Eric Bolling: 'The Five' Host and His Co-Hosts Promote Profiling

Culture

It’s time for profiling, y’all! Or at least that’s what Fox News’ The Five wants. Because why not?! All Muslims are terrorists!   

So how did all of this get started? Well, on Tuesday, Congress’s only Muslim representative, Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, responded to the Boston bombing by telling MSNBC that someone’s religion should not be “cause for alarm” and that while terrorism is often fueled by religion, it is often also fueled by “politics.”

The Five host Eric Bolling decided this was justification to call Ellison a “very dangerous” “Muslim apologist” before saying it was “time for profiling.”

Host Bob Beckel responded by saying that Islam is “religion is politics … it’s probably one of the most difficult religions to separate politics out from than any other religion in the world. So, I think he’s just flat wrong.” I mean, let’s just go ahead and totally ignore the fact that Christianity has been a justification for endless nonsensical laws for the last several years. But cool.

Bolling followed up with this gem:

“Yes, [Ellis is] very dangerous … He’s kind of been like the Muslim apologist in Congress for a long time he raised his right hand and took the oath of office on the Koran … I think it’s time for profiling, don’t you?” he said with a straight face. “Because the profile has been Middle Eastern Muslims who have blown people up or attempted to blow people up for the last 15 years.” 

The show’s “liberal” co-host, Bob Beckel, said nothing in response. Instead, he offered this up: “This is not a global war on terror. It’s isolated in Muslim countries.” 

I know that we are all really having an issue with geography these days, but I’d like to point out that, while they were Muslim, the two brothers responsible for the bombing of the Boston Marathon are ethnically Caucasian. They are from Chechnya. Which is not a country at all, and certainly isn’t a Middle Eastern country. 

So, I’d really love to know how these Fox News commentators advocate we “profile.” Should we start frisking everyone to make sure they don’t have a Quran on them since we can’t just assume all Muslims are brown now? Should we make all Muslims wear a symbol on the outside of their clothing so we know who is dangerous? Or should we give everyone who isn’t Muslim the equivalent of a fast-pass at amusement parks for use in security lines? Please, Fox News, let me know how you want that to go down. I’m legitimately curious.

But let’s rewind for just a second to something Dana Perino says at the beginning of the video: “The global war on terror meant for things like … the IRA. Any time anyone used violence to further a political gain, that was what the war on terror was supposed to be,” she says. So, why she’s allowing everyone to isolate the problems to “Muslim countries” and why she later advocates profiling Muslim people doesn’t make a lot of sense. But hey, this video is full of contradictions, so who cares?

Perino also says she is totally OK with “freedom of religion in the United States” and even with Ellison swearing in on the Koran (gasp!) as long as that freedom of religion includes raiding Mosques at will and profiling people for belonging to a specific religion. That’s what the Constitution is all about, after all.

But that profiling the only ridiculous notion proposed during this round table, though misinterpretations of an entire religion did continue:

Another host, Andrea Tantaros decided the Boston Bombers were motivated by “wealth and fame” which is a “mutation of the jihad” and that they might get mad if they “don’t have their own reality show.” Well, strap yourself down, Kim Kardashian. Your zest for wealth and fame is going to force you to blow someone up one day, so you should probably stay indoors. 

Basically, I’d just like to give a big “WTF” shout out to the folks at The Five. You’re on television — people can see you saying these things. That you aren’t embarrassed about that is baffling.