If you laugh at the idea of a cancel culture, well, here’s a good example. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which I consider an Islamist organization, is trying to cancel tonight’s discussion with Bari Weiss and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, scheduled for the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
Take Action: Stop Bigotry & Hate at the @cwclubhttps://t.co/qyrcWBvR0x@CAIRSFBA, American Muslims, and allies are calling on the Commonwealth Club to cancel a Feb 11 event with anti-Muslim anti-#Palestinian speakers Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bari Weiss. #BDS@ZahraBilloo @HatemBazian
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) February 9, 2021
CAIR has a petition page where you can sign on to the cancellation (click on screenshot):
The grounds? Hate speech, which apparently doesn’t deserve airing:
CAIR-SFBA, American Muslims, and our allies across the San Francisco Bay Area are calling on the Commonwealth Club to cancel their planned February 11 event featuring anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian speakers Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Bari Weiss.
These fringe speakers are contrary to the Club’s mission to seek truth and insight about the issues we face as a society. Both speakers have a shameful track record of propagating Islamophobia, which exacerbates ongoing intolerance and hate towards Muslims, immigrants, and others.
Well, CAIR, Students for Justice in Palestine, and similar organizations, are, in my view, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, and themselves “exacerbate intolerance”, but I wouldn’t for a moment try to stop them from holding events. I’m not sure what “truth” is being effaced by the two speakers, but part of it is probably the religiously-based defensiveness of organizations like CAIR.
Apparently the Commonwealth Club, which seems to be a public-affairs group with a wide range of speakers, agrees with me, for at the bottom of the petition you can read this:
CAIR of course has a right to object to the speakers, and to petition the club to cancel them, but it would have better “optics” if they didn’t try to stifle the voices of everyone they think is “Islamophobic.” I guess Hirsi Ali better bring her bodyguards tonight. . .
h/t: Luana
Well I registered for the event yesterday and look forward to hearing Ayaan Hirsi Ali tonight. Bari Weiss’s Twitter has a link to register for free to watch the live stream.
Would that Hitch were here to continue pressing on against this outfit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqra7REM7oI
I miss Hitch and Hunter S Thompson. They would have shredded the woke.
+1
Hitch and Hunter were friendly acquaintances. I recall Hitchens mentioning somewhere how much he and his mates at Oxford would look forward to Thompson’s early gonzo dispatches on American politics. And, IIRC, it was in Hitch-22, where he discussed a very pleasant day he spent in the good doctor’s company at Owl Farm in Woody Creek.
Ohh to be a fly on THAT wall!
D.A.
NYC
There may have been some tippling involved. 🙂
Whenever I see attempts to suppress speakers such as this, I make sure to go out and buy the beleaguered peoples’ books if applicable. I had intended to buy “Prey” anyway, but this post got me onto Amazon immediately. I was similarly triggered by PCC(E)’s articles here to get “Kindly Inquisitors” which I haven’t yet started reading, and earlier, “Cynical Theories”, “Irreversible Damage”, “You Can’t Read This Book”, Bari Weiss’s “How to Fight Anti-Semitism and – more pleasantly – “Revolution in the Head”.
Between them, Professor Coyne and Sam Harris have been the catalysts for nearly half of my book purchases this last year at least, and almost all of the nonfiction ones that weren’t physics or math related. They should really be sent a Thank You card at least from some of the publishers. ^_^
I typically do this as well. One of the best ways to show support. Better yet, subscribe to their webpages/podcasts, etc.
And on catalyzing book purchases: Yes in spades. My wife will ask me, where did you hear about that book? And 80+% of the time, it’s “On Dr. Coyne’s website” or “In the comments on Dr. Coyne’s website.” 🙂 (And almost all the rest are from Sam Harris’s podcasts.)
CAIR wants, and has always wanted, to silence all criticism of Islam and Palestinians. This reminds me of that school teacher, Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in the streets of Paris for advocating free speech while not being respectful enough of Islam. CAIR’s basic aims are the same, they just don’t advocate the violence that other Muslims do, but they are intolerant islamists none the less. I just made a paid registration. Thanks for letting us know about this event, PCCe
You probably want to correct the spelling of public.
OY! Corrected, thanks.
Indeed. I have read through the replies to the tweet and they are almost wholly critical of it.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali also has an article in this week’s Times Literary Supplement: “Beyond terror and textbooks: Can the West counter Saudi Arabia’s promotion of extremism?”
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-call-krithika-varagur-review-ayaan-hirsi-ali/
I was a little surprised to see her in the TLS, since that paper is also going woke, albeit at a slower rate than American publications.