WATCH: Bill Maher to Kim Davis: 'You Are Sharia Law'

Some right-wing activists think the U.S. is in danger of having Muslim religious law imposed -- but a Christian version of that is just what Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis and her supporters are seeking, says Bill Maher.

"If you say, as Kim Davis and her ilk and Ted Cruz and these people say, that actually, 'I can ignore the rule of man because the rulebook of God said,' then you are Iran. Then you are Saudi Arabia. Then you are Sharia law," Maher said Friday night during a panel discussion on his Real Time With Bill Maher show on HBO.

Panelist Linda Chavez, a conservative commentator, said since same-sex marriage is a relatively new concept, people need to be "brought along" to get used to it. But another panelist, journalist Michael Moynihan, pointed out that that Davis's intention in denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples is definitely not to bring people along to the idea.

"She comes out of jail, every Republican is waiting to take their photo with her ... everyone's holding up crosses and Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger' is playing," he said.

Author Salman Rushdie, who noted that he has "a small area of expertise with religious bigotry" -- he faced death threats from Muslim extremists who thought his writings blasphemous -- observed that religious bigots tend to cast themselves as victims of persecution.

"While they are denying people their rights, they claim their rights are being denied," he said. "While they are persecuting people, they claim to be persecuted. While they're behaving colossally offensively, they claim to be the offended party."

Watch a clip below.