My Debate with London Mayor Ken Livingstone

It all began with a faxed letter from Ken Livingstone, mayor of London,
arriving out of the blue on April 4, 2006:

I will be hosting a conference to discuss the thesis of the "clash of
civilizations" first popularized by Professor Samuel Huntington's book,
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. I would like
to invite you to debate this thesis with me at the opening session of the
conference, which will be held 10am-1pm on Saturday, 10 June 2006.

The conference was twice delayed, before finally taking place two days
ago, on January 20, 2007. It was quite an event, held in the Queen
Elizabeth II Conference Centre, across the street from Westminster Abbey.
The mayor told me in a private chat before the event that when he
conceived of the event two years ago, he wondered if anyone would show
up. He need not have worried; the Greater London Authority's website
indicated there had been "an unprecedented demand" for tickets and
several days in advance of the event shut the ticketing. One organizer on
the mayor's staff told me that the audience numbered about five thousand
and that over 150 media had registered for the conference.

The mayor and I each invited a seconder to help us make our arguments: he
chose Salma Yaqoob, a councillor in Birmingham, and I chose Douglas
Murray, the London writer. Due to the large crowd, the event started a
half hour late but even truncated, it still went for slightly over two
hours.

Despite the many journalists and video cameras, and despite the GLA having
recorded and simultaneously transcribed the event, and despite two and a
half days having passed since it took place, there has been – quite to my
surprise – not a single media account of the debate, nor a video made
available, nor a transcript. (This reminds me in a way of my University
of California-Berkeley talk three years ago, which created quite a stir
but had zero media coverage.)

There have, however, been a number of blog accounts – interestingly, every
one of them sympathetic to Murray and myself; it would seem that the
mayor's supporters took a pass on reporting the event. In alphabetical
order by author, here are are the fullest and most interesting accounts
that I have located (the list will be updated as needed):

* Sharon Chadha, "Clash of Civilizations?" SharonChadha.com, 21 January
2007.
* Gandalf, "Clash of Civilizations." UpPompeii.com, 21 January 2007.
* Graham, "A Very Civilised Clash." Harry's Place, 22 January 2007.
* Jonathan Hoffman, "Daniel Pipes survives Livingstone's Lions' Den."
Adloyada.com, 21 January 2007.
* David Pryce-Jones, "Debating Clash." National Review Online, 20 January
2007.
* Beila Rabinowitz and William A. Mayer, "Dr. Daniel Pipes and Douglas
Murray Triumph over 'Red' Ken Livingstone in London Debate."
PipeLineNews.org, 22 January 2007.

In anticipation of the video to follow, here are a couple of pictures from
the event, one of Ken Livingstone speaking, and one of me; from left to
right, the sequence is Douglas Murray, myself, Gavin Esler (the
moderator, a BBC television host), Ken Livingstone, and Salma Yaqoob.

(January 22, 2007)

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