Well, apparently I was not the only person appalled at seeing Brigitte Gabriel on the season opener of Bill Maher's Real Time. First he's slumming around with Ann Coulter, and now this. What the hell, Bill?
I was wondering if Maher even realized who he was bringing on his show to comment on the beheading of a Muslim woman. Talk to Action's Chris Rodda has more on that in his post Maher Season Premiere Includes Islamophobe Who Said Muslim-Americans Shouldn't Hold Public Office:
But, while Maher was just exploiting the irony of the story, his via satellite guest for the segment, Brigitte Gabriel, was given a forum to further her fear-mongering cause. And, although as more of the facts emerge, the murder of Aasiya Hassan is looking less and less like an "honor killing," and more and more like just a horrible case of domestic violence in which the perpetrator happened to be a Muslim, this story is pure gold to someone like Gabriel, whose mission is to spread a message that no Muslim-American, no matter how "assimilated" they may appear, can be trusted. With her glee in proclaiming on Real Time that Muzzammil Hassan had called the police to "brag" that he had murdered his wife (something that is not true), Gabriel came across to the audience as a funny, personable guest joining Maher in a bit of sarcastic repartee about the story. To those of us familiar with Gabriel, however, her glee was taken as something quite different.
The real Brigitte Gabriel is a woman who has said that Muslim-Americans shouldn't be allowed to hold public office; instructs people to contact the F.B.I. if they see a mosque being built in their neighborhood; and has said that Muslim-Americans "are good at nothing but complaining about every single thing" and that "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim."
I just caught her on C-SPAN once and watched Bill Moyers' coverage of her, and that was enough to have me practically choking when I saw her face appear on Maher's show. I highly recommend anyone who wants to get a full dose of just how extreme this woman is check out Talk to Action's reporting on her, linked above. More video below the fold of Brigitte Gabriel at CPAC.
For anyone who missed her performance at CPAC which was covered by Bill Moyers Journal, here she is in action.
Talk to Action also has her appearance on June 13, 2007 where she was invited to speak as a "Terrorism Expert", at the US Joint Forces Staff Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
h/t to Nicole for the help with the post.
