Fox News host Bill O’Reilly weighed in again on Thursday on the violence that broke out at anti-Islam activist Pam Geller’s Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas, calling her arguments about free speech “bogus.”
To make his point, the Fox host asked a simple question: what would Jesus do?
“No one I know favors curtailing speech in this case — the real issue is whether it was the right thing to do,” O’Reilly said. He had previously tussled with fellow host Megyn Kelly over the value of Geller’s activism.
On Thursday’s show, O’Reilly played footage of Rev. Franklin Graham, no stranger to scaremongering over Islam, who called the cartoon contest “wrong.”
“Rev. Graham reflects the Christian point of view that you don’t demean other people unnecessarily,” O’Reilly said.
“Jesus would not have sponsored that event,” he added. (O’Reilly co-wrote a book on Jesus.)
O’Reilly also said that the goal of decent people should be to “defeat the jihad” in allegiance with moderate believers, and that Geller’s stunt did nothing to win over hearts and minds in the Muslim world.
“Again, the freedom of speech argument is bogus,” he added. “No one is saying the exposition was illegal.”
