|
Bill Maher's late night show on ABC, Politically Incorrect, is known for its no-holds-barred attitude. Each night, a diverse group of people holds a lively dialogue, moderated by Maher, on a variety of issues ranging from entertainment to terrorism and everything in between. Ever since the September 11 attacks, much of the discussions on the show have been related to terrorism, Islam and Muslims.
Maher's outspokenness on the show recently landed him into trouble shortly following the attacks when he said that the perpetrators of the attacks were not "cowards". He went so far as to say that dropping missiles from thousands of miles away - as the United States has done in the majority of its more recent military actions - is instead what should be considered cowardly. Despite Maher's on-air apology after a public outcry over his comments, many sponsors of his show have pulled their commercials.
Since that minor controversy, Maher has become increasingly jingoistic in his tone and he and his guests have begun taking shots at Islam and Muslims almost daily. By his estimation, Islam did not develop as Christianity did - separating religion from politics, thus creating a historical context for the current terrorism problem. Maher has also suggested that the United States help Kemal Ataturk types succeed in the broader Muslim world, doing for it what Turkey's infamous secularist did for his nation.
In a bid to be more politically correct, Maher recently invited four young Muslim Americans to the show to discuss some of the contentious issues of the times. The show, broadcast on October 17, had as its guests Ali Hasan, a junior at Occidental College, Zahir Janmohamed, graduate of UCLA in policy studies, Rali Badissi, a senior at Occidental College and President of the Muslim Students Association, and Sarah Eltantawi, the communications director for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).
When Maher introduced Hasan, a very contemporary looking young man with an afro-style hair cut, let out a loud "Yeaaah!" which elicited laughter and applause from the audience. At this Maher remarked, "I told you they were American students."
As the discussion moved along Eltantawi and Janmohamed did a relatively decent job of putting forward an Islamic point of view. When Maher said that the Holy Qur'an calls for the killing of the unbelievers, Janmohamed pointed out that even the Bible contains similar verses. "I'll quote you exodus 21:17," Janmohamed said. "'And whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.' So the Bible has passages as well, too. That's Exodus 21:17."
"My point, Bill, is that you can take any religious scripture, be it the Tao Te Ching, be it the Qur'an, be it any scripture, and you can take one or two verses, and out of a laziness to fail to understand the rest of the doctrine, say, 'You know what? This is a book that justifies terror.' " Janmohamed argued. "The important thing - the important thing, Bill, is to understand that Islam is not a monolith. It's beauty in the fact that it speaks to multiple cultures."
When Maher suggested that Muslims conquered other cultures "by the sword", Eltantawi responded by saying, "The idea that Islam was spread by the sword is simplistic, okay? There is -I mean, depending on what period of history that you're talking about and in what part of the world, Islam moved in. It took 400 years, for example, for Islam to conquer Egypt and for the adherence to slowly take on Islam. Islam has -it's a vibrant religion. It's dynamic like any other piece of history."
When it came to Ali Hasan however, his performance was not quite up to scratch. Take, for example, his discussion with Maher on the Taliban:
Hasan: "The problem there is that - I will take it. The problem there is that the people there [Afghanistan] don't know how to read. They don't know how to interact well together. They don't know how to build an infrastructure. They know how to hate, Bill."
Bill: No, you're wrong. They know how to read.
Hasan: No, Bill, they know how to hate. And they know how to listen to a leader when he comes to them and says, "This is the enemy. Go and fight them."
Bill: Wait a second. They know how to read. The problem is that, for the first five years of their life, they read only one book, "Valley of the Dolls," which is really, really -
[Light laughter]
No, no, I kid about that. Of course - they read one book.
What Maher fails to understand, is that like any other religiously devout and adherent person, a practicing Muslim will indeed put faith above all else; and there is nothing fundamentally wrong or warped about that. As the discussion continued, Hasan and Maher went back and forth on whether or not Hasan thinks that being an American should come before being a Muslim.
Hasan: I figure it's intertwined. And the reason why is because the Qur'an supports America. The Qur'an describes the ideal society. It says it's one with good economy, it's one where people care about each other, and we give charity. It's a pro-capitalized society.
Bill: It also has some rotten things to say about Jews and unbelievers, my friend.
Hasan: Bill, but I've got problems with the Qur'an you're reading, because, personally, if you're gonna read the Qur'an, you need to be an Arabic scholar, because Arabic is written a lot like Thomas Jefferson's handwriting in the Constitution. It's very vague.
While some of the comments and arguments made by Muslims in this show may have helped in clearing up some misconceptions about Islam, they did not succeed in putting forth the mainstream view of Islam on current affairs.
On Politically Incorrect's October 25th show, Maher invited Asma Gull Hasan, author of American Muslims: The New Generation, to join his panel of guests. Hasan's book has been panned in Muslim circles for its lack depth and inaccurate portrayal of the religion of Islam. Hasan, a 25-year-old recent graduate of New York University School of Law, gave the audience a visual display of her lack of understanding of the religion by wearing a short skirt for her Politically Incorrect debut. Fortunately, she didn't have a lot to talk about. But she did add to the confusion.
When talking about Mohammed Atta's alleged will, she said, "This is odd, because Muslims don't have wills usually."
Of course Islam explicitly provides for the making of wills and instructs Muslims in great detail on issues of inheritance. In fact, such issues have separated the Muslim world from Christendom for hundreds of years, during which time the equity put forth by Islamic inheritance law was lost on Christians.
When discussing reform in Islam she said, "Everybody talks about Islam as having a reformation. And I think that's just rhetoric to avoid us from asking, to keep us from asking the hard questions like, 'What did we do that caused this?' Most Muslims belong to the school of thought that the Qur'an is a living document to be updated with the times, reinterpreted with the times."
It isn't exactly clear what Hasan has in mind in terms of updating and reinterpreting. However, before she becomes a proponent for such action, she might want to bone up on the schools of thought that already exist in the religion.
One can only hope that in the future, that more competent and capable Muslims such as Salam Al-Marayati (who already appeared once on PI), Dr. Maher Hathout, and Dr. Ghazi Khankan, actively take part in these kinds of shows. With more credible, intellectually astute Muslims in the discourse, a more learned, solidly grounded Islamic point of view would be presented in a clear, bold, no-nonsense manner. That's what the viewing public deserves.
|
