BRIAN KILMEADE (HOST): The president urging Americans not to succumb to Islamophobia in the wake of the massacre in California carried out by Islamic extremists. But it turns out Muslim hate crimes, not as big an issue as the White House would make you to believe. Attorney General, excuse me, attorney John Hajjar is a Lebanese-American and co-chairman of the American Middle East Coalition for Democracy is here to explain. First off, were you surprised the president included that in his speech?

JOHN HAJJAR: Right. Brian, he always is trying to find victimhood status for various groups. In this case, Muslim-Americans. You know, we are a welcoming country, Middle East-Americans have been coming to the United States for 125 years and relatively incident-free. They have excelled in all fields of endeavor from medicine, law, sports, business, entertainment. And America has been a very gracious and welcoming environment for people from the Middle East and that continues to this day.

KILMEADE: So, we have the rise of ISIS, we have Al Qaeda. We know that Bin Laden targeted us in 2001. We weren't bombing him. But yet in 2014, look at how the breakdown goes when it comes it hate crimes. 59 percent of the hate crimes, anti-Semitic. 14 percent anti-Islamic. Important. Look at the difference. 14 percent anti-Islamic. 6 percent anti-Catholic and 2.5 percent, 17 percent but 2.5 Protestant and other anti-Protestant. So, if you see those stats, why is the president including it in his speech?

HAJJAR: 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 (CAIR) 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.

[...]

KILMEADE: Bottom line is, the stats don't lie. America has been more tolerant despite these attacks than anyone would think.

Previously:

As Trump Calls For Ban On Muslim Immigration, Fox Denies Existence Anti-Muslim “Backlash”

NBC News' Richard Engel On Trump's Proposal To Ban Muslims: “This Is Not The Country I Know”

Conservative Media Lash Out Over Obama's Address On Combating ISIS