Bill Maher, HBO’s late-evening political satirist and the host of Real Time, addressed the stabbing of his “dear pal” Salman Rushdie all the way through probably the most recent episode of his exhibit.

“First, I’ve to claim one thing — it’s reasonably personal but also nationwide news,” Maher stated on Friday. “A dear pal of mine, just right pal of this express, bought stabbed as of late, Salman Rushdie. I’m sure individuals have seen this news.”

On Sunday, information broke that Rushdie had been “taken off a ventilator and may speak again” after being stabbed some ten instances within the face, neck, and abdomen, reported the BBC.

Maher, who has long been a vocal critic of fundamentalist religious views, including these in Islam, commented on the motivations in the back of the assault on Rushdie.

“We don’t know the incentive yet, but Sal did have some enemies in the past, as I consider. So I’m guessing Hadi shouldn’t be Amish,” Maher mentioned, noting the title of Rushdie’s attacker.

Rushdie was compelled into hiding for just about a decade in 1989 after his novel The Satanic Verses used to be deemed an insult to Islam through the government of Iran, which then issued a fatwa for Rushdie’s dying.

Maher continued, noting Rushdie “was once giving a lecture, how about this for irony, about how the U.S. is a safe haven for exiled writers and different artists under possibility of persecution. And making that speech itself is unthinkable in most Muslim countries.”

“Salman Rushdie, living in most Muslim international locations without getting stabbed day by day is unthinkable. So don’t come at me with ‘Islamophobic,’ ‘phobic’ manner fear, right? Neatly, Sal had a excellent purpose to be worried. And while you say ‘phobic,’ it’s only a strategy to shut off debate,” Maher persevered.

“You recognize, there are ‘transphobic,’ ‘Islamophobic,’ and we should have a debate about this. Sorry, but you realize, this stuff don’t go away. Islam continues to be a way more fundamentalist religion than any of the other religions on this planet,” Maher argued.

“And that suggests they take what’s within the Holy eBook critically. And that has been dangerous for a long time. It’s nonetheless bad. This was 1989 when he used to be first threatened,” Maher concluded.

Piers Morgan used to be a guest on the convey and he jumped in to read a quote from Rushdie. “The safety of free speech begins at the point when people say one thing you could’t stand,” Morgan mentioned, offering his tackle the importance of free speech.

Watch the full clip above

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