Debunking The Islam-Bashers’ Favorite Lie
There’s actually much more wrong with what these people are saying than I can possibly fit here, so I’m going to focus narrowly on their favorite talking point, one I’ve heard repeated, over and over again by Islam-bashers left and right.
Before I get to that, though, I’d like to address Harris’ and Maher’s claim that they’re not painting all Muslims as violent, only the violent ones. There are some complicated semantic onion layers to be peeled and diced there, so I will keep it simple: Maher and Harris are explicitly trashing an entire religion as violent, a religion that exists in a place they call the “Muslim world,” and a religion whose adherents all believe in murdering innocent people, unless they “don’t take the faith seriously.” That’s a direct quote from Harris. Maher says of Islam, not radical Islam or extreme Islam, but plain old Islam, that, “It’s the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will fucking kill you if you say the wrong thing, or draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”
Make of that what you will, but if someone said that all serious Jews are violent murder-mongers, that would qualify as bashing a whole religion.
The piece of evidence they love to use to demonstrate that it is Islam that is fatally flawed is a poll that often gets shortened or stretched to something along the lines of “90% of them believe you should be killed for converting from Islam,” and in its more complete, accurate telling, that “86% of Muslims in Egypt” answered that way. What none of them told their audiences is that, in the poll they’re cherry-picking, the answers they cite are an overwhelming minority of Muslims…READ MORE
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Tommy Christopher
Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
28 responses to Debunking The Islam-Bashers’ Favorite Lie
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forpeace October 14th, 2014 at 19:14
Bill Maher has proven so many times that he has double standards when it comes to religion. He does not dislike all religions equally, actually he has a special disdain for Islam over all other religions. His recent biased comments and statements during the Gaza conflict is a good example, I did not hear him opposing what Israel did wrong during this recent conflict, but I’ve heard him mocking Muslims and Palestinians.
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I am not an atheist, and I do not practice any religion, but I do not have any problem with those who choose to practice any religion as long as they keep their religions out of our government, our politics and elections, and out of our private lives because I believe in “Separation of Church and State.” Plus, I’m not against the Muslims, Christians, Jews, or any other religion, I’m against the extremists in any of those religions.
burqa October 14th, 2014 at 19:30
Do you think someone whose faith inspires them to help the needy, and who aspires to public office, should say their faith underlies the policies they would pursue if elected?
Faith has played an important role on the growth of our nation. Faith was an important factor that helped the patriots to endure defeat after defeat in our Revolution. There is a beautiful quote to this effect on the newly opened memorial to disabled veterans in D.C.
Faith was key in the movement to abolish slavery.
The civil rights movement was led by people of faith such as Rev. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
I too, believe in separation of church and state. The church should have no authority over our elected officials and we should not have an official religion. But we should not go overboard and seek to censor others, nor should we force them to practice their faith in secret.
One hopes we all find that sort of repression repugnant.
forpeace October 14th, 2014 at 19:44
I did not go overboard and I did not force anyone to practice their faith in secret.
I do NOT believe anyone who is holding any public office has the right to enforce his/her faith or religion on the public, or involve his/her religion in making the law …….. as we see that more often these days, and that is when they do their best to ignore the existing laws and creating their own religion base laws, that is called ignoring and dismissing the “Separation of Church and State.”
Robert M. Snyder October 14th, 2014 at 21:05
“how can you compare the civil rights movement with what the religion extremist GOTPers are trying to do these days”
Oh, come on, this is getting old. Just because a person mentions two things in a post, that doesn’t mean they’re comparing them.
If someone said “I ate a ham sandwich for lunch while reading a book about Hitler”, you would probably say “How can you compare Hitler with a ham sandwich?”.
burqa’s meaning in the preceding post was clear. You’re just obfuscating.
Bunya October 14th, 2014 at 20:17
Do you live in Iran or Iraq or under some other theocratically controlled government? I’m assuming you do because here in the United states, we have what’s called “freedom of religion”. Many other countries also have this law. People can worship whoever or whatever they please without fear of persecution. We don’t “censor others” and we don’t “force them to practice their faith in secret”.
Bunya October 14th, 2014 at 19:58
I’ve noticed that about Bill Maher also. He’ll joke about almost every other religion and poke fun at their fanaticisms, but he’ll never do that with the Muslims. I wonder why the contempt.
forpeace October 14th, 2014 at 20:18
Exactly, I do not watch his shows, but I read the articles about him, and sometimes I watch his videos online. He picks and chooses which religion he likes or dislikes while claiming to be a liberal and an atheist.
Mike Butkus Jr. October 14th, 2014 at 22:03
Last paragraph spot on
forpeace October 14th, 2014 at 19:14
Bill Maher has proven so many times that he has double standards when it comes to religion. He does not dislike all religions equally, actually he has a special disdain for Islam over all other religions. His recent biased comments and statements during the Gaza conflict is a good example, I did not hear him opposing what Israel did wrong during this recent conflict, but I’ve heard him mocking Muslims and Palestinians.
.
I am not an atheist, and I do not practice any religion, but I do not have any problem with those who choose to practice any religion as long as they keep their religions out of our government, our politics and elections, and out of our private lives because I believe in “Separation of Church and State.” Plus, I’m not against the Muslims, Christians, Jews, or any other religion, I’m against the extremists in any of those religions.
burqa October 14th, 2014 at 19:30
Do you think someone whose faith inspires them to help the needy, and who aspires to public office, should say their faith underlies the policies they would pursue if elected?
Faith has played an important role on the growth of our nation. Faith was an important factor that helped the patriots to endure defeat after defeat in our Revolution. There is a beautiful quote to this effect on the newly opened memorial to disabled veterans in D.C.
Faith was key in the movement to abolish slavery.
The civil rights movement was led by people of faith such as Rev. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. It was often organized in churches and we had groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference playing a major role.
I too, believe in separation of church and state. The church should have no authority over our elected officials and we should not have an official religion. But we should not go overboard and seek to censor others, nor should we force them to practice their faith in secret.
One hopes we all find that sort of repression repugnant.
forpeace October 14th, 2014 at 19:44
I did not go overboard and I did not force anyone to practice their faith in secret.
I do NOT believe anyone who is holding any public office has the right to enforce his/her faith or religion on the public, or involves his/her religion in making the law …….. as we see that more often these days, and that is when they do their best to ignore the existing laws and creating their own religion base laws, that is called ignoring and dismissing the “Separation of Church and State.”
Plus, how can you compare the civil rights movement with what the religion extremist GOTPers are trying to do these days?
Robert M. Snyder October 14th, 2014 at 21:05
“how can you compare the civil rights movement with what the religion extremist GOTPers are trying to do these days”
Oh, come on, this is getting old. Just because a person mentions two things in a post, that doesn’t mean they’re comparing them.
If someone said “I ate a ham sandwich for lunch while reading a book about Hitler”, you would probably say “How can you compare Hitler with a ham sandwich?”.
burqa’s meaning in the preceding post was clear. You’re just obfuscating.
Bunya October 14th, 2014 at 20:17
Do you live in Iran or Iraq or under some other theocratically controlled government? I’m assuming you do because here in the United states, we have what’s called “freedom of religion”. Many other countries also have this law. People can worship whoever or whatever they please without fear of persecution. We don’t “censor others” and we don’t “force them to practice their faith in secret”.
Bunya October 14th, 2014 at 19:58
I’ve noticed that about Bill Maher also. He’ll joke about almost every other religion and poke fun at their fanaticisms, but he’ll never do that with the Muslims. I wonder why the contempt.
forpeace October 14th, 2014 at 20:18
Exactly, I do not watch his shows, but I read the articles about him, and sometimes I watch his videos online. He picks and chooses which religion he likes or dislikes while claiming to be a liberal and an atheist.
Mike Butkus Jr. October 14th, 2014 at 22:03
Last paragraph spot on
burqa October 14th, 2014 at 19:41
What Hannity,* O’Reilly and others lack is a sense of scale. We’re talking about a group of way over 1 billion people. If what Hannity and O’Reilly said were true, then we’d have over a billion people out there carrying out decapitations.
The error Hannity and O’Reilly make is they identify a small number of outliers as representative of the far larger group.
The same mistake is made in this forum and elsewhere by bigots who hate Christians or Jews. What I find disappointing is even when these people have been presented with facts concerning the vast majority, they insist on holding on to opinions unsupported by the facts.
Just as we speak out against anti-Muslim bigotry, we should likewise speak out against bigotry directed at other groups. We on the Left should not only speak out when we see bigotry coming from the Right, we should also speak out when we see it on the Left.
More consistency would be nice. Besides eliminating accurate accusations from our opponents of hypocrisy, it would also deny bigots the safe harbor they currently find on the Left and Right..
*Hannity – by the way, has Hannity kept his word and been waterboarded yet?
burqa October 14th, 2014 at 19:41
What Hannity,* O’Reilly and others lack is a sense of scale. We’re talking about a group of way over 1 billion people. If what Hannity and O’Reilly said were true, then we’d have over a billion people out there carrying out decapitations.
The error Hannity and O’Reilly make is they identify a small number of outliers as representative of the far larger group.
The same mistake is made in this forum and elsewhere by bigots who hate Christians or Jews. What I find disappointing is even when these people have been presented with facts concerning the vast majority, they insist on holding on to opinions unsupported by the facts.
Just as we speak out against anti-Muslim bigotry, we should likewise speak out against bigotry directed at other groups. We on the Left should not only speak out when we see bigotry coming from the Right, we should also speak out when we see it on the Left.
More consistency would be nice. Besides eliminating accurate accusations from our opponents of hypocrisy, it would also deny bigots the safe harbor they currently find on the Left and Right..
*Hannity – by the way, has Hannity kept his word and been waterboarded yet?
tiredoftea October 14th, 2014 at 20:39
Along with being only marginally funny, it seems he’s branching out to sell more HBO subscriptions. Or, auditioning for a better paying job as the Fraud Spews captive liberal? Maybe he can take his act with Coultergeist in house! Kinda like a 21st century version of Matalan/Carville on CNN.
fancypants October 14th, 2014 at 20:48
in short maher makes a good point that radical islam has put the fear of allah in all their victims somewhat how the mafia behaved in its early days
not a bad observation
tiredoftea October 14th, 2014 at 20:57
If only that was his point!
fancypants October 14th, 2014 at 22:07
there again I didn’t suggest bill was an HBO telemarketer ? but I will let you slide on THIS one T of T
tiredoftea October 14th, 2014 at 20:39
Along with being only marginally funny, it seems he’s branching out to sell more HBO subscriptions. Or, auditioning for a better paying job as the Fraud Spews captive liberal? Maybe he can take his act with Coultergeist in house! Kinda like a 21st century version of Matalan/Carville on CNN.
fancypants October 14th, 2014 at 20:48
in short maher makes a good point that radical islam has put the fear of allah in all their victims somewhat how the mafia behaved in its early days
not a bad observation
tiredoftea October 14th, 2014 at 20:57
If only that was his point!
fancypants October 14th, 2014 at 22:07
there again I didn’t suggest bill was an HBO telemarketer ? but I will let you slide on THIS one T of T
bpollen October 15th, 2014 at 04:44
Usually, when some one says “Bill Maher said…”, the first thing that comes to my mind is “Shut up, Bill.” Even when I agree with him.
bpollen October 15th, 2014 at 04:44
Usually, when some one says “Bill Maher said…”, the first thing that comes to my mind is “Shut up, Bill.” Even when I agree with him.