Bill Maher spoke to Jimmy Kimmel on his show Wednesday about the terror attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people earlier that day, emphasizing the fact that we need to stand up for free speech and not cower in the wake of those who want to censor it.
He also insisted that we should not be afraid to assume that Muslim terrorists were behind the attack on the satirical newspaper. The magazine is famous for its controversial religious covers and particularly those that mock Islam.
“I’m the liberal in this debate, okay?” said Maher. “I’m for free speech. To be a liberal, you have to stand up for liberal principles. It’s not my fault that the part of the world that is most against liberal principles is the Muslim part of the world.”
“To bring it home to us, because we are satirists, and I am a satirist who deals with this subject particularly, it’s kind of scary that some people say you cannot make a joke,” he continued to Kimmel. “We saw this with Kim Jong Un and ‘The Interview.'”
Kimmel agreed with Maher, explaining that he was “disappointed” that some individuals responded to “The Interview” hack attack by wondering if we should stop making movies that offend other countries.
“P—y nation,” Maher responded, characterizing the politically correct liberals who are afraid to stand up for free speech.
“We have to stop saying, when something like this that happened in Paris today, we have to stop saying, ‘Well, we should not insult a great religion,'” continued Maher. “First of all, there are no great religions, they’re all stupid and dangerous. And we should insult them. And we should be able to insult whatever we want. That is what free speech is like.”
Maher also alleged that many Muslims “support” attacks like the one that occurred in Paris.
“I know most Muslim people would not have carried out an attack like this, but here’s the important point: Hundreds of millions of them support an attack like this,” said Maher. “They applaud an attack like this. What they say is, ‘We don’t approve of violence, but you know what? When you make fun of the Prophet, all bets are off.'”
