According to New York Times reporter John Leland, he does. In this weekend arts section article, “Cameras Roll, and Faith Hasn’t a Prayer,” Leland says that “Religulous,” which comes out October 3rd in New York City, “shows Mr. Maher on a world tour of rapid-cut interviews in Israel, Denmark, Vatican City and Monsey, N.Y., the home of Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism, whose leaders participated in a convention of Holocaust deniers in Iran. The movie is trying to tap the same spirit that has propelled books crusading against religion, like Richard Dawkins’s “God Delusion,” Sam Harris’s “End of Faith” and Christopher Hitchens’s “God Is Not Great,” to the best-seller lists.”
Leland thinks Maher gives Buddhism and Hinduism a pass, but all other faiths are more or less ripped to shreds in this whirlwind world religions tour:
“At the end of the movie Mr. Maher calls on “anti-religionists” to “come out of the closet and assert themselves” in the face of religious extremism. “Grow up or die,” he says. Mr. Maher said he intended the movie as a call to action, not to convince religious people to join his camp but to stir the nonreligious to unite.”


Against who? Everybody? I have never been able to stomach Bill Maher’s offensive rhetoric, but even more so after he was horrible to some of my students on a college campus visit he made a few years ago. He was rude and obnoxious to these students–many of whom were fans and were excited to see him. It seems he can’t be nice to anybody–even his admirers.
As you may have already guessed, I won’t be going to see “Religulous.” Will you?

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