Listen To A Muslim Community Leader Call Out Sean Hannity's Anti-Muslim Rhetoric
Dr. Faheem Younus: Muslims Serve Their Communities “Because Of” Their Faith “Not In Spite Of” It
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the October 24 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
HANNITY: Why are so many people though, why are there so many radical Islamists? What is the attraction to this way of life? What is the attraction to this extremism?
YOUNUS: First of all Sean, I disagree. I think this is sort of McCarthyism. These guys, I don't consider them Muslims. I mean you can call a rotten tomato a strawberry but that doesn't make it a strawberry. These people...
HANNITY: Excuse me, this is not McCarthyism, sir, with all due respect, If somebody is killing in the name of Allah and in the name of Islam, that views everybody else as apostates and infidels... Hang on, let me finish. If they're quoting the Quaran, they're doing it. I would agree it is a perversion, a hijacking of a religion, but there are an awful lot of them buying into this ideology and I would also add that those that say that they're moderate Muslims, while there are some very outspoken people, their numbers are few.
YOUNUS: Well that's the point. First of all, I would ask you not to legitimize their distorted version of Islam. That is exactly why I'm saying these are rotten tomatoes.
[...]
YOUNUS: You've made a lot of charges here. You've called out my Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who said loyalty to the country where you live is part of your faith. It's because of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that the Muslim community joins Americans all across the country, we join we call it Muslims for Loyalty. There are 40 such rallies last year on the 4th of July. I'm going to ask you after I finish, how many of those Muslims came on your show? And how many times did you talk about that on your show? I also have to say that these are the reasons, this is Islam. It's not in spite of Islam it's because of Islam that members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community are cops, they're serving as marines, and military. And when you say our laws, excuse me sir, I am also an American. This is also my country. These are also my laws. So stop othering three to seven million people because when you do that you only allow radicals to go out and recruit more.
[...]
YOUNUS: And see, I ask David one quick question. This is Faheem again. When we come out in the mass, thousands of us joining these Fourth of July parades, people like David don't want to talk about that on their radio shows.
WEBB: Yes I do. I talk about it, and what I'm talking about is when you don't come out. And I use the example of Miami, the same place where literally 10 or 12 years where the radicals come out and you can see the videos, the Clarion Project puts them out, I don't see surrounding them peaceful Muslims. I don't see surrounding them Muslims like yourself that want to go out and say this isn't us. You have to confront your own problem, because it is a problem for the world.
YOUNUS: I completely agree with you, David. I've written over 100 articles and that is the reason that I'm on this show. I completely agree that we need to work together to root out extremists because they are just as much a danger to me and my family as they are to you. So I'm fully in line there, but I think that the idea that somehow Prophet Muhammad is to be blamed, or the faith, or the Quran has to be blamed, it's almost like I believe that in the brain of Islam today there is a tumor. But thank god people like you are not neurosurgeons because you'd be taking an ax and chopping off that head. And that is exactly what scares me, because we need to use kind polite language to distinguish between what these people are doing.
Previously:
Muslim Leaders Have Roundly Denounced Islamic State, But Conservative Media Won't Tell You That