Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

so the other thing we want to talk about of course is that you and i have been trying to make the case i think i have anyway that liberals need to stand up for liberal principles this is what i said on last week's show obviously i got a lot of hate for it but all i'm saying is that liberal principles like freedom of speech freedom to practice any religion you want without fear of violence freedom to leave a religion equality for women equality for minorities including homosexuals these are liberal principles that liberals applaud for but then when you say in the muslim world this is what's lacking then they get upset yeah yeah well liberals have really failed on the topic of theocracy they'll criticize white theocracy they'll criticize christians they'll still get agitated over the abortion clinic bombing that happened in 1984. but when when you want to talk about the treatment of women and homosexuals and free thinkers and and public intellectuals in the muslim world uh i would argue that liberals have failed us and uh the crucial point of confusion yeah thank you thank god you're here yeah well i mean the crucial point of confusion is that that we have been sold this meme of islamophobia where every criticism of the doctrine of islam gets conflated with bigotry toward muslims as people right that is intellectually ridiculous they even it gets through the whole whole idea are you the person who understands the officially codified doctrine of islam you're the interpreter so you can say well this is what i think i'm actually well educated on this topic i'm asking you you're saying if i criticize the you're saying that islamophobia is not a real thing that if you're critical of something well it's not a real thing when we do it right well well no it really is i'm not denying that that certain people are bigoted against muslims as people that's right and that's a problem big of you but the why is it's gross it's racist it's not it's but it's so it's so it's like saying that you're a shifty jew you're not listening absolutely not what we are saying you guys are saying if you want to be liberals believe in liberal principles right freedom of speech like um you know we are endowed by our forefathers of the national that's right all men are created no ben we have to be able to criticize bad ideas and of course we do no liberal doesn't happen okay but islam but why is the motherload of bad ideas jesus so we have it we have ideas you're painting is to some extent true but it's hugely incomplete it is certainly true that plenty of fanatics and jihadis are muslim but the people who are standing up to them malala uh incredible muhammad ali in iran in prison for nine years speaking up for christians a friend that i had in pakistan who was shot this year uh rasheed rahman for defending people accused of apostasies more than a billion people who aren't fanatical who don't punish women who just want to go to school let's get down to who has the right answer here a billion people you say all these billion people don't hold any of those five or something don't hold these pernicious beliefs no i wouldn't well they don't that's just not true ben that's just not true can i can i just express how i think it breaks down the idea you haven't you're trying to say that these few people that's all the problem is these few bad apples the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the that's horrible that shouldn't wait wait wait you're saying that the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the islamic religion is just a few bad apples the people who would actually believe in an act that you murder somebody if they as islam is not the majority of muslims at all okay is it let me let me break this down as you say we have 1.5 1.6 billion muslims now second biggest religion in the world the quarter well let me let me unpack that let me unpack this for you please do happen just imagine some concentric circles here you have at the center you have jihadists these are people who wake up in the morning wanting to kill apostates wanting to to die trying they believe in paradise horrible people and martyrdom outside of them we have islamists these are these are people who are just as convinced of martyrdom and paradise and and wanting to to voice their religion on the rest of humanity but they want to work within the system they're not going to blow themselves up on a bus they want to change governments they want to use democracy against itself that that those two circles arguably are 20 percent of the muslim world okay this is this is not what you're interested in research a bunch of poll results that we can talk about so to give you one point of contact 78 of british muslims think that the danish cartoonist should have been prosecuted 78 so i'm being conservative when i roll this back to 20 but outside of that circle you have conservative muslims who can can write can honestly look at isis and say that that does not represent us that we're horrified by that but they hold views about human rights and about women about homosexuals that are deeply troubling so so these are not islamists they're not jihadists but they but they believe those abusers they also keep women and homosexuals immiserated in these cultures and we have to empower the true reformers in the muslim world to to change it and lying about the the link between doctrine and behavior is not going to do that but the great divide the great divide is not between islam and the rest it's rather between the fundamentalists and the moderates in each faith okay but we're misled to think that the fundamentalists are the fringe okay we have jihadists islamists and conservatives the strongest voices are coming from those who are jihadists and extremists and absolutely that represents a bigger piece of the pie than we often think is true there's no question okay so having said that and if you even if that is true statistically or otherwise the key thing to recognize that i don't think is part of the argument but i think should be is that there are voices that are often time uh raised uh in opposition to these jihadists yeah into these extreme acts but guess what they don't get covered they don't get exposed and they're not given the same well one green level of platform um that we see the judgment one reason they don't get exposed is because they're afraid to speak out because that's the only it's because it's the only religion that acts like the mafia that will kill you if you say the wrong thing draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book there's a reason why ayan hersey ali needs bodyguards 24 7. that element of fear as well but you also have other braver souls out there who do speak out and who like who are risking their lives you know like like the uh the muslim uh clerics and on others in from australia to to europe to the united states just recently publicly put their names on paper declare declaring their opposition to what isis and others are doing we need so there are those voices but where was the coverage where was where was that story to sort of create a different paper what is your solution what is that's why we invaded we're knocking we're not convincing anybody i'm not specifically telling you that i disagree with what you think i know and we're obviously not convinced if you don't understand my art you know no it's not it's based on facts i can show you a pew poll of egyptians they are not outliers in the muslim world that say like 90 of them believe death is the appropriate response to leaving the religion if 90 of brazilians thought that death was the appropriate response to leaving catholicism you would think it was a bigger deal i would think it's a big deal no matter what okay but that's the character you don't but what i would do is say it's all brazilians or i wouldn't say well ted god damn these gays they're all trying to eat each other you know okay let me just give you what you want there are hundreds of millions of muslims who are nominal muslims who don't take the faith seriously who don't want to kill apostates who are horrified by isis and we need to defend these people prop them up and let them report did you talk isis couldn't fill a double a ballpark in charleston west virginia and you were making a career not just isis it's global it's a phenomenon of global genocide i think that's the opposite there is those things there is isis there's global jihadist the question is the degree to which you're willing to say because i've witnessed this behavior which we all object to on the part of these people i'm willing to flatly condemn those of you i don't know this is we're not making it up that there is that in the muslim world it is mainstream belief but this is such a caricature of indonesia of malaysia okay wait a minute much of the world and this does have the tinge a little bit of the way white racists talk about african americans and define blacks by what you're saying is we shouldn't make we shouldn't we shouldn't criticize that's much of a minority the second's biggest religion in the world exactly but they're but you're treating them like a minority i mean if filipinos were capturing teenagers and sending them into white slavery we would criticize that we wouldn't say well the people who were doing it not the philippines you know what i mean well what if the filipino kid lives down the street from you would have nothing to do with that so these are different things crazy racial scenario let's let's talk we mentioned isis let's talk about that

Channel: Real Time with Bill Maher

Views: 9,471,674

Rating: 4.6040282 out of 5

Keywords: HBO, Real Time with Bill Maher, Real Time, Bill Maher, Bill Mahr, Bill Mar, Bill Mahar, Season, Episode, Quotes, Show, New Rules, Overtime, Realtime, Podcasts, Guests, Series, Comedy, Full Episodes, Watch, Online, Politics, Government, Roundtable, Politicians, Liberals, Conservatives, Republican, Democrat, President, Jokes, Laugh, Funny, Premiere, Preview, Clip, Trailer

Id: vln9D81eO60

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 06 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/petrichor_dusk]

Jesus. let him him unpack it ben

[u/l4adventure]

Why the hell are Ben Affleck and Sam Harris debating politics on a show lmao...

[u/parsalip8]

I was born in a liberal muslim family, and I can attest that islam in general is not compatible with 21st century liberal ideals

[u/JeanUncanny]

I remember this, pretty old but a funny one to watch again. The best part is that Ben seems to think Muslim is a race or something.

[u/Calguy1]

Sam - "The crucial point of confusion is that we have been sold this meme of islamaphobia where every criticism about the doctrine of Islam is conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people.."

Ben - "YoU RaCisT!!!!"

[u/WerkNTwerk]

we cannot talk about the worlds most fundamentalist, extreme religion because a lot of them want a sandwich!

I remember watching that "change my mind" conservative guy and he was interviewing a proud activist Muslim on campus who believed thanksgiving was racist. The muslim student started to talk about her religion and started to whisper to the interviewer. The interviewer stopped her like "wait, wait, wait, why are you getting quiet when you talk about Islam?" Then she was like "i don't know it's been ingrained in me not to criticize anything"

[u/[deleted]]

Ben Affleck is like when you invite the 7 year old to the monopoly game. They are usually unable to play without a partner, and whines when he does not get his way

[u/[deleted]]

Ben Affleck can get fucked.

[u/jjisgonewiththewind]

goddamn the fucking clapping is obnoxious. literally anyone finishes their sentence and the audience just starts flipping out and forces us to have to wait for their applause to finish so we can continue watching the video.