He's half Jewish and he was raised Catholic, I think. I'm not saying his Jewish heritage doesn't inform his Zionism. I'm saying his statements toward people in Arab countries are consistent with his general elitism/cultural imperialism. Obviously Muslims/Arabs are going to get the brunt of an American elitist like him because we're intertwined and in conflict with them in so many ways, as opposed to people from South America, Africa, Asia, etc.
Maher was a big influence on my political leanings, back when I was in my late teens/early 20's in 90/00-whatever before there were all these well-known political sites and blogs, and Politically Incorrect was a public forum for leftist views, so I've followed him for a while. I always noticed he was kind of Wilsonian cultural imperialist. Before the Iraq War run-up during the Bush years, he used to advocate taking out Saddam, and basically going anywhere in the world where there was an oppressive regime and overthrowing them and bringing "democracy."
A lot of his criticism of Islam (or Christianity for that matter in regard to red state evangelicals) overlap somewhat with racism and devaluing of people of "inferior culture." It's easy to blame Islam for x,y, and z going on middle eastern nations, and often Islam can justify a lot of brutal and regressive stuff both in institution and text. But it's not really a holistic argument, and can lead to some stretches in causation, and Maher fails when he makes comments like the FGM stuff. Dawkins and them new atheist dudes are on that tip too. I remember Richard Dawkins was twitter beefing with some dude and made some snide comment about the number of scholars or academic award winners in Europe vs. the middle east. That becomes more than a critique of the religion, and enters the realm of racism/xenophobia/cultural elitism, and any look at history shows humanity if devalued with real world consequences when people have that outlook.
And I think Aslan is glossing over the fact that Islam that serve as a reinforcer, structural framework, and a justification for a lot of fukked up things. We can't just ignore stuff like polls that show many in Muslim nations think apostasy should be punished by death, and say "It's not religion it's culture," as if the two are separable, and religion hasn't form the foundation of the law, and thus the culture in many respects for hundreds of years. But he was sort of in defense mode from Maher's salvo, so I can see why he would focus more on the flaws in Maher's statement.
I agree that he's an elitist dikkhead, but I would say that a part of it is his jewish heritage. You think I don't feel the pull to defend india and bash islam because it's so far removed when i read things on these boards? Those are just some of the natural defensive feelings you get from your upbringing... To an extent. He really goes after arabs a lot. When I watch his show, they're the #2 targets of his critique besides the GOP.
