Bill Maher accused Obama of sounding like the National Rifle Association when discussing Islamic extremism in that he put the onus on people rather than religion, much like the NRA faults people rather than guns.
Maher’s comments were made during Friday night’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” which featured a discussion on Obama’s counterterrorism summit.
“Obama, some of the things he said were ‘No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism,’” Maher said. “That sounds a lot like the NRA slogan, by the way.”
“Yeah, guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” guest Rob Reiner agreed.
“This idea that we cannot even call it ‘Islamic terrorism’ seems Orwellian,” Maher continued. “Can’t we at least say that there are a number of factors that are involved and the religion is certainly one of them?”
Maher also took issue with Obama’s comments that poverty and education are responsible for terrorism.
“It is poverty and education also,” Maher said, “but why are they impoverished and uneducated? It’s mostly because of the religion.”
Watch the video below, courtesy of HBO:
h/t Mediaite
Jeez, Bill, did it ever occur to you that without our little bungled invasion of Iraq, there wouldn’t be any ISIS? And don’t you think that a couple of centuries of colonialism might have something to do with the poverty and the lack of education in these countries?
Ummm. Maher obviously wanted Obama to say that RELIGION, per se, is the root of extremism. But religions go extremist when they have political and power positions they want to see come to pass.
Other than that, Maher has always been a bit thick, as the Brits call it, and always seems to choose the most facile analogies for his complaints.
Maher has this anti-religious drum and he can’t keep from banging it.
Bibi, – er, I mean, Bill, you’re going to call it whatever you want, because your mind can’t comprehend that there’s a strategic reason for not affording them the official imprimatur that they seek, because that mind is saturated with stereotype, bigotry, and the the self-affirming propaganda of the warmongers seeking full-on holy war.
When you hear Fox News call these murderers Islamists, I suspect you get a warm feeling in your pants, don’t’cha? It just makes you feel all vindicated, refreshed, and ready to double-down.
Yes ISIS is ISLAMIC. Creeping Zombie Jesus. Their ideology even predicts that after their final war with the Roman Army, Jesus will return to save them from their compound in Jerusalem. This is no shit. I am not making this up. They have already established a Caliphate, they have a Caliph, they are expanding their territory, all in the name of being true to the ‘original’ religious directives of Mohammed (peace upon him) and the Koran. They are fundamentalists who believe they are the Marquis players in bringing about the Apocalypse. This is some far out, wigged out, psychotic shit, but they are killing those who they regard as aspostates in their territory on a weekly basis like some juiced up Khmer Rouge. They think it’s a sin to join the UN because they recognize no other allegiance but to Allah, and the Koran. The world had better wake up, and wake up fast. ISIS is the very definition of religious in their vision and objectives, and they believe the Koran commands them to use terror in order to shorten the duration of their jihad. Argue about whether their interpretation of their religious tradition is correct, but don’t try to assert it isn’t ISLAMIC. They believe THEY are the true Muslims and all who do not migrate to the Caliphate and pledge allegiance are sinners or worse, apostates. The rest of us non-Muslims are to pay a tax and admit we are subdued.