Yes folks, this is the kind of BS we have to put up with in the year 2007. Or do we?
Our despicable news-media that is supposed to inform and educate us pretends not to know. There are things just ‘not worth reporting’- like the undercover mosque affair here which was covered up with this: http://sheikyermami.com/2007/01/18/undercover-mosque-story-killed
* We’ll cover this debate here:
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My Debate with London Mayor Ken Livingstone
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Dr. Daniel Pipes:
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It all began with a faxed letter from Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, arriving out of the blue on April 4, 2006:
I will be hosting a conference to discuss the thesis of the “clash of civilizations” first popularized by Professor Samuel Huntington’s book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. I would like to invite you to debate this thesis with me at the opening session of the conference, which will be held 10am-1pm on Saturday, 10 June 2006.
The conference was twice delayed, before finally taking place two days ago, on January 20, 2007. It was quite an event, held in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, across the street from Westminster Abbey. The mayor told me in a private chat before the event that when he conceived of the event two years ago, he wondered if anyone would show up. He need not have worried; the Greater London Authority’s website indicated there had been “an unprecedented demand” for tickets and several days in advance of the event shut the ticketing. One organizer on the mayor’s staff told me that the audience numbered about five thousand and that over 150 media had registered for the conference.
The mayor and I each invited a seconder to help us make our arguments: he chose Salma Yaqoob, a councillor in Birmingham, and I chose Douglas Murray, the London writer. Due to the large crowd, the event started a half hour late but even truncated, it still went for slightly over two hours.
Despite the many journalists and video cameras, and despite the GLA having recorded and simultaneously transcribed the event, and despite two and a half days having passed since it took place, there has been – quite to my surprise – not a single media account of the debate, nor a video made available, nor a transcript. (This reminds me in a way of my University of California-Berkeley talk three years ago, which created quite a stir but had zero media coverage.)
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I get Daniel Pipes’ newsletter. Here is his summary, verbatim:
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Dear Reader:
Some news to bring to your attention.
First, the Middle East Quarterly has just posted “My Problem with Jimmy Carter’s Book,” a review by Kenneth W. Stein of Jimmy Carter’s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Stein, you may recall, is the former Middle East Fellow at The Carter Center whose December 5, 2006 resignation from the center made international news.
As the press release explains:
In the review, Stein documents not only the historical inaccuracies that permeate the book but also Carter’s falsification of conversations. Stein served as Carter’s aide and note-taker during the former President’s Middle East trips and meetings with foreign leaders, retaining copies of his notes. He juxtaposes those with relevant passage of Carter’s book to show their differences. Stein also explores the evolution of Carter’s views, and highlights the former president’s lasting grudge toward the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, whom Carter blames in part for his 1980 election defeat.
Second, there has been more coverage of the London debate featuring Mayor Ken Livingstone and myself. Here are some of the more important accounts since I sent out a weblog entry on this topic two days ago:
أمان الله حسام, “باستضافة عمدة لندن: نقاش ساخن حول “صراع الحضارة والهمجية”".” [Amanullah Hussam, ”Heated Debate About ‘Civilization and Barbarism’”] BBC Arabic, 22 January 2007.
Sunny Hundal, The mayor, Daniel Pipes, Salma Yaqoob and others. PickledPolitics.com, 23 January 2007.
Daniel Johnson, “Daniels In the Lions’ Den.” The New York Sun, 25 January 2007.
Adrian Morgan, “Is UK Biggest Terror Threat to US?” FamilySecurityMatters.org, 25 January 2007.
Beila Rabinowitz, “Dr. Daniel Pipes’ Defense of Liberal Democracy Elevates London Debate with Ken Livingstone.” PipeLineNews.org, 24 January 2007.
Stephen Schwartz, “Arguing the World: Red Ken Livingstone tries to reconcile Socialism and Islamism.” The Weekly Standard Online, 25 January 2007.
For new information on the event, I particularly recommend the Johnson and Schwartz pieces.
Third, for those of you in southern California, I will be speaking shortly at the University of California-Irvine, one of the country’s more problematic campuses, and would welcome some friendly faces in the audience.
When: January 31, at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30)
Where: Physical Sciences Lecture Hall (PSLH) 100
Topic: The Threat to Israel’s Existence: Why It’s Back, What It Means
Cost: Gratis
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Pipes