While Jon Stewart puts on his safely PC Detached Irony Mock-Fest a little later today, keep this unexpected moment from last night’s Real Time with Bill Maher in mind. After noting that Mohammed is now the most popular name for newborns in Britain, Bill Maher stopped his panel and audience cold by asking, “Am I racist to feel alarmed by that? Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s because of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?”

Cut to: Awkward.

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This clip is an excellent representation of how insidious political correctness has become, we can’t even stand up for own culture anymore without a few hundred people acting as though Bill Maher just lit a cross on fire. Multiculturalism is now the highest value on the Left — the tolerating of intolerance in the name of racial sensitivity – which is why the slow creep of Sharia Law has gained a foothold in the Western world. A couple weeks ago, on the air, Maher scolded Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas over the title of his book “American Taliban,” by saying in effect, “I love you Markos, but we are not the Taliban.”

Maher’s wrong about most everything but he’s obviously right on this, and this is the fight of our time, no? Maher is also smart enough to know that this moment of pushing back against the very foundation of liberal orthodoxy would come with the price of temporarily becoming the bad guy, and he did so anyway. He deserves credit for that and so does Margaret Hoover for wanting to have a discussion. But shame on Lawrence O’Donnell, Reihan Salam, Zach Galifianakis and the audience — not for disagreeing, but for doing something worse: throwing off a very clear vibe that there was no way in hell this discussion was going to take place. (more…)

World War II was my war. We fought the Germans. They were the enemy. There was a German problem. Of course, if we had stopped to think about it, which we didn’t because we were too busy trying to win the war, we would have realized that not every German wanted to fight us; maybe not even a majority of them did. But they didn’t oppose the Nazi extremists who had taken over their government and attacked us in the name of German racial superiority. I’m sure a lot of Germans agreed with Hitler. But those who were against him, didn’t dare speak up. A few did, of course, like the great German patriot Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He spoke out against the Nazi thugs. For his pains he was put into a concentration camp and died there.

Jihadist thugs are now attacking us in the name of Islam. No doubt there are a lot of Islamic believers who don’t support this. But like the Germans in World War II, they are not speaking up… for good reason of course, as there was a good reason back in the days of the Third Reich. But because they aren’t speaking up to oppose what is being done in their name, the world has a Muslim problem. Everybody knows this. Not many public figures dare to say it out loud. Some public figures don’t want to know it, much less say it out loud.

Bill O’Reilly, who has taken great pains in recent years to position himself as a centrist, has now had the courage to say out loud what everybody knows. The predictable cries of outrage have ensued. Juan Williams, a true blue liberal who has no doubt outraged his bosses at NPR for years by appearing on Fox, even if it was to espouse their cause, is now paying the price for O’Reilly. They couldn’t fire him; he doesn’t work for them. Juan does, so out he went. (more…)

So, NPR canned Juan Williams (yeah, like I wasn’t gunna do this story). If you aren’t familiar with NPR, simply imagine yourself, on a bus, sitting next to Judd Hirsch.

Anyway, it’s all due to comments Juan made on the “The O’Reilly Factor,” last Monday. There Bill asked him to respond to “The cold truth [that] jihad, aided …by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Williams replied, “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot….But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Racist.

He also brought up the Times Square scumbag – who had no problem saying that the war with America is just beginning.

But as Slate points out, the passage quoted by NPR was a spoon-fed clip that dumps out before Williams says his worry reflects the problem of generalizing about groups of people.

I doubt Media Matters will cover that. (more…)

GLAAD is just one of those organizations like PETA that you can’t help but feel sorry for.  Their stars are waning; their time has passed.  PETA can only grab a headline if they cough up enough money for some D-lister to disrobe for a photoshoot, and GLAAD can’t accomplish much beyond the occasional censorship potshot in Hollywood.  It’s odd that we’ve been highlighting the political divide between Clint Howard and his brother, Ron, for the past week or so, as it’s Ron, the orthodox progressive, who’s catching heat from GLAAD currently.  Howard is the director of a new Vince Vaughn picture titled The Dilemma, and GLAAD has deemed it homophobic, offensive– all that stuff– because Vaughn’s character says “Electric cars are gay.”

The full-fledged ire of GLAAD, straight from the top of the organization, is laughable.  President Jarrett Barrios says, “There has been a rash of bullying, some leading to suicides, much of it because of the widespread belief that it’s somehow OK to say things about gay people that it is not OK to say about other groups. Comments like those in the movie make it seem OK to beat up gay people.”  So, electric cars are gay = it’s okay to commit violence against gay people.  Check.

Make no mistake:  it is an awful tragedy that Tyler Clementi killed himself because of the malicious, despicable humiliation he was subjected to.  To equivocate that with a goofy putdown of electric cars (and GLAAD does not know the context of this line; sounds like something to establish early on in Vaughn’s character arc that he’s insensitive) is not only moronic but as hypocritical as Fred Phelps asking for some peace and quiet at a funeral.  Why, you may say? One word:  teabaggers. (more…)

I am curious to see what happens when President Obama invites Molly Norris to the White House for a beer. Oh, wait… Molly Norris can’t go to the White House for beer because Molly Norris no longer exists; any trace of her has been wiped clean.

Norris, a Seattle cartoonist, was the unfortunate, creative mind who conceived of “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.” Ironically, her satirical comment on the demise of free speech in America led to protests and death threats from fundamentalists Muslims, who apparently take cartooning very seriously. Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who became an al-Qaida leader, then issued a fatwa. According to this man of God, the mere suggestion that people should draw Muhammad was cause for assassination. The FBI then suggested that Norris “go ghost,” which is to say, move from her home, change her name, stop drawing her cartoon—essentially wipe away any trace of her existence. Molly Norris is dead! So too, apparently is the American notion of freedom of speech as well as any vestige of American back-bone. Since when can those living in other parts of the world threaten American citizens with impunity?

It’s too bad that Norris didn’t pick-on Christians. Imagine if, instead of encouraging her fellow cartoonists to draw Muhammad, Norris had implored them to draw Jesus Christ. Sure, she would have been the subject of a few fiery Sunday sermons, received some nasty letters, and even been the object of some loud protests, but she would still have her life. In fact, there are even those Christians that would have prayed for her, rejoicing that drawing Christ might be the first step in coming to Christ. (more…)

Iranian director Jafar Panahi and his clashes with the Islamist mullahs are causing another stir in the international film world. His short film “The Accordion” was scheduled last week to open this year’s Venice Film Festival, but the Iranian government would not let him leave the country to attend. Earlier this year, Panahi was kept in jail during the Cannes Film Festival where he had been invited to sit on the jury. The still-pending charges surround trying to make an anti-government film.

He is not taking it lying down, either, telling Agence France-Presse in Tehran that the mullahs “have a problem with me personally.”Panahi also told AFP that even though he had been released on bail shortly after Cannes, he had been officially banned from making films and traveling abroad, which just makes the whole country one big jail. “When a filmmaker is not allowed to make films, it is as if his mind was still imprisoned. Maybe he is not locked up in a small cell, but he keeps wandering in a much bigger jail,” he said.

Unlike some political martyrs, though, Panahi is worth celebrating and getting to know on artistic grounds, by conservatives and other Americans, even those who don’t often go to or rent foreign or “art” films. He is no talentless provocateur or a mere stick with which to beat the mullahs (justifiably, do I need to add?) about their rhetorical heads. He has won major prizes at the world’s three most prestigious juried festivals – Berlin, Cannes and Venice. He makes accessible and generally entertaining films about the mullahs’ treatment of women. Perhaps worse yet in the eyes of Ahmadinejad and Co., Panahi portrays ordinary Iranians and even sometimes the regime’s enforcers as just unenthusiastically going along to get along. Through such surface subjects as a child’s desire for a goldfish, some women’s efforts to see a soccer game, and a man’s hopes to prove himself worthy of marrying his love, he makes powerful films about frustration in the face of official corruption and social indifference. (more…)

So AP writer Allen Breed begins his recent mosque piece by defining the word, “tolerance.” It’s a traditional rhetorical device, one learned back in sixth grade while plagiarizing the Encyclopedia Britannica.

His piece focuses on religion, of course, – but not Islam, Christianity or even my favorite, “the universal life force of the Grand Unicorn.”

His all powerful religion? Tolerance.

Of course, for him, tolerance can only play one way. As Yanks we must kneel before the alter of acceptance, while everyone else uses us as a footrest.

I mean, I doubt Breed would MENTION tolerance to the mosque developers. Instead, true to the predictable mind grazing on hysterical cliches, he hearkens back to the witch trials – the most overused example of intolerance ever – and one that probably deserved it. I mean, witches suck.

Breed then quotes a reverend who says this is all due to a “dominant religious lens factor” – meaning, i guess, when one group thinks their religion is better than others.

He knows this, since he’s a wiccan minister, a practitioner of a cult populated by veiny spinsters with cats. I guess the writer wouldn’t find an imam tolerant enough to grant him an interview.

Or maybe he didn’t look. (more…)

So the other night I announced plans to build a gay bar catering to Islamic men, near the proposed mosque site near Ground Zero.

The goal? To echo the mosque’s own website, which says it’s trying to promote integration and tolerance. I figured, I could return the favor, by opening a gay bar.

After all, Islam despises homosexuality – and this Muslim-friendly gay bar would help mend fences.

Right now the working name of the bar is Heaven and Halal. It will be two floors – one serving Hallel food, and other other serving cocktails. There will be 72 of them. And they will be virgin.

So here’s an update, since last night. (more…)

Contact Music.com:

“I must write how I feel: A blistering argument is taking place about building a mosque near Ground Zero. My son Peter argues that a free country should allow the mosque to be built. I have argued that it could be painful to the families of the many victims who died there. But I am confused because I have had several Muslim friends for many years. They are kind, generous, caring people – I value their friendship.

“But, a part of me says, the people who brought about such horrific destruction on the World Trade Center were Muslims that attended a mosque and who believed that America should die. Of course, I wish more Muslims, like my friends, would speak out and condemn those actions. I am confused.” (more…)

So, the Muslim investors championing the construction of the new mosque near Ground Zero claim it’s all about strengthening the relationship between the Muslim and non-Muslim world.

As an American, I believe they have every right to build the mosque – after all, if they buy the land and they follow the law – who can stop them?

Which is, why, in the spirit of outreach, I’ve decided to do the same thing.

I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space.

This is not a joke. I’ve already spoken to a number of investors, who have pledged their support in this bipartisan bid for understanding and tolerance. (more…)

The Islamists mean to censor us one way or another: if not from fear of retaliation, then by retaliation. Shut your mouth, still your pens, stop thinking, or we will do it for you. Permanently.

Molly Norris, mild-mannered cartoonist, started a fire she cannot put out. As Rick Santelli’s “rant” on TV from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade fueled the Tea Party, Norris inspired thousands revolt against Islam. In a desiderative whim, she drew innocuous, refrigerator-door magnet caliber pictures which she claimed were images of Mohammad: a spool of thread, a teacup, a spoon, and other mundane things. Overall, they looked more like idle doodles than passionate expressions of the freedom of speech. She posted them in protest of Viacom’s Comedy Central forbidding its cartoon show, “South Park,“ to depict Mohammad in a bear suit.

That spawned the immensely popular “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” on Facebook. And thousands did draw. It is interesting to note that one can invite people to “draw Lincoln,” and we would see images of Lincoln ranging from good to unrecognizable. But how does one draw an image of a person whose face has never been seen, except in imagination? Imagination took hold.

Numerous responses have appeared on Facebook where artists comment, “We have reached 50,000 members. As the news of the rebellion against the attacks to our liberties are heard, brave people join the campaign to stave of those who would annihilate that which we believe in, freedom. Thomas Jefferson’s quote is also on the Facebook page. “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

Americans and their friends across the globe responded en masse. The defiance was overwhelming, producing more cartoons than the Danish could draw, many of them ingenious. For a while, everyone was a Guy Fawkes, or a Paul Revere, or a Joan of Arc. (more…)

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Many people have asked if I am supporting “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” tomorrow, May 20th.  I am and two of the most moving arguments of why you should too come from the Huffington Post and Reason Magazine. 

 

In response to Islamic reaction over the movie Fitna, which juxtaposes images of Muslim violence with passages from the Qur’an (the same passages Islamic terrorists cite as justification for their violence), writer Sam Harris at the Huffington Post penned one of the best critiques of Islam (and our refusal to engage it) I have ever read: Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks.  In it, Harris rightly points out: 

The controversy over Fitna, like all such controversies, renders one fact about our world especially salient: Muslims appear to be far more concerned about perceived slights to their religion than about the atrocities committed daily in its name. Our accommodation of this psychopathic skewing of priorities has, more and more, taken the form of craven and blinkered acquiescence. 

There is an uncanny irony here that many have noticed. The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn’t, we will kill you. Of course, the truth is often more nuanced, but this is about as nuanced as it ever gets: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn’t, we peaceful Muslims cannot be held responsible for what our less peaceful brothers and sisters do. When they burn your embassies or kidnap and slaughter your journalists, know that we will hold you primarily responsible and will spend the bulk of our energies criticizing you for “racism” and “Islamophobia.” 

Our capitulations in the face of these threats have had what is often called “a chilling effect” on our exercise of free speech. 

In Mark Goldblatt’s Reason Magazine article this week The Poet Versus the Prophet he expands on many of Harris’ arguments and states:  (more…)

HonestReporting:

Currently appearing on Comedy Central’s website is a game called “I.S.R.A.E.L. Attack!”. The premise of this game has nothing to do with Israel and, as such, is nothing more than an insidious attempt at association. The game’s introduction begins with a character who states:

You lied to me, Jew Producer

referring to a character who has failed to carry out a mission to destroy other child-like cartoon characters. If this piece of anti-Semitism isn’t bad enough, a robot – the Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser Lady – is sent to do the job that the Jew Producer failed to achieve. (more…)

I read kids’ books because the fun the author had writing shines through and drips from the pages. I think that’s the secret behind the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Kids and adults enjoy reading what authors enjoy writing. 

I was reminded of this a couple months ago when I read author Andrew Klavan’s “The Long Way Home,” second book of his The Homelanders series. You can read the first chapter here on BH. The series centers on high school student Charlie West, who wakes up one morning to a world turned upside down. The last year of his life has been erased from memory, and he’s running from police for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s also running – for his life – from a terrorist group called the Homelanders, who claim he’s a former member and want to silence him. Faced with prison from one side and death from the other, Charlie must rely on his karate black belt, a few high school friends and his faith to maneuver the fog of uncertainty surrounding him and discover the truth. 

“The Long Way Home” is a fast-paced read that feels like you are watching the opening sequences of “Casino Royale” over and over again. For example, the book starts: “The man with the knife was a stranger. I never saw him before he tried to kill me.” It doesn’t let up from there.  (more…)

 

CBS won’t comment, but the NY Times reports that on Tuesday night’s episode of the ”The Good Wife” the story revolved around an artist killed by a bomb after he drew a cartoon featuring Muhammad. It looks as though the episode used a number of camera dodges to ensure no one got a good clean look at Islam’s founder:

In a plot line on Tuesday’s episode of “The Good Wife,” the show’s law firm deals with a suit brought by the widow of a newspaper editor who was killed by a bomb after he published an editorial cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad being searched by airport security officers. In scenes like the one above, the editorial cartoon is depicted only in small portions, obscured by shadows or pieces of paper, and never revealed in its entirety.

If you combine this with Comedy Central’s over-the-top censoring of a recent “South Park” episode, we’re really only left with two explanations, right? Either Hollywood’s had a massive change of heart and has suddenly decided to treat religion with respect or they’re terrified of becoming the next Theo Van Gogh.

Right?

We should all be rippling with anticipation over how one or both of these moral revelations will alter upcoming Tinseltown product. If The Former Religious Bigots Known As Hollywood have finally come around and changed their ways when it comes to insulting people of faith — just for starters, who will the new bad guys be on all four of those “Law & Order” series? Who will be the new whipping boys in the independent film world?  (more…)

While doing research for my upcoming book, tentatively titled Programming America (Harper Collins, due 2011), the inside story of the politically-motivated evolution of television from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Sex and the City and the very real bias of the industry against conservative content and creators, I interviewed Doug Herzog, President of MTV Networks Entertainment Group.  He oversees Comedy Central, and he was kind enough to grant me some time and consent to taping our conversation on June 22, 2009.

During the course of that conversation, I asked Mr. Herzog about the network’s decision to censor South Park in April 2006 – in particular, the network shut down a segment that featured a cartoon image of Mohammed.

Here’s the audio:

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:

SHAPIRO: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the controversy that surrounded the South Park/Mohammed controversy.  How did that come about and what was the real story there?

HERZOG: The real story was the story you know, which is that the guys wanted to depict Mohammed and the network wouldn’t let them.  And that was the whole story.  And while I think if we had to do it all over again we would do it differently, that was the decision we made at the time.  And I regret it somewhat but I’ve made worse decisions in my life. (more…)

I don’t have much to say, and won’t until Episode Four.

This episode certainly speaks for itself, but there’s one thing I should note. If you found the first episode a little intense, you might want to steer clear of this one, as it makes the first one look like “The Brady Bunch.” Sample comment from someone who called me about a week after watching it: “I’ve been disturbed all week.” You will be taking one giant leap further into the heart of darkness. Shortly into the next episode, you will be firmly at its center.

And then I’ll have something to say.

**STRONG CONTENT WARNING**

If you’re new to all this, just click here for all the background, including the series prologue and Episode One, “Return To Ramadi.”

You can also see episodes from my time in the Triangle of Death, prior to Ramadi, as referenced in the series prologue, here.

Give Comedy Central an anal probe. Not because of Jon Stewart’s ongoing tiff with Bernard Goldberg and Fox News, which is just polite, interesting fun. Rather, it has to do with the disturbing news that the creators of the animated sitcom “South Park” were threatened by an apparent jihadist organization called Revolution Muslim over an episode that contains some (mildly) irreverent material about Mohammed – and the cable network caved.

They bent over and censored the show. According to the New York Times arts blog posted this morning, the episode in question, a follow-up to the one that showed the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear costume, was edited by Comedy Central to avoid further offense. The version that aired Wednesday contained audio bleeps and image blocks (“CENSORED”), apparently inserted by the network, after the Muslim group warned on its website that show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker “will probably end up like Theo Van Gogh.” This is a reference to the Dutch film maker who was murdered – shot eight times then stabbed, with a note pinned to the knife, like in an Eric Ambler story — on an Amsterdam street after he made a documentary critical of Islam’s treatment of women. Fearing for her safety, Van Gogh’s collaborator, Somalia-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was forced to flee the country, and the Dutch Parliament engaged in vigorous debate on the subject of banning certain kinds of speech as “blasphemy.” In other words, they unheroically blamed the victim. (more…)