Chris Cuomo Says Dave Chappelle ‘Should Tell You That He Converted To Islam’ Before Making Jokes About Israel
NewsNation host Chris Cuomo criticized comedian Dave Chappelle for joking about Israel during a stand-up comedy special on Tuesday and suggesting that Chappelle should have informed viewers that he had “converted to Islam” before making such jokes.
Speaking about Chappelle’s recent Netflix comedy special, which ended with the comedian joking about Israel and dropping his microphone, Cuomo complained that a lot of the topics Chappelle joked about were “absolutely no laughing matter, and depending on your perspective, a lot of this special probably wasn’t funny.”
Cuomo criticized Chappelle for making transgender jokes in Saudi Arabia, “a notoriously repressive society,” then took aim at the comedian’s Muslim faith and accused him of “spreading anti-Semitism.”
Reacting to Chappelle’s microphone-dropping joke about Israel, Cuomo said:
I think he should have taken the mic back immediately because that was a terrible way to end. You can never say “I stand with Israel” because you never believe it? Because you see no value in supporting the existence and survival of a state and people surrounded by people who want to be destroyed and who act regularly, if not cyclically, in this direction? I don’t think this is funny, and as someone who begs us to believe that he does not wish ill on trans people or anyone else he jokes with or targets, he should be more conscious of the spread of antisemitism, especially now. And he should probably tell you that he converted to Islam 20 years ago.
I think it’s probably important to him. From where? We need to learn that there is a big difference between being a Muslim and caring about Islam and being an Islamic extremist, okay? I can’t tell from Dave Chappelle’s behavior how devout a Muslim he is. So he walks around smoking and drinking. I mean, I’m not saying he’s living it to the letter, am I? But his understanding of faith clearly influences his politics.
Cuomo and brother of former New York Governor Andrew CuomoBoth have been accused of making Islamophobic comments over the years.
The NewsNation host faced criticism after his speech in 2014. recommended That Muslims were “unusually violent” and “barbaric”.
“The Muslim world is responsible for a really large portion of religious extremism right now, and where these things are happening, they are unusually violent, they are unusually barbaric,” Cuomo said at the time. “And it happens there more than anywhere else. So you want to generalize? Of course not. But you want to call a situation as it is.”
He continued: “It’s no coincidence that ISIS starts with ‘I’. So that’s what’s happening in that part of the world.”
Watch the video above, via NewsNation.
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