"Real Time" host Bill Maher called out the left's hesitancy to criticize China, declaring the foreign adversary as "the new Islam" in political discourse.

During Friday night's panel discussion, Maher sounded the alarm on China's AI advancements with the launch of DeepSeek, echoing references to the "Sputnik moment" for the US. He also cited comments from former FBI director Christopher Wray, who said the Chinese Communist Party was positioning "malware" against civilians and is development of Salt Typhoon that can "read the texts of every single American."

"And it is kind of an evil empire, you know," Maher said. "And this kind of gets back to the DEI thing because when you make everything about race, not good!"

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"I mean, we couldn't look into the origins of COVID being from the lab, which now the CIA, this week, has joined the FBI and many other organizations saying it probably did come from a lab. I said it from the beginning. It's being studied in this lab where it breaks out. Really? We're gonna even wonder about this? Now, maybe it was a bat… [but] we couldn't say that because the New York Times said to even look into that is racist," Maher continued.

In 2021, A New York Times science and health reporter tweeted that the "lab leak" coronavirus theory had "racist roots" and was not "plausible."

Maher went on, "China's like the new Islam. We can't be honest about them because they're not White. And China, okay, I'm sorry, kids, they do some bad things, China. And we should just recognize that."

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"This is one of the broader problems with this obsession of all of these ideologies from the left," British writer Dan Jones reacted, "is that it hamstrings you in terms of thinking common sense pol-"

"Thinking!" Maher blurted out. 

"Thinking," Jones said in agreement, "because you know if you're framing it in terms of a war, you're fighting with one arm tied behind your back. You're just not thinking about the world as you see it, you're optimizing the signifying to the group around you."

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Author Max Brooks went on to pan what he calls the "guilty Honkies" who are "only interested in assuaging their guilt."

"Now the good news about this country, we have people of every ethnicity. If you want to take on not China but the Chinese Communist Party, start with Chinese Americans who fled China, right, because they'll have honest conversations, and they're much American as all of us and they don't have guilty honkiness," Brooks said.

"Same with Muslims who fled Muslm countries," Maher responded. 

"You want to talk s--- about Fidel Castro? Go down to Miami. You'll find plenty of people willing to have that conversation," Brooks added.

– Fox News Digital's David Rutz contributed to this report.

HOUSTON — New photos taken by Fox News Digital provide a look inside Bourbon Street killer Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston. 

Photos of the inside of Jabbar’s mobile home in a majority-Muslim neighborhood in north Houston revealed multiple copies of the Quran, a book on Christianity and a book about teaching children about Islam. 

Jabbar, 42, rammed a white truck into a crowd full of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday around 3:15 a.m. He then began shooting at law enforcement officers, who returned fire, killing Jabbar on the scene. The rampage, which is being investigated as a terrorist attack, left 15 dead, including Jabbar, and more than 30 people injured. 

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Jabbar, who served in the U.S. Army for 13 years, including one tour in Afghanistan, was flying an ISIS flag on his truck during the attack and was inspired by the Islamic state. 

The FBI and a Houston SWAT team raided Jabbar’s home early Thursday morning. The team left the front door off its hinges and cracked open, revealing much of the house’s living room, kitchen and a glimpse of a bedroom. 

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From outside the front porch, Jabbar’s living room could be seen left in a state of disarray by law enforcement officers who searched the home. A black suitcase lay strewn on the floor and a dart board and fake fireplace could be seen on the far side of the wall. 

Next-door neighbors described Jabbar to Fox News Digital as a quiet, respectful neighbor who was devoted to his Islamic religion. A bookshelf sitting near the front door seems to back his religious devotion, containing several copies of the Quran and books about Islam as well as one about Christianity. 

On the opposite side of the house, Jabbar had an elevated desk with a computer set up and a can of pepper spray, as well as several other items. A green, military-style backpack also lay near the kitchen. 

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Jabbar was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and was living in a rented mobile home in Houston. The house is in a neighborhood among several other mobile homes and RVs, just about a seven-minute walk from the Masjid Bilal Mosque and Darul Arqam Islamic school. 

Much of the neighborhood is in an extreme state of disrepair with dilapidated houses, parts of the road ripped up and trash and stray animals present throughout the street. Jabbar’s yard had several ducks and chickens wandering about and several goats were in another yard nearby. 

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A next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told Fox News Digital he had seen Jabbar loading up a white pickup truck on Tuesday outside his Houston home, the morning before the attack in New Orleans, where he rammed the truck into New Year's revelers. The neighbor said he spoke with Jabbar, who told him he had gotten a job and was moving to Louisiana. The neighbor said he was under the impression Jabbar had gotten another job in information technology.

"He said he got the job that day in Louisiana," the neighbor said, describing how Jabbar was loading "very light stuff, handheld stuff, not heavy stuff" into the truck.

"The morning he was moving, I asked him if he needed help moving out, as a neighbor, 'Do you need any help for moving?' He said, 'I'm OK,'" the neighbor told Fox News Digital.

The neighbor expressed disbelief upon learning Jabbar was accused of the Bourbon Street bloodshed.

"Blow my mind, I was shocked, somebody seized the carpet under my feet, I was just like too shocked, unbelievable. 'This really happened?'" the neighbor said. "Like I said, we still don't believe, we still don't believe that that's the person, just there's no way, it can't be like that."