In episode three of Unpacking Islamophobia, the Bridge Initiative’s Arsalan Iftikhar sits down with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Islamophobia in American and European politics — and on the rise of genocidal Islamophobia in India, Myanmar and China.

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Why the Two Halves of This Conversation Belong Together

It is easy to treat political Islamophobia in Washington and London as a matter of rhetoric, and the persecution of Muslims in India, Myanmar and Xinjiang as a matter of atrocity — two different subjects. This conversation puts them on the same line, which is where they belong. The language that makes a community suspect in one country is the language that licenses what is done to it in another.

15 March: International Day to Combat Islamophobia

Worth knowing, and not widely known: the United Nations General Assembly has designated 15 March as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The date marks the Christchurch mosque attacks of 2019.

Who Is Speaking

Arsalan Iftikhar is senior researcher for the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding — a human rights lawyer, a researcher on Islamophobia and a global media commentator. He is the author of Fear of a Muslim Planet: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order and Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms, which President Jimmy Carter called “an important book that shows Islamophobia must be addressed urgently”. He is a regular commentator for NPR and has appeared on CNN, Al Jazeera English, BBC World News and NBC’s Meet the Press, among others.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. Sworn in in January 2019, she became the first African refugee to sit in Congress, the first woman of colour to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to it. Born in Somalia, she and her family fled the civil war when she was eight and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States in the 1990s. Before running for office she was a community educator at the University of Minnesota, a policy fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and a senior policy aide to the Minneapolis City Council.

“Unpacking Islamophobia” is produced by the Bridge Initiative, Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. Shared by the South African Muslim Network. info@samnet.co.za