Islamists in Canada Cave to Rule of Law

Most readers of this blog probably know of the work of Daniel Pipes, founder and director of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. For years, Pipes has spoken and written about the threat Islamists pose to the US and the world. Son of the noted Harvard historian of Russian, Richard Pipes, and a scholar of the Middle East, Dan Pipes has taken the intellectual fight straight to Islamists and their Western (usually academic) apologists.

Needless to say, standing up to thugs has its risks, not the least of which is the creation of mendacious stories about Pipes's thoughts, his character, and his history. As he explains in this essay, however, not every such tale ends predictably, i.e., with the liars refusing to examine evidence that undermines their charges:

Wahida Valiante of the Canadian Islamic Congress, an Ontario-based group, on April 29, 2005, wrote in her organization's weekly bulletin that I am a follower of Hitler, that I use the tactics of Hitler, and that I want "to ethnically cleanse America of its Muslim presence."

Did I really need to point out that this representation of me is, in the words of a National Post editorial, "a vicious calumny that Ms. Valiante plucked from thin air"? Must I insist that I really do execrate Hitler? Aver my horror of genocide? Protest that I never espoused expelling or murdering Muslim Americans?

I thought not. Rather than take these demeaning and surely futile steps, I took a different route. Backed by the Heenan Blaikie law firm of Toronto and the CanWest Global Communications Corporation, Stan Fisher of Heenan Blaikie sent a libel notice in early May to Ms. Valiante, the CIC, and the CIC's chairman, Mohamed Elmasry.

This resulted in a rather remarkable retraction and apology:

In the April 29, 2005 edition of the Friday Bulletin, the Canadian Islamic Congress and Ms. Wahida Valiante published on its website an article entitled Worth Repeating: Media Propaganda: Hitler, Bush and the "Big Lie". The Canadian Islamic Congress and Ms. Valiante apologize without reservation and retract remarks in the column that suggest that Dr. Daniel Pipes is a follower of HItler [sic] or that he uses the tactics of Hitler or that he wants to ethnically cleanse America of its Muslim presence.

Dan puts this retraction into historical perspective:

Never before have they apologized for having libeled someone The CIC retraction breaks the Islamists' spell of privilege and their miasma of immunity. It establishes, at least in Canada and at present, that Islamist groups do not have impunity to fabricate lies about their opponents. The rule of law does prevail and it applies even to them.

For those who fear the growth of radical Islam, this episode offers encouragement that its forces can be contained and defeated. I hope others will join me in standing up to the new totalitarianism.

Backbone, a sense of pride, and a team of good lawyers, operating in a country that, whatever the troubles of its political class, still lives under the rule of law, made this victory possible. Lying radicals don't always win; bullies can be taught a lesson. And bully for Dan Pipes.