Why I Am Leaving This Country: Daniel Pipes and the Failure of Democracy

[Tinoire]

Why I Am Leaving This Country: Daniel Pipes and the Failure of Democracy in America

By Thomas Nagy

It is instructive to know how the wonderful democracy that the U.S. is exporting through its own very real WMD’s actually works. There are worse governments than the US “democracy,” but surely there are better ones, and US “democracy” is not worth exporting or imposing on anyone except the most desperate.

It is necessary to give the context to my small, modest insight into the reality of American democracy.

It has to do with Dr. Daniel Pipes.

Dr. Daniel Pipes is a rather belligerent fellow who has been wonderfully successful in intimidating the vast majority of US professors into near total silence despite: (1) two major wars that are getting progressively worse (from the official US viewpoint), (2) a threatened nuclear war with North Korea that has the potential of killing us all, down to the cockroaches that have amazing resilience to radiation, and (3) a domestic economic crisis spinning out of control thanks to the insane quest for world dominance and the maniacal looting of the US by the chums of Bush, the First and Bush, the Second.

<snip>

The good Dr. Pipes identified the six leading university professor villains in the US—I'm number 6 in a column in the New York Post, a newspaper that is perhaps just a few steps up from pure trash, but one which is widely read and distributed—I can get it easily here in Washington, D.C. In the column, Pipes falsely accused me, among other things, of “providing aid to the Saddam regime.”

<snip>

http://www.muslimwakeup.com/mainarchive/000164.html#more

[sasquatch]

1. Don't leave keep fighting

dammit the facist gas bags at the post can't win this country if we grab our verbal pitchforks and torches and destroy their evil riegn.

IT IS TIME TO STAND UP TO THESE ASSHOLES BECAUSE IF WE DON'T THEY'LL SHIT ALLOVER THE PLACE.

[Tinoire]

2. Exactly how I feel

The Right has GOT to be stopped!

[IndianaGreen]

5. I am thinking Canada if Bush is selected again in 2004

Vancouver looks good!

Of course, if push comes to shove, I can always go to Israel. Wouldn't that be a riot, me posting in DU from Israel?

Should I tell the good news to our friends in the FA/IP forum?

[JackSwift]

3. Don't let the dorr hit you in the ass on the way out

some things are worth fighting and dying for.

[IndianaGreen]

17. Nothing is worth dying for

and everything is worth living for.

Do you think that this sickness of nationalism and jingoism that has infected our countrymen will just go away, like a headache. No, it will not go away, even if there is a Democrat in the White House, it will linger and fester.

Only the inevitable fall that all empires experience will put an end to it.

[berry]

4. Prof. Nagy is in good company with Chomsky and Foer et al.

Pipes is a hate-monger and a war-monger. That he has been appointed to any position in an institute of peace is sickening. Probably his job is to gut the institute from the inside. The SOP of the RW wrecking crew.

Too bad Prof. Nagy is leaving, and too bad Kennedy's office couldn't help him. This is a man who became an American citizen in 1954 wtih presumably high hopes. That he has decided to bag it says a lot (about America). But he will continue to work for peace in Canada, and he has the right to look for a congenial place to live. He's done more than most--having travelled to Iraq before the war, and trying desperately to stop the "pre-emptive" war.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Depressing news. Daniel Pipes is a real piece of work.

:-( The times we live in. :-(

[Skittles]

7. I can't respect someone

who would RUN rather than FIGHT.

[newyorican]

8. But only a fool

would locate his base of operations inside of hostile territory.

[Tinoire]

9. I can...

I don't know if you read the snipped parts of the article

Continuing to teach in the US is no longer an option for me, particularly since evidently I will have no chance to clear my name before Congress.

So I am moving to Canada in a few days where I will apply for citizenship and try to rebuild my 20-year university career in a functioning democracy.

The man has been black-balled for “providing aid to the Saddam regime.” I shudder to think of the implications of that in this day and age.

There are already several Muslim Professors who have lost their jobs for being "terrorist supporters" and can't feed their families.
(http://www.refuseandresist.org/detentions/art.php?aid=609 ). There are Muslims disappearing into the hell-holes of unknown prisons in the US and their families don't even know where they are since the US government is no longer under any obligation to inform families of the "detentions".

This man has at least one child- a gorgeous little boy I once saw in a picture. What would you do? Stay and fight until they come take you away in the middle of the night to herd you off to a detention camp and let your family become destitute? Or go across the border where they still have a democracy and fight from there?

Call me chicken-shit but I'd go to Canada too. You can fight from there. The man tried to fight from here and found out he had no rights, that not even our Democratic leadership would help.

I don't think we're aware enough of the fear US Muslims live in. I lived in a country where people had this fear of disappearing in the middle of the night and it's horrible! You're in fear day and night, thinking that at any moment you could be snatched and hauled away. It's so easy for us to say they should stay and fight when we're not the ones experiencing the fear.

Even the swarthy-looking non Muslims are being affected by this fear- did you read the story about the Hindu pizza-delivery guy who was beaten to a pulp? I am so ashamed that this is where Bush has taken us, with the tacit approval of the silent majority.

Peace Skittles

the night of June 22nd, Saurabh Bhalerao, a U Mass Dartmouth student attempted to deliver a pizza to a New Bedford, apartment. When the door opened, Bhalerao, 24, was dragged into a room where four men first attempted to rob him. Then mistaking Bhalerao for a Muslim, the men began beating him and burning him with cigarettes, and told him to "go back to Iraq." Saurabh Bhalerao pleaded that he was an Indian and a Hindu but to no avail. The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth graduate student was beaten, burned with cigarettes, gagged and ultimately stabbed and bound with rope, forced into the trunk of his own car and driven by the men to nearby Fairhaven. During the ride, Bhalerao managed to free himself and when the men stopped and opened the trunk, he attacked one of them with a hammer. While attempting to flee, one man stabbed him with a steak knife. Later two girls stopped their car to pick him up and then called the police. Taken to a Rhode Island hospital, he is now recuperating at his Dartmouth home.
Police later arrested Christopher Pereria, Ryan Marsh, and Tyrell Tavares, three of the suspects and a fourth man is now in custody.
http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=1017

The attackers beat and kicked Saurabh so badly that they broke the bones in his face.
http://www.nriol.com/content/snippets/snippet873.html


---
WASHINGTON, DC -- "The mass detention of foreign-born Muslims in California deserves condemnation from every American who cares about human rights and equal treatment under the law," said Ben Manski, a Wisconsin Green and member of the Steering Committee of the Green Party of the United States.
Greens called on the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to release the hundreds of detained Iranian and Arab men and boys immediately and demanded that Attorney General John Ashcroft end the Justice Department's "Special Registration" program, which Greens say will do nothing to deter future terrorist acts.

Several hundred -- possibly over a thousand -- foreign-born Muslims, mostly Iranian, are reportedly being held and face deportation; there are reports of inhumane conditions in detention centers in Southern California, including crowded and freezing cells, strip searches, shackles, and denial of access to lawyers. "Those who showed up to register in California did so voluntarily and in willingness to comply with the law -- and many were immediately arrested," said Beth Moore Haines, Media Coordinator of the Green Party of California. "The fear of arrest will surely drive many foreign-born Muslims who are here legally into hiding. Would-be terrorists will also go underground, making it less likely that they'll be discovered."

<snip>

"These detentions and the dubious rhetoric about homeland security used to justify them recall the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II," said Nancy Allen, a Maine Green and member of the national party's Media Committee. "Nearly 70 years ago, another nation used language like 'Special Registration' -- when all Jews were required to register in Nazi Germany."

<snip>
http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20030107052955394.html

Muslims Concerned Over Arrest of Florida Professor

Muslims Concerned Over Arrest of Florida Professor NCM Civil Liberties Watch The Council on American-Islamic Relations, Feb 20, 2003

WASHINGTON - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today expressed deep concern over the arrest of a Muslim professor in Florida who has been under investigation for a number of years without any evidence of wrongdoing being presented.

University of South Florida (USF) Professor Sami Al-Arian was arrested under sealed indictment early Thursday and faces a court hearing this afternoon.

Al-Arian has long been the target of those seeking to tie him to Middle Eastern terrorism. He came under intense scrutiny after a 2001 appearance on Fox New's "O'Reilly Factor." Following that appearance, USF sought to have him removed from his teaching position.

"We are very concerned that the government would bring charges after investigating an individual for many years without offering any evidence of criminal activity. This action could leave the impression that Al-Arian's arrest is based on political considerations, not legitimate national security concerns," said CAIR Board Chairman Omar Ahmad.

Ahmad said that if the government has a case against Al-Arian, it should be presented in open court and not hidden using secret evidence or closed hearings.

http://www.refuseandresist.org/detentions/art.php?aid=609

----

Check out the Arab American Institute Foundation Report Hate Incident Report for 2001- it's only gotten worse.

---

from the April 10, 2003 edition of the Christian Science Monitor

Rise in hate crimes worries Arab-Americans

<snip>

Across the country, the past few weeks have been an uneasy time for Arab-Americans. The murders are just one part of a disturbing uptick in violent hate crimes that have worried Arab-American groups - from the Afghan man set on fire in his Indianapolis restaurant to the Pakistani who was beaten unconscious in a New Jersey parking lot, as his two attackers hurled insults to Islam.

Another, more immediate concern for many Arab-Americans is increased surveillance and profiling. They worry about getting deported on a technicality, or finding themselves unwitting terrorist suspects in a nightmarish Kafkaesque scenario. "I'm afraid of giving out my number and having it put in someone's phone book," says Shaker Lashuel, a soft-spoken schoolteacher from Yemen who has lived in the US for 16 years. "It's guilt by association."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0410/p01s03-ussc.html

[Skittles]

11. I don't have children

I'd stay and fight. I won't let these fascists run me out of MY COUNTRY.

[Tinoire]

13. I like to think I'd stay and fight which is why I'm still here

though I'm not sure what I'd really do. Hard to imagine.

I know a lot of the German Jews said the same thing and stayed.

Not having children like you and me certainly makes it easier... I hope we never have to make that decision.

[Darranar]

12. This is really horrible and intolerable...

The USA, supposedly the most moral and humanitarian country in the whole world, imprisoning its own people like this? Oh, my.

[Tinoire]

15. Uh Darranar

You will never hear me say that the USA is the most moral and humanitarian country in the world. I had the poverty of Appalachia thrist into my face as a child- somethings you never forget.

I give my country very low marks on that one.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Columbia, Haiti, Afghanistan... Absolute zeros...

I would say that the people in America are very humanitarian and you see that generosity anytime there's a disaster somewhere and people give, give, give but our government? A big fat 0. This one? Negative numbers my friend.

Tell me I'm too young to be this cynical.

[Ardee]

14. This post is very important

in that it highlights the real damage that this administration is doing to these united states. Even people I once thought of as liberals are clamoring for ending immigration to these shores from "those areas of the world" and prejudice and bias are on the rise here.

The very fabric of what america supposedly stands for is undergoing dramatic change and where once I thought we were making good progress in combating racism I now see its increase. We can all thank Bush and company for this!

[Tinoire]

16. We sure can!

Thank Bush and his administration I mean!

The closer I look at their plan, the more I see it's supposed to boil down to Christian vs Muslim vs Jew with all three groups hating and blaming each other alternatively.

I saw a thread somewhere today about a lynching! A lynching in the US in the 21st century?! I didn't even have the heart to open it!

We have regressed so quickly! When will we remember that it's so much easier to love than it is to hate?

Peace

[bpilgrim]

10. wow

i feel your pain Dr. Nagy

thanks for speaking out :toast:

peace