With the major parties unwilling to defend the national interest and stand up against radical Islam, that role has fallen to fringe parties on the far right wing of the political spectrum. A number of parties have gained greatly from this. Some, such as Vlaams Belang (Belgium) and Partij voor de Vrijheid (Denmark), are guilty of nothing other than poor PR efforts. But many of the parties making gains, such as the British National Party (UK) and the National Front (France) are populist hate machines who, in between their occasionally legitimate complaints about the EU, spew some of the most racist bile in the Western world. This was illustrated quite recently when Austria held elections on September 28 for the National Council. Together, Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs and the Bündnis Zukunft Österreich earned almost a third of the vote. Both of these parties are of the racist variety, BZO especially.

In recent days, this has again made headlines because BZO leader Jörg Haider died in a car accident this past Saturday. His party is, not surprisingly, in great distress since he was the most iconic bigot in European politics, and helped make extremism socially acceptable in Austria. Of course, for that very same reason, there aren’t many people elsewhere shedding tears over it. What matters is not so much the exact policy goals of his now mainstream racist party, but what allowed it to gain so much ground. And that is the unwillingness of the mainstream to take up the great issue of our lifetime: violent political Islam.

While our two-party system will prevent against a hardline xenophobic party from gaining serious political clout, both of the main parties in our nation have generally been ignoring the underlying issue. There are, of course, a few vigilant individuals, such as Senator McConnell and Senator Brownback, who deserve praise for their strong and factually-supported positions. But sadly, senators like them are too few and far between. To make sure that this grave international security issue is not highjacked by bigots, but is instead part of the standard political discourse of the mainstream, greater awareness must be raised.

There were no chairs and, to make matters worse, some people had dressed for warmer weather. But no one seemed to care. First, a young man spoke, presenting careful quotes from Dr. Pipes to let everyone know what it was we were objecting to. Yes, we were all dedicated to the freedom of speech. But hateful speech can incite violence (just as the recent distribution of the movie “Obsession” in Ohio was followed by attacks on a Mosque). An off-campus participant, who introduced himself as a local Egyptian American, thanked the Safe Zone representative who had brought a message of support from the LGBT community. He said, as a Muslim, “I would like to express my support for the safety of the gay community because tolerance cannot be a selective gift. It has to be extended to every single member of the community.” There was applause.

By the time my turn came to speak, I was already energized with the warmth emanating from the group. No one had been angry. No one had said anything nasty about Dr. Pipes. No one had even spoken with a slightly raised voice. It was all about making sure everyone was allowed into the safe zone of a community free to extend its umbrella of safety. I looked at the young and bright faces forming a semi-circle around me and said, “You are the hearts and minds of tomorrow!” I don’t even know how I thought of the metaphor, but it made perfect sense. I was looking at the face, rather faces, of tomorrow—the tomorrow I was hoping to see. I said that the invitation to Dr. Pipes and the distribution of free copies of the film “Obsession” happened because Missouri is a swing state, and we are about two weeks away from the election. Our real problems, I added, are world poverty, rampant corporate greed, the economic crisis and the climate change. “These are the problems we need to solve to save the planet in our safekeeping. And to solve these global problems,” I concluded, “we need each other’s help, not hate.”

Many others spoke, including a Jewish student anxious to point out that hate speech against Muslims should not be done in the name of support for Israel. “This is not right,” she insisted, “and [it] is not going to help Israel.” Then others spoke. I cannot describe every one, but I must mention the soft-spoken Muslim student in an elegant hat and scarf. She shared the recent memory of praying in an interfaith camp. “The water had run out,” she said. “And Jewish and Christian women brought us water in jugs so we [could] perform our ablution before the prayer.” She told us that that gift of water transformed her prayer.

“I do not know what you achieved inside the hall where you spoke, Dr. Pipes” I thought on the way home. “But out here, on the lawn, we came together and celebrated the tolerance and diversity which has given Washington University a distinct character. I do not know how you define yourself either. But we know we are the faces of tomorrow!”

Prominent conservative activist and Middle East expert Daniel Pipes took the podium last night in front of an audience of more than 50 people inside the Laboratory Sciences Building with a speech titled “Vanquishing the Islamist Enemy and Helping the Moderate Muslim Ally.”

Pipes’ views on the threat of Islamism—or the view that Islam is not only a religion but also a political ideology—have been met with controversy from people across the political spectrum.

According to sophomore Caleb Posner, the events manager for the Conservative Leadership Association, which hosted the speech, Pipes’ words are always truthful.

“What he says is 100 percent grounded in fact and is the product of incredible scholarship,” Posner said. “However, what he says is often politically incorrect at times.”

Pipes’ address centered on what he believes is the immediate need to confront radical Islam before it significantly impacts Western democracy and the Western way of life.

Pipes quickly made the distinction that not all Muslims are Islamists and that to classify all as such would be erroneous. He later did state, however, that based on his research and surveys, one in every eight Muslims worldwide is an Islamist, equaling about 150 million Islamists.

“It is an enormous mistake to say that all Muslims are terrorists,” Pipes said. “One in eight Muslims seeks application in its totality of Islamic law.”

Pipes frequently compared the scope of danger of radical Islam to that of communism and fascism. Although Islamists have no official state, Islamism has a larger following than communism and fascism and an evolving ideology.

“It is the third great ideological movement of our time,” he said. “They [Islamists] have shown in a way that communism and fascism have been unable to; they have shown an ability to evolve.”

According to Pipes, there are two options for defeating the threat of radical Islam—cooperation or confrontation.

“The problem is that we can’t address their grievances because they seek to change who we are. Confrontation is the inevitable path,” he said. “We have to win using all the methods at our disposal.”

In order to defeat this ideology, Pipes said, the moderate Muslims will have to play an important role by offering alternatives to Islamists and showing that radical Islam is a failed ideology.

“It is Muslims who will provide the solution to this problem eventually,” Pipes said.

Pipes’ visit was funded by the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Leadership Institute at a cost that Posner would not disclose because it was a negotiated price. Part of the contract stipulated that Pipes must be provided with a bodyguard during his stay in St. Louis.

“It would have cost considerably less than Karl Rove, and we did not seek funds from the school,” Posner said.

Not everyone on campus welcomed Pipes’ visit. The Washington University Peace Coalition, Pride Alliance, College Democrats, Amnesty International, Students for a Democratic Society, Safe Zones and the Muslim Students Association all participated in a vigil-style protest outside Lab Sciences during Pipes’ speech.

“I’m protesting because the man speaking is perpetuating a general misconception about Muslims,” freshman Ali Karamustafa, a Muslim and Safe Zones member, said.

With the theme “Stop Hate,” the protests kept a somber tone to show respect for the gravity of the issue, according to junior Becky Hufstader, vice president of the College Democrats and a member of the Peace Coalition.

“He preaches hate and fear as a way of reaching political ends. His major message is about the dangers of Islam and we just feel that that is really inflammatory and unnecessary,” Hufstader said. “Our goal isn’t to antagonize him so much as to educate the people who may be attending the event.”

Posner, however, said that it is not beneficial, and even hypocritical to their causes, for certain student groups to protest Pipes, because one of Pipes’ main goals is to help the moderate Muslims who are “silenced by the threat of violence.”

“Dr. Pipes at no point decrees all or even most Muslims as radicals or terrorists,” Posner said. “If the Muslim Students Association wished to claim that Islam is a religion of peace and that they are a group of moderate interpretation of their faith, then it would behoove themselves to align themselves with Dr. Pipes.”

In response to Pride Alliance’s participation in the protests, Posner said that Sharia—the legal code that Islamists support—seeks the death penalty for homosexuals.

Junior Audrey King, co-president of Pride Alliance, said that members of the group came out to protest because they have been used as a wedge issue before.

“It’s really important to have a coalition effort with other people who experience the same kind of discrimination,” King said.

Junior Joel Wood, a prior service Marine, attended the speech and said that Pipes is not actually a radical thinker and that he provides a “pretty even-keeled approach.”

“It really echoed what I saw in Iraq,” Wood said. “The few extremists tend to make a bad name for the mass of moderates.”

Before the speech at 9 p.m., Wood and four other students had the opportunity to talk with Pipes over dinner at Ibby’s Bistro in the Danforth University Center.

According to Wood, Pipes said that although his life has never been seriously threatened, he is constantly protected by a bodyguard and places himself in danger to deliver his message.

“[This] points to how serious and how touchy the subject is,” Wood said.

After the speech, there was an open question-and-answer session in which students asked more specific questions or tried to challenge Pipes’ stance.

Pipes was unrelenting in his responses and said the rise of Islamists is an unparalleled phenomenon that needs to be defeated.

“I don’t see this radical Islam as parallel to anything in Christianity, Judaism or any other religion,” he said. “Ultimately, it is a battle of civilization versus barbarism like it was with communism and fascism. Will we be free or will we be slaves?”

—With additional reporting by Michelle Merlin

Correction
An earlier version of this article incorrectly quoted peace coalition member Becky Hufstader as saying that Dr. Pipes’s message was “inflammatory and necessary.” In fact, Hufstader called Dr. Pipes’s message “inflammatory and unnecessary.” Student Life regrets the error.

As a part of the week, our campus will play host to author and historian Daniel Pipes, a commentator whose views on Islam approach bigotry. Although he rightly believes that it is possible to fight terrorism by supporting moderate Muslims, Pipes has consistently ignored the reality that the vast majority of Muslims belong to this category. In an April 2007 column in the New York Sun, Pipes wrongfully asserted that moderate Muslims “constitute a very small movement when compared to the Islamist onslaught”; this statement is characteristic of the intolerant attitude that Pipes has consistently espoused in appearances at colleges around the country—and that he is likely to share tomorrow night.

Like all major religions, Islam leads its adherents along a path of value, service and faith—a fact to which Washington University students can testify through firsthand observation. Muslim students at the University are an integral part of our community and should be commended for their commitment to bringing together students of all faiths to facilitate religious dialogue. That a radical and miniscule faction has superficially cloaked itself with the rhetoric of an otherwise peaceful religion is a painful reality of contemporary society but not a reason to condemn that religion outright.

This year’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is dedicated to raising awareness about the alleged radical Islamic presence on campus that chapters of the national Muslim Student Association (MSA) provide. On its Web site, the Terrorism Awareness Project makes the unsubstantiated claim that the MSA is “a hardcore radical political organization representing Muslims who support the jihad against the West and the destruction of the Jewish state.” On the contrary, at Washington University the MSA has consistently established itself as an organization guided by a desire to serve the community. One need only visit the MSA’s annual Fast-a-Thon to see the natural confluence of service, religious observance and inter-faith cooperation that defines the MSA’s existence.

Given Pipes’ history of hateful speech, it is likely that his appearance tomorrow night will be controversial and inflammatory. Though his opinions are steeped with intolerance, Student Life firmly rejects any a priori attempt to censor Pipes’ speech or opinions. However radical the message of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, it is critical to the success of our nation’s democracy that the marketplace of ideas be allowed to function freely. It is important to remember that the only effective counterbalance to hate speech is more speech.

Encouraging open expression, however, is not a justification for passively accepting the ideas that are repulsive to any common sense of decency. Pipes’ lecture specifically includes an extended question-and-answer session—a unique forum for students to engage Pipes in discussion and to make known their opinions about a subject with critical global implications. It is incumbent upon the University community to parse Pipes’ message with a critical eye and to form an educated opinion that does not simply parrot the loudest ideologue within earshot.

Dr. Pipes, be cognizant of your audience and the reality that Washington University is not a campus faced with a daily threat from Islamic extremists. You have a venue to speak on the importance of building communities of moderates—take advantage of that, but be mindful of your message, and do not devolve into intolerance.

Students, do not let Pipes’ speech go unnoticed, and do not passively accept that which should be the source of vigorous debate. Attend Pipes’ speech, weigh his argument and challenge his ideas and their underlying implications. Most importantly, prove that acceptance and diversity are not merely empty promises, but rather values firmly embedded in our community.