John Oliver Leaves Fans in the Dark About Islam

I posted a video of John Oliver's show Last Week Tonight on my personal Facebook page. The episode was about TV evangelists, and it was really great. Watch it here. He exposes many of them for the frauds they are when they prey on old or sick people and con them of out their money.

Oliver was thorough. He participated in one of the evangelical's program for seven months and sent money quite a few times to find out the extent of the con. His team contacted the IRS, and found out what the requirements are to avoid having to pay taxes on the money, and then he created his own church, hired a tax lawyer, and solicited money on TV, and it was all perfectly legal.

The whole thing was very funny and yet also compellingly discredited the evangelicals in question. After I posted it on Facebook, I got some comments about how great Oliver's show is, but something about these positive comments hit a nerve with me because yes, his show is very honest and hard-hitting...except about Islam. So after everyone made their positive comments, I said, "I wish he would do a show as good as this one, but about Islamic doctrine." But after I wrote that, I realized how stupid it was. So I added, "Of course, if he did, he would live with a death sentence for the rest of his life, like Salmon Rushdie, Geert Wilders, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, etc."

I got a few comments after that, of course, but I thought this might be a pretty good way to make a point. I didn't post the video originally in order to make any point. I just thought it was worth sharing. But now that I've done it and added my Islam comment, I think this might have been an accidental discovery of a way to get people thinking about Islam, or curious enough to look into it.

One of the comments I got back on my Islam comment was, "I don't think that could be funny." But I answered, "A good comedian can make anything funny." In fact, Oliver's evangelical show was really about how con men have successfully become filthy rich by fleecing old and sick people, including a photo of one woman who was tragically drained of her money, and even with that, the show is not only a hard-hitting expose, at times it is hilarious. I said, "Imagine what he could do with Muhammad's crazy life!" Anyone reading that probably knows very little about Muhammad, but the comment might make them curious enough to look into it. And if they look into it, they will discover things that explain some of the craziness in the world today.

The reason I originally made my Islam comment and spoiled everyone's fun was that all the praise for John Oliver suddenly pissed me off. John Oliver's show has mentioned Islam before, but only to make fun of "Islamophobes." So he's not only failing in his apparent mission in life to expose the deceits and cons in the world, with Islam he appears to be doing more than just ignoring it. If anything, it looks like he's sucking up to Muslims to keep himself safe and secure (while inadvertently helping Muslims advance their prime directive by convincing non-Muslims that Islam is nothing to worry about).

So he is being praised for his effectiveness at exposing evil in the world while gutlessly avoiding (and even helping) Islam, arguably the biggest evil in the world today. I just couldn't let it slide.

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here.