Sean Hannity confronted Anjem Choudary on his Fox News Channel program on Wednesday over the Islamist's unapologetic support of ISIS. The two repeatedly talked over each other, with the American talk show host hounding Choudary if he supported the terrorist group's genocidal campaign in Iraq and Syria.
The U.K.-based radical Muslim contended that the multiple account of atrocities by ISIS forces, especially against Christians and Yazidis in northern Iraq, were lies that were being used to discredit the Islamist group: [video below the jump]
SEAN HANNITY: ...We have video of children that have been beheaded, like this photojournalist [James Foley]; women and children with their heads placed on a stick after they've been beheaded; and we have one report after another of people who have been killed, chased out of their homes. They're in the Sinjar Mountains. The world is dropping food to support them, and to protect them from radical friends of yours that you obviously support. And I'm just asking, do you support the concept of an Islamic caliphate of either convert or die? Do you support that? It's a simple question. Why don't you just tell the truth of what you believe?
Hannity led the ten-plus minute segment with Choudary with his question on whether his guest supported ISIS's "convert or die" campaign in northern Iraq. Instead of answering the question, the outspoken radical Muslim played up the carnage during the Iraq War as justification for the Islamist group's retaliation against the West and other groups:
HANNITY: You have blamed the killing of this photojournalist [James Foley] on America. Now, whatever military reaction that we had in Mosul [Iraq] and the surrounding areas was in reaction to ISIS demanding, convert to Islam or die. Do you support ISIS demanding that Christians, the Yazidis, convert to Islam or die? Do you support that?
CHOUDARY: Well, there's two questions here: one about what the Islamic State actually asking the non-Muslims to do; and how this particular incident began. In fact, I seem to remember people were shocked and awed over ten years ago, when the Americans carpet-bombed Assyria and killed hundreds of thousands of people. I remember we have Abu Ghraib-
HANNITY: I asked you a simple question: do you support – hang on a sec-
CHOUDARY: I'm talking about – I'm answering your question. Well, I'll answer it-
HANNITY: Do you support convert to Islam or die?
CHOUDARY: I'll answer the way I want to answer it-
HANNITY: Well, answer the question-
CHOUDARY: I'll answer the way I want to answer it. The fact is – well, I'm answering it – allow me to. The fact is that this has a precursor. Every cause has an effect. If the Americans bomb and murder hundreds of thousands of people and they torture people – and they continue to do so in Guantanamo Bay – obviously, this will have repercussions. I think it was your old master, George Bush, who said, either you're with us or with the terrorists. And, you know, we're not with America definitely – at least, so we must be with the terrorists. I think that you've basically isolated most of the world-
HANNITY: So you're with the terrorists.
When the Fox News host continued to press the question about ISIS threatening the religious minority groups with "convert or die," Choudary retorted with his claims that the accounts of the group's atrocities were "false."
Later in the segment, Hannity pressed his guest about Sharia law's treatment of women:
HANNITY: Let me ask you about – questions about Sharia, which you want to implement. Do you think women – what do you think about women that don't want to cover themselves? Should they be allowed – what would the punishment be if you don't want to cover women in Sharia in Great Britain if you had your way?
CHOUDARY: Well, I'll tell you something: we don't exploit women with pornography, in the fashion-
HANNITY: What would the punishment be?
CHOUDARY: Well, let me answer the question. We don't exploit them through pornography; the fashion and cosmetics industry. Women are not slabs of meat in Islam. They are honored. They are our mothers, our sisters, our daughters – and both the women-
HANNITY: Okay. I got it. And if a woman doesn't want to wear a burqa or a covering, what would the punishment be?
CHOUDARY: Wait a second! Let me answer the question. You're not interested in the truth. You're interested in your own voice. Allow me to answer-
HANNITY: No, you're not answering the question. I'm asking! What should the punishment be? Are you that dumb and ignorant? Answer it. What would the punishment be?
CHOUDARY: Women – both Muslim and non-Muslim women will cover themselves. They don't walk around naked like your own mothers and sisters-
HANNITY: Right. So – and if they don't cover themselves, what would the punishment be?
CHOUDARY: And the fact is – the fact is, they are honored in Islam. They are honored in Islam.
Near the end of their sparring match, Hannity blasted his guest's support of radical Islamism, while Choudary promised that Sharia law would be implemented "in the whole world one day," in accordance with Islamic prophecy.
