Catholic League president Bill Donohue has slammed MSNBC for comparing conservative Christians to the Taliban Islamic terror group, calling the comparison “obscene.”
Senior pundits at MSNBC have compared Christians to the Taliban twice in the last week, Dr. Donohue noted in an essay Wednesday, just as the radical Islamist forces are overwhelming the nation of Afghanistan.
The justification for likening followers of Jesus to heavily armed Islamic extremists is Christian opposition to the radical feminist agenda, especially abortion, Donohue observed.
Taliban fighters sit over a vehicle on a street in Laghman province on August 15, 2021. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
MSNBC host Joy Reid tweeted about the Taliban on August 14, adding that “our own far religious right” is “dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity” on American society.
Reid said Christians want to “drive women from the workforce and solely into childbirth, and control all politics,” which Donohue called “a plainly stupid remark” given the record number of Republican women who were recently elected to the Congress.
This is the real-life Handmaid’s Tale. A true cautionary tale for the U.S., which has our own far religious right dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity, drive women from the workforce and solely into childbirth, and control all politics. https://t.co/R1lSCSUVwv
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 14, 2021
“What we keep learning, forgetting, and relearning, whether in Afghanistan or here in the U.S., is that religious extremism, backed by a willingness to use violence to impose a particular sectarian belief system as governing law is incredibly dangerous — anywhere in the world,” Reid said.
In this screengrab, Joy Reid speaks at the 33rd Gloria Awards: A Salute to Women of Vision – VIRTUAL EVENT on May 19, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images Ms. Foundation for Women)
Four days later, MSNBC’s lead story by Dean Obeidallah continued the comparison by criticizing Republicans who cling to “a narrow reading of their religious beliefs,” which they want to make “into the law of the land.”
In his article, Obeidallah said the Taliban “aren’t the only ones trying to impose their will on women’s bodies and choices,” citing three issues to show how Christians resemble the Taliban: their opposition to abortion, their opposition to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and their opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act.
If a woman is raped she is FORCED by LAW to carry the rapist's fetus to term–and it's a crime to help her get an abortion. Is that a Taliban law? Nope it's a GOP law enacted in Arkansas in March. My @MSNBC on GOP's religious bases oppression of women https://t.co/JvWWXJkuyz
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) August 18, 2021
As Donohue observed in Wednesday’s essay, Christians are committed to protecting the life of unborn babies while the Taliban have been known to kill pregnant women in cold blood, which belies the absurd comparison.
Donohue also noted that under the Taliban regime, women are imprisoned in their home, girls are not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and women are not allowed to speak loudly in public, along with other forms of extreme oppression.
Sirius XM on air host Dean Obeidallah interviews MSNBC’s Joy Reid at the DoubleTree by Hilton on February 10, 2020 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Taliban militants also declare their right to take women as sex slaves.
In concluding, Donohue condemned the “extreme anti-Christian bigotry” motivating those who compare conservative Christians to the Taliban.
“The comparison is obscene. So is MSNBC for giving these bigots a platform,” he declared.
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