Tucker Carlson's 'Did He Really Say That?' Era Is in Full Swing Now

Tucker Carlson, theologian, is at it again, giving rise to a new round of questions about what has happened to the man. The former Fox host and patriotic stalwart is now a full-time agitator against Israel and public relations agent for the religion of Islam, and if any religion ever needed a PR makeover, it’s Islam.

In his newsletter on Wednesday, Carlson includes an entry with the curious title “Islam Is the Enemy? Are We Sure About That?” It’s an odd title because there isn’t anyone in either the Trump administration or the Israeli government who is saying, “Islam is the enemy.”

Certainly, there are people who point out Islam’s 1,400-year war against any and all non-Muslim entities, and its doctrines calling for warfare against and subjugation of unbelievers, which make it unique among what are called “the world’s great religions.” But such people aren't in the Trump administration, or in the government of Israel, either. Also, up until now, Tucker has focused his ire upon the Netanyahu government, which is supposedly exercising Svengalian control over the Trump administration. Now, despite the fact that the Israeli government has not been critical of Islam, he is defending the religion of suicide bombings, stonings, amputations, and the rest.

Referring to the fact that his previous assertion that Muslims love Jesus “set off a firestorm,” Carlson claimed that this was “largely because most Americans do not realize the overlap between Christianity and the Muslim faith.” He insinuates darkly that this is because of some sinister conspiracy: “That is no accident.”

Carlson continues by making the preposterous assertion that “the forces supporting the Iran War do not want the public to realize that the Quran hails the Christian savior as a prophet and messenger of the Lord.” The idea that there are forces in America today that are deliberately concealing information that might make Americans think better of Islam than they do now is beyond ridiculous.

The reality, in fact, is exactly the opposite. Ever since George W. Bush stood inside a Washington, D.C. mosque on Sept. 17, 2001, and proclaimed that “Islam is peace” and warned Americans not to harass innocent Muslims (which was not happening in the first place), the political and media establishment has done everything it could to ensure that people didn’t think ill of Islam. The media reflex of saying that a jihadi’s motive was “unclear” when nothing under the living sun could have been clearer has been a running joke for years.

Tucker Carlson, however, would have you believe that supporters of the war against the entity where they regularly scream “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” have deliberately obscured the fact that Jesus appears in the Qur’an as a prophet of Islam. I can adduce my own work to show that this isn’t true. In numerous books, including The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran and The Critical Qur’an, both of which were bestsellers, I’ve discussed the Qur’anic and Islamic view of Jesus in tremendous detail.

It’s not quite as wonderful as Carlson suggests. The Jesus of the Qur’an is an Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers version of the Biblical figure: he bears the same name, but is an entirely different personality. Even Carlson grants that the Qur’an’s mentions of Jesus do “not mean that Christianity and Islam are aligned. They definitely are not.” But he insists that “an anti-Muslim propaganda campaign” has “consumed our country for decades. Neocons have brainwashed the U.S. public into thinking Middle Eastern terrorists lust for American blood because they are Muslim. But it is not true. They behave as they do because they are evil criminals.”

Well, all right, Tucker, but they’re evil criminals whose holy book tells them to “kill them wherever you find them” (Qur’an 2:191, 4:89, 4:91), and just to make clear who ought to be killed, adds “kill the polytheists wherever you find them (9:5). In the Qur’anic scheme, pretty much everyone who is not a Muslim is a polytheist.

The Qur’an also directs Muslims to fight Jews and Christians until they submit to second-class status under the hegemony of Islamic law (9:29). Muslims are to fight unbelievers until “religion is all for Allah” (8:39), which is an open-ended declaration of war against all non-Islamic religious expression.

Evil criminals they are indeed, but even more evil is the fact that when they plunder, rape, and kill, they think they are offering service to God, as the Biblical Jesus said would happen (John 16:2). The fact that Palestinian terrorist murderers are not considered “evil criminals” in Gaza, but great heroes, should give Tucker Carlson pause. But it won’t.

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