Bill Maher is not done sounding off on ‘irony’ of Berkeley protests

Bill Maher is not done pushing back against the University of California at Berkeley students protesting his ability to give a commencement speech on campus.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Maher stressed that he would be there on Dec. 20, no matter what.

“The irony of the Berkeley situation is I thought campuses were places where free speech was championed. And one of my problems with Islam is that they are not that big on free speech—which so offended the Muslims at Berkeley, they wanted to ban my speech,” Maher said.

More than 4,000 people signed a petition asking Berkeley administrators to cancel Maher’s December graduation speech due to his controversial views on Islam and public fight with actor Ben Affleck. The student group in charge of these speeches voted to rescind his invitation, but school administrators said they would be sticking by Maher as a speaker.

Maher was invited to speak at the Berkeley graduation in part because it is the 50th anniversary of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.

“You know, I’m a liberal. My message is: be a liberal. Find out what liberalism means and join up. Liberalism certainly should not mean squelching free speech. And by the way, that petition, it was online, so anybody could sign it. You didn’t have to go to Berkeley to sign it, you could sign it more than one time. . . . So it was kind of a bullshit thing to begin with. Uh, so I don’t think there were that many people against it. Even people who don’t agree with everything I say about Islam certainly were on the side of letting me speak. The comments I read were just almost embarrassed for the kids,” Maher told VF.

Maher also used the interview to further explain his views on Islam. He said the only good thing about this kerfuffle was that it called more attention to his views.

“You know, one of the arguments I hear a lot from people on the other side of this debate is: ‘Bill, don’t you know that Islam was more tolerant in the 9th century or the 14th century?’ We’re living in the 21st century and I am the first one to admit that, yes, Christianity was the bad religion in the 14th century. That’s when the inquisition was going on. And in the 16th century, that’s when the, the Protestants and the Catholics were slaughtering each other all over Europe. Just the way the Shiites and the Sunnis are now,” Maher said.

“But as many people have said before, Islam is the religion now that needs a reformation and that needs an enlightenment.”