Understanding the rise of radical Islam

Published January 08, 2015

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 16, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to this special edition of "Hannity." And tonight for the full hour, we're going to be joined by a distinguished studio audience, including women who have lived under Sharia law, to analyze the ignorance of the left when it comes to the rise of radical Islam.

Now, first, as the search for nearly 300 missing Nigerian school girls continues after the kidnapped by the terrorist of Boko Haram just a month ago, well, rather than calling for military action against the extremists, well, liberals have formulated a social media campaign to try and bring back the kidnapped school girls.

Now, it all started when the first lady, Michelle Obama, posted this photo on her Twitter page using the hashtag BringBackOurGirls. Now, the hashtag spread, and other Democrats, including Senator Mikulski, followed suit and posted similar pictures like the one you see there.

Now, I've repeatedly said this, and I'll say it again tonight. Terrorists -- they likely don't read Twitter, and even if they did, it would have zero impact on them. It would probably only embolden them. And the only thing they'll react probably is a bullet in their head.

Now, that's not the only concern when it comes to the ignorance of the left because just last week, we learned that despite multiple requests, the U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton refused to designate Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization while she was secretary of state, leaving the U.S. with far less intelligence on the group and its ties to al Qaeda.

Now, sadly, the ignorance of the left is not limited to Washington, and it continued this week in Hollywood. Some celebrities, and to their credit -- they finally spoke out against Sharia law, but only after it encroached on their posh Beverly Hills Hotel. You had A-listers Jay Leno, Ellen Degeneres, Sir Richard Branson, Sharon Osbourne calling for a boycott of the hotel after learning that one of its part owners is the sultan of Brunei, who implemented Sharia law in his country.

Now, I do applaud their efforts. They're pretty late to the game. Now, because those stars and countless others on the left have failed to recognize the rise of radical Islam over the years -- well, guess who did? On this very program, we have been sounding this alarm about how brutal and inhumane Sharia law is, especially to women, for years.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Here's what Sharia law will represent, at least in other states, Saudi Arabia being one. We know Iran's -- but requirement that women obtain permission from their husbands for their daily freedoms, beating of disobedient women and girls, execution of people that are gay.

Women in Afghanistan under Sharia can't work, can't go to school. We see in Iran what happens under Sharia. People's hands get chopped off. If you get raped as a woman, you need four male eyewitnesses to prove that a rape has happened.

Now, as the world watches, a country that sits on the brink of coming under fundamentalist Sharia law, where women have no rights, no protection from the government, I hear one thing from the usually deafening voices of liberal women's groups -- silence!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right, we bring in our studio audience for reaction. Brooke, good to see you. You've been on this program, you, Richard, everyone here, we talk a lot about terror. What do you think of the hashtag Twitter campaign? Thoughts?

BROOKE GOLDSTEIN, THE LAWFARE PROJECT: You know, a lot of people have argued that it's the hashtag diplomacy, as people like to call it, that has shed a light on the Islamist war against Christians and the brutality of (INAUDIBLE) taking place not just in the Middle East, but you know, all over the world.

But I think it's disingenuous because it's the sheer brutality and the acts of terror that have, you know, shaked (sic) our collective consciousness, and we've woken up, despite the fact that the State Department lobbied against Boko Haram as a terrorist group and...

HANNITY: And by the way, they were listening to Moveon.org! Why -- why would Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton listen to Moveon.org when we know what this terror group is all about? It's beyond my comprehension! I don't understand. Identify evil for evil!

GOLDSTEIN: Well, the State Department is engaged in a campaign, a very deceptive campaign that denies the theological motivation behind Islamist terrorism, even though Boko Haram has come out and stated, We are engaged in a genocidal campaign against Christianity because we read the Quran to -- to...

HANNITY: Take neither Christians nor Jews as your friend. Where is that?

GOLDSTEIN: I don't know. I'm not an expert.

HANNITY: That would be in the Quran. Billy, yes?

BILL CUNNINGHAM, TV AND RADIO HOST: Sean Hannity, for four years, Hillary Rodham Clinton, female secretary of state, millions of miles, 200 countries all over the world -- she knew exactly about Sharia law! Hillary Rodham Clinton did nothing for four years to publicize and to hold the leaders accountable! She has some blood on her hands relative to her years as secretary of state and her failure to put the cheese on the cracker when it came to Sharia law!

Why didn't our female secretary of state do something, one might ask Rick Ungar? Where was Hillary Rodham Clinton?

HANNITY: Well, wait a minute. Before we go to Rick Ungar, this is an important point. Women in Saudi Arabia -- they can't drive. They can't be seen in public with men that they're not -- not related to. We know that and women under Sharia are stoned to death. Women in some -- under some -- in some countries under Sharia, four male eyewitnesses when they are raped!

RICK UNGAR, FOX CONTRIBUTOR: That's right.

HANNITY: So the question -- why didn't they designate this a...

UNGAR: I actually -- this may blow your theory that all of us on the left are ignorant, but I, too, have already written that Hillary Clinton...

HANNITY: I don't think so, but you can try.

UNGAR: Hillary Clinton was wrong in not taking the advice to list them as a terrorist group. It's who was giving her the advice. It was the FBI. It were (ph) people that she should have paid attention to.

At the same time, I don't think you do anybody a favor when you say that Moveon.org is the reason she didn't. Moveon.org at any given time -- and I'm not a big fan, to be honest with you, but they have about a thousand petitions there. They don't put them up. Other people do. The petition you're referencing was put up by somebody a couple years ago, 100 people signed it. Believe me, Hillary Clinton...

HANNITY: It was at the time...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But you even admitted and acknowledged they didn't listen to the FBI.

UNGAR: No, I agree. Hillary was wrong.

HANNITY: ... Navy SEAL here in the audience.

UNGAR: Hillary was wrong. But don't put it on Moveon.org because it's silly.

HANNITY: All right...

UNGAR: They had nothing to do with it.

HANNITY: All right, about the hashtag. Is it -- how many people think that the hashtag campaign is effective?

CHLOE MELAS, HOLLYWOODLIFE.COM: All right, so...

HANNITY: You brought your own hashtag, Chloe?

MELAS: I did bring a prop. So as an entertainment reporter, this is what I can say. A lot of people, especially the younger generation (INAUDIBLE) my mother, my grandmother, they get their news on Twitter with your smartphones and your BlackBerries, too.

And a lot of people maybe who didn't know about what was going on now learn about it by seeing this hashtag. And although people are criticizing Michelle Obama and celebrities for tweeting about this and saying, Well, that's not really going to do anything, it's not going to bring the girls back, this Twitter hashtag is really silly, but then, you know, maybe a 15, 16-year-old or a 20-year-old who doesn't know about is going to click on that link and then learn about it. And it's all about bringing awareness, and I don't really see what's wrong with that when there's...

HANNITY: I'll tell you what I think is wrong with it.

MELAS: ... over 600 million Twitter users a day.

HANNITY: Diana, I think it makes America look weak when the first lady of the United States does that.

DIANA FALZONE, FOX 411 CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that's one of the main point that you could bring up. When Michelle Obama -- who is she saying BringBackOurGirls to, when her husband, one of the most powerful powers in the world, is right down the hallway from her? It does weaken us.

And it also is a little upsetting when it becomes trendy to do this. There's a supermodel, Russian supermodel, Irina Shayk, who just did a topless version of this, saying BringBackOurGirls, just covering herself...

HANNITY: That might get a little more attention.

FALZONE: Well, it gets attention, but hello? I mean, isn't that the point, that (INAUDIBLE)

HANNITY: Well, she probably wants it for herself, is your point.

FALZONE: Yes.

HANNITY: And for women that are living under Sharia, it's not a joke. Why are you complaining?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. When the Tea Party started and they did their Twitter campaign under hashtag Don'tTreadOnMe, I may have disagreed with them, but they were exercising their rights...

HANNITY: Not the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is the same.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'll tell you the difference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because the first lady joined a million people? Come on! Why doesn't she have the right to do that?

HANNITY: Let me tell you what the difference is.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a sign of their utter impotence!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the Tea Party's impotent...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a sign of their utter -- they're not in power. It's a sign of their utter impotence and their...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She isn't in power, either.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... inability to defend our freedoms! That's what it's a sign of!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, then what -- what should we be doing that we're not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Tea Party was not...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how does that impact it?

HANNITY: Richard?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This hashtag is literally what the terrorists want. Boko Haram has been trying to make a name for itself since 2008. In 2010, it thought it could make a name for itself by attacking the U.N. Headquarters in Abuja. No one noticed. This hashtag -- the first lady has suddenly given this al Qaeda affiliate exactly the global attention it wanted. She made the situation worse.

HANNITY: Judith, yes?

JUDITH MILLER, FOX CONTRIBUTOR: Boko Haram...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's the reason Hillary Clinton did not put them on the terrorist list.

HANNITY: You look like Judith? I said Judith.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry. He just opened it up.

HANNITY: I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

MILLER: Boko Haram is an indigenous group that gets money from al Qaeda. The reason it wasn't designated is that there was a fight within the government, as frequently happens, between the foreign service officers, who said, We think we can still talk to and change the course of this group, versus the FBI...

HANNITY: As they were killing thousands of Christians, Muslims and women...

MILLER: That may have been the wrong decision, but let's not turn it into a conspiracy or indifference. I think that what they've done is forced Goodluck Jonathan, the hapless leader of that country, to do something serious for the first time...

HANNITY: I don't think he's capable of it.

MILLER: ... to rein in that group. And I think it's fine that Michelle Obama, even though as you say, Sean, she may be late to the party, has discovered the importance of this issue.

HANNITY: It's not that -- I think it makes -- she's the first lady of the United States of America, and it makes us look weak! Look, I would be willing -- and we have a special forces person here -- if we are -- if we really want to do something -- right now, we're offering reconnaissance. The next step would be -- the only way we're ever going to save those girls is not going to be a Twitter campaign, it's going to be a bullet in the head of every one of those guys that took those girls from their mothers and fathers! That's the only way to get them back, period, end of sentence!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But why isn't Obama culpable? Why is this all on Hillary? I mean, he has favored the Islamist agenda since the very first. I think the fact that we're putting this all on Hillary is intellectually dishonest. And he has time and time again sanctioned Goodluck for his, you know (INAUDIBLE) attempt to fight Boko Haram!

HANNITY: K.T., go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has been ostracized by...

K.T. MCFARLAND, FOX NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think we're missing the major point here, which is how effective is American foreign policy? The president continues to set up strawmen, whether it's Syria, whether it's Russia, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's Crimea, and now whether it's Boko Haram in Nigeria. He says, Well, we don't want boots on the ground. We don't want to fight. So we're going to do something down here. We're going to have a hashtag campaign.

The problem is American foreign policy in every administration I've been part of is conducted in that space in between. And if we cannot do this for the Nigerians -- the Nigerian government has not decided to rescue these girls -- no matter how much we want to, we can't do it...

HANNITY: All right...

MCFARLAND: ... and we can't (INAUDIBLE)

HANNITY: Last question. Former Navy SEAL, Jonathan, as far as I'm concerned, it's either going to be U.S. special forces, Israeli special forces, maybe the French, maybe the British. The Nigerians, I don't believe, have the capability to pull off -- this is the equivalent of a raid on Entebbe, in mind. Could they -- should the U.S. -- what should our role be? Should we go -- would special forces -- should special forces be used to save those girls?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, UNITED STATES CONTINUED SERVICE FOUNDER CEO: My opinion is absolutely. And let just me say this one thing.

HANNITY: Because it's against terror. It's bigger than Nigeria.

GILLIAM: Right. I left the FBI -- or the SEAL teams and went into the FBI. I was in the FBI for eight years here in New York. And I keep hearing the FBI being blamed for this, but here's the reality. During the Clinton era, eight years of the Clinton era, it became very unpopular to be a war fighter. So war fighters got out of the military. They got out of law enforcement. The people that remained were the people that kind of worked their way up and used their connections to get to the top.

Now what you have in a liberal State Department -- and the State Department is known to be liberal, they're a thorn in the side of the DOD. They're a thorn in the side of the FBI. We cannot do our jobs effectively, and what you have now with this administration is you have -- and I'm as apolitical as you can be. I don't look at this as a liberal or conservative issue. I look at it as an effective issue. And we're not effective in our foreign policy.

HANNITY: Does it make us look weak?

GILLIAM: Absolutely. Look at ever since Syria.

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