by DAVID WALSH
The dispute that occurred on the October 3 edition of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” between Maher and author Sam Harris, on the one hand, and prominent actor Ben Affleck, on the other, was revealing. In particular, it helped clarify the relationship between anti-Muslim bigotry, the “identity politics” of the affluent middle class and defense of American imperialist policy in the Middle East.
The argument erupted when Harris, a right-wing political commentator and defender of Israeli repression of the Palestinians, seconded by Maher, denounced “the treatment of women and homosexuals and public intellectuals in the Muslim world,” suggesting this alleged mistreatment was intrinsic to Islam as a religion. “Liberals have failed us,” he went on, by essentially inventing something called “Islamophobia” and refusing to criticize Islam as a doctrine.
Affleck heatedly responded that those positions were “gross” and “racist.” He commented, “It’s like saying ‘you shifty Jew.’” When Harris went on to claim that “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas,” Affleck responded, quite legitimately, “That’s an ugly thing to say.”
The actor continued, “How about the more than a billion people who aren’t fanatical, who don’t punish women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches… and don’t do any of the things that you’re saying all Muslims [do]?… [It’s] stereotyping.”
Harris persisted in his contention that keeping “women and homosexuals immiserated” was imbedded in Muslim culture. Affleck responded pointedly, “We’ve killed more Muslims than they’ve killed us by an awful lot. We’ve invaded more Muslim countries … and yet somehow we’re exempted from these things because they’re not really a reflection of what we believe in.” He added sarcastically, “We did it by accident … that’s why we invaded Iraq.”
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