On a show known for its heated debates, Friday night’s epic “Real Time With Bill Maher” showdown between guest Ben Affleck and host Bill Maher may go down as the fieriest in the HBO talk show’s history.
It all began when Affleck – who joined the four-person panel (along with journalist Nicholas Kristof, author Sam Harris and political analyst Michael Steele) to promote his newly released film “Gone Girl” – disagreed with Maher and Harris’ broad negative view of people practicing Islam.
“It’s gross – it’s racist,” said Affleck. After Harris explained that we need to criticize bad ideas, and called Islam “the motherload of bad ideas,” Affleck scoffed, “That’s an ugly thing to say.” “How about the more than a billion people who aren’t fanatical, who don’t punch women, who just want to go to school?” Affleck continued.
The debate just heated up from there, with Harris and Maher imploring that radical Islam doesn’t simply constitute “a few bad apples” – when Steele added that the voices in opposition aren’t being given the same platform as extremists, Maher fired back, “Because it’s the only religion that’s like the Mafia – that will f–king kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book.”
This set Affleck off again – and, suffice it to say, we can understand why rumors of a career in politics have been swirling around the activist Hollywood A-lister for years.
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