“This is America. Do we not have the right to draw whatever we want?” asked liberal comedian Bill Maher on his HBO show Friday night.
Maher, who has become an outspoken critic of liberals’ hypocrisy on Islamic extremism, discussed with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee the attack of 2 gunmen on the “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contest hosted by Pamela Geller in Garland, Texas.
As he often does, atheist Maher criticized those who blame provocateurs for violence perpetrated by Muslim extremists.
Critics “assume that we just have to accept that Muslims are unable to control themselves the way we would ask everyone else in the world,” Maher said.
“Isn’t the whole point of free speech to not judge people by what they’re saying,” said one of the panelists.
“No — you judge, you just don’t censor,” said MSNBC’s Will Cain.
“When someone’s position is, ‘If you offend me, I will kill you,’ it becomes virtuous for you to offend that person,” said Cain. “You need to offend that person. You need to shock them out of their horrible position.”
“We need to tamp down the language here,” said former Rhode Island governor Chafee, who some think will be a Democratic presidential candidate. He criticized the “hatred” and “harshness” Cain expressed.
“We’re talking about people who went in to kill people versus people who draw cartoons,” protested Maher. “We cannot allow these combustible people to be given an excuse to do that.”
“They have laid this on the victim,” said Cain.
“Why don’t we get on the side of those Muslims, those who want to live in the 21st century, instead of those who want to live in the 7th,” said Maher to applause.
