The Muslim law student who posed a question at a conservative panel on Benghazi this week appeared Thursday on Fox News’ “Hannity,” where she was confronted about why she chose to use the microphone to speak about American Muslims instead of those who were killed in the Benghazi attacks.
Host Sean Hannity recreated a back-and-forth that took place at the Benghazi Accountability Coalition panel at the Heritage Foundation between the student, Saba Ahmed, and panelist Brigitte Gabriel, president of ACT! for America. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank had described Gabriel and her fellow panelists’ reaction to Ahmed as “ugly taunting,” a characterization that some disputed based on a video clip from the event.
Hannity kicked off the discussion by asking Ahmed why she chose to focus her question on the treatment of Muslims in America.
“The forum was talking about Islamic jihadists. So I asked a question about Islam,” Ahmed said. “So I didn’t see how that was irrelevant. It was directly related to what the panel was about.”
Gabriel then accused Ahmed of derailing the direction of the Benghazi panel discussion.
“The whole symposium was about Benghazi,” Gabriel said. “And she took the limelight instead of standing up as an American, caring about how four Americans are dead, asking something about what we can do to hold our government accountable.”
“The whole panel was about accountability,” she added. “Yet she took the limelight asking a question that was completely not discussed, out of the blue. She might as well be asking, ‘why are we wearing green today?'”
Hannity continued to press Ahmed on Sharia law, urging her to say that it was wrong to force women to wear head scarves, to require four male eyewitnesses to prove rape and to allow stoning of women and homosexuals.
“This is happening in the name of your religion, this is my point,” Hannity said. “I have every belief that you’re probably very moderate in your own personal views, but this is happening in the name of your religion. If it were Catholic and it was happening in the name of my religion, like the sex scandal, I spoke out. I said it was intolerable. Will you speak out?”
“Well, I am speaking out. I’m against some of the barbaric practices around the world. I think Islam has been misused by a lot people –” Ahmed said before Hannity cut her off.
Watch below:
