Ben Affleck Spars with Bill Maher and Author over Islam
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Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Ben Affleck was involved in a tense conversation regarding Islam with Bill Maher and author Sam Harris on Friday’s episode of the HBO talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.
Affleck objected when Harris argued, “We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam gets conflated with bigotry toward Muslims as people, and that’s intellectually ridiculous.”
Affleck felt both Harris and Maher were unfairly characterizing all Muslims as having intolerant and dangerous beliefs, calling their opinion “gross” and “racist.”
Harris claimed “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas,” to which Affleck shot back, “It’s an ugly thing to say.”
Maher later stated, “It’s the only religion that acts like the mafia that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”
New York Times columnist and author Nicholas Kristof and Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, were also part of the panel.
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