Bill O'Reilly on The View

On an October appearance on ABC’s The View, Bill O’ Reilly made the argument that a mosque shouldn’t be built near ground zero. He stated to the cast of the talk show that “It is inappropriate”. When cast member Whoopi Goldberg questioned why it was inappropriate, he responded that “Muslims killed us on 9/11”. His conclusion was there should be no mosque at ground zero. His premises were because it is anappropriate, and because muslims killed us on 9/11. O’ Reilly basically said that Muslims are responsible for 9/11, so it is inappropriate for them to exercise their constitutional rights. His statements were fallacious because he just said “Muslims” instead for “extremists”, putting all Muslims into the category of terrorists. Not all Muslims are terrorists, and all people have the right to express religious freedom, regardless of circumstances. Many things are "inappropriate" but that is clearly subjective and notg up to one person to decide what is inappropriate. This argument is unhealthy for this reason. There is no direct connection between an entire religion and one event carried out by a few individuals that could make O'Reilly's argument begin to make any sense. The reactions from the audience at his comments as well as two of the cast members walking off stage during this debate show how inapproprite O'Reilly's comments were.