NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I wrote on this blog and in my Variety column about the debate brought out last month over Islam first starting with the exchange between actor Ben Affleck and Bill Maher and Sam Harris (both well-known atheists) on Maher's show Real Time. Since the debate didn't really start with them but is something that has been going on for centuries, the debate has continued, although in its current iteration constantly referring back to Maher and Affleck as being different discursive positions within the discussion. Below I've pasted two letters. The first from Michael Moore from his Facebook page where he defended Bill Maher and the second from a Pakistani/Canadian blogger Eiynah who is critical of Ben Affleck's position. ********************* A Message in Support of Bill Maher Michael Moore 11/10/14 Facebook Bill Maher is a friend of mine. He stood up for me when I was attacked after my Oscar speech (given on the fourth night of the Iraq War, a war Bill publicly oppo

--> I am a big fan of Bill Maher and his show Real Time on HBO. I have actually been a fan of him since his Politically Incorrect days and even remember him making his comments that lost him his original show so long ago. He has been spearheading this election season a campaign he calls “Flip a District.” After receiving thousands of suggestions from people across the US, claiming their incumbent Congressperson as being the most useless and whose absence in Congress would make their state a better place, he chose Rep. John Kline from Minnesota. Kline, a Republican is not one of the loud and aggressive and sometimes hardly sane mouthpieces that dominate Fox News, such as Louis Gomert and Michelle Bachmann. He doesn't say the sometimes ridiculous things his fellow Republican became notorious for. But he votes alongside them and practices the age-old art of incumbent invisibility. He says little, stands for less, but collects lots of money from major corporations whose a

Fired-up Ben Affleck clashes with Bill Maher over Islam By Jeff Labrecque   on Oct 4, 2014 at 3:07PM Entertainment Weekly Ben Affleck’s publicity tour to promote Gone Girl took a detour on Friday night, when the outspoken liberal engaged in a heated debate with author Sam Harris and HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher over their criticism of Islam. “They’ll criticize Christians … but when you want to talk about the treatment of women and homosexuals and free-thinkers and public intellectuals in the muslim world, I would argue that liberals have failed us,” said Harris. “We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion gets conflated with bigotry towards muslims as people. It’s intellectually ridiculous.” Affleck, who frequently expressed impatience and outrage at Harris’ more measured explanations, was offended by the message. “[Your point of view] is gross, it’s racist,” the actor said. “It’s like saying, ‘Oh, you shif