Chris Hayes Slams Maher’s ‘Racist’ Islam Panel: Why No Muslim Guests?

Chris Hayes Slams Maher’s ‘Racist’ Islam Panel: Why No Muslim Guests? (Mediaite)

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes took strong issue tonight with a Bill Maher panel on Islam involving a fight with Ben Affleck. Affleck told Maher and Sam Harris that they’re spouting some “gross, racist” views, and Hayes had to agree. He said, “Put me down in the Ben Affleck camp on this, strongly.”

Hayes found it particularly gross “that these are five non-Muslim guys sitting around talking about what ‘the Muslims’ think.” And while no one would say that’s offensive, Hayes offered that a similar panel discussion about the Jews conducted entirely by Christians disparaging their faith would come across far less positively.

Hayes showed a clip of Reza Aslan on CNN to show how much more enlightening it can be to engage with an actual practitioner of the Muslim faith rather than “speculating about their beliefs as if they’re not in the room.”