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Fox News' Top Five Islamophobic Smears

Sean Hannity last night was clearly upset that Rep. Keith Ellison exposed him(link is external) for what he is — a partisan hack — and he is now launching attacks on the congressman (link is external) by recycling statements Ellison made in the 1990s about the Nation of Islam, a group that the congressman later vociferously denounced. He even wondered(link is external) if “we have somebody then in Congress that is the equivalent of one side of what the Klan is?”

Hannity has attacked Ellison(link is external) over his faith in the past, arguing that Ellison’s use of Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Quran during his symbolic swearing-in ceremony “will embolden Islamic extremists” and is no different from a congressman using “Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible.”

While the use of inflammatory language and false claims is nothing new for Sean Hannity(link is external), we decided to use the segment as an opportunity to highlight the five Islamophobic smears regularly found on Fox News.

1. Obama is a Secret Muslim:

Fox News host Eric Bolling claimed(link is external) that Obama “answers to the Quran first and to the Constitution second” and Hannity himself alleged(link is external) that Obama “went to a Muslim school.” Regular contributors like Charles Krauthammer(link is external) and Donald Trump(link is external) have also floated the claim that Obama was raised as a Muslim and back in 2007, Fox News ran with(link is external) the discredited story(link is external) that Obama was a student an Islamic “madrassa” in Indonesia.

2. Park 51 Will be used for Terrorism:

Dick Morris, who just recently was booted from the network following his hilariously bad election predictions, said that the Park 51 Islamic Community Center near Ground Zero is planning to “train the same kind of terrorists(link is external)” that attacked the U.S. on 9/11, warning the building will be a “command center for terrorism(link is external).” Bolling alleged(link is external) that Park 51 is being built to represent “the people who flew planes” into the Twin Towers and Bill O’Reilly warned(link is external) the project is housing “condos for Al Qaeda.”

3. Al Jazeera Conspiracies:

Fox News contributor Lisa Daftari warned(link is external) that Al Jazeera’s acquisition of Current TV will activate terrorist “sleeper cells” in Detroit and regular Fox guest Michelle Malkin called(link is external) the channel “a cheerleader for terror” and “a Trojan Horse for terror TV.”

4. Sharia law a-comin’:

Regular Fox News viewers may be under the impression that President Obama(link is external), public schools(link is external) and NASA(link is external) seek to impose Sharia law(link is external). The network also recently hired(link is external) Herman Cain as a contributor, who insisted that Muslims should be prohibited(link is external) from serving in high levels of government and that localities have a right to ban mosques (link is external) because Muslims seek to introduce Sharia law, warnings Hannity readily endorsed(link is external).

5. ‘All Terrorists are Muslims’:

Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends claimed(link is external) that “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims” and Bill O’Reilly has implied that all Muslims(link is external) were responsible for 9/11(link is external). Fox News regularly hosts(link is external) anti-Muslim guests such as Brigitte Gabriel, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. In fact, Fox News host Laura Ingraham(link is external) and contributor John Bolton(link is external) prematurely blamed the far-right terrorist attack in Norway on government offices and a left-wing party youth summit on Muslims.