Maher to Guest Defending Islam in Wake of Boston Bombings: 'That's Liberal ####'

NewsBusters.org ^ | April 20, 2013 | Noel Sheppard

[Kaslin]

Bill Maher on HBO's Real Time Friday made a statement that will make the Right cheer as the left predictably cringes.

After his guest Brian Levin - the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino - said of the Boston bombings and how it relates to radical Islam, "We have hypocrites across faiths, Jewish, Christian who say they're out for God and end up doing not so nice things," Maher marvelously responded, "That’s liberal bulls--t right there" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Maher to Guest Defending Islam in the Wake of Boston Bombing: 'That's Lberal Bulls--t'

BILL MAHER, HOST: So you're obviously the perfect person to have here today. You study this all the time, the mind of crazy people who do horrible things. I'm always interested to know how people like the people we caught today up in Boston can have two minds going at the same time. I mean, if you read what the older brother wrote on his, on the internet, he said his world view: Islam. Personal priorities: career and money. And we see this a lot. I mean, the 9/11 hijackers went to strip clubs the night before they got on the plane.

BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN BERNADINO: Could I just interject? Look, it's not like people who are Muslim who do wacky things have a monopoly on it. We have hypocrites across faiths, Jewish, Christian who say they're out for God and end up doing not so nice things.

MAHER: You know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? That's, that’s liberal bullshit right there. I mean, yes, all faiths…

LEVIN: There are no Christian hypocrites?

MAHER: No, there are.

LEVIN: You make a career on that.

MAHER: They just, they're not as dangerous. I mean, there's only one faith, for example, that kills you or wants to kill you if you draw a bad cartoon of the prophet. There’s only one faith that kills you or wants to kill you if you renounce the faith. An ex-Muslim is a very dangerous thing. Talk to Salman Rushdie after the show about Christian versus Islam. So, you know, I’m just saying, let's keep it real.

LEVIN: Well, I guess I have a girl for you, Pam Geller you could maybe meet. No, I really disagree with you.

MAHER: I don't know what that means.

LEVIN: Well, she’s an Islamaphobe. But, no I…

MAHER: I’m not an Islamaphobe. That’s wrong. I am a truth lover. All religions are not alike. As many people have pointed out, “The Book of Mormon.” Did you see the show?

LEVIN: No, it's hard to get tickets.

MAHER: Okay, can you imagine if they did "The Book of Islam?" Could they do that? There’s only one religion that threatens violence and carries it out for things like that. Could they do “The Book of Islam” on Broadway?

LEVIN: Possibly so.

MAHER: Possibly so? Tell me what color the sky is in your world.

LEVIN: Here's my difficulty with your premise here, Bill, and that is look at how religions over history have had things done in their name that have been terrible.

MAHER: Absolutely. But we're not in history. We're in 2013.

LEVIN: But what I would tell you…

MAHER: You're right, during the Middle Ages, I would say Christianity was the bigger problem.

LEVIN: If I may, though. You are making an error in that Islam has over 1.4 billion adherents. There’s a heterogeneity to it. Are there extremists who are horrible people who would slit your throats? Yes. But there are also folks that are fine, upstanding people.

MAHER: Of course.

LEVIN: And I'm very worried you have a national audience where we're promoting Islamic hatred.

MAHER: No, you're wrong about that and you're wrong about your facts. Now, obviously, most Muslim people are not terrorists, but ask most Muslim people in the world, if you insult the prophet, do you have what's coming to you. It's more than just a fringe element.

Folks that are surprised by this shouldn't be, as this isn't the first time Maher has come out strongly against radical Islam.

In 2011, he told Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) that the Koran is a "hate-filled book" and that "the threat potentially from radicalized Muslims is a unique and greater threat" than from "right-wing militias and Timothy McVeigh types."

As for going after the hypocrisy of the Left, Maher last month said in regard to the high taxes he's now paying, "Liberals - you could actually lose me."

Is there hope for Bill Maher?

Is it possible the far more reasonable person that existed in the '90s with a program on Comedy Central called Politically Incorrect is starting to reemerge after more than a decade of hibernation?

Let's pray.

[CityCenter]

You do know that praying for people like Mare is as much for you as it is for him. He makes my blood boil as much as anyone, can’t stand the guy. Praying for people like him helps me to let the negativity go and maybe it will help them become better people. It’s worth a try, anyway.

[Lakeshark]

You nailed him big time.

Most atheists (apparently including Maher) have no clue about the multiple millions, truly over a hundred million, that have died at the hand of an atheist ideology.

Their belief in their own self enlightenment helps them forget the cost of their delusions.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Aetius]

Is Hannity capable of eviscerating anyone (not named Colmes) in an argument?

[wardaddy]

I’m southern baptist

We aren’t taught praying for others benefits us

We pray for others cause its right

I will pray for our enemies as we kill them

If I remember in the course if events and all

Really...you have at it

Soon enough when it gets bad enough you might forget to

[sbark]

There were 463 years between Mohammed’s death in 632 AD and the calling of a Crusade to free lands that had been Christian before the Muslim invaders arrived; but to hear what passes for common “knowledge” [from self-hating Christians at that!], the whole affair was solely the fault of power-hungry popes, greedy soldiers of fortune, and Christians who were persecuting harmless, pious Muslims minding their own business. Muslims are only too happy to help Christians perpetuate this mea maxima culpa attitude. Stenhouse[see note below] lists only some of the events that took place in those 463 years, among them, 633 – Mesopotamia falls to Muslim invasion, followed by the entire Persian Empire 635 – Damascus falls 638 – Jerusalem capitulates 643 – Alexandria falls, ending 1,000 years of Hellenic civilization 648-49 – Cyprus falls 653 – Rhodes falls 673 – Constantinople attacked 698 – All of North Africa lost 711 – Spain invaded 717 – Muslims attack Constantinople again; repelled by Emperor Leo the Isaurian 721 – Saragossa falls, Muslims sights on southern France 720 – Narbonne falls 732 – Bordeaux was stormed and its churches burnt down 732 – Charles Martel and his Frankish army defeat Muslims, turning back the Muslim tide 732 – Attacks on France continued 734 – Avignon captured by an Muslim force 743 – Lyons sacked 759 – Arabs driven out of Narbonne 800 – Muslims incursions into Italy begin, Islands of Ponza and Ischia plundered 813 – Civitavecchia, the port of Rome sacked 826 – Crete falls to Muslim forces 827 – Muslim forces begin to attack Sicily 837 – Naples repels a Muslim attack 838 – Marseilles taken 840 – Bari falls 842 – Messina captured and Strait of Messina controlled 846 – Muslims squadrons arrived at Ostia, at the Tiber's mouth, sack Rome and St. Peter’s Basilica 846 – Taranto in Apulia conquered by Muslim forces 849 – Papal forces repel Muslim fleet at the mouth of the Tiber 853 – 871 – Italian coast from Bari down to Reggio Calabria controlled, Muslims terrorize Southern Italy 859 – Muslims take control of all Messina 870 – Malta captured 870 – Bari recaptured from the Muslims by Emperor Louis II 872 – Emperor Louis II defeats a Saracen fleet off Capua 872 – Muslim forces devastate Calabria 878 – Syracuse falls after a nine-month siege 879 – Pope John VIII forced to pay tribute of 25,000 mancuses (AUD$625,000) annually to the Muslims 880 – Byzantine Commanders gain victory over Saracen forces at Naples 881 – Muslims capture fortress near Anzio, plunder surrounding countryside with impunity for forty [40] years 887 – Muslim armies take Hysela and Amasia, in Asia Minor 889 – Toulon captured 902 – Muslim fleets sacked and destroyed Demetrias in Thessaly, Central Greece 904 – Thessalonica falls to Muslim forces 915 – After three months of blockade, Christian forces victorious against Saracens holed-up in their fortresses north of Naples 921 – English pilgrims to Rome crushed to death under rocks rolled down on them by Saracens in the passes of the Alps 934 – Genoa attacked by Muslim forces 935 – Genoa taken 972 – Saracens finally driven from Faxineto 976 – Caliphs of Egypt send fresh Muslim expeditions into southern Italy. Initially the German Emperor Otho II , who had set up his headquarters in Rome, successfully defeated these Saracen forces 977 – Sergius, Archbishop of Damascus, expelled from his See by Muslims 982 – Emperor Otho’s forces ambushed and his army defeated 1003 – Muslims from Spain sack Antibes 1003-09 – Marauding bands of Saracens plunder Italian coast from Pisa to Rome from bases on Sardinia 1005 – Muslims from Spain sack Pisa 1009 – Caliph of Egypt orders destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Tomb of Jesus 1010 – Saracens seize Cosenza in southern Italy 1015 – All Sardinia falls 1016 – Muslims from Spain again sack Pisa 1017 – Fleets of Pisa and Genoa sail for Sardinia, find Saracens crucifying Christians, drive Saracen leader out. Saracens try to re-take Sardinia until 1050 1020 – Muslims from Spain sack Narbonne 1095 – The First Crusade. While the pope has apologized for the Crusades, Muslims have never so much as acknowledged any responsibility. Why? Note: For additional reading, see “The Crusades In Context” by Dr Paul Stenhouse

[Southack]

The Left will eventually follow the path of national socialism.

Step One is giving up pacifism.

Maher hints he could be at that point.

[Cronos]

Actually, that's the factual side of the story. There is no "Roman side" as the Roman Empire did not exist in the 15th century

1. you say it was generous of the French king to allow those to practise a faith different from that of the monarch -- that generosity was not practised in England or the Scandanavian countries...
2. These were not Christians who defiled Churches.
2b. There were no "Roman mobs" -- do read your history, the Roman Empire ended in the West in 453 AD. And do learn some geography, this was France, not Roma
3. There was no murder -- evidently you didn't read in 1562-70, we have the wars -- now political-religious, so no, it was not a simple case of "persecution" --> The Huguenots were one side of a civil war, which they lost -- the losing side in a civil war gets killed.

[Cronos]

their ideas eventually led to the creation of the

Incorrect -- many of the founders were Deists and there were 4 Catholic signers, so it wasn't the reformers ideas

The framers of the constitution instinctively harked back to ancient Greece and Rome and set up their institutions based on Rome (the Senate for example or congressus) -- so do read up on history before commenting

[randog]

Liberalism is a great set of warm, fuzzy ideals until you have to (a) pay for them or (b) die for them.

[1010RD]

Highly indoctrinated. He reminds me of some of the post-Gorbachev communists that bought the party line so deeply. They were shell shocked to find it all a lie.

[Caliban]

I have always found Bill Maher far more interesting to watch than Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity...

Bill shares much of the same skepticism and disgust that I have for our politicians and government.

[New Jersey Realist]

When Christians kill in the name of their religion, they are committing a heretical and terrible sin. When Muslims kill in the name of their religion, they are obeying scriptural injunctions to do so.

Of course they committed terrible sins and we must disassociate ourselves from what they did back then but don’t even try to deny that they were obeying scriptural injunctions! Perhaps YOU should study your Bible. Misinterpreted or not this is what the Bible says:

Exodus 22:20: He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed.

If you don’t know what utterly destroyed means, here’s clarification for you:

Deut. 13:6-10: If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end) you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Deut 17:2-7: If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. And behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed, to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

Luke 19:27: But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.

By the way, it is well documented that Christian killed Christian in very, very high numbers – possibly in the multi-millions – obeying orders from people such as Pope Innocent III who said, “Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with Church dogma must be burned without pity.” The Inquisition was an ecclesiastical court and process of the Roman Catholic Church setup for the purpose towards the discovery and punishment of heresy which wielded immense power and brutality in medieval and early modern times. The Inquisitions function was principally assembled to repress all heretics of rights, depriving them of their estate and assets which became subject to the ownership of the Catholic treasury, with each relentlessly sought to destroy anyone who spoke, or even thought differently to the Catholic Church. This system for close to over six centuries became the legal framework throughout most of Europe that orchestrated one of the most despicable religious orders in the course of mankind.

In the ages of faith, when the priest, was little less than a God himself, a curse from his lips was often more feared than physical torments. To even establish an accusation against a bishop itself required 72 witnesses; against a deacon was 27; against an inferior dignitary was 7, and for non-members of the clergy, 2 was sufficient to convict. Whole communities went mad with grief and fear of the thought towards being denounced to the Inquisition. It spread all over Europe. Men, women, and children, all legally murdered on evidence by a church, which today would only be accepted if the court and jury specifically composed of the inmates of a lunatic asylum.

Do some research. Things were pretty gory back then; the period wasn’t called the Dark Ages for nothing. Christians had a few hundred years jump on the Muzzies but now they are trying to catch up. What I’ve said here is documented and taught – I learned this stuff over 50 years ago. You can deny it all you want but that doesn’t change the truth.

[opentalk]

There is a Saudi initiated manifesto to help turn nonMuslim countries Muslim. Huma Abedin was connected to it. There needs to be more push-back to this agenda...manipulating a culture link

same is happening in Europe

[RoadGumby]

Wardaddy.

When a Christian says he is praying for his enemies, it is not really praying for good things or blessings, except for the blessing that God would open their eyes and soften their hearts. Were this to happen, then that enemy now potentially Not your enemy.

Christ came when almost All people then alive were enemies to Him, and he prayed for their forgiveness.

I do believe some bad times are coming for our country. Be praying Now for those that might come against you/us.

Have a blessed day.

[Almondjoy]

That’s awfully revisionist. The Catholic Church has plenty of demons but I would also agree that a vast majority of them are in the past. I would just suggest that we don’t forget that power corrupts.

[DManA]

That’s awfully revisionist.

You are awfully ignorant.

[CityCenter]

You are Christian first before you are anything else. Jesus taught we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Doing this changes us and changes them as it puts God into the middle of the equation. This is not a passive exercise.

[American Infidel]

I can't believe I am actually finding myself in agreement with Bill Maher, especially the part about "The Book of Mormon". I have had this exact same debate with people. I have asked lefties point blank if anyone could even possibly entertain the idea of creating a Broadway musical called "The Quran" which pokes fun at islam without being threatened with death by the jihadis and shunned by the rest of the leftist entertainment community. No one can give me a direct or honest answer. They simply stammer on about it being "different" and not an accurate comparison. Typical hypocrites. The only difference is that the Mormons won't issue fatwahs or cut people's throats. Theo Van Gogh learned the unfortunate truth about what happens when someone dares to speak honestly about islam.

It pains me to say this, but, kudos to Maher on this one.

[wardaddy]

Sounds like a recipe to always be defeated and damn right it sounds passive

Are u male or female?

I’m gonna pass on all that

I’ve got faith God can sort it out