Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Bill of Rights
Islamophobia:  Is Sam Harris As Dangerous As Sarah Palin?  (The Young Turks)

Islamophobia: Is Sam Harris As Dangerous As Sarah Palin? (The Young Turks)

contributors 10/11/2014

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

The Young Turks:

“”Whether you think him a truth-teller or a bigot, Bill Maher deserves credit for launching one of the most robust public cultural/intellectual debates in recent memory. Two weeks ago today, he said on HBO that “a vast number of Muslims across the world” believe people who do not share their religious beliefs “deserve to die.” He also suggested that the Islamic State, or ISIL, was not an abberation of Islam, but a reflection of it.

Those remarks sparked a heated debate three days later on CNN, when hosts Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota pressed the religious scholar Reza Aslan to defend Islam against the charge that it was inherently violent. Aslan argued that the CNN hosts were cherry-picking examples and making broad sweeping general claims about Islam that were false. “We are using two or three examples to justify a generalization,” he said. “That’s actually the definition of bigotry.”

Four days later, Maher returned to his program with Sam Harris, the religious critic, and the two got into a shouting match with actor Ben Affleck and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof over whether violence, intolerance, subjugation of women, etc. were inherent to Islam. Midway through the debate, Harris said “Islam at the moment is the motherlode of bad ideas.” Maher concurred: “That’s just a fact.” Affleck, visibly repulsed and stupefied, only sighed: “Jesus Christ.”“* Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola (TYT University), CJ Werleman (Salon/Alternet, Author: Crucifying America) and Wes Clark Jr break it down.”

The Young Turks: “Is Sam Harris As Dangerous As Sarah Palin?”

Filed Under: Bill of Rights, Islam-hatred, journalism, media, Muslim-Americans

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Air Campaigns don't Win Wars on their Own: Why Israel will largely Fail in Iran
  • Iran's Grand Strategy - Vali Nasr
  • Top Things You Still Think You Know About Iran that are Not True
  • Colonial Logic, not Jewish Wisdom Guides Israel's Wars
  • An Iranian-American View: Tehran will Never Surrender

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved