How do you think Fox & Friends would react to somebody who, on the "mainstream media," openly claimed that the Catholic Church is the greatest threat to the safety of children? One can only imagine the outrage from Fox talkers and Fox priests. Yet, Fox & Friends has no problem hosting somebody who unabashedly hates Islam and whose views on Jews border on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." During his two day Fox & Friends defamation of Islam, in 2012, "filmmaker" Eric Allen Bell's uninformed and bigoted claims were validated by uber-Catholic Eric Bollling. The Fox chyron described Bell's screed as "the truth about Islam." Today, Bell was on Fox & Friends for an almost uninterrupted four minute anti-Islam screed which Jesus BFF Elisabeth Hasselbeck didn't seem troubled by. Go figure.

Roger Ailes is scared of Muslims and he wants you to be, too. Hence, Fox's new "Rise of Islamic Extremism" series which this segment was a part of. (Meanwhile, as noted on Media Matters, Fox ignores white domestic terrorists) Hasselbeck opened with part of Pres. Obama's "60 Minute" interview. As Obama spoke about Islam, the chyron added to the right wing belief that he is a secret Muslim sympathizer. "We're Not At War, President Doubles Down on Praise of Islam." Elisabeth Hasselbeck began by saying that her guest disagrees with Obama's claim that we "are not at war with Islam." She introduced "former liberal filmmaker" Eric Allen Bell whose past liberal views "changed unexpectedly while reporting on a controversial mosque in Tennessee." ("Controversial" only because the Christian right opposed its construction - even to the point of attempting to burn it down.) She reported that Bell "saw a darker side of Islam which our politicians won't touch."

Hasselbeck told Bell, "great to have you here" and asked what he caused him to switch his world view while working on his documentary on the Tennessee mosque. Bell responded that he "really read the Koran, the Hadith, and asked the tough questions of Islamic clerics" and "found that their answers matched the answers of those who wrote books that were critical of Islam." (Huh?) He claimed that "Islam is the greatest threat to human rights in the world today and the greatest threat to global stability." (Never mind that the majority of Muslims are peaceful...) As the chyron asserted, as FOX FACT, that Obama is "Defending the Enemy," he said "that realization changed my world view."

In less than a week after a man, shouting bible verses, shot at gay men at a bar, Bell said that "we can judge Islam by its actions." While the Bible is full of homicidal quotes, he urged people to read the Koran to see the violence in Islam's teachings. To Hasselbeck's question of whether he believes that there are peaceful Muslims, he said the while "Islam is explosive, not all Muslims are explosive." Rather than challenge Bell, Hasselbeck asked him what he wanted people learn from his observations and "why won't politicians touch this angle." He responded that his lesson is that "as Americans...it's important that we not let ourselves be captured by hatred." (Right, like smearing Islam on national TV)

He opined that "not all Muslims are our enemy" but "Islam, absolutely is our enemy and if you doubt that, read the Koran as it makes that abundantly clear." He speculated that the reason that politicians don't address this is because they feel this position won't be supported. (Ya think?) Hasselbeck described his article, "Why I do not Hate Muslims" as "provocative."

While Eric Allen Bell decries Islamic extremism, he is clearly an Islamophobic extremist who has actually said that "We must destroy Islam. We must end Sharia in our time. We must absolutely destroy Islam absolutely - and leave the free world a better place for generations to come. Islam appeals to the darkest qualities in the human psyche." Would Fox & Friends host somebody who said that we should destroy Catholicism? But more importantly is the cognitive dissonance - he says Islam is intolerant while saying this shit. Substitute "Jews" for Islam in the first sentence and you have millennia of Christian anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. But when it comes to Jews, Bell isn't any better. He believes that the Jews control the financial world and Hollywood.

Once again, we see that America's patriotic, "fair & balanced," and very Christian "news" network is the place where you can "bash Islam with impunity" as well as an "echo chamber" for some of America's most unsavory, extremist, Islamophobes and anti-Semites. Team America, F**k yeah!