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If you remember, during last Saturday’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher interviewed Representative Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), one of two practicing Muslims in the U.S. Congress, but the only one to cry like a little girl during Rep. Peter King (R-NY)’s hearings on radical Islam last week. During the interview, Maher labelled the Koran a “hate-filled holy book,” made clear that a “vast, vast majority” of Muslims are not the problem and then asked Ellison:
Have you read Sam Harris’s book, The End of Faith?… [Harris] says, “On almost every page, the Koran instructs observant Muslims to despise non-believers.”
The Congressman responded with incredulity, calling the claim “absurd, ridiculous, and untrue” and insinuated the translation was wrong and that things were being taken out of context. Yesterday, Project Reason CEO Sam Harris (the same Sam Harris Maher quoted, who’s also an atheist and no fan of Christianity) responded with a lengthy article quoting directly from the Koran, which says in part:
When Maher asked how jihadists can justify their actions by reading these same passages in context, Ellison claimed that jihadists do nothing of the sort. Rather, they think in terms of “political grievances,” not religious doctrine, and those who oppose them have the true doctrine of Islam on their side.
It is not my purpose to defend the House hearing on American Muslims (which I did not get a chance to watch). But it is growing increasingly disconcerting to see moderate Muslims reflexively lie about the tenets of their faith. Of course, it’s hard to know whether Ellison was actually lying or is merely unaware of the contents of the Qur’an. But I have witnessed too many of these exchanges with Muslim apologists, both in public and private, to ignore the general trend. Who will reform Islam if moderate Muslims refuse to speak honestly about the very doctrines in need of reform?
Here is the section of The End of Faith that Maher was referring to, in which I provide five pages of quotations from the Qur’an. Please know that these are not the only passages of this kind in the text. I simply broke off the litany of sacred hatred once I felt I had proved my point. Even worse passages appear later in the book (in chapters 8 and 9, for instance). …
You’ll want to read the whole thing.
There is something of a double standard that exists in which Maher is given a little more room by the mainstream media to criticize radical Islam than people on our side. But this is not one of those double standards where I want to see the Left get whacked as hard as us on something. What’s important here is that someone is able to speak these truths without facing one of those media storms that bruises us into silence — and all the better that it comes from a person from the Left. When our side says it, we’re war mongers and racists. But if one of their own says it… Well, you might have seen the reaction on “Real Time.” No one on the panel screams racist, they just get real, real quiet.
Keep in mind, however, that I’m only saying Maher gets a little more room regarding this issue than we do. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been criticized. He has. Harshly. But to his credit he refuses to be cowed.
From a Bigger Picture viewpoint, maybe this is one of those situations like “Waiting For Superman” where an apostate on a crucial issue — and most importantly, a pop culture apostate — someone more interested in truth-telling than ideology, is needed to get the word out and wake people up. Only Nixon can go to China, only the director of “Inconvenient Truth” can take on the teachers unions, and only the right’s number one antagonist can stand up for Western Civilization in the face of radical Islam.
Western Civilization needs to have this discussion, needs to have it openly and without fear of being called racist. Furthermore, while I disagree with Maher on EVERYTHING else, I can do business with someone who gets this one right. Most of the people criticizing Maher are not fans of Western Civilization and don’t understand that, in fact, its survival is more important than being politically correct (I’m talking to you, Jon Stewart).
Maher’s foundation for the rest of his misguided belief structure is “Can we improve Western Civilization?” The foundation of his critics is outright nihilism.
Night and day.
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