HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher stood by his earlier remarks about radical Islam on Friday by pointing to the death sentence handed down to a woman who blasphemed Mohammed.
“In Pakistan this week, the High Court in Lahore…ruled that a woman who spoke dirty, I guess, blasphemed the prophet should be put to death” he reported. And “this is not a blogger, this is not a mob in the street, this is a very high court in Pakistan [that] said ‘a woman said a bad thing about the prophet, and now she must die.’”
He then sarcastically quipped, “so, yeah, Sam Harris and I were way off on that.”
After International Rescue Committee President and CEO David Miliband asked where the anti-blasphemy law originated, Maher responded “the Koran.” Miliband said that the law was due to changes in the Pakistani Constitution to institute Sharia Law.
Miliband added “it’s one thing to take on a religion, the other thing is to take on the people who are abusing the religion and those are two very different things,” to which Maher stated “if that’s popular with the people, they’re not that different.”
After Miliband argued that Pakistan wasn’t as bad as Maher was making it out to be, Maher told him “when they open up a lesbian art gallery, I’ll go there.”
David Frum, the Senior Editor of The Atlantic, claimed that Pakistan’s problems were due to the way the country was created. Maher then remarked, seemingly sarcastically, “Right, it’s all just about Pakistan.”
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