Journalist Fareed Zakaria confronted political commentator Bill Maher earlier this month about his frequent and ruthless criticism of Islam. Zakaria slammed Maher, saying his atheistic views are just as radical as the religious views he criticizes, and what is worse is that he does only so to receive applause lines and never with the intention of reforming religion.

When Maher began to reiterate how Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas while discussing Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Zakaria put his foot down, saying Maher was not going to win over the minds and hearts of his audience by continuously insulting Islam and telling Muslims that their faith “sucks.” Zakaria also stressed there needs to be some sense of respect in how an argument over such a subject is framed, especially when the arguer claims to focus on reforming religion.

Maher then confusingly asked Zakaria if he truly doubted that most followers of Islam have considerably backward beliefs. Zakaria responded, saying most Muslims do not have considerably backward beliefs, as religious views vary from nation to nation. He also mentioned a couple of his own criticisms regarding Islam before concluding that all Maher is doing is only helping him receive applause lines.

When Maher expressed disappointment with what Zakaria had to say, the latter said Muslims feel disappointed all the time when people like Maher critique Islam.

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