It was disturbing to see Bill O’Reilly agree with the “true Islam” ideology of the left on Monday when in discussing the weekend’s jihad attacks in New York and New Jersey, he said:

O’Reilly clearly states jihadist killers are “disturbed individuals” who are “crazy.” That characterization buys into the idea that the “true Islam” is the Religion of Peace, when in the real world, Islamic scripture, history and current behavior show otherwise. Islam critic, author and JihadWatch blogger Robert Spencer has appeared on Fox News numerous times explaining that Muslims are instructed by their religion to conquer the world for allah by any means necessary, and the global caliphate will be run by clerics enforcing strict sharia law. Chancellor Merkel’s welcome of Syrian Muslims to Germany has immersed her nation in a firestorm of violence because of that belief. So it’s not like O’Reilly hasn’t been exposed to the ugly truth.

Below, during Cologne’s outdoor New Years celebration last year, 2,000 mostly foreign men sexually assaulted 1200 German women.

Author Mark Steyn is more realistic about Islam, and he offered a subtle smackdown using arithmetic in his remarks when he appeared later in the program.

BILL O’REILLY: You may remember that over the summer a French priest was murdered by Muslim terrorists in his own church. That sparked more outcry against the jihad in France and around the world. Political commentator Mark Steyn recently returned from Europe where he attended the priest’s funeral and spoke with a number of people affected by the jihad. Mr. Steyn joins us now from Colchester, Vermont. What did you learn there? What was the headline that you learned in Europe, Mr. Steyn?

MARK STEYN: Well, you said at the top of the show that migrants aren’t the problem, jihadists are, and that’s true, but there is a crude arithmetic here, Bill, which is that the more Muslims you have, the more terrorism you have. So that France, Belgium and Germany have very high Muslim populations and they have a lot of terrorism. When you’re in Poland and the Czech Republic, they have very few Muslims, so they don’t have terrorism, and the question for Europe, and I think for the United States a few years down the line, is whether you can contain this just by the big security state.

I was on the beach and there were soldiers everywhere in France now — outside schools, shopping centers, railway stations. I was on the beach at Saint Tropez where the topless women have armed soldiers with automatic weapons patrolling between the topless women. It’s a sad sight, and it’s an absurd sight. Ultimately, it’s no solution.

O’REILLY: Now I heard you on the radio the other day saying that no longer in America can we even debate terrorism or anything else because if you disagree with the left, they immediately demonize you as Islamophobic or anti-gay or anti-poor or whatever. Do you really believe that? You believe the debate is all gone?

STEYN: Yes, I think that’s true. I think essentially we’re turning into one vast college campus where there is a correct view and alternative views are not permitted. I disagree with people; I like to disagree with people, so do you. Whatever your view on gay marriage or climate change or Islam, I like to discuss it. The left increasingly says we don’t want to win the argument, we want to cancel the argument. And just this weekend — if you look at this fake outrage about Donald Trump declaring the New York event of bombing before it had been officially ruled a bombing — that is an attempt to shrivel the the the public discourse and prevent a diversity of views on islam and immigration and terrorism. And if you notice, that’s the classic left response now: let’s not debate your point of view, let’s cancel your point of view.

O’REILLY: Yeah, I think you’re right. I think we’re living in a totalitarian social environment right now. Any solution to it?

STEYN: Right, yeah I think so, I think Trump in the last year has actually managed to expand the public conversation, and whether you agree with him or not on those issues, that’s what we need. When we have people like Senator Whitehouse, for example, trying to criminalize dissent on climate change the guy is actually unfit for office, unfit for office. He should be ashamed of that.

O’REILLY: You don’t want to shut him down, Mr. Steyn, you want to debate him, so we don’t want to do what they do.

STEYN: Right. That’s right, absolutely.