Arsalan Iftikhar

Arsalan Iftikhar (born September 1, 1977, Norfolk, Virginia, United States) is an American human rights lawyer, global media commentator and author of the book SCAPEGOATS: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies & Threatens Our Freedoms which President Jimmy Carter called “an important book that shows Islamophobia must be addressed urgently.”^[1]

Arsalan is the founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and he also serves as senior editor for The Islamic Monthly magazine. He has been an adjunct professor of religious studies at DePaul University and he is also a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders). He also won the 2013 Distinguished Young Alumni Award from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

In May 2011, Arsalan was named one of the top 12 Muslim Twitter accounts in the world by The Huffington Post,^[2] and he was also a featured interview for a December 2012 ABC News documentary called "Back to the Beginning" by Christiane Amanpour,^[3] on the shared origins of the major world religions today.

Biography

Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer of Pakistani descent^[4] and founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and Senior Editor for The Islamic Monthly magazine.

For over seven years, Arsalan was a regular weekly contributor on the Barbershop^[5] segment for the National Public Radio (NPR) show Tell Me More with Michel Martin.^[6] Arsalan was also the former National Legal Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) during the George W. Bush administration. Arsalan also currently works as a consultant at Cook Ross, Inc,^[7] a Washington DC consulting firm specializing in organizational development, leadership development, and diversity & inclusion issues.

Arsalan's interviews, commentaries and analyses have regularly appeared in virtually every major media outlet in the world including: CNN, BBC World News, Al-Jazeera English, The TODAY Show, National Public Radio (NPR), FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Associated Press, C-SPAN, Voice of America (VOA), Agence France-Presse (AFP), USA TODAY, NBC Nightly News, The Washington Post, ABC World News Tonight, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, TIME, Newsweek, The Economist & ABC News "NIGHTLINE" and Meet The Press on NBC News (and many more worldwide).

His opinion columns have appeared in major publications such as: CNN.com, USA TODAY, Houston Chronicle, Detroit Free Press, The Providence Journal, San Diego Union-Tribune, Charlotte Observer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Miami Herald and Esquire Magazine (Middle East edition).

In March 2008, Arsalan was one of four international debaters selected to participate in The Doha Debates on BBC World Television.^[8] The Doha Debates are broadcast to over 300 million people worldwide on BBC World TV and its stage has been shared with the likes of Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former United States President Bill Clinton. Arsalan and his debate partner argued for the motion: "This House believes that Muslims are failing to do enough to combat extremism." (He and his partner won the debate.)^[9]

In addition to The Doha Debates, some of Arsalan’s other international speaking venues have included: Harvard University, Stanford University, Georgetown University, Mount Holyoke College, Washington University in St. Louis, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, University of Michigan School of Law, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), The British Museum in London and The Aspen ideas Festival.^[10]

Additionally, Arsalan was cast as a movie extra in the Warner Brothers spy movie thriller Body of Lies (October 2008) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.^[11] Arsalan was also a contributing author to Taking Back Islam (Rodale Press), winner of the 2003 Wilbur Communications Award for Religion Book of the Year. In 2006, the French Ambassador to the United States personally selected Arsalan for the Personnalites d’Avenir (Personalities of the Future) World Leader Program in Paris sponsored by the French Foreign Ministry.

Arsalan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999 and received his Juris Doctor law degree from Washington University School of Law in 2003. A native of Chicago, he specializes in international human rights law and is licensed to practice law in Washington DC.^[12]

Controversy

On January 19th, 2015, Iftikhar said on MSNBC that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal "might be trying to, you know, scrub some of the brown off his skin as he runs to the right in a Republican presidential exploratory bid." Iftikhar said this in reference to Jindal's statements about supposed Muslim "no-go zones" in Europe. Iftikhar never apologized for his statement, and on January 20th a spokeswoman for MSNBC said "We found this guest's comments offensive and unacceptable, and we don't plan on inviting him back."^[13][14]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Arsalan Iftikhar

• Official personal website
• Arsalan on BBC Doha Debates
• Christian Science Monitor Article on Arsalan on September 11, 2008
• Arsalan's YouTube Channel.