There is, of course, the argument that movement conservatism is generally opposed to the principles that Jesus preached back in the day.
But what about when it comes to basic anti-Middle Eastern prejudice? Maher seems to be subtly implying that point; since Jesus was from the Middle East, specifically Palestine, conservatives wouldn’t like him much.
I disagree, and not because there’s any logic to the rightwing position. But they’ve basically exempted Israel and anyone who’s Jewish from their prejudice, and they’ve made it entirely about religion. The issue isn’t someone being of Middle Eastern descent, but their being Muslim. Jesus was Jewish, not Muslim, so if he were alive today they’d call him Israeli instead of Palestinian, even if he were born on the same plot of land and looked exactly the same.
Comments at the link make that argument, although they also claim that Palestinians are a fairy tale, made up because they just didn’t want to make nice and participate in the ethnic/religious cleansing of that region. It’s sometimes hard for Americans to understand what it’s like to be attached to a certain place, to have your family live their for generations and to want to continue living there, and what it’s like to refuse an authority who tells you to break up your community and go live somewhere else.
