AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Muslim-American Mahroh Jahangiri, left, joins a group of protestors gathered in front of the White House, in Washington, Wednesday, February 18, 2015, during a rally to bring awareness of how "Countering Violent Extremism" measures continue to erroneously single out Muslims.
Below is an excerpt from Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms, published on May 17 by Skyhorse Publishing.
Like virtually all Americans, my life changed forever on September 11, 2001-but in a most unique way. Born and raised in the United States, I proudly grew up in my hometown of Chicago and proceeded to receive my "Top 20" education at Washington University in St. Louis, where I received both my undergraduate and law degrees, focusing on international human rights law.
But suddenly after 9/11, I immediately became "the Muslim Guy"-one of the go-to pundits that the American media turned to in its fumbling effort to understand the more than one and a half billion people around the world who are believers in Islam. But my life as a Muslim public figure did not truly get turned upside down until the evening of January 7, 2015, when I was invited to go on air with CNN anchor Don Lemon to discuss that day's terror attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
As millions of CNN viewers around the world witnessed, it was during this now-famous interview when Don Lemon bizarrely asked me the question, "Do you support ISIS?"-simply because I am a Muslim. This surreal question-and my stunned, outraged reaction-instantly went viral, destined to become immortalized as one of those prime examples of media cluelessness that forever define a historical moment.
First of all, Don Lemon's question caught me off guard because, hello, I'm a HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER. I've spent my entire career fighting for values that are antithetical to those of the ruthless terror group. Second, as millions of CNN viewers who watched my interview that evening can vouch, I had devoted nearly the entire interview (almost five minutes out of a total six) categorically condemning that morning's Paris terrorist attack, using the most vehement terms that can be found in the English language today.
From the very beginning of my now-infamous interview, I started by telling Lemon that I was "shocked and horrified" at the Paris attack and that it was "against any normative teaching of Islam." Continuing in this outraged vein, I told Lemon that the Paris terrorists were "irreligious criminals committing acts of mass murder" and that the bloodshed they perpetrated was a "crime against humanity."
How much more condemnation do you need from a Muslim public intellectual?
But apparently these resounding rebukes of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists were not enough for the CNN anchor. As the interview entered its final minute, Lemon asked me about some obscure Russian public opinion poll that claimed that 16 percent of French Muslims felt sympathy for ISIS, the notorious terrorist network, and then proceeded to ask me the question heard around the world: Do you support ISIS?
Now to be completely honest with you, I thought that I had misheard Don Lemon's question. Surely, it was not possible that any national TV anchor would be dumb enough to ask a human rights lawyer this question. But then I remembered that I was dealing with Don Lemon, a TV host known for his off-the-wall questions. And I was filled with a rush of indignation. "Wait," I said. "Did you just ask if I support ISIS?"
This was the absolute extent of the response that I was going to give such a blatantly ridiculous question. Such a patently absurd question did not deserve to be dignified with any more of a reply.
Thankfully, this is where the Internet took over.
In less than 24 hours, over 5,000 articles blossomed online, blasting Lemon for his asinine question, in American publications as disparate as USA Today, BuzzFeed, Deadspin, and The Hollywood Reporter, and hundreds more around the world. USA Today wryly observed that "the saying 'There is no such thing as a dumb question' may not apply" to Lemon's interview with me the night before. Meanwhile, Professor Shaheen Pasha of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst noted in a tweet that the "CNN version of a Fox News anchor [Don Lemon] asks human rights attorney [Arsalan Iftikhar] if he supports ISIS. Head just exploded." And Dave Zirin of The Nation magazine commented that "Asking Arsalan (author of the book Islamic Pacifism) if he supports ISIS, is like confusing Angela Davis with Condi Rice. … If [Don Lemon] had interviewed Nelson Mandela, he would've demanded to know where he stood on Iggy Azalea."
The vast majority of these 5,000-plus articles pointed out that his ISIS question to me was just the latest in a series of major Don Lemon on-air gaffes, including his suggestion that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might have flown into a "black hole" ("I know it's preposterous … but is it preposterous?" he inanely remarked after the plane disappeared), or the time he asked an alleged Bill Cosby rape victim why she did not chomp down on the comedian's penis while he was forcing himself on her. "There are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to do it," he weirdly advised the woman. "You know, meaning the use of teeth, right?"
So I was not the only CNN guest to be drawn into Don Lemon's bizarre alternate reality. Still, it is a deeply unnerving experience to be suddenly associated with international terrorism on national television after a career spent upholding international law and human rights-simply because of my religion. There were expressions of support for me from across the political spectrum-including from Glenn Greenwald on the left and from former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman (and my dear friend) Michael Steele, who immediately tweeted: "Human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar interview [with Don Lemon] is a stunning insult to his work and advocacy." It was enormously comforting to hear these words of support from people on both sides of the political aisle.
But the fact is that Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians are under severe attack from all directions in the West these days. In Western countries where freedom of religion is built into their very constitutional bedrock, one of the great religions of the world is being increasingly criminalized. Republican candidates compete with each other to propose the most authoritarian measures and to use the most incendiary language to deal with the so-called Muslim problem. Muslim men and women are physically attacked and even murdered. Mosques in American cities are vandalized and desecrated. Hate speech that would never be tolerated against other groups-including African Americans, Jews, gays, or women-is given free license in the media, and not just on the predictably strident Fox News shows but on "liberal" HBO as well.
Earlier in my interview with Don Lemon, I spoke out against this demonization of Islam. "It's important not to conflate the actions of a very few (criminals) with a population of 1.7 billion people, which represents 20 percent of the world's population," I remarked. "You know, if people want to blame Islam for things … they can blame us for inventing algebra or modern medical anesthesia or having five out of the last twelve Nobel Peace Prize winners."
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When Christians commit acts of terror, we don't ask priests and pastors to go on national television to condemn these acts
," I also said that night on CNN. "But sadly, Muslim public intellectuals, thinkers, leaders, and Islamic scholars have that double standard that we have to deal with. … I think it's important to keep in mind that bringing religion into it at all is actually serving the purposes of the terrorists."
PROFESSOR JUAN COLE of the University of Michigan has taken up this same theme-the double standard applied to acts of terrorism committed by professed Muslims and those carried out by Christians. "[Oklahoma City bombers] Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols would never be called 'Christian terrorists' even though they were in close contact with the Christian Identity Movement," observed Professor Cole. "No one would speak of Christo-fascism or Judeo-fascism as the Republican[s] … speak of 'Islamo-fascism.' [In fact, it was] persons of Christian heritage [who] invented fascism, not Muslims."
Dangerous demagogues throughout history have sought to reinforce their rule by frightening the public and creating scapegoats on whom to focus their fears and resentments. The Catholic and Jewish scapegoats of an earlier era have become the Muslim scapegoats of today. There is no more logic for this demonization of Muslims today than there was for innocent Jewish people in Nazi Germany or African Americans in the Jim Crow South, or for that matter in our cities of today, where blacks have long been a target of police brutality and systemic violence.
We need to call out those xenophobes who are exploiting fear and hatred and push back against the language of intolerance that is spreading so widely in the political arena and in our media echo chambers. History has taught us that when a group of people are dehumanized by public rhetoric and turned into the proverbial "other," we usually see that tragic societal consequences often follow. As Americans with a deep pluralistic tradition of respect for political, ethnic, and religious diversity, we must now invoke the better angels of our nature before it's too late.
