Singer Bette Midler landed in hot water with the far left — for the second time in two days — when her attempt to insult the United States Supreme Court backfired in spectacular fashion.
Midler has been decrying the Court’s 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which included a 5-4 decision overturning landmark abortion cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey — since it was handed down in late June, and Tuesday was no exception.
The tweet that prompted the backlash was a group photo of the court members, with all but the three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and the since-retired Stephen Breyer — edited to look as though they were part of the Taliban, the medieval Islamic fundamentalist group back in charge of Afghanistan after President Joe Biden’s disastrous pullout.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) July 5, 2022
Midler was not the only one to draw that comparison — singer Barbra Streisand referred to the Court as “the American Taliban” after the decision was handed down, and singer Patti LuPone asked, “What is the difference between the Taliban and the Christian Right? I’ll now add the Supreme Court. America is on her knees.”
But shortly after the “Hocus Pocus” star fired off her tweet, critics came for her, asking why she couldn’t complain about the Court without dragging Muslims into the conversation. One was Marc Lamont Hill, a Temple University professor who was fired by CNN 2018 amid widespread accusations of anti-semitism.
“Wow. Bette Midler is on a roll this week. From transphobic to Islamophobic,” tweeted Hill, who gave a speech to the UN in which he accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and called for an end to Israel “from the river to the sea,” a phrase borrowed from terrorist Hamas leaders.
Other hard-core leftists objected to evoking the Taliban as a metaphor for extremism, despite the Afghan group’s well-known policies of brutality and oppression of women.
Author Laila Lalami added, “Can’t you people ever fight extremism without being Islamophobic? Muslims aren’t your rhetorical tool.”
“Your friendly local Muslim & lawyer AGAIN reminding you that Islam permits abortion for a variety of reasons & keeps that healthcare decision between a woman & her loved ones & doctor,” Qasim Rashid tweeted. “Stop using our faith as your punchline. Call this for what it is—100% ‘Christian’ nationalism.”
“It’s Christian Nationalism. This is homegrown. No need to denigrate Islam and Muslims for this extremism. Stop making us the pinata and bogeyman please. Also, traditionally, Sharia allows for abortion up to the first 4 months and makes exceptions for the woman’s health,” author Wajahat Ali objected.
“Bette Midler was like, ‘well I did transphobia yesterday, so maybe I’ll go with racism today,'” one Twitter user commented.
“Can y’all find a way to critique Christian nationalism without being islamophobic?” another added. “Bette, it’s tired. If you can’t find a way to be ‘liberal’ without throwing minorities under the bus, you are doing it very wrong. Give it a rest.”
Midler was labeled a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) on Monday for calling on women to push back against being erased by woke terms like “birthing person.”
