Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Daniel Pipes has scored an unprecedented victory -- he managed to squeeze an unequivocal apology from an Islamist organization. Of course, it took the threat of a major law-suit in the Candian courts to do it, but still.
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 each of Valiante, the CIC, and CIC chair Mohamed Elmasry.
On June 10, the CIC published an apology and retraction: “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 or that he uses the tactics of Hitler or that he wants to ethnically cleanse America of its Muslim presence.” The CIC also sent funds for my legal expenses and made a donation in my honor to a Canadian charity.
The CIC’s action is, to the best of my knowledge, without precedent...
(Via Dhimmi Watch)
