Image source: Fareed Zakaria
BY ADNAN S. KHAN
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ZAKARIA: What got my attention this week was a claim by Glenn Beck. Here he is on his radio show last Monday.
BECK: “…What’s that number. What is the number of Islamic terrorist? One percent? I think it is closer to 10 percent but the rest of the PC world will tell you ‘OH! No it’s miniscule’”
Uh-oh. Glenn Beck is out making enemies again. And this time he caught the ire of long time political columnist and journalist Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria pointed out that, by Beck’s estimate, there are 157 million terrorists in the world. Zakaria asks sarcastically, why this estimate isn’t getting any media coverage. Zakaria’s answer – because it’s ‘total nonsense’. RT agrees.
“Man that is a lot of terrorists. If there are 157 million of them out there, why are we still in Afghanistan trying to stop 400 or so Al-Qaeda? That just seems crazy. Where are the rest of them? How many caves you need to hide them all?”
Beck’s producer argues the host was using the “dictionary definition” of terrorist, which also includes people who advocate terrorism. Zakaria replies, by that definition Beck might be a terrorist himself.
“Now, there is a Pew poll from March and some similar ones from other groups that find that about 20 percent of America is angry with the federal government. Does supporting such anger against the American government make one a terrorist? According to Glenn Beck's producer and his Dictionary.com definition, maybe, but in that case, how would one describe a man who has been fueling such anger against the American government on television daily for the last two years? How, in other words, would one describe Glenn Beck?”
Beck recently rebuked Zakaria’s attacks. Mediaite says its surprised Beck even took notice, saying Zakaria...
“…occasionally throws fairly well-disguised bombs from his perches at CNN and Time in a manner so serene many fail to notice.”
But did Beck accidentally threaten to kill Zakaria? The Huffington Post explains.
“Glenn Beck struck back … by wondering what would happen if he called for Zakaria to be killed, and insisting ‘it doesn't matter’ what the actual number of terrorists in the world is.”
Beck points out it took only 18 terrorists to bring down the World Trade Center and says, Zakaria dismissing 11,000 terrorist attacks as minuscule is outrageous. On his radio show, Beck defended himself further.
GLENN: “It doesn’t matter how many there are.”
PRODUCER: “It’s enough.”
GLENN: “What did he say? 1.1 million. That’s enough. 1.1 million is enough to wipe us off the face of the earth… (FLASH) … And it does matter how many people are willing to stand up against this and vocally say ‘no’ and say ‘enough is enough.’ That is the number we should be talking about.”
Want to see more of the argument? We have the original videos which started the argument, linked in our transcript section.
Fareed Zakaria on CNN
Glenn Beck rebuking Zakaria
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Transcript by Newsy
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