Fox News host Bill O’Reilly argued that it was the responsibility of American Muslims to convince “unsophisticated thinkers” that their religion is not inherently violent on Tuesday’s episode of “The O’Reilly Factor.”
In an exchange with Harris Zafar, spokesman for the Ahmaddiya Muslim Community, O’Reilly insisted that the only way to dispel the association between Islam and terrorism is for American Muslims to host a “Million Muslim March” in the nation’s capital.
“You have to understand, and I’m sure you do, that in this world there are so many radical Muslims, so many that it becomes difficult for unsophisticated thinkers to separate the good from the bad,” O’Reilly said. “It’s almost like Germany in—during the Nazi regime. Not all Germans were Nazis, but we had to kill them all and bomb the hell out of their cities to break that movement.”
O’Reilly said that this kind of mass bombing campaign could be avoided because the world’s Muslims are geographically dispersed, but insisted that “there’s a lot of people who are getting a little fed up” with practitioners of the religion.
Zafar nodded as O’Reilly spoke before pointing to the “good work” being done by Muslim activists to combat these stereotypes. But the Fox host held firm to his view that the Muslim community needed “a better PR arm.”
“I would tell you and every other Muslim leader, you need a Million Muslims March in Washington with national coverage to speak out against ISIS so the whole world can see it,” he said. “That’s what you need.”
This year’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. was marred by threats of anti-Muslim protests in over 20 cities. The event was intended as a celebration of civil rights and diversity.
Watch O’Reilly’s interview below via Media Matters:
