The Most Ridiculous Man on Television?

 

Mohamed Khodr’s Column

Dear Mr. O’Reilly:

Your current television ethos as contrasted from your earlier tabloid reporting on “Inside Edition” is that you defend “the little guy” against big government, corporations, media, injustice, racism, and denigration of the “Judeo-Christian” faith.  This “fair and balanced”; “objective”, “fair and balanced” reporting in your program and in FOX (Fraternal Order of Xenophobes) seems only to be FAIR to white, rich, Conservative Republicans, Religious Bigots (Falwell, Robertson, Graham:  all by the way Christ’s disciples with multi-million dollar empires such as yourself), Pro-Gun, Anti-Immigration, prima donnas of Pro-Israel as manifested by your boss Rupert Murdoch—which means pro-oppression, pro-occupation, pro-assassination, pro-land confiscation, pro-house demolitions, pro-bombing civilians, hospitals, schools, orphanages, ambulances, curfews, imprisonment and torture even of American citizens, and proud Anti-United Nations and all its Resolutions unless the victims are Muslims, pro-military-industrial complex, pro-bombing nations we simply don’t like, Anti-Minorities while giving tax breaks to your rich republican friends who avoid paying taxes and steal corporate funds and retirement funds, Anti-elderly Prescription drugs, against removing land mines, anti-gay and pro-AIDS as it’s a curse on irresponsible behavior, anti-Environment, and ANTI-you’re favorite new addition to your conscience of HATE:  ANTI-ISLAM.

It’s hard to understand what you and your ilk of Neo-conservatives, Christian Evangelists, and Pro-Israelites in this country stand for, like, or approve other than getting richer screw the planet and the poor.

As is customary on your program you’re more interested in being rabidly pro-ratings than in any meaningful discussion.  Your ratings depend on your followers of hate and warmongers.   I have seen your show, read your books, saw your talks at Harvard’s JFK SOG and elsewhere and your message is simplistic, unintellectual, divisive, and in most instances in very poor taste.  You’ve found the secret to your audience:  GIVE THEM THE SIMPLE IDEAS THAT DON’T REQUIRE MUCH THINKING EXCEPT A DICHOTOMOUS CHOICE AND THEY’LL LOVE ME.

Now, you’re in the rating “RAGE DU JOUR” of expressing your wonderment and outrage why the University of North Carolina would God forbid hold an ‘Islamic Awareness Week.”  Never mind that academic institutions are places of open minded, questioning curiosity, analytical thought, and knowledge.  Never mind that Academic Freedom is a foundational rock of our society and the main intellectual engine for discovery and progress.  Never mind that YOU HAVE NO CLUE OR ANY UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAM or for that matter from listening to you, not even of the JEWISH faith you lump as the Judeo-Christian tradition while simultaneously contradicting yourself that this is a CHRISTIAN nation, for I seriously doubt you’ve read original translations of the Talmud. (not the ones circulating in the U.S. which have deliberately omitted controversial sections on Jesus, Mary, Christianity, and Gentiles)

YOUR slamming of Muslim students’ celebration of ONE WEEK at UNC of “Islam” to better enlighten their faculty, fellow students, and community given the world’s current situation is nothing short of a bigoted short sighted celebration of your desire for a “Clash of Civilizations”—an Armageddon as prayed for by your Evangelist racists—-I’m sure you’re aware of their anti-civil rights stands, their Anti-Semitism (do you even know the origin of the word Semitism), or their support of the Confederate flag.

What did you do or learn at Harvard?  Did you just close your mind, eyes, and ears to all this is not a White Anglo-Saxon Christian world?  If that’s so than Harvard failed you and failed this nation and the world.

I am a Muslim, married to a Catholic, and was supported financially, nurtured, cared for, and loved by Baptists in Louisiana, members of the Southern Baptist Convention before they discovered Israel in 1967 as a pawn toward Armageddon.  Would your Catholic parents and priest approved of your marrying a Jewish woman, or God forbid a Baptist?

Is this the Islam you understand?  A faith that requires belief in all of God’s messages, all His Prophets, from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, David, Solomon, and of course in the Virgin Birth of Jesus from his blessed and pure mother, Mary:  peace be upon all of them.

Are you aware of how and when the Old Testament was put together, do you know what TNK stands for, are you familiar with the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, do you know what the Mishnah is or who was Maimonedes and his influential writings, did you know that after your Catholics massacred the Jews in 1492 that the Jews found peace, security, and important jobs in Muslims lands?  Did you know that the eminent theologian Maimonedes was the personal physician and counsel to Saladin in Egypt?  Do you know much about the New Testament?   Are you aware of the life of St. Francis of Assisi and of his meeting with the Muslim Sultan and what he said of his treatment by Christians versus Muslims?

You’ve conveniently forgotten what Catholics have been doing to Protestants in N. Ireland (of course vice versa), you’ve forgotten the Catholic Crusades (do you know how many were there in addition to today’s), the Inquisition and so much more.  If Galileo was alive today you’d probably crucify him on your program.

Open your mind and hear Mr. O’Reilly and come out of your television soap box and join humanity with respect, understanding, and a sense of what’s right and just.  I as an American Muslim will join you in prosecuting any Muslim committing any act of terrorism against civilians for that is against Islam and humanity.  What you’re stupidly doing is creating more hatred, terrorists, and animosity.  Is that WWJD?  By your practice of your trade, your blind conscience, your greed for money regardless of the humanity you step upon, your lack of humility, your lack of understanding of Jesus’, peace be upon him, teachings:  “do not judge, lest you be judged”; “he without sin cast the first sin”, and of course the metaphor of the access of the rich to heaven.  PRACTICE YOUR OWN FAITH, IF YOU ARE A BELIEVER, BEFORE YOU DESTROY THE FAITHS OF OTHERS.  Just maybe, maybe, you could be wrong.  I doubt if you’re fat ego will ever accept your erroneous ways.  Let’s pray your children grow up with a kinder and gentler heart as Bush Sr. said.

Until you understand, study, and gain intellectual insight into issues that you manufacture for its shock and ratings value, I and many millions of Americans of all faiths, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Wiccans, Native Americans whom your ancestors massacred, and atheists ask you to stop being

THE MOST RIDICULOUS MAN ON TELEVISION.

As Falwell Says: “I don’t mean any disrespect..”

Mohamed Khodr

Mr. Mohamed Khodr is an American Muslim physician and a native from the Middle East. He has worked in Academic Medicine and Public health with national and international health experience. He is a freelance writer who often writes columns on the Palestinian cause, Islam and on America’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East.