HBO's "Real Time" host Bill Maher and actor Ben Affleck, both noted liberals, had a heated debate over whether liberals in the West should be critical of Islam.
Maher brought up freedom of speech and equal rights.
"These are liberal principles that liberals applaud for, but then when you say in the Muslim world, this is what’s lacking, then they get upset," Maher said on Friday's show.
Atheist author Sam Harris agreed, saying that liberals have been sold a meme of "Islamophobia," where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam gets conflated with bigotry toward Muslims as people.
"That is intellectually ridiculous," Harris said.
"Are you the person who understands the officially codified doctrine of Islam?" Affleck shot back. "So you’re saying that Islamophobia is not a real thing?"
Affleck called Harris' characterization "gross and racist," adding, "It's like saying, 'Oh, you shifty Jew!'"
Maher, an atheist who is critical of religion in general, recently told Charlie Rose that Islam is not comparable to other religions, which do not advocate killing people who leave the religion.
"It's the only religion that acts like the Mafia — that will … kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book," he said in response to Affleck on Friday.
"What is your solution? That we condemn Islam?" Affleck responded. "We've killed more Muslims than they've killed us by an awful lot, and we've invaded more Islamic nations. But we're exempted from these things?"
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