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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: Murder Has No Religion |
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November 9, 2009 By Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN Editor's Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and contributing editor for Islamica magazine in Washington. Washington (CNN) -- Most of the world's 1.57 billion Muslims know that the Holy Quran states quite clearly that, "Anyone who kills a human being ... it shall be as though he has killed all of mankind. ... If anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he has saved the lives of all of mankind." Accordingly, it should come as little surprise to any reasonable observer that when Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan recently committed his shocking acts of mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas, America's Muslim community of over 7 million felt an added sense of horror and sadness at this senseless attack against the brave men and women of the U.S. armed forces. True to form, many conservative media pundits wasted little time in pointing to reports that Hasan had said "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is great") at the start of his murderous rampage. News coverage continuously showed the looping convenience store black-and-white videotape footage of Hasan wearing traditional white Islamic garb. First of all, someone simply saying "Allahu Akbar" while committing an act of mass murder no more makes their criminal act "Islamic" than a Christian uttering the "Hail Mary" while murdering an abortion medical provider, or someone chanting "Onward, Christian Soldiers" while bombing a gay nightclub, would make their act "Christian" in nature. Continue reading Arsalan’s CNN Column at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/09/iftikhar.fort.hood/ |
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Prayers for Fort Hood Tonight… |
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November 5, 2009 Arsalan Iftikhar
CNN Anderson Cooper AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com First of all, as an American, my heart broke into two pieces tonight when I heard of the tragic mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas earlier this evening when a U.S. Army soldier opened fire on a military processing center at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday; killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 31 others, according to Army officials in a report to CNN. Secondly, as a Muslim, my heart further broke into another two pieces when it was learned that the Fort Hood shooter was a Muslim mental health care professional medical doctor who (similar to the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre) used two handguns during his mass murder rampage. Thus, with my heart currently broken into four distinct pieces right now, needless to say, I am completely speechless (and bumfuzzled) by this latest tragedy at Fort Hood. According to CNN, the gunman (who was apparently captured alive by emergency personnel) was later identified as U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39. Read More... |
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An Evening With Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi |
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October 15, 2009 By Arsalan Iftikhar
True/Slant Contributor When TIME Magazine named 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi as one of their 2004 ‘TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World’, they rightfully noted that Dr. Ebadi was indeed “a woman of steel” and a human rights champion with “a heart of gold”. On October 10, 2003, Dr. Shrin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman (and first Iranian citizen) to be awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. In giving her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, the committee members in Oslo noted her special dedication for “the rights of women and children” around the world. Furthermore, the Nobel committee noted that Dr. Ebadi “has consistently supported non-violence” and as opposed to military armed conflict, she also “favors enlightenment and dialogue as the best path to changing attitudes and resolving conflict” around the world. To the pleasure of us Washingtonians, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Shrin Ebadi was in Washington last night (October 14, 2009) to receive the 3rd annual ‘Human Security Award’ sponsored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation. At an exclusively-private dinner reception of nearly 40 journalists, members of Congress, ambassadors and other dignitaries at the suburban DC uber-mansion of Pakistani Ambassador-At-Large Raffat Mahmood, Dr. Ebadi graciously accepted her award that evening and gave us her current thoughts on Islam, democracy, human rights and the infamous ‘clash of civilizations’ theory. Read More... |
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The Butt Bomber in 'Rectum Gate' |
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October 5, 2009 By Arsalan Iftikhar
True/Slant Contributor In the most recently ‘absurd’ story on terrorism that I have heard in quite a long time, the would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (head of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism efforts) apparently decided to hide his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation. According to CNN, the prince was slightly injured when the bomb exploded in the August 2009 attack a few months ago. Several news reports this week have said that the assailant had hidden the bomb inside of his own RECTUM, but according to the Saudi official, the government assessment discounted those reports, based on various factors. Even so…Are you serious? Terrorists are now literally sticking bombs up their own asses to blow people up? Wow… Read More… |
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CNN Column: Clown Show at the U.N. |
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September 25, 2009 By Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN Editor's Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and contributing editor for Islamica magazine in Washington. (CNN) The United Nations this week hosted two of the world's most notorious dictatorial clowns. The world body gave a prominent forum to Col. Moammar Gadhafi of Libya and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who preside over repressive regimes dominating the nearly 73 million helpless people of Libya and Iran. In his rambling and nonsensical 96-minute tirade at the podium of the General Assembly, Gadhafi deemed it wise to use this opportunity to call the H1N1 flu virus a "military tool," refer to the U.N. Security Council as the "terrorist council" and spew other absurdly ridiculous conspiracy theories. Not to be outdone, Ahmadinejad stuck to his usual ridiculous script of railing against the United States and Israel for all of the world's woes during his U.N. speech that shed no new light on the Iranian state's nuclear strategy. Continue reading Arsalan’s CNN Column at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/24/iftikhar.ahmadinejad.gaddafi/index.html |
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My One DC Crosswalk Moment with Robert Novak |
August 18, 2009
Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
CNN Anderson Cooper 360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com In the interests of full disclosure, I am a proud political liberal. Furtheremore, as a young American Muslim member of the ‘chattering class’ after September 11, it is also pretty safe to say that I have always represented the anti-conservative (and anti-Bush) point of view during my few prodigious years of split-screen television virtual battles thus far on the likes of CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, blah, blah, blah… Having said that, I would be simply remiss if I did not admit some sadness at the recent news of the death of long-time conservative journalist Robert Novak. Although I never had the honor of being on Crossfire (I was still in law school), his Crossfire co-host Tucker Carlson had hosted me several times on his short-lived MSNBC show The Situation with Tucker Carlson . (That’s one degree of separation, for all of you political Kevin Bacon fans out there…) But alas, my one life moment with Robert Novak actually took place on a Washington DC city intersection crosswalk one lazy Sunday afternoon a few years back. Since it was a Sunday, most of downtown DC was completely desolate and I had just walked out of one television studio interview en route to another one a few blocks away. As I neared the closest crosswalk towards the street intersection, I chuckled when I saw one solitary white-haired man waiting at the same crosswalk with his hands in the pockets of his three-piece suit Read more… |
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