From tonight’s Paula Zahn. This one dragged on for 12 minutes so I’ve got to do in two parts. Part one is the main event: arguably the world’s foremost atheist butting heads with CAIR tool extraordinaire Ibrahim Hooper over how, in a world where Ayaan Hirsi Ali needs 24/7 protection and American news bureaus censor their own coverage of the Danish cartoons for fear of stirring up jihad, Hooper can dare suggest that putting a Koran in a toilet is an “act of intimidation.” As you’ll see, his logic is nonsensical on its own terms: he hones in on the difference between destroying one’s own Koran and destroying someone else’s, but that has no bearing on the intimidation factor, particularly where, as here, the Korans in question didn’t belong to Muslims.

His insistence that Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Cat Stevens, didn’t say what he said about Salman Rushdie is also, of course, a baldfaced lie.

Part 2 coming up.

Update: As promised. Dennis Prager makes a cameo to talk about his column today on Islamophobia. Hooper’s rhetorical parry? Dragging a guy into the conversation who’s not there to defend himself.

Tough day for him, incidentally.

Update: Robert Spencer has responded to Hooper at Jihad Watch.