Daniel Pipes tells the truth, and CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper, true to form, slings ad hominems and misrepresentations of what Pipes said — note how criticism of CAIR becomes “a hostile view towards the American Muslim community.” Note also that Hooper said nothing to refute Pipes’ remarks about the “victimization game”; all he did was play it again. “Islamic Group Has Mastered Victimization Game, Critic Says,” by Randy Hall for CNSNews.com, with thanks to DFS:
(CNSNews.com) – The Republican lawmaker who sparked a storm with comments about Muslims and the need to tighten immigration laws is the latest target of an Islamic advocacy group’s “victimization game,” a political analyst said Thursday.
It’s a game that the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has “mastered,” Daniel Pipes, a critic of the group and director of the Middle East Forum, told Cybercast News Service.
CAIR is calling on Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.) to apologize for writing in a letter to constituents that says, “we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt” strict immigration policies.
Pipes said CAIR was “perpetually on the prowl for any incidence of anti-Muslim sentiment, real or imaginary, spontaneous or provoked, major or minor.”
The organization’s goal, he said, was “to make the United States like so many other countries – a place where Muslims, Islam and Islamism cannot be freely discussed.”
“It is imperative for Americans to retain their freedom of speech about Islam — as it exists in relation to other religions — and resist these many demands for remorse.”
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said Thursday the organization had “a long history of disagreement” with Pipes.
“He’s free to have a hostile view towards the American Muslim community,” Hooper told Cybercast News Service.
“He’s free to say, as he did to the American Jewish Congress on Oct. 21, 2001, that the growth and enfranchisement of American Muslims is a threat to this country. He’s free to do all these things, and we’re free to defend against defamatory attacks on our faith and community.”
In his Oct. 2001 address, Pipes said: “I worry very much, from the Jewish point of view, that the presence, and increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims, because they are so much led by an Islamist leadership, that this will present true dangers to American Jews.”
Amplifying later, Pipes said: “You must note that this was spoken to a Jewish audience. I make the same point respectively to audiences of women, gays, civil libertarians, Hindus, Evangelical Christians, atheists, and scholars of Islam, among others, all of whom face ‘true dangers’ as the number of Muslims increases.”