This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 9, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: "Stossel Matters" segment tonight, amazing story out of London, England. An American evangelist named Tony Miano is doing some street preaching in the British capital and got arrested for saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY MIANO, AMERICAN EVANGELIST: There is no other form of sexuality. There is no other form of intimate relationship that is acceptable to God but the union of one man to one woman for life.
Everything else, everything else, is an abomination to God. I said that homosexuality is wrong. Well, it is wrong. Not according to me.
I don't make the rules. I don't set the standards. According to God's word, it is wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Well, Miano was arrested and interrogated by police. But the FACTOR has learned he will not be prosecuted. Here now, Fox Business Anchor, John Stossel.
So, why is he not being prosecuted, because Great Britain has this law that you can't disparage any singular group.
JOHN STOSSEL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: And they rarely go all the way and prosecute people. Shortly before, a man was arrested for telling a cop, "Your horse looks gay."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
So, they have this hate speech law.
(LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: "Your horse looks gay." And a guy got arrested for that.
STOSSEL: He got arrested, an Oxford student.
O'REILLY: How does a horse look gay.
STOSSEL: I don't know. He was just probably wanting to insult the cop or something.
O'REILLY: Right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOSSEL: But you can't insult a group in this country.
O'REILLY: But is it an insult for a preacher, this guy, I guess, California, who says, --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"Look, the bible in which I believe, says that this is a sin and I'm just stating my belief system." Is that an insult.
STOSSEL: Yes, I think so.
O'REILLY: You do.
STOSSEL: But you should have the right to insult people when you don't believe in what they are doing.
O'REILLY: But in Europe, all countries, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Greece --
STOSSEL: Yes, your show would have real trouble in some of these countries.
O'REILLY: I'm on in these countries. I guess, if I go there, they're going to arrest me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOSSEL: Holland prohibits making public insults. But you insult me all the time.
(LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: And vice versa. You'll be solitary confinement. So, in Holland, we're both in trouble, right.
STOSSEL: Right.
O'REILLY: Public insult. But, you know, I don't insult groups. I insult people like Barney Frank or something. You know, I don't -- it's a -- this group, --
STOSSEL: In Britain insulting words likely to cause distress.
O'REILLY: Uh-oh. I'm in trouble.
(LAUGHTER)
STOSSEL: You would be in trouble there.
O'REILLY: And I'm supposed to go to London later this year.
STOSSEL: And this man probably got off because he was able to cite an example where a judge got off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
And he had run an ad saying, "The word of God is against sodomy. This is a perverted form of sexuality." That was stronger than what this preacher --
O'REILLY: All right, so there was a case in Great Britain where a guy got off, --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
-- was acquitted, it's because something is stronger. It just occurred to me that, you know, this guy Michael Savage, this radio talk show host, he was barred entry into the British Isles because of his rhetoric against gays and others. So, they do take this seriously.
STOSSEL: They do. A Canadian journalist was prosecuted for publishing those cartoons of Mohammad.
O'REILLY: In the Muslim countries, you can be executed, in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Pakistan, for saying anything bad about Islam. They cut your head off.
STOSSEL: I love the way the Pakistan Constitution puts it, "Every citizen has the right to free speech, subject to any reasonable restriction imposed on the interests of the glory of Islam."
(LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: OK.
STOSSEL: We should be glad we have a First Amendment.
O'REILLY: But you object to any hate speech limitations, because I debated this with you. I don't think a person should be allowed to go up to another person.
Say, this preacher Miano, went up to a homosexual and got in his face and said, "You're going to hell, you're going to hell, you're going to hell."
I think that should be against the law because he's invading the person's space. He's bringing intentional, personal anguish to the person. I think that person should be protected.
STOSSEL: I would agree that it's wrong to do that but --
O'REILLY: Right. I think it should be illegal. You've got to protect --
STOSSEL: -- fighting words, inciting violence because speech --
O'REILLY: No, "going to hell" is pretty violent. There's a lot of fire down there. It does not feel good.
STOSSEL: But shouldn't be able to get in the face of people. But these laws don't stop it. They just drive it underground.
O'REILLY: All right. Well, it drives it underground. But they're looking for a more civil society. I think they are making a mistake in the general sense.
But, specifically, you shouldn't be allowed to terrorize somebody because you don't think that their belief system is proper.
STOSSEL: This guy wasn't doing terror to people.
O'REILLY: No. And that was crazy. The British should have left him alone.
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