Glenn Beck struck back at Fareed Zakaria for his criticism of Beck's assertion that at least ten percent of Muslims are terrorists by wondering what would happen if he called for Zakaria to be killed, and insisting "it doesn't matter" what the actual number of terrorists in the world is. (H/T Mediaite)
On his CNN show, Zakaria had called Beck's claim about Muslims "total nonsense" and pointed out that, mathematically, that would mean that around 157 million Muslims were terrorists. He also said that Beck's response to this criticism--that he was referring not only to people who carried out terrorism, but also to people who advocated for it, and that polls showed a substantial number of Muslims who did so--was faulty. If supporting violent or extreme actions against governments was enough to make someone a terrorist, he said, then "how would one describe a man who has been fueling such anger against the American government on television daily for the last two years? How, in other words, would one describe Glenn Beck?"
Speaking on his radio show Monday, Beck said that Zakaria was being "completely disingenuous" and deliberately misleading. He went on to say that, if he were to call for Zakaria to be killed, he would rightly be deemed dangerous:
"If I said to Fareed Zakaria, 'Fareed, I'm not going to kill you, but I support the people who do want to kill you,' am I a problem, Fareed? Yes! Yes, I would be a problem! If you said to somebody, 'Hey Glenn, I'm not going to kill you myself, but man... I don't have any problem with anybody who wants to take their bare hands and snap your neck'--excuse me?"
One of Beck's producers sarcastically said that, if Beck had actively advocated Zakaria's murder, there would be no repercussions for it.
"No, Glenn's not making threats, Glenn's not in any trouble," Beck joked back. "I actively support, I vocally support, 'yeah, I think he should die. I think he should be killed. That's ridiculous!"
Finally, Beck said that "it doesn't matter" what the real number of terrorists in the world is. "It does matter how many people will stand up against it," he said.