re: #69 Desmond

I’m much more troubled by 80+% of Egyptians and Jordanians supporting executing converts away from Islam than I am by whatever minority supports suicide bombings under certain circumstances.

Suicide bombing can be a terror tactic that targets civilians or it can be a military tactic that targets combatants. It can be a horrendous crime against humanity that blows up innocents but it can also be a means by which the oppressed can strike back at their oppressors. It depends on your perspective.

But supporting the murder of those who leave Islam? And presumably also the oppression of women, homosexuals or religious minorities who don’t conform to Islamic law (as many of the polls corroborate)? These positions are actually much harder to justify from a “liberal” perspecitve than suicide bombings, and I think this is the point that Maher is getting at. This is what American liberals refuse to engage on, shutting down any such discussion as nothing but “bigotry”, as we have seen on this very thread.

I don’t call it “bigotry” when Christian conservatives are attacked for being anti-science, anti-choice, and do their utmost to limit the rights of homosexuals. Nor do I call it bigotry when Maher and the rest point out that conservative Muslims have illberal beliefs, and that conservative Muslims make up a worryingly high percentage of the overall Muslim population. It isn’t bigotry to point out the truth.

But go ahead, downvote me another 14 points for stating the blindingly obvious.

The biggest straw person in the video and all the reaction to it is ‘liberals won’t criticize Islamism’. Where did that come from? Why do I see no verification for the claim? Must be because liberals do criticize Islamism. Even Nick Kristof, noted liberal, said in the video (paraphrasing) ‘you kind of have a point there, but….’, which was agreeing with criticism of Islamism.

Whether ‘conservative Muslims’ make up a ‘worrying percentage’ of anything is not a fact. It is a matter of opinion. If you are worried about something, spell it out for yourself, don’t attribute your feelings to ‘facts’.

You are not ‘downvoted’ for stating the obvious. I ding you down (only once per comment, alas) for generalizing about Muslims to fit your agenda of drumming up animosity, while calling it ‘blindingly obvious’ and ‘the truth’. Those are the terms of propagandists, not people who deal in facts.