http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_anVKcrSAls
Religious scholar Reza Aslan took some serious issue on CNN Monday night with Bill Maher‘s commentary about Islamic violence and oppression. Maher ended his show last Friday by going after liberals for being silent about the violence and oppression that goes on in Muslim nations. Aslan said on CNN that Maher’s arguments are just very unsophisticated.
He said these “facile arguments” might sound good, but not all Muslim nations are the same. Aslan explained that female mutilation is an African problem, not a Muslim one, and there are Muslim-majority nations where women are treated better and there are even female leaders.
Aslan clashed a bit with anchors Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota. Aslan told both of them that “using two or three examples to justify a generalization” is actually the definition of bigotry.
When Camerota spoke of “Muslim countries,” Aslan jumped in again and told her again that’s completely unfair. Camerota challenged him on whether he seriously thinks there’s no common thread between Muslim nations. Aslan said there are certain horrible practices that all good people must condemn, “but to say Muslim countries, as though Pakistan and Turkey are the same… it’s frankly, and I use this word seriously, stupid!”