Ben Affleck Calls Bill Maher Out Over 'Islamophobia'

Ben Affleck called TV host Bill Maher's views on Islam "gross and racist" Friday night when the two men debated on TV.

Affleck was a guest on "Real Time With Bill Maher" to promote his movie "Gone Girl."

When the panel began discussing current events, Affleck argued with Maher and another guest, author Sam Harris, about their beliefs on the Islamic religion.

"We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people," Harris said on the show. "It's intellectually ridiculous."

In support of Harris, Maher jumped in, describing Islam as "the only religion that acts like the mafia and will "f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book."

Maher is an outspoken critic of Islam was recently publically criticized for his view that female genital mutilation is an Islamic problem, reports Independent.

"You are saying that Islamaphobia is not a real thing?" Affleck asked in defense to Harris' comment. "It's gross, it's racist. It's like saying 'that shifty Jew.'"

The views of the debate also sparked conversation on Twitter about Islam:

The debate on the show argument went back-and-forth for 10 minutes before Maher said the panel will never see the issue under the same light and moved on to the next topic.

Here's a clip of the debate:

Tags

Bill Maher, Ben Affleck, Debate, Islam, Racist