In a heated debate on MSNBC with free speech advocate Greg Lukianoff, CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper defended UC Berkeley students’ efforts to uninvite comedian Bill Maher for his comments on Islam, comparing him to the Grand Dragon of the KKK. (RELATED: UC Berkeley Students Don’t Want Bill Maher To Speak At Their School)
LUKIANOFF: The fact that people so vehemently disagree with him is the more reason to hear him out. It’s an art that I feel is actually being lost on the campuses, where we should be teaching people is to at least hear people out before you to get them kicked off campus.
HOOPER: So if they invited the Grand Dragon of the KKK…
(CROSSTALK)
LUKIANOFF: So Bill Maher is the Grand Dragon of the KKK? I can’t until Bill Maher hears that. I think Bill will have a heyday with that.
HOST TAMRON HALL: We know that’s not what he’s saying, Greg.
HOOPER: We’re saying it can never be challenged… That’s a form of extremism on its own.
(CROSSTALK)
HALL: Let’s be clear. I know you know he’s not saying that. He’s not saying Bill Maher is the Grand Dragon…
…
HOOPER: [Bill Maher’s] called for racial profiling.
LUKIANOFF: I mean, it’s just amazing in the debates how quickly speakers are likened to Hitler and the Grand Dragon of the KKK.
HOOPER: I was using that as an example of somebody, would you endorse having that person speak and say nothing about it? If they were spewing the kind of things that the KKK or a rabid anti-Semite?