The perfect response to people who say all Muslims are violent, in one tweet

[ProfessorPlum]

24. I agree with your comment that this is not a new debate

and would add that it has been going on since about 622 AD. Dante included a special place in his Inferno for the Muslims.

The problem with Maher is that when he is talking about "Muslim countries" he is speaking about the worst aspects of fundamentalism in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, etc. He has his stereotype in his head. He is right to condemn the stereotype, for terrible fundamentalist expressions of Islam (and governmental repression) are awful indeed.

But his shorthand leaves out more than 1 billion Muslims who live in lots of other countries and with reasonable human attitudes and interactions within the countries he is projecting about. Those Muslims are victimized by their own fundamentalist systems just as much if not more as the rest of us, and deserve our sympathy and understanding.

And, I would add, that American fundamentalists are just as hell-bent on delivering the same kinds of horror on our own population. Restricting women's freedom, bodily integrity, and choice, homosexuality, etc. They would simply do it in the name of Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild.