Bill Maher Fires Back at Shocking Claims He’s Racist

Real Time host Bill Maher has responded to claims he is a “racist” after a recent argument with The Young Turks commentator Ana Kasparian over the Israel-Palestine conflict went viral.

On Monday (December 22), Maher sat down with The Free Press‘ Maya Sulkin, who asked the comedian about the interview with Kasparian and the subsequent tweet from fellow Young Turks commentator Cenk Uygur, who called Maher “the biggest racist in American media.”

The Club Random podcast host said he would like Uygur to answer the same question he asked Kasparian, which was to name a Muslim country they would rather live in than Israel.

“Anybody who thinks they’re a social justice activist — which these people do — and your number one issue isn’t gender apartheid in the Muslim world — you’re a joke,” Maher said, per Mediaite. “It’s so obvious where the biggest amount of oppression is, you people who hate oppression so much.”

As for claims of being racist, Maher added, “First off, Islam is not a race, morons. It’s an idea, it’s an ideology. People of all races follow it. It’s just more fundamentalist than other religions in this century.”

He went on to add that Muslims living in America “couldn’t live that way in most of those countries your ancestors are from, and certainly your wife couldn’t.”

In his tweet, Uygur said he is “happy to challenge [Maher] to a debate” on the issue, to which Maher said, “You want a debate? Sure.” However, Maher added that he’s “bored” with discussing it and going around in circles. He also called the support of Palestine a “credential” thing.

“They have to like be these useful idiots who somehow, again, as the world’s big liberals, found their way to this position of marching with the most oppressive people in the world,” he stated. “It’s hard to wrap your head around.”

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This isn’t the first time Maher has been accused of racism. The long-time HBO host came under fire in 2017 after he used the “N-word” on an episode of Real Time. During an interview, former senator Ben Sasse invited Maher to come to Nebraska and “work in the fields,” to which the comedian replied, “Work in the fields? I’m a house n-word.”

Maher, who at the time said he was “against” a lot of the “bull *** apology in America,” later apologized for his comment, calling it a “bad thing” and saying an apology in this case was “appropriate.”

However, many critics at the time called Maher out, including New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali, who tweeted, “People shocked at Bill Maher being racist-y, check w your Arab & Muslim friends. Been doing this for a LONG time, but he got hall passes.”

Maher also received criticism in 2015 when he compared former One Direction star and Muslim singer Zayn Malik to the Boston Marathon bomber. At the time, fans set up an online petition calling for the host to apologize for the comment, which they believed to be racist, and for using an “Islamophobic terrorist joke.”