CAIR says Specter has backed out of Islamophobic conference

by on May 18, 2009 7

This just in, and it's good news:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has canceled a scheduled appearance at an “anti-Islam” conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by a right-wing think tank headed by Daniel Pipes, who is regarded by many Muslims as one of the nation’s leading Islamophobes.

We noted the speaking engagement last week. I can't find a confirmation of this report. CAIR says Specter cited "scheduling" conflict. Huh. (Thanks to Ali Gharib for headsup.)

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel Lobby, Middle East, US Politics

{ 7 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. LeaNder22 says:
    May 18, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    Amazing, I hadn't noticed yet. But I guess we are all "Islamists now"? Like New Frontiers in Israel? Warfare, hard to get war out of their heads:

    Islamists have launched a two-pronged effort to suppress free discourse on such subjects as Islam, radical Islam, terrorism, and terrorist funding: * By filing predatory lawsuits. * By passing “hate speech” and defamation laws. Victims of these “lawfare” attacks have included the famous and the obscure, politicians, journalists, analysts and plain citizens. This inhibition has great consequences, for when discussion of Islam and terrorism are limited, radical Islam is empowered and Western civilization is imperiled

    How does Daniel Pipes concile this position with fighting antisemitism. Or has he actually arrived at the solution that "hate speech" isn't a danger anymore?

  2. DICKERSON3870 says:
    May 19, 2009 at 4:51 am

    *RE: How does Daniel Pipes concile this position with fighting antisemitism. Or has he actually arrived at the solution that "hate speech" isn't a danger anymore? (EXCERPT FROM PAGE 86) ….2. Highly Compartmentalized Minds As I said earlier, authoritarians’ ideas are poorly integrated with one another. It’s as if each idea is stored in a file that can be called up and used when the authoritarian wishes, even though another of his ideas–stored in a different file– basically contradicts it. We all have some inconsistencies in our thinking, but authoritarians can stupify you with the inconsistency of their ideas. Thus they may say they are proud to live in a country that guarantees freedom of speech, but another file holds, “My country, love it or leave it.” The ideas were copied from trusted sources, often as sayings, but the authoritarian has never “merged files” to see how well they all fit together….. SEE: "The Authoritarians" (261 pages), by Bob Altemeyer, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba Chapter 1 Who Are the Authoritarian Followers? Chapter 2 The Roots of Authoritarian Aggression, and Authoritarianism Itself Chapter 3 How Authoritarian Followers Think Chapter 4 Authoritarian Followers and Religious Fundamentalism Chapter 5 Authoritarian Leaders Chapter 6 Authoritarianism and Politics Chapter 7 What's To Be Done? FREE PDF DOWNLOAD – http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAut... ALTERNATE SITE – http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAut...

  3. LeaNder says:
    May 19, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    Thanks, Dickerson.

  4. RowanBerkeley says:
    May 19, 2009 at 5:10 pm

    i think people who use other peoples' names (even with trivial alterations) should be prevented from doing so.

  5. Craig says:
    May 19, 2009 at 7:11 pm

    Should it really be called Islamophobia when they're trying to kill us and commit genocide against an entire nation of people (Jews) ? And have been for nearly 100 years (going back to the ethnic cleansing of Jews in 1929)

  6. RowanBerkeley says:
    May 19, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    wonder why?

  7. rmokhtar says:
    May 22, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    A lot of what Daniel Pipes writes and speaks of is outright disinformation and distortion anyway….IMHO.

Leave a Reply