Daniel Pipes
Born	(1949-09-09) September 9, 1949 (age 62) Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation	Political commentator; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy (Spring '07); Director of Middle East Forum; Expert at Wikistrat
Nationality	United States
Subjects	Middle East, Islamic terrorism, Islamism
Relative(s)	Richard Pipes (father)
www.danielpipes.org

Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American historian, 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. He is also an Expert at Wikistrat.^[1]

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.^[2][3] The Bush administration sidestepped the opposition with a recess appointment.^[2]

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.^[4] According to The New York Times: "Among his supporters, Mr. Pipes enjoys a heroic status; among his detractors, he is reviled."^[5] He is currently the Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.^[6]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

The son of Irene (née Roth) and Richard Pipes, Daniel Pipes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1949.^[7] His parents were Polish Jews who had each fled German-occupied Poland, and met in the United States.^[8] His father, Richard Pipes, 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."^[9] He said he "found the material too abstract."^[10] He credits visits to the Sahara Desert in 1968 and the Sinai Desert in 1969 for piquing his interest in the Arabic language,^[9] and visits to Niger and Tunisia for piquing his interest in the Islamic world, and he changed his major to Middle East history.^[10] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

Career in academia[link]

Pipes returned to Harvard in 1973 and obtained a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history^[7] 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.^[7]

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.^[11]

Post-academia[link]

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.^[12] 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.".^[9] His articles have been translated into numerous languages, including Latin.^[13]

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,^[14] Pipes obtained the position by recess appointment.^[9]

Campus Watch[link]

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."^[5]

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".^[15] 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.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Views on Islam and the Middle East[link]

Radical and moderate Islam[link]

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."^[20] 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."^[21]

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."^[7] 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."^[22]

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." ^[9][23] Pipes believes that moderate Muslims "constitute a very small movement", but a "brave"^{[citation needed]} one, which the U.S. government should "give priority to locating, meeting with, funding, forwarding, empowering, and celebrating".^[24]

Pipes has praised Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey and the Sudanese thinker Mahmoud Mohamed Taha.^[25] 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.^[26]

Muslims in Europe[link]

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"^{[quantify][27]} 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."^[28]

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."^[29]

Through his Middle East Forum, Pipes fund-raised for the Dutch politician Geert Wilders during his trial, according to NRC Handelsblad.^[30] Pipes himself praised Wilders in January 2010 as "the unrivaled leader of those Europeans who wish to retain their historic [European] identity.".^[31] However, in autumn 2010 Pipes called Wilders' political program in an interview "bizarre" and not to be taken too seriously.^[32]

Muslims in the United States[link]

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."^[33] 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.^[34][35]

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."^[36][37]

The New York Times cited Pipes as 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 pernicious new movement of "lawful Islamists." Almontaser resigned under pressure as principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy, an Arabic-language high school in New York City named after the famed Christian Arab-American poet. Pipes initially described the school as a "madrassa", which means school in Arabic but, in the West, carries the implication of Islamist teaching, though he later admitted that his use of the term had been "a bit of a stretch".^[5] 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."^[5] Pipes had also stated that “Arabic-language instruction is inevitably laden with Pan-Arabist and Islamist baggage.”^[5]

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".^[38] 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."^[39]

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

Support of Pipes' views[link]

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."^[40]

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."^[9] 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."^[9]

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."^[41]

Criticism of Pipes' views[link]

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."^[19] 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." ^[42]

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.^[14] 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."^[43] 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."^[33]

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 speech that goes back to 1990."^[44] but university officials said they would not interfere with Pipes's visit.^[45] Pipes would later write an article recollecting his experience with the incident at the University of Toronto.^[46]

Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times compared and contrasted Pipes with Juan Cole. Kristof said that while both are "smart" and "well-informed", Pipes is less sensible, and consequently Kristof often disagrees with Pipes.^[47]

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."^[48]

Allegations against Barack Obama[link]

On his own website and in articles for The Jerusalem Post, Pipes claimed that Barack Obama was a former Muslim.^[49] 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."^[50] 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."^[51] The progressive^[52] media watchdog group Media Matters for America described Pipes' article as promoting a "falsehood".^[53] 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".^[54]

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.^[55]

Views on US foreign policy[link]

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.^[7] 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.^[7] 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."^[56][57] 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".^[56]

Europe[link]

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."^[58]

Iraq[link]

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.^[59] 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."^[60] 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.^[61]

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."^[62]

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.^[7] 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."^[63]

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."^[64] 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."^[57]

Arab-Israeli conflict[link]

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."^[65] Pipes has proposed a Three state solution to the conflict, in which Gaza would be given to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan.^[66]

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".^[26]

Iran[link]

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."^[67] 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."^[67]

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."^[68] 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."^[60]

Pipes has previously advocated that the U.S. "unleash" the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) against Iran.^[69] Though MEK is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Iraq and Iran,^[70] 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."^[69]

Saudi Arabia[link]

Pipes believes that Saudi Arabia is neither a "friend" nor a "foe" of the United States, but a "rival".^[71]

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."^[72]

Awards and honors[link]

• On March 11, 2006, Pipes was awarded the "Free Speech Award" from the Danish organisation Free Press Society of 2004 (Trykkefrihedsselkabet af 2004).^[73]
• In 2003, Pipes was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University.^[74]
• In May 2006, Pipes received the Guardian of Zion Award by Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.^[75]

Books and policy papers[link]

• 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[link]

	United States portal
	Biography portal
	Middle East portal

• From Time Immemorial

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Daniel Pipes

Official websites[link]

• danielpipes.org, Pipes' personal website
• meforum.org, website of the Middle East Forum
• campus-watch.org, website of Campus Watch

Profiles[link]

• "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[link]

• 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
• Booknotes interview with Pipes on Conspiracy, January 25, 1998.

Daniel
Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière
Prophet
Born	7th Century B.C
Died	6th Century B.C Babylon (?)
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Catholic Churches Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheranism adventism Islam[1] Armenian Apostolic Church
Major shrine	Tomb of Daniel, Susa, Iran
Feast	July 21 December 17
Attributes	Often depicted in the den of the lions

Daniel (Hebrew: דָּנִיֵּאל, Modern Daniyyel Tiberian Dāniyyêl ; Arabic: دانيال, meaning in Hebrew "God is my Judge") is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways. By Divine Wisdom from his God, Yahweh, he interpreted dreams and visions of kings, thus becoming a prominent figure in the court of Babylon. Eventually, he had apocalyptic visions of his own that have been interpreted as the Four monarchies. Some of the most famous tales of Daniel are: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, The writing on the wall and Daniel in the lions' den.

Narrative of Daniel[link]

Induction into Babylon[link]

Daniel refusing to eat at the King's table, early 1900s Bible illustration

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 1) 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.^[2]

Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar[link]

In the narrative of Daniel chapter 2, it is the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and the king is distressed by his dreams.^[v.1] Thus he summons his interpreters,^[v.2] however, they are unable to relay or interpret the dreams.^[v.10-11] The King acts in fury and demands the execution of all the wise men in Babylon.^[v.12] When Daniel discovers the King's executive order, he requests from the captain of the guard, Arioch, to see the King.^[v.13-16] Daniel prays for God’s mercy to receive a revelation from the King’s dream.^[v.15-18] God then reveals the mystery to Daniel in a vision that night.^[v.19] Daniel praises his God with a doxology.^[v.20-23] After meeting with Arioch again, Daniel is granted access to the king^[v.24-30] and relays the description of the dream,^[v.31-36] followed by its interpretation.^[v.37-45] With Daniel's successful interpretation of the dream, the king expresses homage,^[v.46] followed by his own doxology that affirms that Daniel's God is God of gods for revealing this mystery of his dream.^[v.47] Daniel is then promoted as chief governor over the whole province of Babylon.^[v.48] At Daniel’s request, his companions are also promoted, thus they remain at the king’s court.^[v.49][3]

Nebuchadnezzar's madness[link]

Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree which is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and become like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored and his kingdom is restored to him.

Daniel and Belshazzar[link]

In Daniel's later years, king Belshazzar holds a great feast for all his nobles. In a drunken state, the king calls for the sacred vessels captured from the Jerusalem temple and blasphemously drinks from them. Suddenly, the fingers of a man's hand appear before the king and write on the wall of the palace. When none of his wise men are able to interpret the message, Daniel is called in at the suggestion of the queen-mother. After reprimanding the king for his impiety, Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall to mean that Belzhazzar is about to lose his kingdom to the Medes and the Persians. For successfully reading the cryptic handwriting, Daniel is rewarded with a purple robe and elevated to the rank of "third ruler" of the kingdom. "That very night", we are told, "Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain" and his successor was King Darius the Mede, aged 62.

Daniel in the Lion's den protected by an angel by François Verdier

Daniel and Darius the Mede[link]

After the Persian conquest of Babylon, Daniel is depicted as one of three senior administrators of the empire in the reign of Darius the Mede. When the king decides to set Daniel over the whole kingdom, the other officials plot his downfall. Unable to uncover any corruption, they use Daniel's religious devotion to defeat him. The officials trick the king into issuing an irrevocable decree that no god is to be worshiped for a thirty day period. When Daniel continues to pray three times a day towards Jerusalem, he is thrown into a den of lions, much to the distress of Darius. After an angel shuts the lions' mouths, Daniel is delivered and his opponents thrown into the den where they are devoured instantly.

Daniel's visions[link]

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.

From Chapter 7 to the end of the book of Daniel, an apocalyptic vision is being described, supposedly from the perspective of Daniel.^[2] This marks a change in the narrative from Daniel interpreting to messengers of God interpreting for Daniel. Daniel dreams of four beasts that come out of the sea: a lion with eagles wings, a bear with three tusks, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a beast with iron teeth, ten horns and one little horn and human eyes.(Daniel 7:4-8) These beasts are all present at a convening of the divine counsel. Presiding over the counsel is the Ancient of Days, which may, in fact, be the Israelite God.^[2] The Ancient One proceeds to put to death the beast with the one little horn. (Daniel 7:9-11) Daniel also describes the fates of the other beasts saying that while their dominion was taken away, their lives were prolonged. (Daniel 7:12) This introduction leads into a series of dreams and visions where these events are expressed in greater detail.

Scholars argue that each of these beasts represent an emperor or kingdom that ruled over the Israelites. The first being Babylon, then Media, then Persia, and finally the Greeks. The horns of the last beast may be symbolic of the rulers that replaced Alexander the Great upon his death, culminating with the little horn, or Antiochus IV.^[2] There are additional details in the text that allude to Antiochus IV, including some form of desecration to the temple (Daniel 11:31) and persecution (Daniel 11:23).^[2] The final message of the second half of Daniel is that God will deliver the people from oppression, the latest of which is Antiochus IV.^[2]

Daniel's final days[link]

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 (Daniel 10:1). 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^[who?] 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).

References to Daniel[link]

Tomb of Daniel at Susa, Iran.

Book of Ezekiel[link]

The prophet Ezekiel, with whom Daniel was a contemporary, describes a Daniel as a "pattern of righteousness" in the Book of Ezekiel 14:14, 20 and "wisdom" (28:3).^[4] 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,^[5] 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.)

Bel and the Dragon[link]

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".^[6]

Six tombs of Daniel[link]

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.

Religious perspectives[link]

Rabbinic literature[link]

According to Rabbinical tradition, Daniel was of royal descent; and his fate, together with that of his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, was foretold by the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah in these words, "and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon".^{Isaiah 39:7[7][8]}

According to this view, Daniel and his friends were eunuchs, and were consequently able to prove the groundlessness of charges of immorality brought against them, which had almost caused their death at the hands of the king.^[8]

Daniel on the window in the church of St Daniel in Celje (Slovenia)

Islamic views[link]

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.^[9] When the Muslims conquered Alexandria in 641 C.E, a mosque was immediately built dedicated to Daniel.^[10]

Muslim literature[link]

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.^[11] 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:

Daniel was a righteous man of princely lineage and lived about 506-538 B.C. He was carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian, but was still living when Assyria was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. In spite of the "captivity" of the Jews, Daniel enjoyed the highest offices of state at Babylon, but he was ever true to Jerusalem. His enemies (under the Persian monarch) got a penal law passed against any one who "asked a petition of any god or man for 30 days" except the Persian King. But Daniel continued true to Jerusalem. "His windows being open in his chambers towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."

—Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary^[12]

Commemorations[link]

Eastern Orthodox commemorations[link]

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^[13] (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity.^[14] Daniel's prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol (Daniel 2:34-35) 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"

Roman Catholic Commemorations[link]

The Roman Catholic Church commemorates St. Daniel in the Roman Martyrology on July 21.^[15] However, his commemoration at Mass occurs only on local calendars of particular dioceses, sometimes on July 21 and sometimes on another day. For example, the archdiocese of Gorizia celebrates the feast of St. Daniel, prophet and confessor, on September 11. The reading of the Mass is taken from the Book of Daniel, chapter 14; the Gradual from Psalm 91; the Alleluia verse from the Epistle of James 1; and the Gospel from Matthew 24.^[16]

Coptic Church Commemoration[link]

The prophet is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.^[17]

Protestant Commemorations[link]

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.^[18]

Chapters of the Book of Daniel
1: Induction into Babylon 2: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of an image 3: The fiery furnace 4: The madness of Nebuchadnezzar 5: Belshazzar's feast 6: Daniel in the lions' den 7: Daniel's first vision 8: Vision of the ram and goat 9: Prophecy of Seventy Weeks 10: Vision of a man 11: Kings of the North and South 12: Epilogue
v t e

See also[link]

Saints portal

• Book of Daniel
• List of names referring to El
• Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Neo-Babylon
• Arioch, Captain of the guard
• Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Daniel's narrative companions
• Belshazzar, possible last King of Neo-Babylon
• Darius the Mede
• Cyrus the Persian, King of Achaemenid Empire
• Ezekiel, Daniel's narrative contemporary
• Persian Jews
• Apocalypse of Daniel

References[link]

• James B. Jordan (1995). "Daniel: Historical & Chronological Comments (II)" (– ^{Scholar search}). Biblical Chronology 7 (1). http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/ch/ch7_01.htm. ^{[dead link]}
• Francis E. Gigot (1889). "Daniel". Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. New Advent. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04620a.htm. 
• T. E. Gaston (2009). Historical Issues in the Book of Daniel. Taanathshiloh. 

External links[link]

• Book of Daniel (Biblical Passage)
• Daniel by Rob Bradshaw Detailed dictionary-style article.
• Daniel in the TaNaKh Detailed authorized Jewish translation of the original

Wikisource has original 1897 Easton's Bible Dictionary text related to:

Daniel

• Who is Ezekiel's Daniel? : The Ugaritic Danel
• Daniel 11 in Context Overview of the allusions to the Syrian Wars in Daniel 11

Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant in 2008
Born	February 20,[citation needed] 1972 Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Education	B.Comm; LLB
Alma mater	University of Calgary, University of Alberta
Religion	Judaism
Website
Ezra Levant

Ezra Isaac Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian media personality, conservative political activist and author. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, is a broadcaster and columnist for Sun Media and has written several books on politics and public policy.

Early life and education[link]

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.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[1]

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.^[3] 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.^[4]

Political activism[link]

Views on Quebec[link]

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"^[5] 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.^[6]

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."^[6]

Uniting the right[link]

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.^[7] 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^[8] and was one of the leaders of the movement to create the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to broaden the party's base.^[9]

Political organizer and aide[link]

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.^[10] 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.^[6] Along with newly-elected MP's Rob Anders, Jason Kenney and Rahim Jaffer, Levant was part of an up and coming group of young Reformers which pundits dubbed the "Snack Pack" due to their relative youth.

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.^[9][11] A close friend of Stockwell Day's son Logan, Levant proclaimed himself a "Stockaholic"^[12] and supported the elder Day in his successful attempt to defeat Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2001, he returned to Ottawa as communications director to Day.^[13] 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.^[14][15][16]

Candidacy and resignation[link]

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,^[17] 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,^[18] announced on March 28 that he would not step aside.^[12][19] Later that night, however, he relented after widespread pressure from the party and accusations that he was putting himself ahead of the party.^[20]

Publishing[link]

In 2004 Levant co-founded the Western Standard, an Alberta-based magazine with an emphasis on Western Canada, political conservatism, and libertarianism.^[21] In October 2007 the magazine stopped publishing its print edition after failing to become profitable,^[22] becoming an online magazine. Levant later sold the publication's remaining assets to Matthew Johnson, the former legislative aide to Rahim Jaffer.^[23]

Levant wrote an irregular column for the Calgary Sun for ten years, until he was dropped in October 2007 because of "internal decisions."^[24] He continued to write occasional columns for the National Post on a freelance basis.^[25]

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.^[26]

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy[link]

In February 2006, the Western Standard published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons depicting Muhammad.^[27] 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.^[25]

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,^[28] 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[link]

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.^[29] 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."^[30] 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.^[31]

Support and criticism[link]

Levant's case has attracted the attention of organizations such as PEN Canada,^[32] the Canadian Association of Journalists,^[33] and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association^[34] — all of which have called for reform of the commissions. He has been featured on Glenn Beck's show on CNN.^[35] 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.^[36]

Ezra has been a frequent critic of Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, who is Muslim, calling him an "anti-Christian bigot".^[37][38]

Libel cases[link]

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.^[39][40]

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."^[41]

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.^[42]

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.^[43]

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.^[44] Levant says this "lawsuit isn't logical, or serious. It's a nuisance suit."^[45]

Levant is also being sued by Warren Kinsella for libel, asking for $5,000,000. Levant has called Kinsella's suit "laughable".^[46]

George Soros[link]

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.^[47] Soros threatened to sue Sun Media for libel^[47] and on September 18, Sun Media issued a retraction and apology to Soros.^[48]

Recent activities[link]

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".^[49]

From 2009 until 2010, Levant worked as a lobbyist for Rothman's Incorporated, a manufacturer and distributor of tobacco products.^[50]

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.^[51][52][53]

Ethical Oil[link]

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.^[54] The book was the winner of the 2011 National Business Book Award, awarded on May 12, 2011 in Toronto.

Sun Media[link]

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.^[55]

CBC opponent[link]

Sun Media, owned by Quebecor, has also systematically opposed funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, led by Levant and Brian Lilley.^[56]

Books[link]

• Youthquake. Fraser Institute. 1996. ISBN 0-88975-167-6. 
• Fight Kyoto: The plan to protect our economy. Essence Publishing. 2002. ISBN 1-55306-546-8. 
• The War On Fun. Western Standard. 2005. ISBN 0-9739541-0-8. 
• Shakedown: How our government is undermining democracy in the name of human rights. McLelland & Stewart. 2009. ISBN 0-7710-4618-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=Cf10fE2hP4cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=shakedown+levant#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands. McLelland & Stewart. 2010. ISBN 0-7710-4641-3. 
• The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies, and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr. McLelland & Stewart. 2011. ISBN 0-7710-4621-9. 

Notes[link]