name	Daniel Pipes
birth date	September 09, 1949
birth place	Boston, Massachusetts
occupation	Political commentator;Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy (Spring '07); Director of Middle East Forum;
nationality	United States
subject	Middle East, Islamic terrorism, Islamism
relatives	Richard Pipes (father)
website	http://www.danielpipes.org }}

Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American writer, and political commentator. He is the founder and director of the Middle East Forum and its Campus Watch project, and editor of its ''Middle East Quarterly'' journal. His writing focuses on the American foreign policy, the Middle East, Islam and Islamism.

After graduating with a PhD from Harvard and studying abroad, Pipes taught at a number of universities. He then served as director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, before founding the Middle East Forum. His 2003 nomination by U.S. President George W. Bush to the board of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace was protested by Democratic leaders, Arab-American groups, and civil rights activists, who cited his allegedly rightist views and oft-stated belief that force was the most effective remedy to conflict. The Bush administration sidestepped the opposition with a recess appointment.

Pipes has written or co-written more than a dozen books, and has written columns or opinion pieces for many newspapers. He frequently participates in discussion panels on television, and has lectured prolifically in the U.S. and abroad. He served as an adviser to Rudolph Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. According to ''The New York Times'': "Among his supporters, Mr. Pipes enjoys a heroic status; among his detractors, he is reviled." He is currently the Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Biography

Early life

The son of Irene (née Roth) and Richard Pipes, Daniel Pipes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1949. His parents were Polish Jews who had each fled German-occupied Poland, and met in the United States. His father was a historian at Harvard University, specializing in Russian and Soviet history, and Daniel Pipes grew up primarily in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Pipes attended the Harvard pre-school, then received a private school education, partly abroad. He enrolled in Harvard University, where his father was then still a professor, in the fall of 1967; for his first two years he studied mathematics, but has said: "I wasn't smart enough. So I chose to become a historian." He said he "found the material too abstract." He credits visits to the Sahara Desert in 1968 and the Sinai Desert in 1969 for piquing his interest in the Arabic language, and visits to Niger and Tunisia for piquing his interest in the Islamic world, and he changed his major to Middle East history. For the next two years Pipes studied Arabic and the Middle East, obtaining a B.A. in history in 1971; his senior thesis was titled ''A Medieval Islamic Debate: The World Created in Eternity'', a study of Al-Ghazali. After graduating in 1971, Pipes spent nearly two years in Cairo. He learned Arabic and studied the Quran, which he states gave him an appreciation for Islam.

Career in academia

Pipes returned to Harvard in 1973 and obtained a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history in 1978. His Ph.D. dissertation eventually became his first book, ''Slave Soldiers and Islam'', in 1981. He studied abroad for six years, three of which were spent in Egypt, where he wrote a book on colloquial Egyptian Arabic which was published in 1983. He switched his academic interest from medieval Islamic studies to modern Islam in the late 1970s.

He taught world history at the University of Chicago from 1978 to 1982, history at Harvard from 1983 to 1984, and policy and strategy at the Naval War College from 1984 to 1986. In 1983, Pipes served on the policy-planning staff at the State Department.

Post-academia

Pipes largely retired from academia after 1986, though in 2007 he taught a course titled "International Relations: Islam and Politics" as a visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy. Pipes told an interviewer from ''Harvard Magazine'' that he has "the simple politics of a truck driver, not the complex ones of an academic. My viewpoint is not congenial with institutions of higher learning.". His articles have been translated into numerous languages, including Latin.

From 1986 on, Pipes worked for various think tanks. From 1986 to 1993 he was director of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and editor of its journal, ''Orbis''. In 1990 he organized the Middle East Forum as a unit of FPRI; it became an independent organization with himself as head. Pipes edits its journal, the ''Middle East Quarterly''. In 2002, he established Campus Watch as a project of the Middle East Forum.

In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Pipes for the board of the United States Institute of Peace. After a controversy including a filibuster by Democratic Senators, Pipes obtained the position by recess appointment.

Campus Watch

Pipes' think tank the Middle East Forum established a website in 2002 called Campus Watch, which identified what it saw as five problems in the teaching of Middle Eastern studies at American universities: "analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students." According to the ''New York Times'', Campus Watch is the project for which Pipes is "perhaps best known."

Through Campus Watch, Pipes encouraged students and faculty to submit information on "Middle East-related scholarship, lectures, classes, demonstrations, and other activities relevant to Campus Watch". The project was accused of "McCarthyesque intimidation" of professors who criticized Israel when it published "dossiers" on eight professors it thought "hostile" to America. In protest, more than 100 academics demanded to be added to what some called a "blacklist". In October 2002 Campus Watch removed the dossiers from their website.

Views on Islam and the Middle East

Radical and moderate Islam

Pipes has long expressed concern about what he calls the danger of "radical" or "militant Islam" to the Western world. In 1985, he wrote in ''Middle East Insight'' that "[t]he scope of the radical fundamentalist's ambition poses novel problems; and the intensity of his onslaught against the United States makes solutions urgent." In the fall 1995 issue of ''National Interest'', he wrote: "Unnoticed by most Westerners, war has been unilaterally declared on Europe and the United States."

He wrote this in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing; investigative journalist Steven Emerson had said in the aftermath of the bombing that it bore a "Middle Eastern trait." Pipes agreed with Emerson and told ''USA Today'' that the United States was "under attack" and that Islamic fundamentalists "are targeting us." Four months before the September 11, 2001 attacks, Pipes and Emerson wrote in the ''Wall Street Journal'' that al Qaeda was "planning new attacks on the U.S." and that Iranian operatives "helped arrange advanced ... training for al Qaeda personnel in Lebanon where they learned, for example, how to destroy large buildings."

Pipes has written, "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." Pipes believes that moderate Muslims "constitute a very small movement", but a "brave" one, which the U.S. government should "give priority to locating, meeting with, funding, forwarding, empowering, and celebrating". He suggests that "radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam the solution".

Pipes has praised Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey and the Sudanese thinker Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. In a September 2008 interview by Peter Robinson, Pipes stated that Muslims can be divided into three categories: "traditional Islam", which he sees as pragmatic and non-violent, "Islamism", which he sees as dangerous and militant, and "moderate Islam", which he sees as underground and not yet codified into a popular movement. He elaborated that he did not have the "theological background" to determine what group follows the Koran the closest and is truest to its intent.

Muslims in Europe

In 1990, Pipes wrote in the ''National Review'' that "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene...All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most." After these sentences "attracted controversy" Pipes, when reprinting the article on his website, said "my goal in it was to characterize the thinking of Western Europeans, not give my own views. In retrospect, I should either have put the words 'brown-skinned peoples' and 'strange foods' in quotation marks or made it clearer that I was explaining European attitudes rather than my own."

In response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Pipes wrote that the "key issue at stake" was whether the "West [would] stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech" and the "right to insult and blasphemy". He supported Robert Spencer's call to "stand resolutely with Denmark." He lauded Norway, Germany and France for their stance on the cartoons and freedom of speech, but criticized Poland, Britain, New Zealand and the United States for giving statements he interpreted as "wrongly apologizing."

Muslims in the United States

According to ''The New York Times'', Pipes has "enraged" many American Muslims by advocating that Muslims in government and military positions be given special attention as security risks and by opining that mosques are "breeding grounds for militants." In an article entitled "Japanese Internment: Why It Was a Good Idea--And the Lessons It Offers Today", Pipes endorsed a defense of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and linked the Japanese-American wartime situation to that of Muslim Americans today.

In October, 2001 Pipes said, before the convention of the American Jewish Congress. "I worry very much, from the Jewish point of view, that the presence, and increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims, because they are so much led by an Islamist leadership, that this will present true dangers to American Jews."

''The New York Times'' cited as Pipes helping to "lead the charge" against Debbie Almontaser, a woman with a "longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate" whom Pipes viewed as a representative of a new movement of "lawful Islamists." Almontaser resigned "under pressure" as principal of an Arabic-language high school in New York City named after famed Christian Arab-American scholar Khalil Gibran, which Pipes initially described as a "madrassa" which means school in Arabic but, in the West, carries the implication of Islamist teaching, though he later said that his use of the term had been "a bit of a stretch". Pipes explained his opposition: "It is hard to see how violence, how terrorism will lead to the implementation of sharia... It is much easier to see how, working through the system — the school system, the media, the religious organizations, the government, businesses and the like — you can promote radical Islam.”

Pipes has criticized the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which he says is an "apologist" for Hezbollah and Hamas, and has a "roster of employees and board members connected to terrorism". CAIR, in turn, has written of Pipes that his "agenda-driven polemic... only serves to fan the flames of ignorance and prejudice. But perhaps that is his intent."

For his views on Islam and the Middle East, Pipes has attracted both condemnation and praise.

Support of Pipes' views

Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby writes: "To hear his critics tell it, Pipes is an 'Islamophobe'", but in Jacoby's view, "these are gross and vicious libels."

Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times writes that despite the fact that he disagrees with Pipes on the Middle East, he finds him “smart and well-informed.”

Tashbih Sayyed, former editor of the ''Muslim World Today'' and the ''Pakistan Times'', called Pipes "a Cassandra. He must be listened to. If there is no Daniel Pipes, there is no source for America to learn to recognize the evil which threatens it... Muslims in America that are like Samson; they have come into the temple to pull down the pillars, even if it means destroying themselves." Similarly, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, a former visiting fellow at Harvard Law School, writes, "We Muslims need a thinker like Dr. Pipes, who can criticize the terrorist culture within Islam."

Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic, thinks positively of Daniel Pipes' works, that he is "a legitimate, well-trained scholar, and very bright." Peterson also worries about what he thinks is a campaign to blacken and marginalize Daniel Pipes, because "if he’s wrong, that should be demonstrated with evidence and analysis, not by name-calling."

Criticism of Pipes' views

In ''The Nation'', Brooklyn writer Kristine McNeil describes Pipes as an "anti-Arab propagandist" who has built a career out of "distortions... twist[ing] words, quot[ing] people out of context and stretch[ing] the truth to suit his purpose." James Zogby argues that Pipes possesses an "obsessive hatred of all things Muslim", and that "Pipes is to Muslims what David Duke is to African-Americans". Christopher Hitchens, a fellow supporter of the Iraq War and critic of political Islam, has also criticized Pipes, arguing that Pipes pursues an intolerant agenda, "confuses scholarship with propaganda", and "pursues petty vendettas with scant regard for objectivity."

Pipes's views gained widespread public attention when they triggered a filibuster in the United States Senate against his nomination by President George W. Bush to the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) explained that he was "offended" by Pipes's comments on Islam, and that while "some people call [Pipes] a scholar... this is not the kind of person you want on the USIP." While defending Pipes's nomination, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer distanced Bush from Pipes's views, saying that Bush "disagrees with Pipes about whether Islam is a peaceful religion."

In addition, Pipes sparked a controversy when he was invited to speak at the University of Toronto in March 2005. A letter from professors, staff and students asserted that Pipes had a "long record of xenophobic, racist and sexist [speeches] that goes back to 1990." but university officials said they would not interfere with Pipes's visit. Pipes would later write an article recollecting his experience with the incident at the University of Toronto.

Professor John L. Esposito of Georgetown University has called Pipes "a bright, well-trained expert with considerable experience", but accuses Pipes of "selectivity and distortion" when asserting that "10 to 15 percent of the world's Muslims are militants". Esposito writes that Pipes' methodology "is as legitimate as equating all American Jews who have emigrated to Israel with Dr. Baruch Goldstein, the American physician who emigrated to Israel and later slaughtered some 25 Muslims at prayer in the Hebron mosque. Pipes knows much better."

Barack Obama controversy

On his own website and in articles for ''The Jerusalem Post'', Pipes claimed that Barack Obama was a former Muslim. He alleged that Obama falsely claims that he had never been a Muslim, and that "the campaign appears to be either ignorant or fabricating when it states that Obama never prayed in a mosque." Pipes wrote an article for ''FrontPage Magazine'' entitled "Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam." According to Pipes, "this matters" because Democratic presidential candidate Obama "is now what Islamic law calls a ''murtadd'' (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed", and as president this would have "large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world." The progressive/liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America described Pipes' article as promoting a "falsehood". Ben Smith, in an article on The Politico responded to these accusations claiming that they amounted to a "template for a faux-legitimate assault on Obama's religion" and that Daniel Pipes' work "is pretty stunning in the twists of its logic".

On a program on the Fox News Network, Pipes claimed that scholar Rashid Khalidi was an employee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, at the time when the United States government designated the PLO as a 'terrorist organization', and that Barack Obama had alleged "financial ties" with Khalidi and that Khalidi hosted a fundraiser for Obama.

Views on foreign policy

Pipes was a firm supporter of the Vietnam War, and when his fellow students occupied the Harvard administration building to protest it in the 1960s, he sided with the administration. Pipes had previously considered himself to be a Democrat, but after anti-war George McGovern gained the 1972 Democratic nomination for President, he switched to the Republican Party. Pipes used to accept being described as a "neoconservative", once saying that "others see me that way, and, you know, maybe I am one of them." However, he explicitly rejected the label in April 2009 due to differences with the neoconservative positions on democracy and Iraq, now considering himself a "plain conservative".

Europe

On July 16, 2002, Pipes wrote in ''The New York Post'' that the differences between the United States and Europeans over the coming invasion of Iraq represented a part of a long term shift rather than a temporary event. He argued that differences were "likely to grow with time" and that "Americans need pay it less and less attention" while instead looking "increasingly to countries outside Europe... for meaningful military alliances."

Iraq

In 1987, Pipes encouraged the United States to provide Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with upgraded weapons and intelligence to counterbalance Iran's successes in the Iran–Iraq War. He wrote that "Iraq has a history of anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism, support for terrorism, and friendliness toward the Soviet Union", but "If our tilt toward Iraq is reciprocated, moreover, it could lay the basis for fruitful relationship in the longer term." After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Pipes remarked that he still stands by his recommendation, comparing it to the United States' temporary alliance with Joseph Stalin during World War II. He has debated this view with Philosophy Professor Irfan Khawaja via the History News Network.

In April 1991, when a debate was raging about the desirability of a U.S. intervention against the Saddam Hussein regime, Pipes wrote in the ''Wall Street Journal'' about the prospect of U.S. forces occupying Iraq, "with Schwartzkopf Pasha ruling from Baghdad": "It sounds romantic, but watch out. Like the Israelis in southern Lebanon nine years ago, American troops would find themselves quickly hated, with Shi'as taking up suicide bombing, Kurds resuming their rebellion, and the Syrian and Iranian governments plotting new ways to sabotage American rule. Staying in place would become too painful, leaving too humiliating."

In 2002 and 2003, Pipes was a strong backer of the Iraq War, saying that Saddam Hussein posed an "imminent threat" to the United States. In a ''New York Post'' article published April 8, 2003, Pipes expressed his opposition to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's concerned prediction that "[the] war [in Iraq] will have horrible consequences.... Terrorism will be aggravated.... Terrorist organizations will be united.... Everything will be insecure." Though this concern was echoed by various other politicians and academics cited by Pipes in his article, Pipes argued that "the precise opposite is more likely to happen: The war in Iraq will lead to a reduction in terrorism." Pipes has since admitted in response to the latter statement that, "Mubarak got this one right and I got it wrong. It could have been otherwise, but the too-close involvement of the coalition troops in Iraq has spurred Muslim anger and fostered more terrorism."

Pipes has criticized the policies of the occupation of Iraq. He called for "a third position" of "Iraqification" (in reference to Vietnamization). He advocated "getting foreigners quickly out of the business of running Iraq... that elections be delayed and that authority be turned over to a democratically minded Iraqi strongman." He also stated that "I think it is possible and necessary at times to go to war without taking responsibility for the country that you make war on."

Arab-Israeli conflict

Pipes is a supporter of Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict and an opponent of a Palestinian state. He wrote in ''Commentary'' in April 1990 that "there can be either an Israel or a Palestine, but not both... to those who ask why the Palestinians must be deprived of a state, the answer is simple: grant them one and you set in motion a chain of events that will lead either to its extinction or the extinction of Israel." Pipes has proposed a Three state solution to the conflict, in which Gaza would be given to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan.

In September 2008, he said, "Palestinians do not accept the existence of a Jewish state. Until that change, I don't see any point in having any kind of negotiations whatsoever." He also described the Israeli public as focused on a mistaken policy that he considers to be "appeasement".

Iran

Pipes currently advocates that U.S. President Barack Obama "give orders for the U.S. military to destroy Iran’s nuclear-weapon capacity ... The time to act is now." He claims that "circumstances are propitious" for the US to initiate a bombing of Iran, and that "no one other than the Iranian rulers and their agents denies that the regime is rushing headlong to build a large nuclear arsenal." He further states that a unilateral US bombing of Iran "would require few 'boots on the ground' and entail relatively few casualties, making an attack more politically palatable."

Pipes' opposition to Iran is long-standing. In 1980, Pipes wrote that "Iran made the transition to a post-oil economy. It is the only major oil exporter to abandon the heady billions and return to live by its own means." Pipes was critical of the Reagan administration for its role in the Iran-Contra affair, writing that "American actions also helped to legitimize other kinds of help for, and capitulation to, the Ayatollah."

Pipes has previously advocated that the U.S. "unleash" the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) against Iran. Though MEK is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Iraq and Iran, Pipes describes this listing as a "sop to the mullahs". He writes, "the MEK poses no danger to Americans or Europeans, and has not for decades. It does pose a danger to the malign, bellicose theocratic regime in Tehran."

Saudi Arabia

Pipes believes that Saudi Arabia is neither a "friend" nor a "foe" of the United States, but a "rival".

Pipes believes that what he views as Saudi Arabia's "massive implication in the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11... is reason for the victims and their families to consider suing it for compensation."

Awards and honors

On March 11, 2006, Pipes was awarded the "Free Speech Award" from the Danish organisation ''Free Press Society of 2004'' (''Trykkefrihedsselkabet af 2004''). In 2003, Pipes was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University. In May 2006, Pipes received the Guardian of Zion Award by Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Books and policy papers

''Miniatures: Views of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics'' (2003), Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0-7658-0215-5

''Militant Islam Reaches America'' (2002), W.W. Norton & Company; paperback (2003) ISBN 0-393-32531-8

with Abdelnour, Z. (2000), ''Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role'' Middle East Forum, ISBN 0-9701484-0-2

''In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power'' (2002), Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0-7658-0981-8

''Muslim immigrants in the United States (Backgrounder)'' (2002), Center for Immigration Studies

''The Long Shadow: Culture and Politics in the Middle East'' (1999), Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0-88738-220-7

''The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy'' (1997), Palgrave Macmillan; paperback (1998) ISBN 0-312-17688-0

''Conspiracy : How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From'' (1997), Touchstone; paperback (1999) ISBN 0-684-87111-4

''Syria Beyond the Peace Process (Policy Papers, No. 41)'' (1995), Washington Institute for Near East Policy, ISBN 0-944029-64-7

''Sandstorm'' (1993), Rowman & Littlefield, paperback (1993) ISBN 0-8191-8894-8

''Damascus Courts the West: Syrian Politics, 1989–1991 (Policy Papers, No. 26)'' (1991), Washington Institute for Near East Policy, ISBN 0-944029-13-2

with Garfinkle, A. (1991), ''Friendly Tyrants: An American Dilemma'' Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-312-04535-2

''From a distance: Influencing foreign policy from Philadelphia (The Heritage lectures)'' (1991), Heritage Foundation, ASIN B0006DGHE4

''The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West'' (1990), Transaction Publishers, paperback (2003) ISBN 0-7658-0996-6

''Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition'' (1990), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-506021-0

''An Arabist's guide to Colloquial Egyptian'' (1983), Foreign Service Institute

''Slave Soldiers and Islam: The Genesis of a Military System'' (1981), Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-02447-9

See also

Christopher Hitchens' critique of Daniel Pipes

''From Time Immemorial''

References

External links

Official websites

danielpipes.org, Pipes' personal website

meforum.org, website of the Middle East Forum

campus-watch.org, website of Campus Watch

Profiles

"Islam's battle with a hostile world", ''Financial Times''

"Militant about 'Islamism'", ''Harvard Magazine''

"Daniel Pipes fights the worldwide threat of Islamism – from Malibu", ''Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles''

"Neocon man", ''The Nation''

"The Truth About Daniel Pipes", Muslim Public Affairs Council

"Who is Daniel Pipes?", Council on American-Islamic Relations

"In Defense of Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes", Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi

Audio and video

International Conflict Resolution, NPR: Talk of the Nation, August 27, 1998

Harry Kreisler in conversation with Daniel Pipes, UCSD, 2004

Rethinking Islam, The Connection, September 10, 2002

U.S. Policy Towards Israel and Dreams of Democracy in the Middle East, On Point Radio, May 20, 2004

Video Conversation with history with Daniel Pipes

Category:1949 births Category:American Jews Category:American Middle Eastern studies Category:American historians Category:American journalists Category:Campus Watch Category:International relations scholars Category:Islam-related controversies Category:Islamic politics and Islamic world studies Category:Jewish American writers Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Opposition to Islam in North America Category:Pepperdine University faculty Category:Living people Category:Middle East Forum Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

ar:دانيال بايبس de:Daniel Pipes es:Daniel Pipes fa:دنیل پایپز fr:Daniel Pipes hi:डेनियल पाइप्स it:Daniel Pipes ms:Daniel Pipes pl:Daniel Pipes pt:Daniel Pipes ru:Пайпс, Даниэль fi:Daniel Pipes sv:Daniel Pipes

Name	Saint Daniel
Birth date	7th Century B.C.E
Death date	6th Century B.C.E
Feast day	June 26
Venerated in	Roman Catholic ChurchEastern Catholic ChurchesEastern Orthodox ChurchLutheranismIslamArmenian Apostolic Church
Death place	Babylon (?)
Titles	Prophet
Attributes	Often depicted in the den of the lions
Major shrine	''Tomb of Daniel'', Susa, Iran
Prayer attrib	}}

Daniel (, meaning "Justice [from] God") or sometimes referred to as "God is my judge" is the protagonist of the ''Book of Daniel''. According to the biblical book, at a young age Daniel was carried off to Babylon where he became famous for interpreting dreams and rose to become one of the most important figures in the court.

Daniel's life

''The following is a summary of the biblical Book of Daniel''

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim (BC 606), Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon. The four were chosen for their intellect and beauty to be trained as advisors to the Babylonian court,() Daniel was given the name ''Belteshazzar'', i.e., ''prince of Bel'', or ''Bel protect the king!''(not to be confused with the neo-Babylonian king, Belshazzar). Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given the Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, respectively. At the close of his three years of discipline and training in the royal schools, Daniel was brought into public life. He soon became known for his skill in the interpretation of dreams (; ). Daniel made known and interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream; as well as a later dream preceding the king's descent into animal behaviour, and many years afterwards as an old man, after the alarm and consternation of the night of Belshazzar's impious feast (in which Belshazzar and his concubines drank wine out of the royal Jewish ceremonial goblets of the Temple), Daniel was called in at the suggestion of the queen-mother to interpret the mysterious handwriting on the wall. For successfully reading the cryptic handwriting by an angel of God, Daniel was rewarded by the Babylonians with a purple robe and elevation to the rank of "third ruler" of the kingdom. It is believed that the place of "second ruler" was held by Belshazzar as associated with his father, Nabonidus, on the throne (), though nowhere in the book of Daniel is Nabonidus mentioned by name and according to the book of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar was the father of Belshazzar. Nabonidus left Babylon in his son Belshazzar's care when he fled because of his refusal to accept the role of Marduk as the prime deity. The Hebrew word translated in the book of Daniel as "son" can mean any descendant. Belshazzar was actually the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel interpreted the handwriting, and "in that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain".

After the Persian conquest of Babylon, Daniel held the office of the first of the "three presidents" of the empire under the reign of Darius the Mede, and was thus practically at the head of state affairs, with the ability to influence the prospects of the captive Jews (), whom he had at last the happiness of seeing restored to their own land; although he did not return with them, but remained still in Babylon.

Daniel's fidelity to God exposed him to persecution by jealous rivals within the king's administration. The fact that he had just interpreted the emperors' dream had resulted in his promotion and that of his companions. Being favored by the King, Darius the Mede, he was untouchable. His companions were vulnerable to the accusation that had them thrown into the furnace for refusing to worship the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar as a god; but they were miraculously saved, and Daniel would years later be cast into a den of lions (for continuing to practice his faith in YHWH), but was miraculously delivered; after which Darius issued a decree enjoining reverence for "the God of Daniel" (). He "prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Great," whom he probably greatly influenced in the decree which put an end to the Jewish Captivity (BC 536). Daniel's ministry as a prophet began late in life. Whereas his early exploits were a matter of common knowledge within his community, these same events, with his pious reputation, serve as the basis for his prophetic ministry. The recognition for his prophetic message is that of other prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel whose backgrounds are the basis for their revelations.

The time and circumstances of Daniel's death have not been recorded. However, tradition maintains that Daniel was still alive in the third year of Cyrus according to the Tanakh (). He would have been almost 100 years old at that point, having been brought to Babylon when he was in his teens, more than 80 years previously. Many posit that he possibly died at Susa in Iran. Tradition holds that his tomb is located in Susa at a site known as Shush-e Daniyal. Other locations have been claimed as the site of his burial, including Daniel's Tomb in Kirkuk, Iraq, as well as Babylon, Egypt, Tarsus and, notably, Samarkand, which claims a tomb of Daniel (see "The Ruins of Afrasiab" in the Samarkand article), with some traditions suggesting that his remains were removed, perhaps by Tamerlane, from Susa to Samarkand (see, for instance, Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, section 153).

Apocalypse

From Chapter 7 to the end of the book of Daniel, an apocalyptic vision is being described, supposedly from the perspective of Daniel. In the Book of Daniel, the name is spelled with a middle letter suggesting the ''i'' of that name — but this letter is not included in Ezekiel, suggesting that the reference there may be to another person, possibly the "Danel" ("Judgement of God") known from Caananite Ugaritic literature (such as the Epic of Aqhat and Anat), whose reputation for wisdom and righteousness had made him legendary. (Vowel-points were not added to the consonantal Hebrew text before well into the Common Era, and the scribes may then have slipped in a vowel-point for "i" as a middle syllable.)

Habakkuk

In the Deuterocanonical portion of Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon, the prophet Habakkuk is miraculously transported by an angel to take a meal to Daniel while he is in the lions' den. In response, Daniel prays, "Thou hast remembered me, O God; neither hast thou forsaken them that seek Thee and love Thee".

Tomb

There are six different locations claiming to be the site of the tomb of the biblical figure Daniel: Babylon, Kirkuk and Muqdadiyah in Iraq, Susa and Malamir in Iran, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

Liturgical commemorations

On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, the feast days celebrating St. Daniel the Prophet together with the Three Young Men, falls on December 17 (during the Nativity Fast), on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity. Daniel's prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol () is often used in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the Incarnation: the "stone cut out" being symbolic of the Logos (Christ), and the fact that it was cut "without hands" being symbolic of the virgin birth. Thus the hymns will refer to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) as the "uncut mountain"

In the West, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates Daniel on July 21.

He is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17.

He is commemorated as a prophet in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.

Rabbinic literature

Daniel in Islam

Muslims traditionally consider Daniel (Arabic: دانيال, ''Danyal'') as an Islamic prophet, alongside the other major prophets of the Old Testament. Although Daniel is not mentioned in the Qur'an, there are accounts of Daniel's life which feature in later Muslim literature. There are debates, however, that go on about Daniel's time of preaching and some Muslims believe that he was not a prophet but a saintly man. Daniel is listed as a prophet in all major versions of ''Stories of the Prophets''. When the Muslims conquered Alexandria in 641 C.E, a mosque was immediately built dedicated to Daniel.

In Muslim literature

Muslim exegesis, including Tabari's ''History of the Prophets and Kings'' narrates that Daniel was carried off to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar's attack on Jerusalem. It goes onto state that there he was thrown into the den of the lions, but was later rescued. In one such account, Daniel is aided by Jeremiah, who comes to Babylon to help Daniel in the lions den. In the apocryphal ''Bel and the Dragon'', however, there is a very similar tale which states that the Hebrew prophet Habbakuk was miraculously transported to the den of the lions, to give a meal to Daniel.

All sources, classical and modern, describe Daniel as a saintly and spiritual man. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, in his Qur'anic commentary says:

See also

Islamic view of Daniel

Tanakh

Prophecy

Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon

Book of Daniel (book of the Bible)

List of names referring to El

Persian Jews

Apocalypse of Daniel

References

External links

Book of Daniel (Biblical Passage)

''Daniel'' by Rob Bradshaw Detailed dictionary-style article.

''Daniel'' in the TaNaKh Detailed authorized Jewish translation of the original

Who is Ezekiel's Daniel? : The Ugaritic Danel

Daniel 11 in Context Overview of the allusions to the Syrian Wars in Daniel 11

Category:Hebrew Bible people Category:Jewish writers Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:Prophets in Christianity Category:Prophets of Islam Category:Year of death missing Category:Book of Daniel Category:Muslim saints

ar:دانيال be:Данііл, прарок be-x-old:Данііл (прарок) bs:Daniel ca:Daniel ceb:Daniel cs:Daniel (prorok) cy:Daniel (proffwyd) da:Profeten Daniel de:Daniel (Prophet) el:Δανιήλ es:Daniel (profeta) fa:دانیال fr:Daniel (prophète) gu:દાનીયેલ ko:다니엘 hr:Daniel (prorok) id:Daniel it:Daniele (profeta) he:דניאל ka:დანიელი ht:Daniel lt:Pranašas Danielius hu:Dániel próféta arz:دانيال ms:Nabi Daniel nl:Daniël (Hebreeuwse Bijbel) ja:ダニエル pl:Daniel (postać biblijna) pt:Daniel (profeta) ru:Даниил (пророк) sq:Danieli (profet) sk:Daniel (prorok) sr:Данило (пророк) sh:Danijel fi:Daniel (Raamattu) sv:Daniel (biblisk person) tl:Daniel (ng Bibliya) tr:Danyal uk:Даниїл (пророк) ur:دانیال علیہ السلام vi:Daniel zh:但以理

Name	Ezra Levant
Birth date	1972
Birth place	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Death date
Resting place coordinates
Education	B.Comm; LLB
Alma mater	University of Calgary, University of Alberta
Religion	Judaism
Website	Ezra Levant
Footnotes	}}

Ezra Isaac Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian lawyer, conservative political activist and media figure. He is the founder and former publisher of the ''Western Standard'', hosts ''The Source'' daily on Sun News Network, and has written several books on politics.

Early life and education

Born in Calgary, Levant holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta. Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary. He attended a Jewish day school in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school.

Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student. In 1992, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Intercollegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University. In 1994, he was featured in a ''Globe and Mail'' article on young conservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring women and aboriginal professors. His actions outraged aboriginal law students, feminists, and a number of professors, and he was called to a meeting with the assistant dean who advised him of the university's non-academic code of conduct and defamation laws. As head of the university's speakers committee, Levant organized a debate between Doug Christie, a lawyer known for his advocacy in defence of Holocaust deniers and accused Nazi war criminals, and Thomas Kuttner, a Jewish lawyer from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.

Levant gained a reputation as the university's leading conservative. He was invited to write a guest column for the ''Edmonton Journal'' and interviewed on television. He spent the summer of 1994 in Washington, D.C., in an internship arranged by the libertarian Charles G. Koch Foundation Summer Fellow Program. He worked for the Fraser Institute in 1995, writing ''Youthquake'', which argued for smaller government, including privatization of the Canada Pension Plan. Levant saw "youthquake", the term he used to describe what he identified as a conservative youth movement of the 1990s, as similar to the 1960s civil rights movement except that instead of being enslaved by racism, his generation was "enslaved by debt" and, in order to liberate itself, society needed to dismantle elements such as trade unions, the minimum wage, universal health care, subsidized tuition and public pension plans.

Political activism

Views on Quebec

Levant favoured Quebec separatism and a yes vote during the 1995 Quebec referendum in a ''Calgary Sun'' column titled "10 Reasons to Hope for a Yes Victory" Among his 10 reasons were Levant's views that the departure of Quebec from Canadian confederation would lead to the elimination of bilingualism and multiculturalism, that it would give the Canadian government the "fortitude" to say no to "other special interest groups" such as First Nations and environmentalists; it would end corruption in Parliament, which Levant blamed on Quebec politicians, and clear the way for Preston Manning to become Prime Minister of Canada.

In 1996, Levant wrote a column saying that if the federal Liberals were re-elected, Alberta could separate from Canada making it "free from Quebec's demands."

Uniting the right

In 1996, Levant worked with David Frum to organize the "Winds of Change" conference in Calgary, an early attempt to encourage the Reform Party of Canada and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to merge so that a united rightwing party could defeat the Liberal Party of Canada in the subsequent election. While unsuccessful, the conference anticipated future attempts at a Unite the Right movement which ultimately led to the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Levant supported Preston Manning's United Alternative initiative in 1999, a more advanced attempt to unite the country's conservative movement and was one of the leaders of the movement to create the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to broaden the party's base.

Political organizer and aide

While he was a student-at-law, Levant was an active political organizer in the Reform Party, and guided the successful attempts by Rahim Jaffer (as the campaign manager for his nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona and later as his communications-director during the 1997 Federal Election) and Rob Anders to win party nominations. In 1997, he went to Ottawa to work for the Reform Party, becoming a parliamentary aide to party leader Preston Manning and being put in charge of Question Period strategy.

In 1999, after being dismissed as Preston Manning's legislative-assistant, Levant left Ottawa to join the editorial board of the fledgling ''National Post'' newspaper in Toronto. A close friend of Stockwell Day's son Logan, Levant proclaimed himself a "Stockaholic" and supported the elder Day in his successful attempt to defeat Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance.

In February 2001, he returned to Ottawa as communications director to Day. In May of that year he resigned after leaking to the ''National Post'' a letter that he sent to dissident MP Chuck Strahl in which he threatened to sue over Strahl's criticisms of his office.

Candidacy and resignation

Later in 2001, Levant returned to Calgary to practice law. By February 2002 he had won the Canadian Alliance party nomination for the riding of Calgary Southwest, but stepped aside after public pressure so that new party leader Stephen Harper could run there in a 2002 by-election. When the by-election was called, Levant, who said he spent over $150,000 to gain the nomination, announced on March 28 that he would not step aside. Later that night, however, he relented after widespread pressure from the party and accusations that he was putting himself ahead of the party.

Publishing

In 2004 Levant co-founded the ''Western Standard'', an Alberta-based magazine with an emphasis on Western Canada, political conservatism, and libertarianism. In October 2007 the magazine stopped publishing its print edition after failing to become profitable, becoming an online magazine. Levant later sold the publication's remaining assets to Matthew Johnson, the former legislative aide to Rahim Jaffer.

Levant wrote an irregular column for the ''Calgary Sun'' for ten years, until he was dropped in October 2007 because of "internal decisions." He continued to write occasional columns for the ''National Post'' on a freelance basis.

In 2010, Levant joined Sun Media a columnist and now has an on-air position on the Sun TV News Channel as host of The Source.

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

In February 2006, the ''Western Standard'' published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons depicting Muhammad. Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities complained about the publication to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission and a hearing was scheduled for January 2008. On the day of the hearing Levant republished the cartoons on his website.

At the request of Levant and his lawyers Levant was allowed to videotape his interview with Shirlene McGovern, a human rights investigator with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Levant later published that video on YouTube where it spent several days among the top-ten viewed videos. Soharwardy's complaint was ultimately withdrawn, and a complaint he filed with Calgary police came to naught. An identical complaint by the Edmonton Muslim Council was dismissed by the Commission on August 5, 2008.

The timing of the Levant case was notable in that it coincided with a high-profile case considered by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (which Levant has criticized), the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Ontario Human Rights Commission regarding complaints by the Canadian Islamic Congress about a column by Mark Steyn in Maclean's Magazine. None of the complaints obtained a ruling against Steyn or Maclean's.

Stance against the Alberta Human Rights Commission

Levant is a fierce critic of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, particularly concerning Rev. Stephen Boissoin, who in the Lund v. Boissoin matter was fined $7,000 and banned from publicly "disparaging ... gays and lesbians" in May 2008. This case concerned a letter published by the ''Red Deer Advocate'' in 2002 in which Boissoin attacked the "homosexual agenda" as "wicked". In June 2008, Levant republished Boissoin's letter on his blog. When the AHRC dismissed the resulting complaint in November 2008, Levant accused the HRCs of religious discrimination, asserting that "100% of the CHRC's targets have been white, Christian or conservative" and that "It's legal for a Jew like me to publish [Boissoin’s letter]. It's illegal for a Christian like Rev. Boissoin to publish it." The HRC's ruling was overturned by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in 2009, on the grounds that Levant had the right to free speech.

Support and criticism

Levant's case has attracted the attention of organizations such as PEN Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association — all of which have called for reform of the commissions. He has been featured on Glenn Beck's show on CNN. Levant supported the Canadian government's decision to refuse George Galloway entry into Canada in March 2009. Although Levant described it as "an immigration matter", free speech advocates protested this move, citing it as a hypocritical double standard.

Libel cases

In 1988, Levant wrote a Reform Party fundraising letter in which he criticized Alberta Progressive Conservative Senator Ron Ghitter . Ghitter sued for defamation and in 2000, Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders and Levant admitted liability and issued a formal apology and undisclosed damages to settle the suit.

According to Levant, after the HRC cases against him were dismissed, "the most aggressive members of the human rights industry proceeded to punish [him] by filing over 20 law society complaints and five defamation suits against [him]. ... the point of all these lawsuits [is] just to bury [him] in an avalanche of paperwork and bills, to get [him] to shut up. So far, it ain't working."

The Law Society of Alberta had found that Levant violated the following rules of professional conduct: to “respect and uphold the law in personal conduct,” to “seek to improve the justice system,” to not “ act in a manner that might weaken public respect for the law,” to be “courteous and candid,” and to not “harass any person or discriminate against any person” on various prohibited grounds and ordered Levant to attend a "mandatory conduct advisory" after which the matter was dropped.

As a result of one lawsuit, Levant was ordered to pay $25,000 to Giacomo Vigna, a Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer, for libelling him with "reckless indifference" in his blog. Justice Robert Smith ruled that Levant "spoke in reckless disregard of the truth and for an ulterior purpose of denormalizing the Human Rights Commission across Canada which makes his statements malicious in that sense" and ordered Levant to remove the libellous materials from his blog.

Lawyer Richard Warman is also suing Levant as well as Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals and several other conservative bloggers for libel over statements made about Warman on Free Dominion. Levant says this "lawsuit isn't logical, or serious. It's a nuisance suit."

Levant is also being sued by Warren Kinsella for libel, asking for $5,000,000. Levant has called Kinsella's suit "laughable".

George Soros

In September 2010, Levant wrote a column for Sun Media accusing George Soros of funding avaaz.org, a group lobbying to stop Sun Media being granted a license for Sun TV News Channel, and strongly attacking Soros's character and history by alleging that as a child he collaborated with the Nazis. Soros threatened to sue Sun Media for libel and on September 18, Sun Media issued a retraction and apology to Soros stating that: :''On September 5, 2010, a column by Ezra Levant contained false statements about George Soros and his conduct as a young teenager in Nazi-occupied Hungary. ...'' :''The management of Sun Media wishes to state that there is no basis for the statements in the column and they should not have been made.'' :''Sun Media, this newspaper and Ezra Levant retract the statements made in the column and unreservedly apologize to Mr. Soros for the distress and harm this column may have caused to him.''

Recent activities

In July 2008, Levant was invited to be a witness before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus "about the threat posed by radical Islam using Western legal mechanisms as weapons".

From 2009 until 2010, Levant worked as a lobbyist for Rothman's Incorporated, a manufacturer and distributor of tobacco products.

In March 2010, Levant accompanied U.S. conservative personality Ann Coulter on a Canadian speaking tour. Her speech at the University of Ottawa was canceled at the last minute, apparently by its organizers, because of what Levant called "physical danger to Coulter and the audience" from protesters. The Ottawa Police later disputed any claims of unrest or violence.

In September 2010, Levant published a book, ''Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands'', arguing a moral case for developing the Athabasca oil sands rather than importing oil from nations with bad records concerning human rights and the environment. The book was the winner of the 2011 National Business Book Award, awarded on May 12, 2011 in Toronto.

Levant hosts ''The Source'', an evening talk show host on the Sun News Network and writes a regular column for the Sun Media chain of newspapers.

Books

Notes

External links

Ezra Levant's blog

YouTube Account

Category:Alberta candidates for Member of Parliament Category:Canadian columnists Category:Jewish Canadian writers Category:Living people Category:Canadian magazine publishers (people) Category:1972 births Category:Canadian political consultants Category:Lawyers in Alberta Category:Canadian Alliance politicians Category:Canadian television journalists

fr:Ezra Levant

name	Michael Coren
influences	Thomas More, C. S. Lewis, Ronald Knox
birth name	Michael Coren
birth date	January 15, 1959
birth place	| occupation Author, journalist
nationality	United Kingdom, Canada
alma mater	University of Nottingham
religion	Christian, Roman Catholic
movement	Traditionalist conservatism
notableworks	''As I See It'', ''C.S. Lewis: The Man Who Created Narnia'', ''Why Catholics Are Right'', ''J.R.R. Tolkien: The Man Who Created the Lord of the Rings''
website	http://www.michaelcoren.com/}}

Michael Coren (born January 15, 1959) is an English-Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host. He hosted the television talk show ''The Michael Coren Show'' on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 when he moved to the Sun News Network to host an evening talk show, ''The Arena with Michael Coren''. He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on CFRB radio.

He has written more than ten books, including biographies of G.K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and C. S. Lewis. His latest book, ''Why Catholics are Right'', was published in 2011.

Life and career

Coren was born in Essex, England. After obtaining a degree in politics from Nottingham University, he moved from the UK to Canada in 1987. For several years, he was a columnist for ''Frank'' and then ''The Globe and Mail'', before he began syndicated columns for the ''Financial Post'' and Sun Media in 1995. Following his departure from ''Frank'', he became a favourite target of that publication, culminating in a spoof ad contest to "deflower" Michael Coren (a nod to ''Frank'''s notorious "Deflower Caroline Mulroney" contest, and a satirical jab at Coren's conservative leanings.) Coren had also been a favorite target of ''Frank'' back in the days before he began writing for them. Coren took exception to being labelled a "literary prostitute" during a 1994 interview.

His career as a broadcaster began in the early 1990s when he co-hosted a political debate segment with Irshad Manji on TVOntario's ''Studio 2''. In 1995, he began an evening talk show on CFRB. In 1999, Coren briefly moved to Talk 640 for a short stint as its morning man. He returned to CFRB, where he hosted a show from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. weekday nights, and regularly filled in for other hosts until November 2005. Coren was dismissed by CFRB as a result of complaints arising from comments ridiculing the weight of an apparent guest. In fact, the guest was an actor and the segment was scripted. According to CFRB's Operations Manager, Steve Kowch, "Pat Holiday, our general manager and myself went through the tape of Monday night's show and were shocked....it was totally out of bounds." Coren argues that it was a satire comparing in his mind public attitude to third world starvation with North America's obsession with slimming and self-indulgence. After moving to North America Coren gained one hundred pounds.

Despite this acrimonious termination, Coren made regular talk show appearances on CFRB in July 2006, at the start of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, as he happened to be in Israel at the time. After receiving 60% approval from CFRB listeners in an August 2006 poll, Coren returned to the CFRB airwaves in September 2006 with a Sunday evening show. As of the 22nd of April 2007, the show expanded from its usual 1 hour 7-8pm to 7-9 pm. Coren celebrated by giving away double the prizes usually given out. In the fall of 2007 he and former Liberal Party of Canada president Stephen LeDrew launched a daily hour-long afternoon show on CFRB called ''Two Bald Guys With Strong Opinions'' in which the two argue about the issues of the day. After the departure of LeDrew, Coren was joined by Tarek Fatah after several on air auditions by potential replacement co-hosts. Coren was again let go by CFRB along with 12 other staff of the Toronto radio station on 27 August 2009.

On television, Coren hosted the ''Michael Coren Show'' on the Crossroads Television System until June 2011 when he left to join the Sun News Network where he hosts ''The Arena with Michael Coren'' weeknights on beginning August 30, 2011. Coren also has a newspaper column published every Saturday in the Sun newspaper chain. He has been a columnist for the ''Western Standard'', ''Catholic Insight'' and ''The Women's Post'' and has contributed to ''National Post'', ''Reader's Digest'' and several other publications. A self-professed Tottenham Hotspur fan, he has appeared as a guest host on The Score's ''The Footy Show''. Coren is also a public speaker, particularly at religious gatherings.

Political controversies

In his earlier, satirical ''Aesthete'' column in ''Frank'' magazine Coren was by his own admission deliberately provocative. In response to a 1994 interview question about AIDS he responded:

:"Look, people are dying all over. When it was blacks in Africa dying of AIDS, no one gave a toss. Nobody gave a toss. Suddenly, it's middleclass men in California and everyone goes crazy about it. It's a double standard. I'm trying to provoke people into rethinking comfortable points of view."

In September 2006, Coren published an article in the ''Toronto Sun'', supporting the use of tactical nuclear strikes against Iran. This position was later retracted.

On the subject of AIDS Michael Coren wrote a column in 2006 titled "Why is AIDS so special?" in which he said "At its most simple, stop fornicating." "AIDS in the West is still overwhelmingly a threat to male homosexuals and intravenous drug users."

In an article which appeared in ''Sun Media'' in 2007, Coren said "As for Jesus not condemning homosexuality, nor did He condemn bestiality and necrophilia."

Religious Views

His articles and speeches often include stories of his own personal spiritual journey. Coren's father was Jewish as was his maternal grandfather, while his maternal grandmother came from a family of Welsh coalminers and converted to Judaism. Coren's father and uncle were cab drivers. Coren has said that his father's family left Poland a few decades before the Holocaust. He has also said that his father's family emigrated from Poland in the 1890s. He said "People have called me an anti-Semite. I thought it quite rich since my father's family was massacred in the Holocaust". Michael Coren was profiled on Credo, on Vision TV, and said that his father told him he could not attend his son's wedding in a Catholic Church without becoming "physically sick."

He converted to Roman Catholicism in his early twenties while still living in England, but that didn't last long. He said that he "converted to an institution." He eventually converted to Evangelical Christianity in the 1990s, after a conversion experience as an adult, greatly influenced by Canadian televangelist Terry Winter.

In 1991 Michael Coren said in a column for a humour magazine: "The evangelical Christians may be intolerant, small-minded, and repellent, but at least they hold a consistent set of beliefs".

In a 1993 book review he said "Can anyone imagine a detective priest? Regrettably, it is easier to conjure up the image of a priest being questioned by secular detectives over abuse charges." Also in 1993, Michael Coren had a falling out with the Catholic Church over an unflattering profile he wrote of Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic for ''Toronto Life'' magazine. The Bishop, who made Coren a "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre" in a ceremony in October 1992, was quoted using words including "friggin" and "bitch", and said that Francisco Franco was a "conservative Roman Catholic and not a bad fellow." Coren defended himself, saying "He's an archbishop and he was vulgar...obviously what thousands of Roman Catholics expected me to do was lie. I still get hate mail about the article."

After this incident, Coren said that he didn't consider himself a Roman Catholic anymore. He said "My wife is Catholic and the children will be raised Catholic, but that's it. It's just not there for me." Daniel Richler observed that Coren loves scandal, but hates having it come his way. In one of his columns for the satirical humour magazine Frank, Michael Coren depicted Mother Teresa getting drunk in a bar.

In early 2004, he embraced Catholicism again. He cites St. Thomas More, C. S. Lewis, Ronald Knox and his godfather Lord Longford as spiritual influences, and remains connected to the ecumenical scene in Canada and beyond.

Views on Islam

Coren is known for having strong views against Radical Islam and its Jihad and Sharia, and for hosting anti-jihadist bloggers like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. On Dec. 15, 2011 he aired a commentary blasting the Muslim complaint that they are becoming the new Jews just before the Holocaust.

Published books

''Theatre Royal: 100 Years of Stratford East'' (1985) ISBN 0704324741

''Gilbert: The Man Who Was G.K. Chesterton'' (1990) ISBN 1557782563

''The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells'' (1993) ISBN 0689121199

''The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle'' (1993) ISBN 0747512299

''The Man Who Created Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis'' (1994) ISBN 1895555787

''Setting It Right'' (1996) ISBN 0773729402

''J.R.R.Tolkien: The Man who Created the Lord of the Rings'' (2001) ISBN 0752261568

''As I See It'' (2009) ISBN 0981276709

''Why Catholics Are Right'' (2011) ISBN 0771023219

Awards

Awards Michael Coren has won.

2005: The Ed Murrow Award for Broadcasting.

2006: The RTNDA Radio Broadcasting Award.

2007: The Communicator Award in Hollywood.

2008: the Omni TV Award.

References

External links

Official website

Michael Coren's blog

Coren's column in ''The Toronto Sun''

Category:1959 births Category:Alumni of the University of Nottingham Category:British expatriates in Canada Category:Canadian columnists Category:Canadian people of Jewish descent Category:Canadian pro-life activists Category:Canadian Roman Catholics Category:Canadian talk radio hosts Category:Canadian television talk show hosts Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Evangelicalism Category:Living people Category:People from Essex Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:The Globe and Mail columnists Category:National Post people

Suelette Dreyfus is an Australian-American technology journalist and researcher, and author of the 1997 cult classic ''Underground: Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier''. The book describes the exploits of a group of Australian, American, and British black hat hackers during the late 1980s and early 1990s, among them Julian Assange, who is credited as researcher for the book.

She and Assange are friends, and in 2009 she was described by Wired magazine as being on the Wikileaks advisory board.

Dreyfus says she first went online in 1994 when a friend introduced her to a Bulletin Board System (BBS). "When I was on a BBS," she told The Age newspaper, "I met up with some people who told me stories about Melbourne hackers breaking into NASA and other sites. It intrigued me and so I struck up a friendship with these people and was eventually introduced to them."

Dreyfus was also associate producer for the Frontline documentary series ''Hackers'' in 2001, and was associate producer for the documentary ''In the Realm of the Hackers'', inspired by ''Underground'', in 2003. She is a regular contributor to ''The Independent'' and ''The Age'', as well as to radio programs like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ''Late Night Live with Philip Adams''.

Dreyfus is a researcher at the University of Melbourne, where she is described as having particular interest in digital whistleblowing, health informatics, computer security, hacking, mobile computing security and organisational change.

She received her BA from Columbia University in 1987 and her PhD from Monash University in 1998. While at Columbia, she won the Teichmann Prize for excellence and originality in writing.

References

External links

Underground: Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier

Category:Living people

de:Suelette Dreyfus fr:Suelette Dreyfus