Daniel Pipes Quotes

#1. To me, every fundamentalist Muslim, no matter how peaceable in his own behavior, is part of a murderous movement and is thus, in some fashion, a foot soldier in the war that bin Laden has launched against civilization.

Daniel Pipes

#2. All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.

Daniel Pipes

#3. Integrationists are delighted to live in a democratic country where the rule of law prevails, whereas chauvinists wish to import the customs of the Middle East and South Asia.

Daniel Pipes

#4. Ultimately, there is no compromise. Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.

Daniel Pipes

#5. My career divides in two: before and after 9/11. In the first part I was trying to show that Islam is relevant to political concerns. If you want to understand Muslims, I argued, you need to understand the role of Islam in their lives. Now that seems obvious.

Daniel Pipes

#6. The Palestinians are a miserable people ... and they deserve to be.

Daniel Pipes

#7. Israelis must be encouraged to defeat the Palestinians.

Daniel Pipes

#8. It's a mistake to blame Islam, a religion 14 centuries old, for the evil that should be ascribed to militant Islam, a totalitarian ideology less than a century old. Militant Islam is the problem, but moderate Islam is the solution.

Daniel Pipes

#9. In the long term, the United States could greatly benefit Islam by uniquely freeing the religion from government constraints and permitting it to evolve in a positive, modern direction. But that's the long term.

Daniel Pipes

#10. [...] the past century has shown that dumb minds can do extraordinary damage.

Daniel Pipes

#11. The Israelis are very smart about politics and strategy, but there are a few exceptions. One is Lebanon, the other is Gaza, where they were completely inept.

Daniel Pipes

#12. Nothing in the constitutions of Western states requires them to get involved in every foreign conflict.

Daniel Pipes

#13. You can't just read the Koran to understand Muslim life. You have to look at history, at personalities, at economics, and so on.

Daniel Pipes

#14. The Jewish connection to Jerusalem is an ancient and powerful one. Judaism made Jerusalem a holy city over three thousand years ago and through all that time Jews remained steadfast to it.

Daniel Pipes

#15. There is no problem with Islam itself or with the Muslims, but these are difficult times, and the difficulty stems from radical Islam.

Daniel Pipes

#16. I draw a distinction between traditional Islam and Islamism. Islamism emerged in its modern form in the 1920s and is driven by a belief that Muslims can be strong and rich again if they follow the Islamic law severely and in its entirety. This is a response to the trauma of modern Islam.

Daniel Pipes

#17. The Koran is a not 'a product of Muhammad or even of Arabia,' but a collection of earlier Judeo-Christian liturgical materials stitched together to meet the needs of a later age ... A few scholars go even further, doubting even the existence of Muhammad.

Daniel Pipes

#18. Again and again, when Westerners are perceived as denigrating Muhammad, the Koran, or Islam, Islamists demonstrate, riot or kill.

Daniel Pipes

#19. Diplomacy in general does not resolve conflicts. Wars end not due to peace processes, but due to one side giving up.

Daniel Pipes

#20. So, this is my plea to all Western editors and producers: Display the Muhammad cartoon daily, until the Islamists become accustomed to the fact that we turn sacred cows into hamburger.

Daniel Pipes