The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Ben Affleck vs. Bill Maher

Ben Affleck vs. Bill Maher
Posted by Jeffrey (Guest) - Tuesday, October 7 2014, 1:40:14 (UTC)
from 173.13.27.45 - 173-13-27-45-Michigan.hfc.comcastbusiness.net Network - Windows NT - Mozilla
Website:
Website title:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2780960/It-s-gross-s-racist-Ben-Affleck-clashes-guest-Bill-Maher-talk-claims-Islam-motherload-bad-ideas-host-compares-religion-Mafia.html

Ben Affleck clashed with Bill Maher during a heated discussion on Islam where the controversial TV host claimed being a member of the religion is like being in the Mafia.

The Oscar-winning director was also appalled when author and guest on the talk show Sam Harris said the Muslim faith was the 'motherload of bad ideas'.

The trio, appearing on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, collided while debating whether large numbers of the Muslim population share the beliefs of jihadists.

It led to the actor saying: 'It's just an ugly thing to say. It's gross, it's racist. It's like saying: "Oh you shifty Jew".'

The conversation started with Harris, who was promoting his book Waking Up, by saying: 'Liberals have failed on the topic of theocracy. They'll criticize white theocracy, they'll criticize Christianity. They still get agitated over the abortion clinic bombing that happened in 1984.

'The crucial point of confusion is we have been sold this meme of Islamaphobia - where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam is conflated with bigatory towards Muslims as people. Which is intellectually ridiculous.

Affleck responds by saying: 'Are you the person who understands the officially codified doctrine of Islam.

Harris then returns by saying 'I am actually well educated in this subject' before Affleck says: 'You are saying that Islamaphobia is not a real thing?'

Maher then says: 'That's not what we are saying' before Harris adds: 'We have to be able to criticize bad ideas and Islam is the motherload of bad ideas.'

The Gone Girl star then sits back in his chair in shock and adds 'It's an ugly thing to say.'

Maher continues the conversation: 'Lets get down to who has the right answer. A billion people you say, all these people don't hold these pernicious beliefs. That's just not true Ben, that's just not true.

'You say its down to these few bad apples, but the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the Islamic religion is just a few bad apples...'

Affleck then says: 'The people who actually believe that you should murder someone if you dishonor the Islamic faith is not with the majority of Muslims at all.

Explaining the the proportions of followers who believe in certain ideals, Harris says: 'At the center of the circle you have jihadists who wake up ion the morning wanting to kill apostates, wanting to die trying, they believe in paradise, they believe in martyrdom.

'Outside of this you have Islamists. People who are just convinced of matryrdom and paradise and wanting to force their religion on the rest of humanity.

'But they want to work with in the system and they are not willing to blow themselves up on a bus. They want to change governments, they want to use democracy against itself.

'Those two circles are arguably 20 per cent of the Muslim world. Based on a bunch of polls that we can talk about.

'To give you one point of contact, 78 per cent of British Muslims said the Danish cartoonist (who was accused of depicting the prophet Mohammad in an animation) should have been prosecuted."

'But outside of that we have conservative Muslims who say that ISIS does not represent us, that we are horrified by that. But they hold views about human rights and about women and about homosexuals are deeply troubling.

'These are not Islamists, these are not jihadists. They also keep women and homosexuals immiserated in those cultures.
It's the only religion that acts like the Mafia. That will f***ing kill if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book
Bill Maher on HBO's Real Time on Friday

'And we have to empower the true Muslim reformers in the world to change it. This behaviour is not going to do that.

Journalist Nicholas Kristof then cuts in, telling Maher he was painting an 'incomplete' picture of the religion by failing to account reformers like activist Malala Yousafzai.

'Or how about the more than a billion people who aren't fanatical, who don't punish women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches, and don't do any of the things you say all Muslims do?' Affleck adds.

Maher responds to this by saying: 'One reason they (other views) don't get exposed is because they are afraid to speak out. Because it's the only religion that acts like the Mafia. That will f***ing kill if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book.'

Seeking an explanation, Affleck then asks the panelists: 'What is you answer? Is it just to condemn Islam? We've killed more Muslims than they have killed us by an awful lot.

'Yet somehow we are exempt from these things. Because they are not really a reflection of what we believe in.

He then said sarcastically: 'It was by accident, that's how we invaded Iraq. I am explicitly telling you that I disagree with what you think.

But Maher disparagingly tells the actor: 'We are obviously not convincing anyone here.'



---------------------


The full topic:



Host: www.insideassyria.com
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-language: en-US,en;q=0.5
Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf5/rkvsf_core.php?.GZpt.
Cookie: *hidded*
X-clickoncesupport: ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0E)
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-length: 5827
X-onecom-forwarded-ip: 173.13.27.45
X-onecom-forwarded-proto: http
X-forwarded-for: 173.13.27.45
X-varnish: 1207226830
Connection: close



Powered by RedKernel V.S. Forum 1.2.b9