Most of the time I don't have any problem with Bill O'Reilly. Sometimes I even get a kick out of him, as when he plays himself in cameos in various action movies ranging from Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen to Iron Man II. I would generally characterize him as right-of-center, although definitely not conservative.
Tiresome nonsense like this is most of the reason why:
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly continued his criticism of the "Draw Muhammad" art show and cartoon contest that was the target of an attempted attack by two men spurred by the Islamic State (ISIS.)
Okay so far; that's countering Miss Geller's words with his own. Debate, IOW, setting a good example for "Muzzies" to follow.
On Thursday's O'Reilly Factor, the host said he doesn't question the free speech rights of organizer Pamela Geller or her group the American Freedom Defense Initiative, but said it was wrong to insult every Muslim on the planet. Islam considers it blasphemous to produce an image of its founder.
Now we're starting to have problems. I could buy that he doesn't question the free speech rights of Pamela Geller and AFDI if he hadn't said that her speech was "wrong". That introduces a moral component into his argument that treads dangerously close to the Muslim position on this question that gave rise to the attempted jihadist attack. For the record, Miss Geller did not "insult every Muslim on the planet," she insulted its purported "prophet" who's been dead a month short of 1,383 years, and two Islamic Fundies chose to take offense at it in gallopingly violent and illegal fashion. The latter of which is the principle reason O'Reilly is implicitly saying she shouldn't have put on the "Draw the prophet" contest. Which is precisely the "assassin's veto" and de facto Sharia imposition that Miss Geller was trying to vividly illustrate and against which she continues to heroically defend the First Amendment.
Question back to Mr. O'Reilly: Would you be so critical of Miss Geller's speech in Garland, Texas, if you weren't so clearly intimidated by Muslim Fundamentalists and their rabid, literally inbred hostility? The Left insults - and now threatens and intimidates - Christians all the time, and we don't burst into their "Piss Christ" and Bible-burning and other blasphemous events and try to mow them down with automatic weapons fire. And few seem to care about our plight. There's a logic in that yawning contrast that creates incentives that you shouldn't want to encourage, Bill.
That segues nicely into his title idiocy:
After playing a quote from the Rev. Franklin Graham saying it is wrong to insult a religion, O'Reilly agreed.
"Jesus would not have sponsored that event," O'Reilly said.
Unless an action is clearly sinful, I think it's awfully presumptuous to authoritatively claim to know what Jesus would have done. We do know from the Gospels that Jesus poked at the hypocritical, egotistical sensibilities of the leaders of Judaism for the entirety of His three year Earthly ministry, and it provoked them to raging anger and violence on many an occasion. They, too, considered Him a "blasphemer" and were "insulted" at His claims to be their promised Messiah. Was He "wrong" to proclaim the truth to them, Bill? Should He have clammed up instead in order to be "nice" and not "provoke" them instead? Hell's teeth, our LORD bodily threw the money-changers out of the Temple; even Pamela Geller hasn't gotten physical about her "crusade".
The point is, it was not "wrong" for Miss Geller and the American Freedom Defense Initiative to hold a "draw the prophet" contest; it was protected free speech. What was wrong was Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi trying to shut them up with extreme prejudice, and it is wrong for you, Mr. O'Reilly, to tell them that they should have bowed the knee to de facto Sharia without the prompting of a hail of bullets. The problem is not that the First Amendment is "insensitive" to Muslims, it's that Muslims don't believe in freedom and liberty and the adage Lefties - and you, apparently - used to believe in: "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
It may sound trite and clichéd, but your Fox colleague Megyn Kelly was right: If we can't and won't tell the truth about Islam, then the Global Jihad has already won without firing another shot.
And they will fire many more shots as a result.
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