[applause] >> mr. maher, thank you very much. and thank you to miss dawson and clark as well. it's moving to hear your testimony. those of us in c-span, i will say that chairman smith and the other commissioners have left to vote, because this hearing is so important. and we have c-span here live. we're going to continue the proceedings, the chairman, by the way, my name is mark milosch, i'm the chief of staff with the health commission, and someone from mr. smith's staff on personal issues. we'll proceed. the first question that i have, have any muslim leaders in egypt condemned the kidnapping, forced marriage, forced conversion of coptic christian girls?

as mr. maher and i have indicated, mr.hairman, the issue of abductions and forced marriages occurs, um, regardless of age. there's documented evidence of young girls as young as 11 and 12 or 16 and 17. obviously, child-bearing age is one of the primary considerations in this situation is since, as you said, the objective, one of the objectives is a war of attrition. and, um, so women who can bear muslim children are, um, are particularly targeted. to my knowledge, no, this is not being specifically addressed in egypt by the various anti-trafficking bodies that exist. there is no particular focus on this in large part because the issue of this is a trafficking, as a trafficking, as a trafficking instance remains disputed. i've indicated that we need to remove the word "allegation." it doesn't help any of us, and evidence is now consistent with anecdotal reports that i believe we can and we should remove the word. the challenge as we've faced throughout the history of the anti-trafficking movement is to what extent are the y

>> i would defer to, perhaps, mr. maher. >> well, i think -- when i was a child at school, we never been talk about the coptic history. i learned about my own history when i came to france. because my french wife is a history teacher. she motivated me to discover my own history. but i think the results of many people here are at my age. the history of the coptics were just out of the books. now it starts to be discovered. because of the communication. and now the muslims start to understand that we had 3,000 years of civilization. 3,000 before christ, 3,000 to 5,000 before christ. and then 700 years of egypt christian by the 4th century was 100% christians. and then when the arab came on the 7th century, they found all of the christians and named them cops. that's why cops is under defined as inhabitant of egypt, but is a christian. when they came, there were only christian. and then for 1400 years, there were persecution, they have asked the people to either convert or to pay the taxes or to be killed. so many of them have

protect some civil populations and kill the government whether we like it or not the situation here ok mr maher so now aside from the money that the german government is giving the libyan rebels have also recently gained access to colonel gadhafi is frozen assets in the u.s. and that's after washington of course gave them full diplomatic recognition do you think now that this will break the stalemate that having so much funding will actually swing the balance in this civil war. of course the question that more than twenty billion dollars in three sets and i think is it was also a known behind the scenes you know that this money is going to be used to. help the rebels but of course that is in a way totally illegal you can't just take money away from from governments and give it to rebels if this is the future policy that would be a very tough situation on this globe just a bit more push on the germans germany's position here nato has called on its members for more active involvement the libyan campaign germany of course will has not participated in the military efforts so far but it did say it w

maher's latest attacks over-the-top, and for him? that and our great american panel, coming up. ♪ fare thee well ♪ farewell ♪ mr. ♪ ♪ though you haven't any money you can still be bright and sunny ♪ ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah >> sean: bill maher has officially taken his offensive shock-jock factor comedy tour too far. critics furious over statements that the always controversial far left commentator made on his hbo show. listen to the ruthless attacks that he hurls at republicans specifically, two gop women, sarah palin and michelle bachmann. >> you wrote something in the atlantic which sarah palin will never read, why read an ocean. >> watch bachmann she believes in what she says she is not a fake like a lot of these other ones. she is real. >> she is not a mean girl. she is a crazy girl with mean ideas. isn't it scary that someone who wants to be president hears god talking to her? republicans have to stop thinking up psychological explanations for why liberals don't like sarah palin or michelle bachmann. let me save you time. are you ready? because they are crazy people. it is not because t