In the wake of last Friday’s deadly Paris terror attacks, Daily Show host Trevor Noah is defending Islam as a peaceful religion by pointing out that all of Western civilization has yet to be annihilated by Islamic terrorists.
According to Business Insider, during Saturday’s New York Comedy Festival at New York’s Town Hall theater this past weekend, the 31-year-old South African native dedicated a significant portion of his standup routine to discuss a perception of Islam as a religion prone to violence.
“Immediately people say it’s Muslims,” said Noah of the Nov. 13 massacres, which left more than 120 people dead, and another 350-plus wounded in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in the French capital.
“’It’s Islam. I hate that religion.’” Noah mockingly said of critics of the religion. “It’s not the religion. Islam means peace. I’m not even Muslim, but I’m not even comfortable with this. Islam means peace. It’s so easy now to label it as a terrorist religion.”
While Noah has previously proven that some races and religions, particularly Jews, will receive no quarter from jokes and criticism, the Daily Show host, who is currently overseeing a dramatic decline on overall viewers for Comedy Central, clarified he believes Muslims are overall peaceful.
Presenting the fact that his New York audience was “still alive” as evidence of this argument, Noah refused to connect Islamic jihad with Islam:
The truth is most Muslim people are not terrorists. Most, 99.9% of Muslim people are not terrorists. How do we know this? Because we’re still alive. You understand? There are more than a billion Muslim people on the planet… They have ample opportunities. Those falafels that we buy after the club at midnight? Most Muslims are not terrorists.
President Obama has often shied away from connecting Islamic terrorism to any religion.
In comments to reporters on Monday, the president said it was “shameful” that some have suggested that the United States should limit incoming Syrian refugees to only Christians. “That’s not American,” Obama said. “That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility on Saturday for the catastrophic attacks on Paris, calling them “the first of the storm.”
Mocking France as a “capital of prostitution and obscenity,” the group promised it would also target Americans.
Meanwhile, documents show that at least one bomber from Friday’s massacre arrived in Europe posing as a Syrian refugee.
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