(Peacock)
In a new interview, Mehdi Hasan called out Bill Maher for regularly making “racist” and “outrageous” statements about Muslims on his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher.
Hasan, host of Peacock’s The Mehdi Hasan Show, told The Daily Beast that he believes his Muslim faith has been marginalized in cable news, pointing to Maher’s talk show as the most egregious example.
“There is subtle Islamophobia, and I wouldn’t put Bill Maher in the ‘subtle’ category. He’s pretty brazen,” said Hasan. “This is a guy who says Islam acts like the mafia, and the guy who says stuff like, ‘Muslims bring that desert stuff to the West.’ I mean, that’s not just Islamophobia, that’s old-fashioned racism.”
The Peacock host continued, “Making references to the desert, when most Muslims don’t come from the desert, don’t live in the desert, and most Muslim Americans have no ties to a desert? He’s said so many things, and we can go through a long litany of outrageous and racist statements he’s said about Muslims and Islam—and
Hasan also pointed out that Maher is considered a “liberal” and “prominent Democrats still go on his show,” despite his anti-Muslim views. “Some people have pushed back at him, but you’ll notice that he never has any kind of ‘mainstream Muslims’ to come on and talk,” he added. “He only has the Muslims who will come on and bash Islam. And he gets away with it. You talk about ‘cancel culture,’ well where is it? Bill Maher still has a very prominent show.”