Bill Maher’s “Towel Headed Hos”

[babylonsister]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17576.htm

Bill Maher’s “Towel Headed Hos”

By Remi Kanazi

04/22/07 "ICH " -- -- - For all his chauvinistic, misogynistic and racist drivel, old man Imus finally got the boot. I can’t say I feel particularly bad, considering his confederate-style punditry and his perpetuation of negative imagery of the non-white males our society, but I still think people are missing the point. Racism, bigotry and sexism are alive and well, and generally accepted in this great country—well it depends on who you’re talking about.

Unsurprisingly, one important question has not been asked since Imus’ downward spiral: what if those “nappy headed hos” were Arab or Muslim? Regrettably, we have a plethora of examples to point to post-911, but we don’t need to rehash all of it, one can just watch a nightly episode of Fox News’s Bill O'Reilly or CNN’s Glenn Beck. Yet, my bone to pick is not with the establishment neocons, Fox News, or Ms. Malnourished herself, Ann Coulter, but rather those “peaceful” and “all-accepting liberals” who complain so frequently about Imus and those like him.

To see how anti-Arab/anti-Muslim bigotry is accepted and applauded in America, one has to look no further than HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, hosted by “left-wing” comedian and political commentator Bill Maher. “Liberal” pundits like Maher pass off their anti-Arab/anti-Muslim rhetoric as an innocent invocation of Samuel P. Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations.” Yet, Maher’s vitriolic diatribes are no different than one saying, “black people are ruthless, welfare grubbing criminals.” Nonetheless, to a “liberal,” the previous comment is racist and wrong, because black people, unlike the days of slavery, are now “like us,” meaning white Anglo-American society, whereas Arabs and Muslims (as if they are a unitary, monolithic people), can still be labeled wholly as “backwards, ruthless, Jew-hating animals.”

In Maher’s program, he regularly brings on guests that espouse anti-Arab/anti-Muslim views, some of them being supposed “self-critical” Muslims. These guests, however, principally serve to support Maher’s own bias against Muslims and Arabs, bolstering his pro-Israel feelings. These guests include conservative Israeli politician, and former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Lebanese-born neocon and political hack Fouad Ajami, putative introspective Muslim moderate Irshad Manji, and former Muslim, now professed atheist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, among many others.

Showcasing the “tolerance of liberalism,” Maher brought on his claimed “hero,” Ayaan Hirsi Ali, of the hawkish American Enterprise Institute, to help him explain to HBO viewers just what was wrong with Islam. Like a fat kid in a candy store, Maher looked to Hirsi Ali on his panel this season and stated, “ s Islam a religion of peace? You are one of the brave people who say it’s not really a religion of peace.” More than happy to respond, Hirsi Ali proclaimed, “It’s not a religion of peace. Immediately after 9/11 they should have said, it’s not a religion of peace, we’re up against Islam.” That’s right because Pat Robertson speaks for all Christians and the list of disgruntled students that have gunned down their schoolmates since Columbine speak for all people under the age of 25. What if Hirsi Ali said, “Immediately after the black thug robbed the liquor store, they should have said, black people are criminals, we’re up against black people.” After her enlightening comments, while she went on to trash Saudi Arabia for a moment, Hirsi Ali received a huge applause from the audience. Even Steven Weber, an actor who stars on TVs Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, had to jump in and beg the question of whether it was right to characterize a whole religion and the beliefs of 1.3 billion people this way. Apparently it is because Maher, educating the naive Weber (who was talking of moderate Islam), asserted that “no, not all alike…no was extremist to begin with. Mohammed was a warrior.” Maher’s lesson on the malady of Islam followed up on his earlier comments in which he said that the West is not only better, but “superior” to the rest of world. Huh, I wonder why they don’t like us.

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[Jim Sagle]

1. So he's prosemitic. Tough titty.

[barb162]

6. That sums up my sentiments very nicely

[Jim Sagle]

7. And what is all this GARBAGE about Maher being a liberal?

He's a libertarian. Smoking pot is his biggest issue.

[barb162]

9. No kidding

I didn't know that about the pot-smoking. LOL

I used to watch his show all the time when he was not on HBO. He always seemed to me like an equal-oppportunity nagger.

[efhmc]

2. In case no one has noticed or cares, Maher is a sexst right up there with the

worst of them.

[barb162]

8. Does Maher do honor-killings of women?

Does Maher force women to wear burqas? To veil?

ETC.

[Hardrada]

3. He is right on some things. I like his atheism. I only wish

he could be as iconoclastic on the middle east instead of encouraging Israeli aggression.

[sandnsea]

4. Bill said "towel headed hos"???

Gee, I must have missed it.

Discussing differences of opinion about religion is not the same thing as slinging around racial, ethnic or religious slurs.

If Maher attacks Muslim school girls, let me know.

[barb162]

5. Let me know if any Lutheran women are getting stoned to death

for walking down Mainstreet USA without a burqa. Maher is right and this article is a POS by a apologist trying to sugar-coat some really evil and backward practices.

[Solo_in_MD]

10. Heard a different definition of nappy today

Apparently nappy means diapers to those in the UK. Until it was explained to them, they had no idea what the remark meant.

[Briar]

11. Excellent article

which really shows up the anti muslim prejudice and stereotyping now apparently so engrained in our culture we don't notice it or think it "fact".