Hatemonger Daniel Pipes: Forget Rev. Wright, Obama is a Muslim!
I guess the Wright story is passe. Daniel Pipes, the one-time academic and now full-time race warrior, is back to proving that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
If only Barack had just said so. If he's a Muslim, he obviously has no serious involvement with a Christian cleric who is, like so many Christians, really into Jesus Christ.
Of course, Pipes -- whose very lucrative business is convincing Jews that all Muslims are out to kill them -- probably hasn't paid any attention to the Wright controversy. Did the White Citizens Council devote attention to, I don't know, Hungarians?
Pipes' business (and I use the word carefully) is libeling Muslims, all Muslims (except those few Uncle Ahmeds he digs up who, for fat fees, go on lecture tours to reveal that all the world's problems are caused by...their fellow Muslims).
It's a nice racket.
Of course, Pipes knows Obama is not Muslim. But he also knows that he's black and it's considerably easier to Muslim bait an African-American named Obama than a caucasian. A boy has got to do what he's got to do. He's got kids to feed (I assume).
But the best part of Pipes' latest piece of race-hate is the day he chose to publish it. Today is Yom Ha Shoah, the day the world (and the State of Israel in particular) commemorates the slaughter of six million Jews for being born Jews.
On this day, of all days, Pipes investigates the circumstances of Obama's birth and childhood to discern if he is or ever was a Muslim.
Is he? In the spirit of Yom Ha Shoah, it is instructive to note that, under the Nazis, one Jewish grandparent made you a Jew even if you were a Catholic priest or a devout Lutheran. Judaism was a bacillus carried in the blood. Using that standard -- and who would do that? -- Obama is a Muslim.
And that means....what? I don't know. Ask ex-Professor Pipes.
Comments (29)
So you guess the Wright story is passe. Excuse me Mr. Rosenberg, but didn't you say the Wright story was over after Obama's Philadelphia speech in March?
May 1, 2008 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Otto, tell us what it is about Obama you don't like. In the spirit of Yom ha Shoah and all. Please.
May 1, 2008 2:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pipes is showing his hand. In fact, he's overplaying it.
I was pleasantly surprised by the talkbacks. Roughly half were pushbacks.
My favorite:
"3. If only KGB were still around and Mr. Pipes and Mr. Obama were living in the old Soviet Union. Mr. Pipes could denounce Obama to authorities for his ideological deviations while he was a little boy.
Jozef - USA (05/01/2008 04:03)"
May 1, 2008 3:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
I did a lot of phone calling for Hillary in PA; I don't have enough fingers and toes to tell you how many people I spoke to who said "I'm not voting for that Muslim!"
Remember, John Q. Public doesn't watch as much news as you do.
May 1, 2008 7:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did you correct them?
Say "No way he's a Muslim"
May 1, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I got really mad a a new york city taxi a few weeks ago. Taxi driver overheard me talking on the phone and a couple of things obvious from the conversation were my being Jewish and my being for Obama. After I hung up had a little conversation about a few things, including the election. He says, "Can't vote for Obama... he's Muslim!!!" Something just snapped in me and I yelled back quite loudly, "That's f***ing bullshit!" conversation continued and when I was getting out in the car, the driver says cheerily, "anytime you need a ride, give me a call! We'll talk politics! I never heard a Jewish girl say f**k before!" The last thing he said amuses me, of course, but I was just so angry at how stuck he was on the Muslim thing. The man had a giant cross hanging in his taxi. Here I was the Jewish girl trying to convince this guy to vote for Obama because he loves Jesus, because it was the most practical argument I could come up with. I'm writing this in response to a post that was in response to a post from a Hillary volunteers... I certainly hope that Hillary volunteers aren't using voter's ignorance about Obama's religion to their advantage.
May 1, 2008 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
For once, I agree with MJ Rosenberg.
Daniel Pipes is a miserable, unspeakable human being whose anti-Muslim views are draped in the guise of protecting Americans, Israelis and us Jews from the perils of contemporary civilization and its Muslim domination.
Read the recent article in the New York Times about his role in the closing of an experimental, and apparently successful Arab-speaking school established in Brooklyn.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28school.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Daniel+Pipes&st=nyt&oref=slogin
BATTLE IN BROOKLYN | A PRINCIPALS RISE AND FALL; Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
BATTLE IN BROOKLYN | A PRINCIPALS RISE AND FALL; Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
...really just begun,” said Daniel Pipes, who directs a conservative research...values in the public domain. Mr. Pipes and others reel off a list of examples...Islamic code of law. The danger, Mr. Pipes says, is that the United States...
April 28, 2008 - By ANDREA ELLIOTT - Front Page
May 1, 2008 8:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
In his successful attempt to block the appointment of the proposed principal of the proposed New York Arabic high school , Pipes referred to it as a madrassa.
On Amy Goodman's Tuesday program I heard a tape of his responseto an interviewer who askedif he actually believed that. He laughed with pleasure and as best I can recall said
May 1, 2008 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
What exactly are we supposed to panic over Obama's pastor for, anyway? I really don't get it. Is the story that Obama is a black supremacist dictator in waiting, like our very own Robert Mugabe? Meanwhile, as our hero compulsively persists in addressing the issue, John McCain can actively solicit the endorsement of John Hagee and Rod Parsly for all the favors of their perverse and electorally significant flock, and that's all good. Just move along, nothing to see here....
May 1, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
No one who buys into a piece of trash journalism like this was ever voting for BO in the first place. Clearly McCain will clean up with bigots and ignorants.
May 1, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, but the trash journalism seaps into the collective unconcious of the nation and well-meaning democrats, who are too busy trying to find jobs and healtcare to really pay attention, get the overall impression that Obama is too controversial - this leads them to vote for Hillary out of general Bush(McCain)-repeat-panic.
May 1, 2008 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Daniel Pipes is nothing but a lying right wing demagogue. Pass the word.
New York Post, Sept 3, 2003, Pipes wrote,
http://www.danielpipes.org/article.php/1236?PHPSESSID=bb43acf1dce2a083f6f940c29c7e84c5
Unless Pipes genuinely believes that conservatives lead the French Socialist Party, Belgian Liberal Party, and the German United Left Party (Schroeder actually quit the Greens a while ago), then Pipes is probably lying, because, in fact....
Pipes is a shameless opportunist, and in no way is he any sort of genuine Jewish or Zionist activist. All Daniel Pipes cares about is advancing the right wing lunatic fringe for fame and profit.
May 1, 2008 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bar Kafka:
I'm not here to defend Pipes. However, it is generally the case that in recent years Europe's politically conservative parties have been far less hostile towards Israel than their socialist counterparts.
This is true of Germany under Merkel, Italy under Berlusconi, France under Sarkozy, Spain under Aznar, as well as Holland and Denmark -- under their conservative govts.
Gone are the days when Shimon Peres - then leader of Israel's Labor party - would travel to the Socialist International's Congress and be warmly embraced by his European fellow socialists.
With the outbreak of the 2nd Intifada and the collapse of the Oslo peace process, the European Left unleashed a torrent of fierce, unrelenting criticism of Israel - often laced with overt anti-Semitic language and imagery, which made most Israelis, incl. many on the Left, recoil with disbelief and sheer disgust.
Pipes may be misusing/abusing this for his own agenda, but it's only possible because most Israelis and Israel-supporters still harbor much mistrust and strong negative feelings towards the EU's liberal elite.
May 1, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nevertheless, iaf, none of it changes the facts as presented above.
May 2, 2008 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bar Kafka:
I wasn't trying to argue with your case against Pipes, since I'm not familiar with the facts. It's not impossible that both Pipes and the Wiesenthal Center are correct, i.e. that the effort was led by the named Lefties, however the votes that have actually decided the issue in the European Parliament were majority conservatives.
My point was that in general propagandists don't succeed unless there exists a receptive environment. In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. population was receptive to believe the accusations of WMD's and support of terrorism leveled against Iraq. Similarly, in response to the EU Left's relentless, systematic demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel, the Israelis and their supporters have become more receptive to Pipes' writings.
While I'm with you in denouncing deceptive scoundrels -- on the Left and on the Right, let's not delude ourselves that they thrive in a vacuum.
May 2, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
this comment is ridiculous. Muslims rioted against the conservative party in France. And while Merkel herself shows no signs of xenophobia, her current German government routinely spies on ordinary muslim organizations which even they consider non-violent. Hardly a month goes by that a Merkel cabinet member, usually Interior Minister Schaueble, doesn't let out some kind of a statement blaming all muslims for terrorism or something similar.
There are certainly some xenophobes in the European socialist parties--but in my considerable experience they socialists support the immigrants and the immigrants the socialists to a much greater degree than any other major party.
May 2, 2008 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's obvious, MJ! Reverend Wright is a Muslim too, under the sway of Louis Farrakhan who has hypnotic mental powers. And his "Christian" Church is really just a Chicago Madrassa.
Can't you see the fifth column at work? They already have one of their "Muslims" in congress. Soon they will control the White House and cede the territory of Israel to Al-Qaeda who we will then surrender too. We will live under Muslim rule! It will be terrible. Do you want chickpeas and Turkish coffee with every meal?
May 1, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Two Muslims in Congress, actually. Andre Carson is as well.
May 2, 2008 6:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
The timing of his muslimophobic remarks about Obama on Yom Ha Shoah is no accident. Pipes is also beating the drums for war with Iran.
May 1, 2008 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I have a friend. She lives in eastern PA. She told me she wasn't going to vote for Obama because he was a Muslim who went to a horrible church. I tried to explain to her that she was going to have to pick at least one of those, but she seemed to have no problem reconciling the two.
She also told me that she wasn't going to vote, but that if she did, it would be for McCain since he's so great on the environment. Needless to say, I did not encourage her to visit the polls.
May 1, 2008 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your friend is an idiot.
I'm sorry to say that to you, because you call her a friend, and perhaps she is kind and supportive of you.
But seriously, she's mentally deficient; not because of her political leanings or because of her biases. I say this because she thinks Muslims go to "church" and because McCain's voting record on environmental issues is easily accessible in the public record and shows him to be, for the most part, deaf to environmental concerns.
May 1, 2008 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortuntely the mentally deficient are allowed to vote. Some of them are even allowed to be president. Not that I have anybody in particular in mind.
May 1, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I fear that the Bush voters will go for McCain this Fall...:( History repeats itself, over and over, since 2000.
May 1, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
It will always be extremely difficult to get a Democrat elected as president. Republicans will always promise another tax cut, another war of revenge, and give enough hints that they can solve the African American problem, that almost half of our voters will vote Republican.
Bush is not running for President now, so all of the negative feelings against him will not be in play this November.
Our best hope is that Obama can trim off some of the border states from the Republicans, largely due to young voters and African American voters.
May 1, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
hoppycalif2 writes:
Funny how such political amnesia and non-transference works so well - on the Repug side.
The Dems had no problem in 2000 with punishing Al Gore for Bill Clinton's many sins, real or perceived, thus giving us eight glorious years of Nero Bush and Caligula Cheney.
May 1, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank goodnes he's an "ex", at least he's got to gather his own crowd to branwash them.
May 1, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pipes, naturally, had a hand in this tragic piece of buffoonery as well.
May 1, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, but the trash journalism seaps into the collective unconcious of the nation and well-meaning democrats, who are too busy trying to find jobs and healtcare to really pay attention, get the overall impression that Obama is too controversial - this leads them to vote for Hillary out of general Bush(McCain)-repeat-panic.
May 1, 2008 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I did. Until they started to argue with me.
But of course there is a limit; since I was calling to get people for Hillary, I wasn't about to try to encourage them to vote for Obama in the primary. ;)
May 1, 2008 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink