MSNBC’s Joy Reid: ‘American Christians Are Basically the Taliban’

MSNBC host Joy Reid has declared that conservative Christians in America are just as dangerous and extreme as the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Yes, really.

To be clear, you’re comparing the Taliban with Americans you disagree with politically?

— Mostly Peaceful (@Jaihawkk) August 14, 2021

Townhall.com reports: Reid did not clarify who she was speaking of with this “far religious right dreaming of a theocracy” in the United States.

Republican strategist Matt Whitlock had the receipts to prove that Reid has made this same comparison countless times.

Watch another show, Joy. pic.twitter.com/fQLlulFiy8

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 14, 2021

Others joined in to point out the absurdity of such a tweet.

Imagine covering politics for a living and having your take-away from the last week be “American Christians would be just like the literal Taliban if not for our military.” pic.twitter.com/cM30MFO6ey

— Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) August 14, 2021

THIS is what Joy Reid thinks of conservatives and Republicans. We are JUST LIKE the Taliban. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't believe the press is the enemy of the people, but the far too many in the press (including Joy) think we're enemies of the people. https://t.co/fRy1NJcvga

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 14, 2021

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1426689331582881793

Even a user who identified as someone who is “no fan of the evangelical right” wasn’t thrilled.

https://twitter.com/Lawlorbrendans/status/1426653758382125059

Some users also used the tweet as a reminder that staff from The Bulwark have gone on Reid’s MSNBC show, “The ReidOut.”

I cannot describe how great it is that the Bulwarkers debase themselves for this person's tv show.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 14, 2021

anyone surprised that joy ann reid is going with the american right is similar to the taliban “cuz they’re christians, so scarez and feelz”

the bulwark puts their people on her show weekly.

— kaitlin, by definition, a woman (@thefactualprep) August 14, 2021

Others pointed out the historic amount of women in Congress.

https://twitter.com/bbrewton2/status/1426658055207497729

There are more women in the GOP congressional body & governorships than ever. The idea that America is on the verge of becoming the handmaid's tale is a joke. You are deflecting from our failure in #Afghanistan under the leadership of your chosen President. #AfghanistanBurning https://t.co/qEJJ7mAa2W

— James Mitchem 🇺🇸 (@JamesMitchem6) August 14, 2021

As we’ve covered before, Reid has welcomed those on her show who make other comparisons when it comes to the Taliban, as former Lincoln Project senior adviser Kurt Bardella did in May. “I’ve been thinking to myself this whole time, you know, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, the people who wanted to do harm to our nation and to our way of life and democracy, they got nothing on what this Republican Party is doing,” Bardella said, during a segment. He doubled down on such remarks. 

When it comes to their treatment of women, the Taliban do not merely turn them away from getting an education. 

As the Feminist Majority Foundation outlined:

Upon seizing power, the Taliban regime instituted a system of gender apartheid effectively thrusting the women of Afghanistan into a state of virtual house arrest. Under Taliban rule women were stripped of all human rights – their work, visibility, opportunity for education, voice, healthcare, and mobility. When they took control in 1996, the Taliban initially imposed strict edicts that:

• Banished women from the workforce
• Closed schools to girls and women and expelled women from universities
• Prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative
• Ordered the publicly visible windows of women’s houses painted black and forced women to wear the burqa (or chadari) – which completely shrouds the body, leaving only a small mesh-covered opening through which to see
• Prohibited women and girls from being examined by male physicians while at the same time prohibited female doctors and nurses from working

Women were brutally beaten, publicly flogged, and killed for violating Taliban decrees. Even after international condemnation, the Taliban made only slight changes. Some say it was progress when the Taliban allowed a few women doctors and nurses to work, even while hospitals still had segregated wards for women. In Kabul and other cities, a few home schools for girls operated in secret. In addition, women who conducted home schools.

Such mistreatment and abuse has been the subject of articles, scholarly articles, as well as web pages, including an archived version of the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. 

The Taliban are referenced in a Brookings report from September 2020 by John R. Allen and Vanda Felbab-Brown on “The fate of women’s rights in Afghanistan.”

A TIME article by Lauren Bohn from December 8, 2018 lamented that “‘We’re All Handcuffed in This Country.’ Why Afghanistan Is Still the Worst Place in the World to Be a Woman.”