So I saw Sam Harris on CNN talking about Muslims

[Goblinmonger]

and he said that Ben Carson and Donald Trumps are bigots and their attitudes toward Muslims are horrible. He also said that Muslims certainly should be considered for the presidency and there are literally thousands and thousands of American Muslims that would be great presidents (and certainly all would be far superior to Carson and Trump).

So what happened to him. From reading certain forums on DU, I thought he would be right on the bigotry train with Carson talking about how Muslims are evil baby eaters.

[Brainstormy]

1. Nothing happened to him

You've obviously been victimized by the hysteria that emanated from his clashes with Ben Affleck and Reza Aslan, both of whom have all but slandered him and horribly and deliberately misconstrued what Harris has said and what he's written. Harris is not anti-Muslim. He's anti fundamentalist Islam and there's a huge difference. He says Islam is "the" (he's admitted to the fact that he should have said "a" motherlode of bad ideas. I think he's absolutely correct. You'll probably enjoy this:

Explains the whole mess.

[Goblinmonger]

2. Sorry, I thought my sarcasm was clear. It obviously wasn't.

A lot of people that hang out in this group are well aware of the hype that surrounds Harris and how they spin what he has to say.

Completely agree with the body of your post.

[Brainstormy]

3. Apology

I can be a little thick sometimes.

[ion_theory]

4. Most of the criticism I hear comes from not fully understanding Sam Harris's...

views on ALL religion, not just Islam. He would certainly be saying the same things about Christianity during the Crusades, if he hasn't about the religion already. Affleck was being more of a racist IMO because how could an idea belong to one race? I know white, black, and middle-eastern Muslims so how can saying Islam (and all other religions who use fundamental beliefs to justify violence) is the mother-load of bad ideas evoke cries of racism?

Alot of the Sam hate is coming from his exchange with Noam Chomsky too, where Sam was saying our intentions of the Iraq war made it okay for us to do it. Consequences don't seem to matter to Sam, and Chomsky was annoyed by that which is probably why he was a prick in his e-mails. Sam essentially argued that we are superior in our actions and have a "higher degree of moral wealth." I agree with almost all of Sam's views besides this one because saying we are morally superior to other cultures never leads to better things for said culture.

[Cartoonist]

5. I saw the sarcasm

but his views on racial profiling are troubling to me.

[beam me up scottie]

6. Harris, like Dawkins and Hitchens is one of the atheists theists love to vilify.

Some of his statements have concerned me as well but if you listen to certain DUers he's the male version of Pamela Gellar.

I think 9/11 affected him deeply and that we should remember that when we listen to him speak.

Here is a blog entry he made on the anniversary that explains why he's an anti-theist (not anti-Muslim):

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/september-11-2011