Juan Cole writes: Comedian Bill Maher puts himself in the company of “9/11 liberals” who believe that Islam as a religion is different and decidedly worse than all other religions. He said Friday that “at least half of all Muslims believe it is all right to kill someone who insults the Prophet.” His bad faith is immediately apparent in the reference to 9/11, not the work of mainstream Muslims but of a political cult whose members often spent their time in strip clubs.
Now, it may be objected that Maher has made a career of attacking all religions, and promoting irreverence toward them. So Islam is just one more target for him. But that tack wouldn’t entirely be true. He explicitly singles Islam out as more, much more homocidal than the other religions. He is personally unpleasant to his Muslim guests, such as Keith Ellison. His reaction to the youth of the Arab Spring gathering to try to overthrow their American-backed dictators was “the Arabs are revolting.” Try substituting “Jews” to see how objectionable that is.
Maher ironically has de facto joined an Islamophobic network that is funded by the Mellon Scaife Foundation and other philanthropies tied to the American Enterprise Institute, etc. which is mainly made up of evangelical Christians, bigoted American Jews who would vote for the Likud Party if they could, and cynical Republican businessmen and politicians casting about for something with which to frighten working class Americans into voting for them. [Continue reading…]
I watched Maher’s film “Religulous” and enjoyed the humour, but noticed that
1. he pretended he did not know his mother was Jewish and
2. His humour changed to scorn and lies when he discussed Islam.
Some day historians will go through clips of his work in order to see a prime example of the kind of things that put the American public finally over the top, or made such a handy target after this mega-Ponzi scheme called the dollar goes bust. It is a shame really, for their contribution during the last century has been enormous, or so we are told and reminded time and time again in every public talk we have ever heard in our lives. Read the Biblical account of the Assyrian and Babylonian destructions, and in Josephus for the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. It was always an overbearing arrogance and contentiousness that brought them low, not the killer instincts of mad emperors. And, if Israel is going to use ancient history as it justification, then why is it nobody remembers that it was Iran who conquered Babylon, and paid for the Jewish leaders held there to go home. The Iranians contributed to the rebuilding of the Second Temple. Roman soldiers had strict orders from Titus not to burn the city or the temple; the fire was started by Zealots inside. Are there no Americans who read these things?