Ben Affleck Slams Bill Maher And Islamophobia

By Kate Mueller on October 17, 2014

via NY Daily News

Who would have thought that actor Ben Affleck would be such a passionate debater.

Featured on a guest panel on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher,’ Affleck took a stance on the issue of islamophobia, the fear or dislike of all or most Muslims.

The topic of ISIS was brought up and things immediately took a turn south when another guest, author Sam Harris, and Maher said comments that were racist in Ben’s eyes, and well, to many of the viewers.

“We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people. It’s intellectually ridiculous.”
- Sam Harris

Affleck responds that the remark is “gross” and “racist,” and questions whether Harris is educated on the Quran enough to make these kinds of statements.

“How about the more than a billion people who are not fanatical, who don’t punch women, who just want to go to school and eat sandwiches and pray five times a day; who don’t do any of the things you’re saying ALL Muslims do. You’re stereotyping.”
- Ben Affleck

There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world and, in fact, it’s the second largest religion in the world.

However, Maher and Harris dismiss the fact that ISIS and jihadists are just “a few bad apples.” They’re claiming all Muslims share the same beliefs as extremists hold, including murdering those that leave the religion.

Let’s pause right there. OK, now just because we are in a constant war in the Middle East with people that we believe to be Muslims, doesn’t mean that all Muslims are bad. There are extremist people all over the world and in almost every religion, including Christianity.

Like the fact that we still have KKK groups around the United States. But if someone were to say, “Watch out for those white people – they wear white hoods and kill everybody that doesn’t have the same Christian beliefs,” then we would look at them crazy.

But we have no problem generalizing a population that we just don’t understand and/or are ignorant to.

Now back to the show …

Harris continues to talk about how the Muslim religion is so terrible that they hold views about human rights, women and homosexuals that are “deeply troubling.”

PAUSE. Is anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? I will be upfront about my lack of education on Muslim beliefs. BUT let’s start with the part about human rights.

So, we are in America which is supposed to give people a better life if they are coming from poverty and war stricken areas. Key word was supposed.

But let’s look at a recent issue we’ve faced when it comes to immigration. We had an overload of children coming to and through our Mexican border, only for (some) people to say they’re not welcomed here. They claimed that they are just poor people that want to leave their country, not refugees.

Basically, we were denying the basic human rights of these children – life, liberty and happiness. For more on this, from an unlikely celebrity, watch the clip below:

Now onto the ‘women and homosexuals.’

1.) Women are still being treated as inferior, just look at the pay gap, and 2.) homosexuals are highly dismissed by many religions in the United States. I’m still scratching my head thinking how hypocritical it sounds to condemn some Muslims for having the same beliefs that some Americans share.

Another guest on the show–Michael Steele, a republican–defended the religion by blaming the media coverage, claiming that opposition to extremist views was not equally exposed, which I have to agree with. I’ve seen far more stories about how terrible the Muslims in ISIS are, than stories about how many Muslims don’t fit into that category.

via Politifact

At this point in the show, Affleck decides, based on his body language, that he is just going to let these idiots say what they want to say. I say idiots because this sentence came out of Maher’s mouth:

“(Islam is the) only religion to act like the mafia that will f*cking kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book.”
- Bill Maher

Oh and as a side note, Maher is also responsible for the following tweet relating a terrorist group to ‘a crazy woman.’

via Twitter

Therefore, my designation as him being an idiot is quite generous.

Affleck again comes to the defense of Muslims by the point-blank question that addressed the elephant in the room, “What is your solution,” he asked. “… to condemn Muslims?”

Maher and Harris go on to claim that their views are based on “polls” and “facts” and that Affleck doesn’t understand their argument. But Affleck understands their argument and, again, called the grouping of all Muslims as proponents of ISIS racist.

via Perez Hilton

“It’s like saying because I’ve witnessed this behavior, which we all object to on the part of these people, I’m willing to flatly condemn those of you I don’t know and have never met.”
- Ben Affleck

Finally, it seems as if the entire group seems to agree to disagree, but not without one final point.

“If Filipinos were capturing teenagers and sending them into white slavery, we would criticize that,” Maher said, thinking he would finally get Affleck to agree. Little did he know that Affleck would give the punch that knocked out Maher and sealed the deal that his views were stereotypical.

“You would criticize the people that are doing it, not the Philippines … there’s a Filipino that lives down the street that has nothing to do with it,” Affleck argued.

It just goes to tell you to be careful in your judgments. Don’t generalize or stereotype a group just because you don’t understand them. Educate yourself and be a better person.

Maybe it’s time to sign up for that religion class or social issues class. Travel the world and talk to people. There is so much more to life than what’s in your little bubble and exposing yourself to the world will really open your eyes.

And a round of applause for Ben Affleck who was brave in standing up and not letting up on his beliefs. The more we are outspoken about these issues is when we can start to see some changes.

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