Once again, Fox's Bill O'Reilly has put his giant Republican foot in his blabbermouth. On ABC's The View Thursday O'Reilly, during a heated exchange with the ladies about the proposed Islamic Community Center two blocks from Ground Zero, spewed the sort of ignorant, race-baiting venom that's become all-too familiar among conservatives: "Muslims killed us on 9/11!" Moments later, the program's most reliably outspoken libs, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, got up and angrily walked off the stage, only to appear minutes later after O'Reilly sucked it up and apologized, pathetically trying to rationalize and spin his racist garbage into something less offensive.
There's a reason why most Americans oppose the Center, as O'Reilly cited from a CNN poll. It's the same reason why a third of Americans believe President Obama is an illegal alien. It's because rabble-rousing lying racists like O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, in partnership with flame-stoking lying pols like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, dominate the media and control the message the right-wing vomits to its equally ignorant racist base.
So Muslims killed us on 9/11? Was it Jews who killed innocent New Yorkers in the Son of Sam murders in the 70's? Was it Blacks who killed 29 Atlanta children in the early 80's? Was it Christians who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City in 1995?
O'Reilly and his fear-mongering cohorts know very well what they're doing as they regurgitate their incendiary rhetoric to the masses. There's nothing like a little good old fashioned racist propaganda to scare the bejesus out of the blissfully unaware and bolster one's position. And for those despicable ignoramuses who oppose the building of the Islamic Community Center, that includes demonizing an entire religion.
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John L. Esposito and Sheila B. Lalwani: Bigotry and Islam: Bill O'Reilly's at It Again
You are not accounting for the fact that the terrorist' main reason for 911 was their Muslim religion. That was not the case with Son of Sam - killing in the name of the Jewish religion, or any of your other examples.
And Muslims did kill 3000 people on 9/11. They were an extreme sect of the religion but, never the less, they did carry out the terrorist attack on 9/11.
Was it Christians who carried out the crusades?
Why does everyone feel they need to tippy-toe around Muslim feelings? A lot of them really hate us. So I am not supposed to say that out loud? Do you know how many people bash Christians on this web page? I'm sure there are people of every religion that hate Americans - but on 9/11 it was people specifically of the Muslim religion that carried out the act of killing over 3000 people, in the name of their religion.
And before you start in on me, I am not a religious person by any extent.
All the people involved in the Oklahoma bombing and priest molestations are Christians, but when some people use these events to slam Christianity in general, they are called wackos and loons. However, when other people use the same argument against Muslims, suddenly it is a "valid point worth considering."
When an argument is applied to one religion/race, but another religion/race is given a pass for basically the exact same thing, that is racist.
For your priest analogy - yes I would say that Catholic priests have been abusing children in their parishes. I would not say ALL Catholic priests abuse children, just like I wouldn't say ALL Muslims hate Westerners.
Next point?
And btw LDM, the 9/11 terrorists were also all Saudis. Your move....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fataw%C4%81_of_Osama_bin_Laden
1996 fatwā
Bin Laden's 1996 fatwā is entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places". It is a long piece, and complains of American activities in numerous countries. [4]
1998 Fatwa
The 1998 fatwā[2][5] reached al-Quds al-Arabi by fax, and was signed by five people, four of whom represented (or were said by the newspaper to represent) specific Islamist groups:
Osama bin Laden
Ayman al-Zawahiri, "emir of the Jihad Group in Egypt", probably meaning Islamic Jihad, now known as Egyptian Islamic Jihad
The signatories as a group were identified as the "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders". This fatwā complains of American military presence in the Arabian Peninsula, and American support for Israel. It purports to provide religious authorization for indiscriminate killing of Americans and Jews everywhere. It appeared in February 1998 and the embassy bombings followed in August.
This is just 1 of multiple examples that has occurred over the last 2 yrs. If you can't recognize hate speech and connect the dots I can't help you, but just pray that you don't work for a company that one of these hateful commentators decides to demonize.
Second, they did get their own moniker.
Kamikaze.
Also "Japanese" means a national of the Empire of Japan narrowly or a member of the Japanese ethnicity more broadly. Muslim is a religion that includes people from most countries on earth of all political persuasions with absolutely nothing in common whatsoever beyond some degree of agreement on some common religious beliefs. To say "the Muslims attacked us on 9/11" you'd have to think that "the Buddhists attacked us on 12/7" was a reasonable claim, as was "the Protestants and Catholics declared war on us on 12/10" (referencing the German declaration of war on the 10th of December 1941).
True Statement: Muslims killed Americans on 9/11.
Are all Muslims responsible? Of course not. The above statement doesn't imply that they are. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that.
Also you are wrong McVeigh justified his attacks based on a very particular brand of conservative conspiracy theory with very strong roots in particular extremist christian beliefs. Generally held by a minority of southern and midwestern white protestants. While that link was somewhat less direct than the extremist conspiracy theory interpretation of the Koran used by the bombers, it was no more real. Furthermore, it is the implication. Mr. Reilly's statements especially in the context of the current statements coming from his channel can only be interpreted as being generally "anti-muslim". There is no other reason to only call the bomber's "muslims". It would be like just calling the KKK "christian terrorists". While facially true, that hardly gives the full image nor does justice to all of the peaceful non-terrorist christians out there.