Bill Maher Says Ahmed Mohamed’s Arrest Was Justified During ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’

Bill Maher said he thought the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed was completely justified and dismissed the #IStandWithAhmed movement during a segment of Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday.

Bill Maher Criticizes Support Of Ahmed Mohamed

Maher, known for his polarizing, and often offensive, views about Muslims — last winter, students of UC Berkeley petitioned to have him removed as commencement speaker for his attitude towards Islam — took a stand against the #IStandWithAhmed movement during his show on Friday.

Mohamed, the 14-year-old from Texas who was put in handcuffs and taken to a juvenile detention center after bringing a homemade clock to school, was arrested fairly, according to the talk show host. Maher opened his segment on Mohamed by admitting that he deserved an apology from the school, but the comedian insisted that the arrest was fair and not driven by white privilege or racism. On his show, Maher argued that Mohamed was arrested, not because of racial profiling, but “because for the last 30 years it’s [Islam] been a culture that has been blowing s—t up over and over again.”

Maher garnered protests from guest Jorge Ramos, a Univision anchor who said that he believed Mohamed was arrested due to his Muslim faith. But, the rest of Maher’s guests, which included Mark Cuban and Gov. George Pataki, agreed full-heartedly with Maher.

“And, look, this kid deserves an apology, no doubt about it. They were wrong. But, could we have a little perspective about this? Did the teacher really do the wrong thing?” Maher posited — seemingly separating the teacher form the police, who arrested Mohamed after having determined the “bomb” to be a clock.

Cuban claimed that he spoke to Mohamed and believed that he could have avoided arrest had he “talked to the teacher.” Meanwhile, fellow guest Chris Matthews seemed unhappy with the conversation and refused to take sides, saying, “How do you know? I wasn’t there, you weren’t there!”

“He was arrested, and they took him off in handcuffs, and they put him in a cage and burned him. Oh no, that’s ISIS who does that! You know what, we arrest him — we put this kid after school for a couple of hours, this is not the end of the world,” Maher said.

Maher ended the conversation saying that he hoped an adult, presumably Mohamed’s parents, would tell Mohamed, “You know, what happened to you was wrong, but maybe one of the reasons it happened to you is because in our religion, we are responsible for 9/11, the Madrid bombings, the London bombings, the Bali discotheque bombings, the Kenya mall bombings.”

This isn’t the first time Maher has taken a seemingly anti-Muslim stance. Almost one year ago, Maher got into a heated debate with Ben Affleck on the subject of Islam, during which Maher stated that Islam was “the only religion that acts like the Mafia.”

Click here for the 2015 TIFF Best Dressed Slideshow