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Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer and Contributing Editor for Islamica magazine; an international contemporary affairs magazine headquartered in Los Angeles and with editorial offices in London, Amman and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read more...
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Columns
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CNN Column: Extremists of Any Color Can Commit Terrorism |
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March 10, 2010 By Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN Editor's Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and Legal Fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington. Washington (CNN) – Within the last month, our country has witnessed two senseless, high-profile acts of criminal violence that would have been labeled terrorism if brown-skinned Arab Muslim men with foreign-sounding names had committed them. Because two white men committed these acts of violence, however, our political and media chattering class never used the word "terrorism" in its discussions. Most recently, John Patrick Bedell, a 36-year-old man from California, walked up to two security guards outside the Pentagon Metro station in suburban Washington and started shooting. He was then shot and killed. According to The Christian Science Monitor, Bedell appeared "to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent anti-government feelings" and also battled mental illness before his shooting rampage. A few weeks ago, on February 18, another white anti-government extremist named Joseph Stack flew his small airplane into an Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas, killing two people and injuring 13 others. According to media reports, Stack had left behind a disjointed suicide letter in which he expressed his hatred of our American government and outlined grievances with the IRS, chillingly stating that "violence not only is the answer; it is the only answer." Continue reading Arsalan’s CNN Column at: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/09/iftikhar.white.terrorism/ |
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Life of a Muslim De-Radicalizer |
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February 1, 2010 Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com He is a lifelong Texan, registered Republican, die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan and professional Muslim ‘de-radicalizer’ all-in-one. Especially in light of both the recently-foiled Christmas day airline bombing plot in Detroit and earlier high-profile arrests of 5 young American Muslim men in Sargodha, Pakistan; the current debate within the chattering class of our political zeitgeist is revolving around ensuring that young impressionable Western Muslims are not radicalized within the dark recesses of cyberspace and the Internet. This is where professional de-radicalizers like Mohamed Elibiary come into play. As founder and president of The Freedom and Justice Foundation in Dallas, Mr. Elibiary has recently found himself serving the American Muslim community by helping to serve families and communities who are concerned about some of their youngsters naively falling prey to the lure of a ‘new jihadi cool’; a sociopolitical term coined by former CIA forensic psychiatrist Dr. Marc Sageman to categorize some of these young impressionable men who seek to perform acts of criminal vigilante terrorism contrary to every normative mainstream teaching of Islam. Read More... |
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CNN Column: Why Profiling Doesn't Work |
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January 5, 2010
By Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN Editor's Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and Legal Fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington. Washington (CNN) – In light of the botched Christmas Day airliner bombing aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration has announced new enhanced "guidelines" requiring airline passengers traveling from (and through) 14 different countries to undergo especially rigorous security screening before being able to fly into the United States. Under these new TSA guidelines, security screeners will conduct "full pat-down body checks" and extensive carry-on luggage checks for all passengers traveling from a country which the U.S. considers to be a "security risk." These 14 countries are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Additionally, passengers traveling from any other foreign country may also be checked at 'random' as well. Continue reading Arsalan’s CNN Column at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/05/iftikhar.profiling.does.not.work/index.html |
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The Return of the Butt Bombers |
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December 30, 2009 By Arsalan Iftikhar
True/Slant Contributor Holy underwear, Batman! Looks like the ‘Butt Bombers’ are at it again… From the most-recent thwarted attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to Detroit Metro Airport in Michigan, it seems that Al-Qaeda is again resorting to the ‘butt bomber’ modus operadi in trying to carry out alleged acts of terrorism. According to ABC News, one “singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda’s attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.” As seen in these photos, the alleged bomb consisted of a packet of powder sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian. Al Qaeda took credit Monday for the attempted bombing, boasted of its ability to overcome U.S. intelligence and airport security, and promised new attacks. But this is not the first time a ‘butt bomber’ has used the nether regions of their body to try and explode a suicide bomb. Read More… |
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Holy Jihad, Batman! Al-Qaeda Offers Condolences? |
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December 14, 2009 Arsalan Iftikhar
CNN AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com Holy jihad, Batman! Did Al-Qaeda just officially offer condolences to innocent civilians murdered by their stupid acts of terrorism? Well, sort of… According to CNN, Adam Gadahn- also known as ‘Azzam the American’- appeared in a 17-minute video released on Islamist online forums late Friday, offering condolences to the families of innocent people killed in Al-Qaeda attacks. “We express our condolences to the families of the Muslim men, women and children killed in these criminal acts…” he says in the video. Wait a minute. Did a member of Al-Qaeda just admit that their acts of terrorism are ‘criminal acts’? Well, that’s a first, indeed. Read More… |
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The 5 ‘Wanna-Be’ Terrorists: Wake-Up Call for Our Muslim Youth |
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December 11, 2009 Arsalan Iftikhar
CNN AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com Dude…You have got to be kidding me… With the recent arrest of five young American Muslims in Sargodha, Pakistan on alleged charges of terrorism by Pakistani authorities, many of the over 7 million American Muslims were collectively groaning and rolling our eyes whilst saying: “Are you kidding me? Thanks a lot, you idiots…” A recent CNN article noted that the potential radicalization of American Muslim teenagers has now become known as “jihadi cool,” a term coined by author/psychiatrist (and former CIA official) Dr. Marc Sageman. “The path for a lot of these kids is essentially like at-risk gangbangers, who want to ’stand up’ for their community, to address grievances of the global Muslim community more effectively than they’ve seen the elder generation address them since 9/11.” Many professional ‘de-radicalizers’ have said that the great majority of these young men have little sense of what they are doing. They are “extremely shallow theologically and even ideologically.” Read More… |
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