Right-Wing Media Seem To Think All Muslims Are America-Hating Would-Be Terrorists

Do the right-wing media think all Muslims hate America and are potential terrorists?

That seems to be the logic behind some of the calls for President Obama to release photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse.

For example, during his radio show on Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh scoffed at the notion that releasing the photos could “enflame Muslim tensions” and be used to recruit additional terrorists because "[t]hey hate us anyway":

LIMBAUGH: Enflame Muslim tensions? Hell, the Taliban is demanding the pictures be released. There are a lot of people out there on the Muslim side demanding proof. They don't believe it yet. What is all this newfound concern here? Recruiting additional terrorists? They hate us anyway. They can't hate us any more than they do.

Apparently, according to Limbaugh's thinking, it's not worth bothering with any kind of outreach to the world's billions of Muslims, since releasing photos of bin Laden couldn't possibly “recruit additional terrorists” because Muslims “can't hate us any more than they do.”

By making this blanket statement about Muslims, Limbaugh is essentially suggesting that outreach to the Muslim world is irrelevant because all Muslims are just America-hating potential terrorists. This, of course, is absurd.

On Fox & Friends this morning, Steve Doocy echoed Limbaugh's thinking during a discussion about the photos with co-host Gretchen Carlson, who argued that one reason not to release the photos is because “you have billions of Muslims across the world who may be still straddling the fence -- do we like the U.S., do we not?”

Doocy's response? “I don't know that they're ever gonna like us.”

Fortunately, Carlson did push back on Doocy's claim:

CARLSON: No, c'mon. I traveled in the Middle East this past summer, and I encountered this personally myself, where people have a lot of questions about it. Maybe because of the misinformation they've been given about our country and what our purpose is. So, if you have a chance of reeling in some of those people to see America in the correct way, then I agree with not releasing the photos.

It certainly isn't surprising that some right-wing media figures would take this position. If you recall, last October, Doocy's co-host Brian Kilmeade made the absurdly false claim that “all terrorists are Muslims.” (Kilmeade later issued a half-hearted apology for his comment.) But even if it isn't surprising, it sure is disturbing.