Hannity finally reads a page of Rauf's book, distorts his words anyway

Written by Terry Krepel

Published

On Friday's edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity aired a prerecorded segment on Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who wants to build an Islamic community center near the Ground Zero site in New York. Hannity rehashed many of his previous false and misleading attacks on Rauf, with one key difference – Hannity seems to have finally gotten around to reading Rauf's book outlining his moderate views, What's Right With Islam.

Actually, it appears Hannity has only read one page of the book -- page 86, from which he quoted this passage:

[T]he American political structure is Shariah compliant ... For America to score even higher on the “Islamic” or “Shariah Compliance” scale, America would need to do two things: invite the voices of all religions to join the dialogue in shaping the nation's practical life, and allow religious communities more leeway to judge among themselves according to their own laws.

That passage from Rauf's book, even as cherry-picked as it is, contradicts many of Hannity's previous claims about Rauf, such as his August 12 claim that Rauf is “talking about shredding our Constitution and putting Sharia law as the law of the land in America.” In fact, we liberally quoted from Rouf's book to prove Hannity wrong at the time. (Gee, you think that's where Hannity pulled his Rauf book quotes from?)

Nevertheless, Hannity claimed this as evidence that Rauf's view of Sharia law is “frightening.” And by only selectively quoting from one page of the book, Hannity ignores Rauf's explanation of how the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence comport with ideals in Sharia. While the segment quotes filmmaker Jehan Harney in support of Rauf, it also features anti-Muslim activist Robert Spencer -- who spends a lot of time hanging out with the even more anti-Muslim Pamela Geller -- in pushing attacks on Rauf.

Beyond that, the segment was a rehash of Hannity's previous misleading, out-of-context attacks on Rauf:

  • Hannity aired a quote from a Huffington Post column in which Rauf stated that President Obama “should say his administration respects many of the guiding principles of the 1979 revolution -- to establish a government that expresses the will of the people,” without noting that Rauf also highlighted that Obama “said the right to peaceably dissent was a universal value” and that “the Iranian people and their voices should be heard and respected,” adding that the 1979 revolution occurred “in part to depose the shah, who had come to power in 1953 after a CIA-sponsored coup overthrew democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossaddeq.”
  • Hannity quoted Rauf from a separate Huffington Post column in which Rauf wrote that, “If you strive for justice and fairness in the penal code, then you are in keeping with moral imperative of the Shariah. ... Rather than fear Shariah law, we should understand what it actually is,” without noting that Rauf also wrote that “we cringe” at interpretations of Sharia law that lead to “women being stoned and forced into hiding behind burkas and denied educations” and “beheadings and amputations,” or that Rauf also made a distinction between Sharia and the “penal code,” adding that Muslim countries must “revise the penal code so that it is responsive to modern realities.”
  • Hannity quoted Rauf's statement on the September 30, 2001, edition of CBS' 60 Minutes that “I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States' policies were an accessory to the crime that happened” without noting that a similar view has been expressed by members of the 9/11 Commission, as well as Glenn Beck.

Hannity also highlighted another statement by Rauf from that same edition of 60 Minutes, that “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.” But he didn't mention that immediately afterwards, 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley backed up the claim:

BRADLEY: Bin Laden and his supporters were in fact recruited and paid nearly $4 billion by the CIA and the government of Saudi Arabia in the 1980s to fight against the mujahadeen rebels against the former Soviet Union, which had invaded Afghanistan. After the Soviets pulled out, the Saudis, our best friends in the Arab world, our staunchest ally during the Gulf War, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the newly formed Taliban regime until 1999, when the Saudi government feared that bin Laden and the Taliban were out of control.

Hannity, it seems, can't stop peddling distortions about Rauf. If only he would read more than one page of Rauf's book...