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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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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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Hey Switzerland: We Don’t Need Your Minarets |
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November 30, 2009 By Arsalan Iftikhar
True/Slant Contributor First of all: Yes, it was indeed a slap in the face to Swiss (and European) Muslims that a recent ‘popular referendum’ vote backed primarily by right-wing nationalist parties was approved by 57.5 percent of the population Sunday; forcing the government to “declare illegal the building of any new [mosque] minarets” in Switzerland. According to reports, the ‘referendum’ does “not affect the country’s four existing minarets”. So much for being a ‘neutral’ country, Switzerland…Well done… Secondly; let us also remember that the sociopolitical concept of a ‘popular referendum’ is where you allow the general population to vote on what becomes enacted as law, even though they may have no idea (or little regard) for what could very possibly be the infringing of basic human or constitutional rights. For example; had ’slavery’ or ‘inter-racial marriage’ been put to the ‘popular referendum’ vote here in the United States, you can bet your sweet little Swiss watch that we could very well have seen blacks being regarded as 3/5ths of a human being and slavery go well into the 20th century here in America. Read More… |
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