Alec Dea
Discussing Donald Trump’s ideas on
immigration and banning Muslims from entering the U.S. last week in class
reminded me of a controversial episode of Real Time with Bill Maher that aired in
2014. One of the topics they discussed
was the impact Islam has on terrorism.
During this segment, Ben Affleck got into a heated argument with Bill
Maher and famous atheist, Sam Harris.
Harris’ main argument was that some of the core tenants of Islam do
indeed influence this type of terrorism we see brewing in the Middle East. He described how a small percentage of
Muslims are jihadists (terrorists), a larger portion of Muslims are Islamists
(Muslims who share terrorist’s goals but want to work through government and
achieve them in a non violent way), and the rest are moderates who deplore
everything terrorists stand for. Harris
thinks the crucial problem is that we’re misled to believe that the jihadists
are the fringe.
Harris believes that “liberals have
really failed on the topic of theocracy.
They’ll criticize white theocracy, they’ll criticize Christians. They still get agitated over the bombing of
the abortion clinic that happened in 1984, but when you wanna talk about the
treatment of women, homosexuals, freethinkers, public intellectuals in the
Muslim world, I would argue that liberals have failed us. He ends his opening argument by saying, “we
have been sold this meme of Islamophobia where every criticism of the doctrine
of Islam gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people. That’s intellectually ridiculous.” He also admits that Islamophobia is real and
it’s a problem, but his criticism of Muslim doctrine is nothing of the
sort. Such doctrinal criticisms include
apostasy, which Affleck agreed is “just horrible.” Yet, he found Harris’s argument to be “gross
and racist”, ironically proving Harris’ point that people conflate criticism of
ideas with bigotry towards people.
Poll results justify Bill Maher and
Harris’ claim that it is not only a few Muslim terrorists who pose a threat to
humanity. The 2013 Pew Research Center reports 88% of
Muslims in Egypt and 62% of Muslims in Pakistan favor the death penalty for
people who leave the Muslim religion. The
Pew also asked Muslims in 38 countries from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the
Middle East whether or not they support making Sharia Law official. “In many countries, the answer was
overwhelmingly yes…” although it’s fair to point out that many Muslims think
Sharia should only apply to Muslims and some aspects of Sharia Law should be
not as harshly enforced as others.
Professor
Carolyn Hoyle wrote an article for the “Daily Mail” discussing a recent
execution of two Muslims for being gay.
While many countries are moving away from capital punishment, the Muslim
world is “the worrying exception.” Many
countries continue, “to impose the death penalty for offenses which in most
jurisdictions would never be considered crimes—such as homosexuality and
adultery. Harris brought up the fact
that 78% of British Muslims think the Danish cartoonist should be prosecuted.
We have to empower the true Muslim reformers in the world to
fix this issue. Trying to get through to
Affleck, Harris explained how “There are hundreds of millions of Muslims who
are nominal Muslims… we need to defend these people, prop them up, and let them
reform their faith.” Despite Harris
going over this same talking point multiple times, Affleck continued his
imprudent outburst by calling these characterizations racist and “painting the
religion with a broad brush.” Affleck is
known as a poster boy for liberalism, yet he expresses no qualm with those
Muslims who think death is an appropriate response for apostasy, homosexuality,
or free speech. All of which are liberal
principles. With regards to terrorism,
we need to diagnose the issue as we see it and not be so concerned with being
seen as bigoted towards Muslims as people.
Hoyle, Carolyn. "Thrown to
Death... for Being Gay: Expert Argues ISIS's Latest Abomination Betrays Radical
Muslims' New Thirst for Killing in the Name of Justice ." Mail
Online. Associated Newspapers,
2015. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
"Majorities of Muslims in Egypt
and Pakistan Support the Death Penalty for Leaving Islam." Washington
Post. The Washington Post. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
“Real Time With Bill Maher”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vln9D81eO60
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