WATCH: Megyn Kelly Faults CAIR for Quashing Film on ‘Honor Violence’
Alissa Tabirian /
For two nights running, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly criticized efforts by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to impede screenings –on university campuses and elsewhere – of a film about “honor violence” against Muslim women.
Kelly last night questioned CAIR Chicago representative Agnieszka Karoluk on “The Kelly File” about the group’s opposition to “Honor Diaries,” a documentary that addresses abuses such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and the oppression of women in Muslim society – what one commentator in the film calls “systematic, institutionalized misogyny.”
Karoluk, herself a Muslim woman, said that although CAIR doesn’t oppose raising awareness, the source of funding for the film, the Clarion Project, is “Islamophobic.” The film’s backers, she said, “use it to promote their own hate-filled agenda.”
Human rights lawyer Brooke Goldstein disputed Karoluk’s claim on air, calling CAIR “the Islamic speech police” and saying the group works to silence awareness of women’s rights violations in the Muslim world.
Most recently, CAIR’s intervention resulted in cancellation of a screening scheduled at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
Kelly also spoke Monday night about the film. The documentary, she reported, features “a diverse group of women with different faiths, backgrounds, and nationalities, all of them focused on promoting women’s rights, especially in countries where women and girls are often subjected to something known as honor violence.” Kelly added:
You would think that the Muslim community would want this faction of violence against Muslim women highlighted but . . . they do not.”
Goldstein, also on that show, then asked: “If it’s anti-Muslim to raise awareness about the human rights violations occurring against Muslim women . . . what then is pro-Muslim?”
After Monday’s show, CAIR wrote to “The Kelly File” demanding a retraction of her coverage. To which Kelly responded on air: “Well, guess what – you’re not getting it.”
This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.