I'm not much of a Bill Maher fan ~ he is an enigma to me ~ he seems to switch between being very funny to being very perverse and bigoted on the fly ~ I hope the students win this argument ~ after all, it is THEIR graduation ~ Sooz

TPM LIVEWIRE
Berkeley Students Say No To 'Bigot' Bill Maher As Commencement Speaker
By Catherine Thompson Published October 28, 2014, 8:00 AM EDT

Bill Maher may be done talking about his criticism of Islam, but students at the University of California, Berkeley are not.

A petition to remove Maher as the university's December commencement speaker had gathered 2,246 signatures on Change.org as of Tuesday morning.

"Bill Maher is a blatant bigot and racist who has no respect for the values UC Berkeley students and administration stand for," the petition reads. "In a time where climate is a priority for all on campus, we cannot invite an individual who himself perpetuates a dangerous learning environment. Bill Maher's public statements on various religions and cultures are offensive and his dangerous rhetoric has found its way into our campus communities."

Maher's views on Islam drew increased scrutiny after the HBO host got into a heated debate with actor Ben Affleck earlier this month. His critical remarks were condemned by religious scholar Reza Aslan, among others, and praised by Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

Berkeley student government representative Marium Navid, a Muslim who is one of the petition's authors, argued that the university was legitimizing Maher's critical view of the religion by naming him as commencement speaker.

"People say he has the right to freedom of speech, and I agree with that," she told the San Jose Mercury News. " ... The problem is that when you bring him to the university, you're pretty much putting him into a privileged position. You're raising his voice."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/berkeley-petition-bill-maher-islam

I'm the same sooz. He seems to also have common sense about many things, then "bam!" he's off on some racist rant. Maybe his numbers are tanking and he's trying to appeal to both sides of the aisle (so to speak)? Not sure. I agree with this:



If you don't agree with someone's views, you certainly don't give them a public platform such as that to spout them....it's as if you agree by inviting him.

right up until they want to un-invite a Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin. Then they'll be "intolerant" products of "liberal indoctrination".

We had that argument from the right last spring. Remember when Condoleeza Rice backed out of giving Rutgers commencement speech because of protests by students and faculty. According to the right wing that was a major trampling into the dust of Rice's freedom of speech. They were strangely silent, though, about Republican threats to bring hundreds of protesters to the Oklahoma police academy to drown out a commencement speech by Eric Holder.

conservatives love to make fun of this sort of stuff, but i for one have never thought that it is in the interest of tolerance to tolerate the intolerant. Maher is wrong. Berkeley owes him no apology, nor anyone else who thinks otherwise.

From the bits I've seen about Maher he is definitely a bigot. Nearly all of us - close enough to 100% to say we all are - are in some way.

Agreed, oskar ~ but most of us don't have public platforms to spew that bigotry, which he does repeatedly ~

Sooz