Conservative minister Anna Soubry accused journalist Mehdi Hasan of making "cheap political points" over human rights during a fiery exchange on BBC Question Time on Thursday night.
David Cameron is expected to soon ask the House of Commons to approve expanding military action against Isis from Iraq into Syria.
Soubry told the Question Time audience: "We have never known anything like Isis. It's not just about what they did in Paris, or what they did with the aeroplane, or in Baghdad, they behead people, they murder people because they are gay, they are beyond barbarity we have have never known anything like this before."
However Hasan noted the UK government was "close allies" with Saudi Arabia which he said also "beheads people".
Soubry hit back, accusing Hasan of being an "apologist". She added: "They do not go onto the streets of Paris and shoot people."
"You are just making a cheap points," she added. "This is beyond cheap political points Mehdi."