The importance of Religulous and Bill Maher

When addressing Islam, Maher also treads fearlessly where, with a few notable exceptions, most academics, journalists, media experts, or policy wonks have failed to go. He draws attention to the deeply problematic positions held by several Muslim activists, religious leaders, and politicians in the West. For instance, Maher brings into focus the apologetic view that any and all violence carried out in the name of Islam is ‘political’ and has nothing to do with the religion itself. Some of the Muslims Maher interviews refuse to admit that Islamic sources discriminate in any way against non-Muslims. The controversial British Muslim rapper, Propa-Gandhi, waffles about why Salman Rushdie’s freedom of expression in The Satanic Verses controversy is not a simple black and white issue, even as he seeks to assert his own rights against an apparently oppressive West. Maher’s film illustrates that ‘contextual’ or ‘holistic’ approaches, as held by Fatima Elatik, a Muslim Dutch politician, or Propa-Gandhi, can sometimes function as an evasion of the discriminatory aspects of a religion. The fact that Muslim youth in Europe are disaffected or that countries with Muslim populations are locked in neocolonial or neoimperial relations with the West do not satisfactorily account for or explain the actions of some Muslims against those accused of denigrating Islam.