CNN host: 'Angry' Reza Aslan demonstrated why people are fearful of Islam

CNN host Chris Cuomo said Thursday night that recent comments made by religious scholar Reza Aslan showed why some Americans had apprehensions about the Islamic faith.

During an interview on Monday, Aslan argued with CNN hosts about the treatment of women in Muslim countries. He accused the hosts of making overgeneralizations about Islam, noting that Muslim nations had elected seven women as their heads of state, while the United States had elected none.

Cuomo addressed the interview on Thursday.

"His tone was angry. He wound up kind of demonstrating what people are fearful about when they think of the faith in the first place, which is the hostility of it," the CNN host said.

The segment was highlighted by Media Matters on Friday.

"Look, here's what you guys were exposing yourself to," Cuomo continued. "This is the state of play in journalism today. The Muslim world is responsible for a really big part of religious extremism right now. And they are unusually violent. They're unusually barbaric in the places where it is happening. And it's happening there more there than it is in other places.

"Do you therefore want to generalize? Of course not. But you do want to call a situation what it is. It's not a coincidence that ISIS begins with an I. I mean, that's what's going on in that part of the world. Doesn't mean other faiths can't be violent and other cultures can't be violent, but you shouldn't be afraid of the question."

Watch video, courtesy of Media Matters, below.