Morris Uses Fox Appearances To Push His Anti-Muslim Petition

Morris Claims Park51 Will “Train The Same Kind Of Terrorists That Caused The Attacks” And “Want[s] Us To Provide Them With U.S. Taxpayer Money To Make It Possible.” On the August 29 edition of Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight, Morris promoted his petition to prevent the proposed Park51 Islamic community center from applying for federal funds, claiming the community center will “teach Sharia law and train the same kind of terrorists that caused ground -- the attack on the World Trade Center to happen” and “want[s] us to provide them with U.S. taxpayer money to make it possible.” Morris concluded by asking people to go to his “website, DickMorris.com, in the upper right-hand corner, I have a petition that we started to collect signatures on today.” [Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, 8/29/11, via Media Matters]

On Hannity, Morris Plugs Petition At End Of Unrelated Segment. On the August 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity, Morris ended a segment on the GOP primary by saying:

MORRIS: I just want to say one thing before your music comes. The guys who want to build the ground zero mosque have applied for federal funds from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the entities created to rebuild after 9-11. I'm outraged by that, and if you go to DickMorris.com, please sign the petition, the upper right-hand corner of the site, to stop this. To ask us to pay for their mosque, to rub our noses in it, after 9-11 and teach sharia law at that mosque is absolutely incredible. It's August 29, otherwise I would think it's April 1. [Fox News, Hannity, 8/29/11, via Media Matters]

Morris Uses Fox & Friends Appearance to Promote Petition. On the August 31 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, at the end of a discussion about the impact a vice presidential candidate could have on the GOP primary, Morris claimed that “the group that is pushing for the 9-11 mosque, two blocks from the Trade Center site, is now asking for federal funds.” Morris mentioned his petition which would prevent Park51 from using those funds “to help lower Manhattan recover” and provided a link to his website, asking viewers to “please click on it and sign up.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends 8/31/11, via Media Matters]

O'Reilly “Set[s] Up” Morris To Push Petition. On the August 31 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly invited Morris to push the petition. Morris claimed the center's builders “want us to pay for their mosque to rub our nose in 9-11 and train for Sharia law stuff.” Morris pushed a petition which he said could be found “on the upper right-hand corner of said website, DickMorris.com” to “deluge the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.” [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 8/31/11, via Media Matters]

Promoting Petition On His Website, Morris Claims Park51 Is “Designed To Celebrate The Attacks That Killed 3,000 Americans”

Morris: “The Ground Zero Mosque ... Will Doubtless Spawn Hundreds Of New Terrorists.” In an August 29 post promoting the petition on his website, Morris claimed that Park51 is “designed to celebrate the attacks that killed 3,000 Americans” and “will doubtless spawn hundreds of new terrorists.” From DickMorris.com:

The ground zero mosque, called Park 51, has applied for a $5 million grant of federal funds from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The Corporation, set up to rebuild lower Manhattan after 9-11 is actively considering the grant request. Imagine! A federal entity set up to rebuild lower Manhattan giving tax money to a mosque designed to celebrate the attacks that killed 3,000 Americans!

The ground zero mosque will offer courses in Shariah Law and will doubtless spawn hundreds of new terrorists eager to pick up where the 9-11 hijackers left off.

[...]

[T]he sponsors of the mosque have no business rubbing the noses of the victims' families in the dirt by building the mosque right next to the site of 9-11. But there is especially no justification for using our tax money to make it possible. [DickMorris.com, 8/29/11]

Morris' Petition Claims That “The Mosque Will Teach Shariah Law, And Its Location Is An Insult To All Americans.” From Morris' petition:

We the undersigned strongly urge the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to refuse to give funding to the planned mosque near the Ground Zero site of the World Trade Center. The mosque will teach Shariah law, and its location is an insult to all Americans - especially those who lost loved ones on 9-11. To use our tax dollars to subsidize this insult just compounds the affront to our sensibilities. [DickMorris.com, 8/29/11]

Morris Has A History Of Inflammatory Attacks On Park51

Morris: Park51 Would Be Like Other “Sharia Mosques” Which Are “Command Centers For Terrorism.” On the August 18, 2010, edition of The O'Reilly Factor, discussing Park51, Morris claimed "[t]hese Sharia mosques -- and that's the key word, Sharia, not mosque -- have become the command centers for terrorism." Morris also claimed Park51 would be “a triumphalist monument” to the 9-11 attacks. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 8/18/10, via Media Matters]

Morris: Park51 Would Be “A Terrorist Recruitment, Indoctrination And Training Center.” From an August 18, 2010, column on Morris' website:

The proposed mosque near to ground zero is not really a religious institution. It would be -- as many mosques throughout the nation are -- a terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and training center. It is not the worship of Islam that is the problem. It is the efforts to advance Sharia Law with its requirement of Jihad and violence that is the nub of the issue.

[...]

Which brings us to the ground zero mosque. There can be no doubt that any mosque organized and run by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will be based on Sharia Law and will serve as local branch office of the pan-Islamic terrorist offensive against the west. That such a facility should be located right next to the place where Jihad achieved its most hideous triumph is unspeakably inappropriate. [DickMorris.com, 8/18/10]

Morris: Park51 Will Be Used To “Train And Recruit Sharia Law Advocates Who Become Terrorists.” On the August 19, 2010, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Morris claimed that Park51 will be used to “study and promote and train and recruit Sharia law advocates, which -- who become terrorists.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/19/10, via Media Matters]

Morris: “Embodying The Values That Most Americans Share, That Doesn't Include A Mosque At Ground Zero.” On the September 29, 2010, edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, during a discussion of “progressive values,” Morris claimed, “Embodying the values that most Americans share, that doesn't include a mosque at ground zero.” [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 9/29/10, via Media Matters]

For the truth about the Park51 community center, SEE HERE.