And then they came for . . . all of us . . . Betsy

How Daniel Pipes Destroyed a New York City Principal
by DowneastDem

Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 05:43:24 AM PDT

The New York Times has a cautionary tale of how mainstream hate masquerading as patriotism can destroy projects designed to promote peace and understanding. The front-page article - Her Dream, Branded as a Threat - is a sad tale of an idealistic educator whose vision of a school for teaching NY City kids Arabic was ruined by a hate campaign organized by the well-known neoconservative "scholar" Daniel Pipes.

Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public school like no other in New York City. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent in the language and groomed for the country’s elite colleges. They would be ready, in Ms. Almontaser’s words, to become "ambassadors of peace and hope."

But Ms. Almontaser was soon to learn that a very powerful group in New York, and in America as a nation, has no interest in promoting peace and hope. On the contrary, its mission is to foster fear and hate:

In newspaper articles and Internet postings, on television and talk radio, Ms. Almontaser was branded a "radical," a "jihadist" and a "9/11 denier." She stood accused of harboring unpatriotic leanings and of secretly planning to proselytize her students. Despite Ms. Almontaser’s longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate, her critics quickly succeeded in recasting her image.

Who led the charge to smear Debbie Almontaser? None other than Harvard-educated Daniel Pipes - the well-known "expert" on Islamicism. Pipes began his efforts to kill the school with an op/ed in the neoconservative New York Sun:

Conceptually, such a school could be "marvelous," Mr. Pipes wrote, but in practice, it was certain to be problematic. "Arabic-language instruction is inevitably laden with Pan-Arabist and Islamist baggage," he wrote, referring to the school as a madrassa, which means school in Arabic but, in the West, carries the implication of Islamic teaching.

Continued . . . .
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/28/75357/1269/743/504708

Also, see:
Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
By ANDREA ELLIOTT
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28school.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin