Liberal comedian Bill Maher encouraged a debate on the religion of Islam after the stabbing of his “dear friend” Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday.
On his HBO show, Real Time, Maher began his conversation with broadcaster Piers Morgan and New York Post columnist Rikki Schlott by noting police have not yet announced a motivation, but have identified the suspect in custody as Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey.
The host hearkened to the many death threats Rushdie, an Indian-born novelist who has been a guest on Maher’s show, has received since the late 1980s, particularly with the publication of The Satanic Verses and the subsequent fatwa from Iran that asked all Muslims to kill him. “Sal did have some enemies in the past as I recall. So I’m guessing Hadi is no Amish,” Maher said.
AUTHOR SALMAN RUSHDIE LIKELY TO LOSE EYE, ON VENTILATOR AND UNABLE TO SPEAK AFTER STABBING ATTACK
The host took a hardline view that the Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan noted “underplays the Islamic culture of hospitality and prudence.” After noting the irony of Rushdie being in New York to deliver a lecture on the United States being a safe haven for exiled writers and other artists under threat of persecution, Maher insisted such a speech “is unthinkable in most Muslim countries.
“Salman Rushdie living in most Muslim countries without getting stabbed everyday is unthinkable,” Maher added. “So don’t come at me with, ‘Islamaphobic.’ ‘Phobic’ means fear, right? Sal had a good reason to be fearful, and when you say phobic, it’s just a way to shut off debate.”
Critics who clamor to stifle discussion, over claims such as certain views being transphobic or Islamaphobic, should be ignored, Maher argued.
“We should have a debate about this. Sorry — these things don’t go away,” he added. “Islam is still a much more fundamentalist religion than any other the other religions in the world, and that means they take what’s in the holy book seriously and that has been dangerous for a long time. It’s still dangerous.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed multiple times, including in the neck and abdomen, and the person interviewing him suffered a minor head injury, according to authorities. Rushdie was flown to a nearby hospital for surgery.
Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said in an email Friday evening that his client was on a ventilator and could not speak, according to the New York Times. “The news is not good,” Wylie said at the time. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
After Maher’s introduction to the conversation, Morgan contributed by first reading a quote from Rushdie. “The defense of free speech begins at the point when people say something you can’t stand,” he read from a 2005 Los Angeles Times op-ed.
Morgan went on to make a point about freedom of speech.
“You often have to defend people you find outrageous, unpleasant, and disgusting,” he said. “And that’s the point I think that people have forgotten in this debate about free speech, which is, it’s not about the right of people you agree with to say whatever they like and then you nod along. It’s about your ability to listen to people whose opinions you might staunchly disagree with. You might hate their opinions. You might hate them. But you should be able to tolerate their right to have a different opinion.”
