By Wikipedia As Egypt’s much-anticipated moment of crisis arrived and popular rebellions shook governments across the Middle East, Iran stands as never before at…
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Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American academic, writer, and political commentator who focuses on criticism of Islam and Islamism. Pipes is the founder and director of the Middle East Forum, a think tank, as well as the founder of Campus Watch, a controversial organization which claims to critique "poor scholarship" concerning the Middle East, but which has frequently been characterized as a vehicle for harassing scholars critical of Israel. Pipes has often been characterized as a "conservative" or "neo-conservative", and less often as an "Orientalist" or "neo-Orientalist", who mixes political activism and scholarship. His 2003 nomination by U.S. President George W. Bush to the board of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace was protested by Democratic leaders, Arab-American groups, and civil rights activists, who cited his rightist views and oft-stated belief that force was the most effective remedy to conflict. The Washington Post editorialized his selection as a "cruel joke"; the Bush administration sidestepped the opposition with a recess appointment. Pipes has written or co-written more than a dozen books, and has written columns for, or submitted opinion pieces to, many newspapers across North America. He frequently participates in discussion panels on television, and has lectured prolifically in the U.S. and abroad. He served as an adviser to Rudolph Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. According to The New York Times: "Among his supporters, Mr. Pipes enjoys a heroic status; among his detractors, he is reviled."
