Arsalan Iftikhar (born September 1, 1977) is an American human rights lawyer, global media commentator and author of the books including Fear of a Muslim Planet: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order[1] and SCAPEGOATS: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies & Threatens Our Freedoms which former US President Jimmy Carter called “an important book that shows Islamophobia must be addressed urgently.”[2]
CNN also named one of Arsalan’s opinion editorials as one of the top “100 CNN Op-Eds That Tell The Story of the 2010s” decade[6] and he also won the 2013 Distinguished Young Alumni Award from Washington University School of Law.[7]
In May 2011, Arsalan was named one of the top 12 Muslim Twitter accounts in the world by The Huffington Post,[8] and he was also a featured interview for a December 2012 ABC News documentary called "Back to the Beginning" by Christiane Amanpour, on the shared origins of the major world religions today.[9]
Biography
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer of Pakistani descent[10] and founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and longtime Editor for The Islamic Monthly magazine.[11]
Arsalan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999 and received his Juris Doctor 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]
Career
For over seven years, Arsalan was a regular weekly contributor on the Barbershop[13] segment for the National Public Radio (NPR) show Tell Me More with Michel Martin.[14] Arsalan was also the former National Legal Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) during the George W. Bush administration.[15]
In March 2008, Arsalan was one of four international debaters selected to participate in The Doha Debates on BBC World Television.[18]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.[19]
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.[21] 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.[22]
On January 19, 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.[23][24]
He has authored two major books that critically examine the rise of global anti-Muslim bigotry[25]. In 2016, he published Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies & Threatens Our Freedoms, which was praised by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter as “an important book that shows Islamophobia must be addressed urgently.”[26] In 2023, Iftikhar released Fear of a Muslim Planet: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order, a work that explores the global spread of Islamophobia, beginning with the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks and addressing its ideological roots, including the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.[1] The book critiques the Trump presidency’s role in normalizing anti-Muslim sentiment and draws attention to anti-Muslim policies and violence worldwide, including in China, Myanmar, and parts of Europe.[27]
Selected publications
Iftikhar, Arsalan (September 8, 2011). Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p.310. ISBN978-1463553128.
Iftikhar, Arsalan (2016). Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms. Reza Aslan (1sted.). New York: Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. ISBN978-1-5107-0579-1.
Iftikhar, Arsalan (2021). Fear of a Muslim Planet: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order. New York: Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. ISBN978-1-5107-6187-2.
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