On Wanting to Smack Tavis Smiley

I like NPR.  I have been a supporter of local NPR stations.  Sometimes, though, something on NPR is so unbelievably stupid that a part of my brain actually dies.

On 5/25/2010, Tavis Smiley aired an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (click here for transcript, video, and audio).  Please note: I'm not a fan of the American Enterprise Institute, but there's much about Hirsi Ali to admire.

Here's an excerpt from the transcript of that interview.

Ali: ...Major Nidal Hasan, the military guy who in November shot 13 of his colleagues and injured 32, he's going to be on trial pretty soon, I think this week, the young man, Faisal Shahzad, in Times Square who tried to blow innocent people that he doesn't know up, these guys are acting on conviction. Somehow, the idea got into their minds that to kill other people is a great thing to do and that they would be rewarded in the hereafter.

Tavis: But Christians do that every single day in this country.

Ali: Do they blow people up (unintelligible)?

Tavis: Yes. Oh, Christians, every day, people walk into post offices, they walk into schools, that's what Columbine is - I could do this all day long. There are so many more examples of Christians - and I happen to be a Christian. That's back to this notion of your idealizing Christianity in my mind, to my read. There are so many more examples, Ayaan, of Christians who do that than you could ever give me examples of Muslims who have done that inside this country, where you live and work.

Smiley isn't generally stupid, so I can only guess that he is deliberately conflating acts by Christians with acts motivated by Christianity.

C'mon, Smiley- let's hear about all the Christian terrorism that has been committed in the 21st Century.

At least Hirsi Ali schooled Smiley:

Ali: Well, I think you and I disagree, not so much on is there extremism in Christianity - I fully acknowledge that. There are people who want to take the bible and use passages from the bible as justification for violent behavior. I'm not denying that in the least. But mainstream Christians in the 21st century are more like you.

I'm an atheist, I'm not a Christian, but they are more like you - accepting of other religions and tolerant. The latest example, "South Park," where Jesus Christ was made fun of, watching pornography, people, Christians, maybe have been annoyed by it but the producers of "South Park" were not threatened by Christians.

They were not threatened by Buddhists. They showed Buddha snorting cocaine. Muhammad, whose picture wasn't shown, there was a line saying "censored" and he was imagined to be in a Teddy bear, some of the followers of Muhammad got very angry. A few of them posted threats about the producers, and this is very mild.

Embedded video of Smiley's idiotic comments below: