Those who know outspoken atheist Bill Maher were not surprised to hear him slam the religion of Islam on Jimmy Kimmel Live in response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Others were more shocked by Maher’s fearless words, but Bill is not backing down. Maher has been even more outspoken against Islamic extremism than usual lately, as a result of nine satirists like him being murdered for criticizing Muslim ideology. Immediately after his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel , Bill Maher went on his own show and continued his quick-witted activism against Islamic radicals.
According to the Daily Beast , Maher used his show Real Time with Bill Maher to focus on Islam as a source of terrible and violent ideas . While Maher finds all religions “stupid and dangerous,” he has a particular dislike of Islam. When comparing Christianity to Islam, Maher has said “one is herpes and one his cancer.” Maher’s rhetoric was no more forgiving on the last episode of his show. He was joined by fellow activist Salman Rushdie — who has some experience in Islamic death threats — political commentator Paul Begala, and the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina.
“What we’ve said all along, and have been called bigots for it, is when there’s this many bad apples, there’s something wrong with the orchard,” Bill Maher said in reference to Islam.
Bill Maher received a lot of heat for a previous exchange over Islam on his show, when he debated with neuroscientist Sam Harris and Ben Affleck. Some, like Affleck, have defended Islam, claiming that most Muslims don’t support violent Islamic extremism. But Bill Maher voiced his disagreement on Jimmy Kimmel , claiming that while many Muslims would never enact such violence, hundreds of millions of them would support an attack like the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Bill Maher doubled down on this point on his own show.
“Obviously, the vast majority of Muslims would never do anything like this,” Maher said. “But they share bad ideas. This is the thing that caused the big ruckus when Ben Affleck was here. Sam Harris said, ‘Islam is the motherlode of bad ideas,’ and everyone went f***in’ nuts on this side of the panel. But it is . These two guys who shot up the cartoonists the other day, they were avenging the prophet, they said? A bad idea. Martyrdom? A bad idea. Women as second-class citizens? A bad idea. And unfortunately, the terrorists and the mainstream share a lot of these bad ideas.”
According to Variety , Salman Rushdie did not entirely agree with Bill Maher. He claimed the real battle occurring is within Islam, stating that a “whole generation is being educated in extremism.” He also explained to Maher that the gap between moderate Muslims and extremists is widening.
You can see the segment with Bill Maher in the video below.
What do you think about Islam? Do you agree with Bill Maher?
