Tribal Solutions to Ben Affleck’s Dust-Up with Bill Maher over Islam

Or… Infidels Have No Place at the Table

By now you’ve probably heard of or seen the clip of Ben Affleck angrily defending Islam against the invectives of Bill Maher and Sam Harris. Here’s the clip in case you missed it:

Did you watch it? I confess that I haven’t watched it, nor am I likely to do so because I can already tell it’s just… too much. I generally enjoy the rantings of my fellow Irishman Bill Maher on sundry topics but I have to hit mute any time he starts railing on Islam. I’ve watched Bill for years and he has consistently blanketed all Muslims with the same characterizations. That there may even be a portion of the population pushing back or that there may need to be more nuance than a single characterization of one billion people’s faith doesn’t pass muster with him.

Harris penned a defense of his appearance on his blog. It’s definitely worth a read. A couple excerpts of note:

Kristof made the point that there are brave Muslims who are risking their lives to condemn “extremism” in the Muslim community. Of course there are, and I celebrate these people too. But he seemed completely unaware that he was making my point for me—the point being, of course, that these people are now risking their lives by advocating for basic human rights in the Muslim world.

…

After the show, Kristof, Affleck, Maher, and I continued our discussion. At one point, Kristof reiterated the claim that Maher and I had failed to acknowledge the existence of all the good Muslims who condemn ISIS, citing the popular hashtag #NotInOurName. In response, I said: “Yes, I agree that all condemnation of ISIS is good. But what do you think would happen if we had burned a copy of the Koran on tonight’s show? There would be riots in scores of countries. Embassies would fall. In response to our mistreating a book, millions of Muslims would take to the streets, and we would spend the rest of our lives fending off credible threats of murder. But when ISIS crucifies people, buries children alive, and rapes and tortures women by the thousands—all in the name of Islam—the response is a few small demonstrations in Europe and a hashtag.”

Harris is right, of course, that there are dangerous people and interpretations of Islam that must be dealt with. I think he underestimates the degree to which ‘other’ Muslims cry out over atrocities committed in our religion’s name, in no small part because it’s not as sexy to cover on CNN or Fox News.

He’s also correct that Muslims would go ape-shit if a video of the Qur’an being burned were to surface. Just as many went ballistic over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad years ago. I have qualms with Muslims who will threaten a life over satire or any perceived religious criticism. Especially when said folks probably make jokes about Christians and Jews themselves.

Ultimately, I believe the larger point is that tribalism dictates that neither Harris’ supposed call for ‘honest discourse’ nor Affleck’s angry defense will be effective. Tribalism is why folks go nuts over any criticism, however slight, and rally to any defense. As such, the problems of the “Muslim World”, whatever that means, only get fixed from the inside. From within the countries of the Muslim diaspora. Infidels need not apply.

Reza Aslan, whose very criticism of Bill sparked the debate shown at the top, made the point that one cannot put a blanket characterization over 1,000,000,000 people, many of whom have vastly different cultural backgrounds.

Despite the best efforts of the Wahhabis, the Islam practiced in Indonesia and the Islam practiced in Nigeria are different. The solution to Nigeria’s problems will be different than the solutions to Indonesia’s or Pakistan’s or Iraq’s problems. And they will need to come from within Pakistan and within Syria and within Egypt. Not from with out. Maybe not even with the help of western Muslims and certainly not their elite secular sympathizers or detractors.

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