US actor Ben Affleck blew up at TV host Bill Maher during an argument over the Islamic faith on live television.
The Gone Girl star appeared as part of a panel on the Maher's HBO talk show 'Real Time' last Friday.
Maher argued that liberal people were afraid of criticising Islam for its stance on women's and gay rights, with fellow panelist Sam Harris describing the religion as "the motherload of bad ideas."
An agitated Affleck took issue with the comments, describing them as "gross and racist."
He accused Maher and Harris of generalising a large group of people based on a small minority of radicals.
"How about the more than a billion people who aren't fanatical, who don't punish women, who just want to go to school, eat some sandwiches and pray five times a day?" he said.
But Maher was unrepentant.
"It's the only religion that acts like the Mafia that will f---king kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book," he said.
Affleck said the comments were unproductive and hypocritical.
"What is your solution? To just condemn Islam? Is that it?" he said.
"We've killed more Muslims than they've killed us, by an awful lot...
"We've invaded more Muslim countries, by an awful lot…and and yet we're exempted from these things because they’re not really a reflection of what we 'believe' in. We did it by 'accident'…That’s why we invaded Iraq…"
A YouTube video of the argument has already been viewed more than two million times.
Watch the full segment below:
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