So Bill Maher caused a bit of outrage last week after criticizing liberals and Islam for allowing and nurturing extremist behavior. It cause a bit of a stir, probably a bit more than Real Time normally causes, and it all came to a head last night when Ben Affleck was on the show.
Affleck took exception to Maher and guest Sam Harris’ condemnation of Islam as a whole over the acts of extremist groups within the religion. From Mediaite:
“We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion gets conflated with bigotry towards muslims as people,” Harris began. “It’s intellectually ridiculous.”
“Hold on — are you the person who officially understands the codified doctrine of Islam?” Affleck, on the show to promote his movie Gone Girl, interrupted, and argued that criticizing Islam, as Maher and Harris were doing it, was “gross and racist. It’s like saying, ‘Oh, you shifty Jew!’…
“Your argument is, ‘You know, black people, they shoot each other,’” said Affleck.
“No it’s not! It’s based on facts!” Maher retorted.
The whole thing is actually pretty entertaining for a fight between a guy with a questionable knowledge of the topic at hand and another who is a smarmy douche most of the time. I’ll let you flesh out who is who on your own time.
The crazy bit to me is that Michael Steele of all people is the voice of reason. He’s completely turned around since the GOP threw him out of their ranks like Grima Wormtongue:
Former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele pointed out that Muslim clerics from several countries have condemned the actions of groups like the Islamic State, without getting much attention for it.
“Where was the coverage?” Steele asked. “Where was that story to create a different picture?”
Did they somehow replace the real Michael Steele with Puppet Michael Steele from The Daily Show? I wouldn’t be shocked.
