--- description: Maher: Islam is "the only religion that acts like the mafia" title: Watch Ben Affleck and Bill Maher Argue About Islam image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd604286100154795/6986a719adae446a21545573/ben-affleck-and-bill-maher.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Ben Affleck and Bill Maher Argue About Islam  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 5, 2014 3:42 PM CUT  Ben Affleck appears on NBC News' "Today" show Ben Affleck appears on NBC News' "Today" showPeter Kramer—NBC/Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 5, 2014 3:42 PM CUT _Gone Girl_ star Ben Affleck and _Real Time_ host Bill Maher got into a heated argument about Islam on Maher’s HBO talk show Friday. Maher and author Sam Harris argued that liberals were backing away from criticizing Islam’s stance on women’s and LGBT rights because people “have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where every criticism gets confused with bigotry toward Muslims as people.” Harris called Islam “the motherlode of bad ideas”; Maher called Islam “the only religion that acts like the mafia — that will f-cking kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.” Affleck, however, called these characterizations “gross and racist” and argued that Maher and Harris were just conflating the minority views of radical jihadists with the beliefs of the rest of the world’s estimated 1.6 billion Muslims. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof also jumped in on the conversation at points. Watch the full debate above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3471641/ben-affleck-bill-maher-islam-muslims/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3471641/ben-affleck-bill-maher-islam-muslims/"},"headline":"Watch Ben Affleck and Bill Maher Argue About Islam","datePublished":"2014-10-05T15:42:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:35:50.898Z","description":"Maher: Islam is \"the only religion that acts like the mafia\"","url":"https://time.com/3471641/ben-affleck-bill-maher-islam-muslims/","keywords":["Television","celebrities","Ben Affleck","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd604286100154795/6986a719adae446a21545573/ben-affleck-and-bill-maher.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd604286100154795/6986a719adae446a21545573/ben-affleck-and-bill-maher.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Today - Season 63","caption":"Today - Season 63","creditText":"Peter Kramer—NBC/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3471641/ben-affleck-bill-maher-islam-muslims/","name":"Watch Ben Affleck and Bill Maher Argue About Islam"}}]}] ```