October 10-14
Ben Affleck, who got rapped for stereotyping Iranians as screaming killers in his film “Argo,” accused TV host Bill Maher and one of guests of stereotyping Muslims as screaming killers.
Affleck got upset Friday while appearing on Maher’s “Real Time” on HBO. Maher and author Sam Harris voiced some negative opinions on Islam.
Harris — a neuroscientist known for criticizing religion — said Islam is a “mother lode of bad ideas” and that liberals hesitate to criticize Islam for its stances on women and gay issues because people “have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where every criticism gets confused with bigotry toward Muslims as people.”
Maher said, “It’s the only religion that acts like the Mafia that will fucking kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”
Affleck accused Harris and Maher of painting a religion with overly broad brushstrokes. “It’s gross. It’s racist,” Affleck said. “It’s like saying ‘shifty Jew.’ “
He argued it was fine to criticize those who advocate executing someone who chooses to leave Islam, but he said that view didn’t represent all of Islam.
Affleck said, “How about more than a billion people who are not fanatical, who don’t punish women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches, pray five times a day, and don’t say any of the things you’re saying all Muslims do…. It’s stereotyping.”
Maher replied, “You’re saying that the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the Islamic religion is just a few bad apples?”
“That’s horrible,” Affleck said. “(But) the people who would actually believe in an act that you murder someone if you leave Islam is not the majority of Muslims at all.”
Harris said, “We’re misled to think that the fundamentalists [in Islam] are the fringe.” Maher said moderate Muslims are afraid to speak out.
Affleck said it would be better to criticize the individual Muslims with those views, not the whole religion. “What is your solution? To condemn Islam?” Affleck asked.
