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

Posted on 04/20/2013 9:26:31 PM PDT by chessplayer

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):

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: hbo; maher
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To: Patrick1

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.


“Tell me what color the sky is in your world.”

Liked that shot.


21 posted on 04/20/2013 10:19:53 PM PDT by chessplayer
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To: All

Maher a lefty, sure....But how many Republican Congressmen or Senators have said something similar?........

To my knowledge, exactly NONE!


22 posted on 04/20/2013 10:20:02 PM PDT by outhousepatrol
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To: 3Fingas

I think someone went upside his head with a clue-bat.


23 posted on 04/20/2013 10:23:57 PM PDT by ponygirl (Be Breitbart.)
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To: outhousepatrol

Because they are cowards or they are in on it. There are no other excuses. And the refusal for the GOP to hammer the Islam thing is very much an excuse. They have all kinds of reasons to abandon the security of the country and the people. But no intent to protect or support them...

Unless it’s muslim people. Then they are running over Democrats to get to a mic/camera to tout their multicultural BS.

And for those that say otherwise, show me the rush of Republicans demanding people like Shoebat and Gellar get heard.


24 posted on 04/20/2013 10:28:48 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: chessplayer

Maher is not a dummy. He says a lot of things which are stupid, spiteful and often not true, but he does have a brain that still functions.

Listen to his early comedy lines and his discussions on “Politically Incorrect”.

Somewhere in his leftist brain is a residual zone of clarity and sanity which ocassionally rises to the surface as it did this time.

Over time, as he sees the blatant hate, lies, and bullshit of the left (liberals and marxists), he could conceivably, like Prof. Eugene Genovese - pro-Viet Cong at one time; Jon Voight - anti-Vietnam actor, now hardcore conservative; Walid Shoebat, former PLO terrorist; and Whitaker Chambers, former Soviet spy turned Catholic. become more conservative or at least realistic in his views.

I’ve interviewed both hardened Viet Cong and No. Vietnamese high ranking miitary defectors as to why they left a cause they had risked their lives to fight for, for years. They all said that once they saw the much better life conditions in the South, the freedom that the people had in their daily lives, and the fact that their vaunted victories were lies (i.e., they were losing), they began to question the movement and ideology/cause that they were fighting for.

Once this internal introspection sets in among hardened communists, it becomes corrosive to their devotion to “the cause” and Uncle Ho. That is why over 250,000 VC and sympathizers, plus over 8,000 No. Vietnamese soldiers defected to the Allied side in the war. I saw and talked to them in both So. Vietnam and PAVN POWS in Cambodia.

They were losing and it eroded their desire to fight.

Maybe, just maybe, Maher has some intellectual honesty left in him, and if it is nurtured, by his own realizations of the lies and bullshit of the liberals, he might change a bit, or a lot.

Don’t think that the Boston Marathan bombings/deaths and related deaths of police officers, didn’t have an effort on it. They did. Only time will tell if it stuck, or not.


25 posted on 04/20/2013 10:33:26 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: chessplayer

He said only one thing wrong, which was that during the Middle Ages Christianity was worse. Has he never heard about the Turkish conquests of the Middle East and Southeast Europe? There was nothing remotely “progressive,” about the Muslims of that time, and indeed, if they had conquered Europe, modern science could not have developed as it has.


26 posted on 04/20/2013 10:35:43 PM PDT by RobbyS
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To: chessplayer

And Christians will cheer as they move closer to banning Christianity.


27 posted on 04/20/2013 10:41:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Then Christians need to stand up for themselves and not turn the other cheek for another slap. Can’t have things both ways. Christians either fight for God or give him up. Those are the choices.


28 posted on 04/20/2013 10:49:00 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: Norm Lenhart

I wouldn’t get too excited. Even President Obama hates Muslims. It’s just an excuse to get rid of all religions.


29 posted on 04/20/2013 10:49:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: outhousepatrol

I think you can add Allen West to your list. He also came out strongly against Liberal fallacies on Islam. However, I totally agree with you. There are very few people who would openly stand up against the deadly actions of the Islamic faith, and it is commendable that Maher and West (I can’t believe I am putting both their names in the same sentence) stood up. Maher may be Liberal, but when conservatives in positions of power will remain quiet then anyone saying something is an asset. Be they a talking donkey (I like that story) or a good samaritan (I always like that parable ...there is a reason he was called a GOOD Samaritan, as well as how two other men who were supposedly ‘holy’ walked by without helping).


30 posted on 04/20/2013 10:51:00 PM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: nickcarraway

So he’s self loathing? I’m not going to get excited. I KNOW most Americans could give a crap about anything but themselves and that there are too few of us to make a difference. So I just sit and bitch until the nukes fall.


31 posted on 04/20/2013 10:53:05 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: Norm Lenhart
I agree that we have to use everything we can to defeat the left. We shouldn't overlook the smaller things that can help us, but we can't ignore the fact we need some very big change in a very quick fashion to be successful. We have been losing for decades because of our liberal media, and it's working in overdrive to realize it's ultimate goal now. It's going to either destroy us, or destroy itself in the process. We haven't successfully opposed it in the past, and I don't know how we are going to do that now either. It has to be done for our Constitution to survive though.

WWW.OATHKEEPERS.ORG

32 posted on 04/20/2013 11:01:23 PM PDT by ThermoNuclearWarrior (Help put an Oath Keepers car on the NASCAR track, driven by Jeffrey Earnhardt! - WWW.OATHKEEPERS.ORG)
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To: ponygirl

Nah, like someone said earlier, frozen clock hands are right twice a day.


33 posted on 04/20/2013 11:02:43 PM PDT by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
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To: chessplayer

Timothy McVeigh was a left-wing fruitcake.

And what was it that Christianity did in the Middle Ages that was so bad, preserve Western civilization?


34 posted on 04/20/2013 11:07:55 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: <1/1,000,000th%

And what was it that Christianity did in the Middle Ages that was so bad,


Inquisitions. Burning “witches.”


35 posted on 04/20/2013 11:16:02 PM PDT by chessplayer
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To: <1/1,000,000th%

Killed Muslims for the same thing they are doing to us now.

No balls left anywhere to denounce Islam, kick them out of western countries, and if they start a fit over it, bring it to their house but this time, wipe the cult of the face of the earth


36 posted on 04/20/2013 11:17:23 PM PDT by FreedomStar3028
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To: ThermoNuclearWarrior

Until conservatives stop being cowering mice, believe in something and fight fire with fire, we lose. Until we use all the tools in the political toolbox, we lose.

And considering that so many are willing to hide in a corner rather than even take on the leftists of their own party/movement, my faith in them taking on the leftists across the aisle ain’t too great.

We are lousy with the enemy within. Here on FR, in conservative media, in the GOP and everywhere else.


37 posted on 04/20/2013 11:19:05 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: chessplayer

Good for Bill Maher. I don’t like him, I don’t watch him, but we have to give credit when due. The fact that the guest seemed startled at Bill’s reaction and actually said “you make money off this stuff” was telling. That was a face slap reaction by a guy who expected to be applauded for Christian bashing. Anyway, Bill, whether being the clock not running or a moment of clarity/honesty, called it right this time. IMO


38 posted on 04/20/2013 11:20:29 PM PDT by callthemlikeyouseethem (Biden10/19/08: "I probably shouldn't have said all this because.. the press is here")
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To: callthemlikeyouseethem

Ths so called “expert” guest sure didn’t have his act together...no brainer for Maher..though I never watch him...far too raw for me.


39 posted on 04/20/2013 11:28:14 PM PDT by caww
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To: Norm Lenhart

Can you frikken believe that Bill Uber Lib Maher said this?

I damn near fell off the floor when I read it.


40 posted on 04/20/2013 11:29:35 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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