Michael Moore backs Bill Maher’s comments on Islam

Liberal documentarian Michael Moore is backing his self-described friend, far-left comedian Bill Maher, for his comments on radical Islam.

Maher’s controversial statements were denounced by many progressives and even sparked a petition to try and get Maher banned from speaking at the University of California Berkeley December commencement ceremony. (That petition was denied by the school administrators.)

This blow back inspired a lengthy Facebook post by Moore supporting Maher’s statements and his guaranteed rights to state his unpopular opinions.

“You may not agree with Bill on everything. Yet I’m guessing you love it when he goes after the Uterun Police/Protectors of Child Rapists (also known as The Vatican), or when he brilliantly satirizes the crazy Christian Right which has controlled much of our politics for the past 33 years. I certainly do,” Moore wrote.

“But when Bill goes after Islam, or crazy people professing to be Muslim, we grow uncomfortable. Why is that? Because when he bravely ridicules and attacks Christian assassins of abortion doctors who cite the Bible as justification for their evil acts, we heartily applaud him. But when he mercilessly stomps on Islamic assassins who cite the Koran, we grow uneasy. Why the switch on our part? Is it because Bill doesn’t just stop with the Islamic assassins — he thinks anyone who follows the Koran is a bit nuts? Or the Bible or the Talmud or the… you name it. He thinks it’s all coo coo for cocoa puffs.”

He went on to say that these crimes in the name of Islam are more extreme than the Christian positions most liberals gleefully rail against.

“Sure, I can make a daily list of all the horrible things so-called Christians still do in this country. Rarely, though, do their actions involve decapitation. But if you’re a Dutch filmmaker who makes a movie about violence against women in some Islamic countries, or if you’re a Danish cartoonist who draws an image making fun of the Prophet — well, you are then either shot to death or you are now in hiding,” Moore wrote.

“So if Bill is taking the same exact position liberals usually take whenever we see free speech being threatened, or women being abused or people forced to submit to fundamentalist dictates, why then is he facing any criticism for speaking out against these wrongs? When Christians do these things we speak up — loudly. So why not speak out when Muslims do it?”

He ends with a call for more comedians to push the boundaries like Maher.

“Comedy is and should be a dangerous business. Those comedians who play it safe are far less interesting, less funny and, frankly, are often boring. Those who are willing to take their comedy to the Line That Shall Not Be Crossed — and maybe step over it from time to time — are the ones we are drawn to,” Moore wrote. “But in order to encourage them to take those chances, we have to give them some leeway, give them a break when, in our mind, they’ve crossed that line. To not do so is to encourage them to go toward the bland, the passe and to the non-offensive. Those comedians like Bill Maher who are willing to take the risk of being the court jester — saying the things that the rest of us are often thinking (or wish we were thinking) but are afraid to say — should be supported, not silenced.”

Read Moore’s comments in their entirety on his Facebook page.