Bill Maher and the Islamophobic Left
Given the rhetoric coming from Donald Trump and various Republicans, it’s not surprising that many have come to associate Islamophobia with conservative politics. But small factions aren’t representative of the whole. In fact, when it comes to Islamophobia, the left is by no means innocent. No party has a monopoly on fear; ignorance is bipartisan.
Recently, liberal comedian Bill Maher invited the controversial Milo Yiannopoulos onto his show. For those of you who don’t know, Milo is the poster boy for the alt-right movement. He’s made a career championing racism, misogyny, other forms of bigotry, and blatantly offensive comments. Despite Maher saying that Milo was “colossally wrong on a number of things,” they were able to agree on two topics: Islam and the overwhelmingly political correct culture of the left.
I applaud Bill. I think he’s funny and does a great job bringing humor into many otherwise serious issues. I agree with him on many issues. Regarding Islam, and religion in general, I think he makes an important point: Criticizing Islam isn’t Islamophobia. Criticizing the specific doctrine of any religion is fair game. After all, if you can’t justify your beliefs, why have them?
Unfortunately, he errs on everything else about Islam. Maher’s general argument can be summed up as: All religion is awful, but Islam happens to be the worst.
Bill Maher has made various statements on Islam such as:
“It comes from a hate filled holy book, the Quran, which is taken very literally by its people.”
[In relation to debating a moderate Muslim]: “Find one.”
“I have another question, the most popular name in the United Kingdom, Great Britain, this was in the news this week, was Mohammed. Am I a racist to feel that I’m alarmed by that? Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s ’cause of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?”
“The only religion that acts like the mafia.”
“There is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them and they say ‘look, we are a religion of peace, and if you disagree we’ll f**king cut your head off, and nobody calls them on it.”
“To say that it’s a widespread belief in the Muslim world that death is the appropriate response to leaving the religion is just a statement of fact.”
The issue isn’t that he disagrees with Islam. I wouldn’t expect him to; he’s not Muslim. It’s that he distinguishes Islam from other religions. He paints the picture that Islam is somehow different, and we need to be especially careful when dealing with Muslims. He also makes broad generalizations about what every single Muslim believes. Statements like these aren’t just inaccurate, but dangerous.
All Abrahamic religion have virtually the same doctrine. There is little difference between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. All 3 Abrahamic religions have similar values, roots, and beliefs. In fact, in many ways Muslims view the Quran as a “third testament.” Yet people like Bill Maher, along with Sam Harris, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, don’t realize this. They claim that by denouncing Islam they are standing up for “liberal principles.” They also claim to be saviors of moderate Muslims. Maher even suggests that the majority are radicals. In reality, a Pew Research study indicated that in the U.S. 81% of Muslims said that suicide bombings and similar acts toward civilians are never justified.
Sam Harris has famously said:
“It is time we admitted that we are not at war with ‘terrorism.’ We are at war with Islam. … We are absolutely at war with the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran. The only reason Muslim fundamentalism is a threat to us is because the fundamentals of Islam are a threat to us.”
Ayann Hirsi Ali claims that not just radical Islam but Islam as a whole must be “defeated.” Don’t misunderstand me, denouncing Islam is fine as long as it’s done fairly and appropriately.
By claiming that Islam doesn’t coincide with liberal principles, they drive Muslims away from such principles. In reality, 70 percent of American Muslims lean toward the Democratic Party. To defend this, they make the assertion that Muslims who don’t follow extremist doctrine aren’t real Muslims. In order to be a serious Muslim you must interpret the Quran literally. And you must interpret it the same way jihadi groups do. Otherwise, you aren’t taking Islam seriously. Ironically, they view Islam the same way terrorists do.
But Islam isn’t meant to be taken literally. No religion is. All ideologies, both religious and secular, are on a spectrum. Muslims vary in interpretation and beliefs — the vast majority being moderate.
Sam Harris, Bill Maher, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, have long advocated for the reform of Islam. They argue that Christian groups don’t have fundamentalist issues because they’ve already gone through a reformation. Islam doesn’t need reform, because doctrine isn’t the issue. By their logic, Judaism also needs reform. Yet, none have argued for it.
Too often, we liken politics to sports. We root for individual players — politicians. Or we root for teams — political parties. Instead, we should root for our values. Calling out bigotry of the right is great. But it’s useless if we ignore it from our own side. It’s easy to police others. But it’s much harder to police ourselves.
