In a true case of strange bedfellows aligning, Bill Maher found himself aligned with conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza during panel on Friday’s Real Time. Maher took issue with those on the left who fail to condemn radical Islam. He pointed out the hypocrisy of liberals who come to the defense of the religion while simultaneously fighting for the rights of women.
To begin, Maher pointed to the coverage of Boko Haram and the kidnapping of some 300 Nigerian schoolgirls. While the terrorist group is comprised on known Islamic militants, the media has largely failed to report that fact.
“There’s no mention here of connecting this to the religion, which is always what I am seeking to do because I think that’s the elephant in the room,” Maher said. “And that in the religious at large, women are seen as property, second-class at best, often as property. Shouldn’t that be brought to light in this debate as well?”
Maher is an outspoken atheist, and he said he would condemn 14th century Christianity for its violence much in the same way he is criticizing Islam. After D’Souza pointed out “it does seem that the vast majority of terrorist incidents do involve some aspect of the Muslim world,” fellow panelist Arianna Huffington said it “becomes dangerous” to stereotype Muslims as terrorists.
“Where it becomes dangerous is that liberals like yourself do not stand up for liberalism,” Maher responded. “Liberalism means, one, mostly, equality of women. Free speech. No death threats… I’m the bad guy because I’m against the people who cut your arms off for not praying.”
Ultimately, Maher concluded: “Islam is the problem.”
Watch the segment below:
“Let me ask you this. Can you imagine if I would have gotten on and said ‘Islam is the problem,’” Glenn asked on radio this morning. “Remember, what we are doing is we are driving a football player out of the NFL because he tweeted ‘OMG. Horrible.’ We have a smear campaign of two television hosts from HGTV, who are Christian… And yet here's the number one supporter of Barak Obama, and you don't hear a word.”
As Glenn explained, Maher has faced little to no criticism for his comments about Islam. Why aren’t the political correctness police out in force calling for a boycott of Maher’s program? Without the media and activists making a huge deal of these comments, the American people have simply moved on.
“Who's driving the country? Because you see this is an example of real public opinion, without the Media Matters of the world, without the activists involved, without the media involved, and without the politicians involved, you see how America reacts to someone saying something that you may agree or disagree with, and that's this: ‘Huh,’ and you move on,” Glenn said. “Everything is a hash tag now. Everything is #he's a hater, #boycott. But because this guy is on the politically correct side now, because he's the president's biggest
donor… [they’re] cool with that.”
While Glenn may no longer recognize the United States, he does recognize the American people. This situation may illustrate the tremendous double standard that exists in this country, but it also proves that freedom of speech is not entirely dead – yet.
“Who are we becoming? I don't recognize my country. The good news is I do recognize most people still in America… Nobody's talking about it. Why? Because all the things that we keep arguing about are bull crap and they're manufactured,” Glenn concluded. “Freedom of speech is the most important. Agree or disagree with Bill Maher. I am at least glad to see that even if it just is that you have to give $1 million to the president, someone is allowed to say the truth as they see it in America.”
Here's more from the morning meeting:
