You have to wonder sometimes why we bother with facts. We know Republicans would be happier without them, as they just get in the way of their presenting the world as they wish it to be.
After all, according to them, we’re right back at 2008, which is unarguably the year they are campaigning against in 2016, and no Muslim ever speaks out against terrorism and most Muslims support the Islamic State.
Unfortunately for their narrative, we’re well past 2008, unemployment is down, not up, and countless Muslims have spoken out against terrorism and overwhelmingly oppose the Islamic State.
That doesn’t stop Sean Hannity from completely inverting the results of a Pew Research Poll to claim that the opposite is true where the Islamic State is concerned.
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This lie came despite the title of the poll: “In nations with significant Muslim populations, much disdain for ISIS.”
How do you miss that?
Well, you do. If you want to. On his show Friday night, he claimed the new poll showed “significant levels of support for ISIS within the Muslim world.”
In fact, as Media Matters for America revealed, the poll found that Muslim views of ISIS are “overwhelmingly negative.”
Listen to the liar at work courtesy of Media Matters:
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): How about we look at the poll numbers they put out, and let’s talk about whether or not this could be true, because it reveals significant levels of support for ISIS within the Muslim world. They went to 11 representative nation-states — excuse me, let me finish my question — and up to 14 percent of the population has a favorable view of ISIS, and upwards of 62 percent can’t decide. They don’t know whether they have a favorable opinion. Don’t you find those numbers chilling?
[…]
HANNITY: I am looking at these numbers, between 63 million and 287 million ISIS supporters in just 11 countries.
A good reason to keep those refugees out, isn’t it? Except that it’s a lie.
What Pew actually said was this:
According to newly released data that the Pew Research Center collected in 11 countries with significant Muslim populations, people from Nigeria to Jordan to Indonesia overwhelmingly expressed negative views of ISIS.
One exception was Pakistan, where a majority offered no definite opinion of ISIS. The nationally representative surveys were conducted as part of the Pew Research Center’s annual global poll in April and May this year.
In no country surveyed did more than 15% of the population show favorable attitudes toward Islamic State. And in those countries with mixed religious and ethnic populations, negative views of ISIS cut across these lines.
Reality looks a little different, doesn’t it? Nothing like Hannity portrayed it. And not at all helpful to the anti-Refugee hysteria sweeping the right wing media.
Any of us who have tried know that it is a pointless exercise to trot out facts when debating with a conservative but it is a particularly egregious sin when you not only ignore the facts, but turn them on their head and claim they say the opposite of what they show. But then when all the numbers show increasing temperatures, Republican climate deniers claim temperatures are actually lower then they used to be, and cigarette smoking is actually good for you!
I could call for Hannity to apologize, but that would be to assume he has a conscience. And I won’t make that assumption. Not of Hannity. Not of any Republican today.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
