On his Friday night show, HBO host Bill Maher took another shot at Islam – this time for the recent violence in Afghanistan that has led to the deaths of at least 20 people, including two U.S. soldiers.
The “Real Time” host has been critical of Islam in the past, including a somewhat contentious back-and-forth with Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison over issue earlier this year. But this time, he questioned why Islam had seemingly been given a pass. (h/t the indefatigable Real Clear Politics video)
“[A]ll this talk of people who burn the Quran — and nothing about the people who reacted in such a stupid way – we are always blaming the victim and not holding them [accountable], not most Muslims but at least a large part of Muslim culture that doesn’t condemn their people,” Maher said.
Maher’s panelists, CNN “In the Arena” host Eliot Spitzer, the BBC’s Katty Kay and Newsweek/Daily Beast contributor Andrew Sullivan explained the rationale of the likes of Gen. David Petraeus and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to condemn the pastor and not those committing the heinous acts. However, Maher struck condemning tone.
“What it comes down to is there is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them and they say, ‘Look, we are a religion of peace and if you disagree, we’ll fucking cut your head off,’ and nobody calls them on it. There are very few people that will call them on it. You know, it’s like if dad is a violent drunk and beats his kids,” Maher said. “You don’t blame the kid because he set dad off. You blame Dad because he’s a violent drunk.”
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Maher explained these low expectations from the West are just another form of bigotry.
“Bush used to talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations,” he said. “That’s what this is. When you say, ‘Well this is what the Muslims are going to do, you burn a Quran, they’re going to fucking kill the people – that’s bigotry.”