Bill O'Reilly Defends His 'The View' Comments on Muslims, Park51 Islamic Community Center

NEW YORK (Oct. 15) -- Fox News' Bill O'Reilly caused quite a stir when he appeared on ABC's "The View" Thursday arguing against the construction of Park51, the so-called "ground zero mosque" with such vehemence that he caused two of the show's outspoken, and liberal, hosts, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, to leave the stage.

But later in the evening, he took to his own show, "The O'Reilly Factor," to defend his remarks. Watch them here below:

"No one I know, no one, wants to insults Muslims," O'Reilly said. "But almost everybody I know is tired of the political correctness surrounding the 9/11 attack. The truth is that if moderate Muslims would stand with America against radical Islam, the terrorists couldn't exist. But obviously that isn't happening."

As promised on his appearance on "The View," he also cited a CNN poll from August that said 70 percent of Americans oppose construction of the Muslim community center in lower Manhattan. "I loved that exposition today, don't you?" O'Reilly concluded, with a twinkle in his eye.

Sponsored Links

Meanwhile, AOL PopEater caught up with Behar to ask her about leaving "The View" stage, but she brushed the incident off.

"Really, is anyone talking about it? He's an idiot," she told PopEater's Rob Shuter. "I just couldn't sit there any longer and listen to him."

The live on-air controversy erupted when O'Reilly repeatedly asserted that the majority of Americans don't want "the mosque" (a Muslim community center) to be built two blocks away from ground zero because "Muslims killed us on 9/11."

This ignited such a heated shouting match between O'Reilly and Behar and Goldberg that the women walked off the stage in protest. Watch the original exchange here.

Follow Surge Desk on Twitter.