“In addition to terrorism and other forms of violence, the current war also involves a battle of ideas, with Islamist totalitarians on one side and their opponents on the other. To convince the undecided, each side tries to discredit the other. This is a battle I am intensely engaged in to show the true nature of the Islamist organizations.”
Daniel Pipes’ response to receiving one of the Islamic Human Rights Commission’s annual Islamophobia awards.
Islamic Human Rights Commission chairman Massoud Shadjareh said today: “It is with great sadness that we reveal this year’s winners. Sadly the competition was extremely tough and we see no signs of this abating in the year to come.”
IHRC press release, 26 June 2004
Unfortunately for Daniel Pipes, although shortlisted for the Most Islamophobic Media Personality award he lost out to Polly Toynbee.
SYDNEY — The site of a controversial Muslim prayer hall was vandalized on Thursday with pigs’ heads skewered on stakes and pork offal smeared throughout the building.
Developer Abbas Aly said builders renovating the hall at Annangrove discovered the vandalism when they arrived at work on Thursday morning. “Everyone’s mostly upset, it’s a very un-Australian thing to happen,” he said. “But this won’t put us off.”
The prayer hall attracted fierce opposition when it was first proposed in 2002, with the local Baulkham Hills Council receiving an unprecedented 5,000 letters from residents who did not want the building.