling in the ivory tower...

For those who don't know him, Daniel Pipes has been a pretty influential talking head as an expert on the Middle East and Islam (another thing I blame on the al-Qaeda crew) since 9/11. His main schbeel is that individual Muslims in the US should be seen as a potential threat, and Muslim circles and mosques should be the focus of Homeland Security's intelligence gathering (as if they're not); and that Muslim groups, associations, and mosques should be infiltrated and bugged or whatever his James Bond instincts deem appropriate. In fact, if you noticed my post about the Cornell study, I can add that Pipes is happy that 44% of Americans agree with him, but UNhappy that the percentage is so low. His last project was arguing that the internment of the Japanese in the US in WWII was actually a national security necessity, given the intelligence of the time and the supposed actions of 2 Japanese Americans in Hawaii who aided the Japanese military. Currently, he's working on a 'study' for the Bush administration about that...or at least I think he is.


Whether you know Pipes or not, the links will take you to an interesting academic debate between Daniel Pipes and Irfan Khawaja, a Professor of Philosophy at the College of New Jersey. It's notable for two reasons:

1. Rarely have I seen such an objective and thorough analysis of Pipes' claims and rhetoric. Usually it's more of a shouting match between the far right American-Israeli coalition kids who back him against the 'leftist' civil rights groups and Arabs (and Americans and Jewish people, and anyone with a brain).

2. Pipes is actually compelled to respond to the criticisms, which he never does (as he even states in his response to Khawaja). Who would have thought?


The beginning...Daniel Pipes: Both Right and Wrong

Khawaja's rebuttal & the end...Irfan Khawaja - Response to Daniel Pipes.

Enjoy.