The University of Wisconsin at Madison is proud to present … at the Great Hall of our very own historical Memorial Union … 7:30 … Tuesday Night … in the name of the Wisconsin idea … (all because some rich alum spent $5,000 to buy off the Wisconsin Union Directorate) … please welcome … as part of the Spotlight Series … Daniel Pipes.
That’s what a few hundred Madisonians got to see Tuesday night. Daniel Pipes on his tour across the country reporting his “expertise” on everything from the war on terrorism to the Arab-Israeli conflict. An apologist for Israel, a well known anti-Muslim and a surface-deep analyst of all things terrorism, Pipes spewed half-truths, awful analysis and, worst of all, made the last week hell for Muslim, Arab and anti-hate activists on this campus.
Knowing that the university legitimizes the likes of Pipes led concerned students to make a choice. Either ignore Pipes and pretend like his marginal views don’t matter, or mobilize against the threat of the legitimization of his racist agenda. The latter was the correct decision. By allowing Pipes to have the stage in the “Spotlight Series,” WUD legitimized Pipes’ opinions in the name of promoting free speech. By calling for the protection of Pipes’ right to have the stage, WUD, whether they meant to or not, accepts and promotes an atmosphere on our campus that is hostile to Arabs. To make issues worse, consider why Pipes was ever originally thought of.
A rich alum paid $5,000 to secure the “Spotlight” for Pipes or any of the donor’s three recommended conservative speakers. A source at WUD verified the donation and that the other two speakers declined because of Madison’s liberal environment. What does this say about the ability of WUD to provide a fair atmosphere of debate if they aren’t even principled enough to turn down a bribe from right-wing alumni that can’t even win the political argument without the flash of a checkbook?
Pipes has been speaking all over the country, and it seems that more often than the content of his discussion, the newsworthy event is the protests that follow him. Is it because us lefties are opposed to free speech? Hardly! Wouldn’t you mobilize against a Klansman or a neo-nazi coming to speak on our campus? Protection of Muslims’ rights is not as celebrated as those for African Americans and Jews and that’s all the more reason we should fight to ensure the protection of those rights. That means shouting down such bigots from the floor, from the stage, from every spotlight no matter how bright or dim.
Who is Daniel Pipes to make the judgments he does? His discussion on militant versus moderate Islam is nothing but a tactic to push Muslims into a defensive position. It is a condescending, judgmental, ignorant and thoroughly disgusting attempt to force Arabs to prove themselves “moderate.” If you’re brown, prove that you’re not a militant brown. If you’re Muslim, prove that you’re not a militant Muslim. And if you don’t, then expect house calls. And if you dare fight back expect an FBI file.
And what on earth does Pipes mean by moderate? Moderate to Pipes means don’t challenge the United State’s legitimacy in Iraq, Afghanistan, of the settlements in Palestine, and don’t challenge the State of Israel. If you dare challenge our right-wing agenda in any way, we will draw a direct link between you and Osama Bin Ladin or the axis of evil; ahh fuck it, we’ll just throw you in detainment in Guantanamo Bay, it’s not like you even have the right to a trial anymore anyway.
So I very strongly recommend that the folks at WUD issue an apology for having offered the spotlight to Pipes and made so many Madison citizens so uncomfortable to sit through that.
Christopher Dols is a sophomore and a member of the International Socialist Organization.
