Fox’s Latest Narrative — Islamophobia Doesn’t Really Exist, Just Something Obama Made Up
Considering that the frontrunner for the GOP Presidential nomination is currently dominating the news cycle due to his demand that all Muslims be barred from entering the United States, you would think that a certain news channel wouldn’t try to push a narrative that Islamophobia is a myth. Yet, ever since President Obama called for Americans to treat Muslims with respect during his Oval Office speech on Sunday, stating that Islamophobic hate crimes are on the rise, Fox News has spent a good chunk of airtime claiming that hatred towards Muslims is exaggerated or even nonexistent.
During Tuesday morning’s broadcast of Fox & Friends, co-host and blank stare connoisseur Brian Kilmeade spoke to John Hajjar, co-chairman of the American Middle East Coalition for Democracy, about the notion of Islamophobia in America and retaliation towards Muslims after the San Bernardino shooting. After talking about how great America has been for Middle Eastern immigrants, especially those who practice Islam, Kilmeade and Hajjar both agreed that Islamophobia is a myth.
Kilmeade first read off hate crime stats, pointing out that the majority of hate crimes targeting religion in the United States are against Jews. In the Fox host’s mind, because ‘only’ 14% of recipients of hate crimes in America are Muslim, then there just isn’t that much of a problem, especially considering that Muslims have been targeting us for attacks since at least 9/11. Of course, immediately after 9/11, hate crimes against Muslims rose an astonishing 1600%, and even today, they are five times the rate of what they were prior to the World Trade Center attacks.
Also, just last month, the FBI stated that there was a rise in Muslim-focused hate crimes in 2014 compared to 2013, and they expected 2015 to have an even greater increase. Of course, Kilmeade was just following the lead already set by Bill O’Reilly the night before, who also touted the difference between Jewish and Muslim hate crimes to claim that there is no evidence that Islamophobia is rampant in America.
Anyway, after reading off his stats, Kilmeade asked Hajjar why the President was talking about being more compassionate towards Muslim-Americans. In Hajjar’s mind, the Muslim community is just trying to garner sympathy, even though they don’t deserve it.
“That’s a great question to ask. You know, they’ve been creating, as I said, this victimhood status for Muslims for, you know, in conjunction with the Council of the American Islamic Relations and other Muslims groups such as Muslim Student Association, the Islamic Circle of North America, to really divert attention from what’s going on. It’s not been happening. And Islamophobia is really nothing but a myth. And you don’t see the press calling for inquiries or the FBI calling for inquiries into anti-Semitic crimes, yet CAIR has been outspoken and they’ve really driven that point and they’ve succeeded. You know, in the Muslim community it’s very, there’s a lot of diversity. And people say that it’s racist, Islamophobia is racist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Islam is not a race, it’s a religion. And Muslims come to this country from over 50 countries, from West Africa all the way from the Middle East and into East Asia.”
It is all just a big hoax being perpetrated by Big Muslim to let those who practice Islam portray themselves as victims. Got it.
Below is video of the F&F segment, courtesy of Media Matters:
