As a platform for those who seek to denigrate Islam, Fox News never wastes an opportunity to denigrate Islam. Fox was provided with one such opportunity, recently, when a group of Muslim parents, in Dearborn, Michigan, objected to school flyers which promoted an Easter egg hunt at a local church. Fox's perpetually outraged Christian, Todd Starnes, got the hate fest started. Official Foxpriest, Fr. Jonathan Morris gently scolded the Muslim parents for making much ado about nothing. Hannity and Bob Beckel used the issue to foment fear of jihadists. Bill O'Reilly lied when he claimed that the parents object to the actual egg hunt. So who better to provide the Muslim perspective than the anti-Muslim Dr. Zuhdi Jasser who used the occasion to issue a string of vicious ad-hominems toward the parents and in so doing demonstrate why he is a "validator" of lies and propaganda directed towards Muslims and how Fox is his "echo chamber."
Elisabeth Hasselbeck immediately framed the propaganda message. She reported that "some parents are crying foul" over school flyers advertising the Easter egg hunt and played video of one of the parents who is questioning the constitutionality of what happened. After she plaintively posed the question, "don't parents have the right to just say no, that their child will not be attending the Easter Egg Hunt and that's the end of that," she introduced her guest, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser who, according to the CAP report, Fear Inc, promotes conspiratorial claims that America is infiltrated by radical Muslims. Hasselbeck asked him "what's going on when it comes to tolerance? Is this a constitutional violation to have a flyer" for the event. That's when Jasser went on the attack.
Jasser described the objections of the parents as the "summit of hypocrisy" and voiced a popular Christian right meme, that "the Constitution protects the freedom of religion, not the freedom from religion." He continued: "This demonstrates that they've lost all inhibitions in their cultural jihad to find opportunities to put Christians and the majority of Americans on the defense. It's absurd." Aw, poor Christians! He spoke of how, as a boy, he enjoyed participating in Easter and Christmas traditions because growing up "in a majority that wanted to celebrate their holidays as the foundations of American history" made him want to celebrate Ramadan and "that's why it's important to push back and not allow political correctness." (Badda boom, another Fox propaganda point scored!) In a moment of rich irony, he accused the Muslim parents of engaging in victimology. (Meanwhile, the segment is part of the patented Fox & Friends "War on [Christian] Faith" series?!)
Jasser mocked the parent who spoke about separation of church and state which is also ironic in that Jasser's organization, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (a group endorsed by the anti-Islamic, neo-con Daniel Pipes) , is devoted to "the separation of mosque and state." Hasselbeck suggested that if the school didn't given the promotional flyers to the children, it would be "discrimination." The agitprop chyron: "Freedom of Religion? No Faith Based Imagery on the Invitation." (Uh, Easter is a Christian holiday) Jasser accused "the Islamists" of "wanting their own special privileges" but "when it comes to the Christians in the majority asking to participate and let people know about their holiday, they scream discrimination." His next statement reflected Fox's constant drumbeat about secularism: "We can't let this hyper-partisan and we can't let this alliance between the hyper-secular, anti-religious left and the Islamists to continue to marginalize the big part of American culture which has a lot to do with Christianity."
So, if Hasselbeck's kids got an invitation to participate in an event, connected to Islam, at a mosque, do ya think she would be down with it? And if, in the sentence, "they've lost all inhibitions in their cultural jihad to find opportunities to put Christians and the majority of Americans on the defense," you substitute "crusade" for "cultural jihad" and "non-Christians" for Christians, you get Fox News' absurd "war on Christmas. Ironic, don't ya think!
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/5181/the-sad-truth-about-dr-m-zuhdi-jasser-star-narrator-producer-of-the-third-jihad/
However, by 2010, Jasser seems to have ‘made his bones’ with the crazy right:
http://www.thenation.com/article/159088/meet-dr-zuhdi-jasser-star-witness-peter-kings-anti-muslim-show-trial\
It’s amazing what a few well-placed bucks can accomplish, eh?