MAHER: But most Muslim people in the world do condone violence just for what you think.He also makes another claim, one that says you overlook evidence like what he offers because you are bigots.
ROSE: How do you know that?
MAHER: They do. First of all they say it. They shout it.
ROSE: Vast majorities of Muslims say that?
MAHER: Absolutely. There was a Pew poll in Egypt done a few years ago -- 82% said, I think, stoning is the appropriate punishment for adultery. Over 80% thought death was the appropriate punishment for leaving the Muslim religion. I'm sure you know these things.
MAHER: But I mean in Mecca where infidels, non-Muslims, are not even allowed in the holy parts of the city. I mean, right there, we don't have that example in other religions. They do behead people. Now if they were beheading people in Vatican City, which is the equivalent of Mecca, don't you think there would be a bigger outcry about it? So this is the soft bigotry of low expectations with Muslim people. When they do crazy things and believe crazy things, somehow it's not talked about nearly as much.How would you defend your positions against his accusations?
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I feel that our society is driving the "news" (if we can even call it that) to broadcast violence and hatred because, whether you want to admit it or not, we are almost naturally drawn to it; it's entertaining. The news shines the spotlight on very negative things or very trivial things but rarely have we seen the positive or important sides of the issues that we are currently dealing with. I think that if we demanded to be shown the real issue and not the extremist issue then we would see more news journalist giving us what we wanted to see because they'd have no choice.
ReplyDeleteIslam is a great example of this happening. We are only hearing/seeing the extremist and radical, "exciting" side of this religion that is actually very peaceful. If what we heard/saw was the peacefulness of Islam i'm sure the public opinion of it would be much different too.
I think also that a large majority of the way Maher is portraying his views on Islam is how the news media portrays Islam and Muslim people. A majority of those that follow Islam are not bad people however the way the news media portrays them shows terrorist organizations such as ISIS and the Taliban whom consist of radicals to that religion. There are radical christians as well and we from upon some of the things they say or do so it can be assumed that a majority of the Muslim population feels the same about terrorists that follow a radical interpretation of Islam. An example would be that after the 9/11 attacks a large population from around the world expressed grief and sympathy including Muslims. The idea to build a mosque near ground zero was in no way meant to be a threat but the way Americans have been shown the news reveals that there is a negative relationship between the American people and Islam. Many Americans are afraid of Islam when they don't know the other side of the story.
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