Thursday, January 08, 2015

Cue the Islamaphobe extremists

Well I knew what to expect as soon as I heard of the terrorist attack in Paris - the Islamaphobes would be crawling out of the woodwork, blaming a religion of a billion people for the work of a tiny faction.

Sam Harris has not yet weighed in, but Jerry Coyne has made sure that the New Atheist/Evolutionary Psychology/Islamaphobia brigade has been heard from.
Jerry Coyne If they determine the killers were Muslim extremists, let us then hear the “moderate” Muslims throughout the world decry this brutality. And Ben Affleck: are these murders the fault of Western colonialism, or religious extremism per se?
Notice how he puts the word moderate in quotes. Jerry Coyne doesn't actually believe non-extremist Muslims exist. He's really trying to give Sam Harris competition in the most loathsome New Atheist bigot.

And Bill Maher was an asshole again, of course. I used to enjoy watching Bill Maher but ever since he's become the king of the Islamaphobes I've given up. And let's face it, he was always kind of sexist and smug too. But what all the members of the New Atheist brigade believe is that unless a Muslim has come out and made a statement in opposition to a terrorist act, they will be suspected of being a terrorist sympathizer. That's the kind of bigoted freaks that Maher, Coyne, Harris and the rest of them are.

And the Freedom From Religion Foundation reminded me why I will never join them - they posted a quote from Sam Harris on their Facebook page, something about 9-11, that was supposed to be a response to the Paris attack.

Anybody who knows anything about Sam Harris is aware that his response to 9-11 was to defend the use of torture and call for ethnic profiling of anybody who looks Muslim at airports.

So for Jerry Coyne to even come close to the obnoxiousness level of Harris is quite an accomplishment.

Oh and did I forget Richard Dawkins? How could I?

Richard Dawkins goes on anti-Islam rant: Blames Charlie Hebdo massacre on entire religion 

No, all religions are NOT equally violent. Some have never been violent, some gave it up centuries ago. One religion conspicuously didn’t.

No discussion of the Islamaphobes is complete without hearing from the awesom Reza Aslan: Sam Harris and “New Atheists” aren’t new, aren’t even atheists