Quote:
“Am I a racist to feel alarmed by that?” Maher asked his panel. “Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?”
His normally boisterous crowd fell silent as the panel responded to Maher’s admission.
“If you’re with NPR,” the conservative Margaret Hoover chimed, “You’d be fired.”
“It’s worse,” Lawrence O’Donnell told Maher. “It’s way worse than what Juan Williams said.” Hoover seemed to agree with this sentiment.
Reihan Salam, a conservative analyst with a Muslim name, also seemed irked by Maher’s comments, noting that he “has some uncles named Mohammed” that are “pretty decent guys.”
Of course, it’s not the name that Maher fears, but the religion. (Any of them, in fact — Maher’s qualms with religion of any sort, Islam or not, are long-standing and well-documented.) Hoover further stoked Maher by claiming that the U.K is saddled with a “far bigger problem” than baby names: Sharia law, which she said is creeping into England.
“Then I’m right,” Maher said, taking her for her word. “I should be alarmed. And I don’t apologize for it.”
Wow, who knew? I'm wondering when this is going to blow up on the leftist blogs over what an intolerant bigot Maher is as happened to Williams.
