In a recent conversation between right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson and British journalist Piers Morgan, the two pushed back against what they described as a growing wave of manufactured Islamophobia in US. Carlson argued that the pressure to hate Muslims is not organic at all, but something he believes is being “forced” by certain powerful groups.The conservative commentator said he rejects that ‘Muslim hate’ narrative completely. “I have more in common with the sincerely religious Pakistani cab driver than anyone who works at the Times of London,” he told Morgan. He added that he does not want to sit or eat with the kind of people who push these hateful narratives. He bluntly said that they are white and that he finds them far more hostile than the immigrants he meets in daily life.“Hate the Muslim is an op,” Carlson said, insisting that someone is deliberately trying to stir the public into fear of a particular religion. Morgan agreed that hatred is hatred, saying that telling people to hate Muslims is no different than telling them to hate Christians or Jews.Carlson doubled down, saying he has never once had an argument with a Muslim, but that “secular self-hating whites” are a different story. He joked that if he had to sit at a table with them for a meeting, he would stand up and walk away. He even said he likes Bangladeshis better than “liberal whites,” since, according to him, no Bangladeshi has ever yelled at him, while white people have.
Social media response:
- Christians and Muslims have more in common, Biblically, than do Christians and Jews. Muslims respect Jesus and Jews don’t, as an example.
- Yeah, a coordinated push that he actively fed into and took part in for years. Tucker Carlson has spent well over a decade using his platform to spew white nationalist talking points and Islamophobic propaganda.
- I am originally from Bangladesh but I am hardcore atheist. There’re many who are not religious there. Also, Hindus, Christians and other faiths live there.
- Tucker’s right. It depends on if they want to assimilate into the country or not. They aren’t all bad. This can be said about any group of people we let in.
- He says this now because he’s out of the mainstream media machine, where he worked for almost 30 years, through different organisations.
Netizens were quick to point out that Tucker has also worked in mainstream media for most of his life and claimed that he is partly responsible for spreading Muslim hate, calling out his hypocrisy and sudden U-turn on the issue. Others agreed that Tucker was right about one thing, that religion should not be a factor in judging or directing hatred toward anyone.
