October 19, 2009

Arsalan Iftikhar (#8) was named along with Queen Rania (of Jordan at #1), Aziz Ansari (of NBC's Parks and Recreation at #3), Reza Aslan (#2) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (#5) as one of "The 10 Best Twitter Accounts Muslims Should Follow"

See entire list of "The Top 10 Best Twitter Accounts Muslims Should Follow" HERE...

By Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN

Editor's Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.com and contributing editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington. This is one in a series of letters to the new president that will appear on CNN.com in the next several weeks.

(CNN) -- First of all, as one of more than 66 million Americans of all races, religions and ethnicities who voted for you, your electoral victory was one of the proudest moments of our collective lives.

As our American political history witnessed the magnitude of our nation's first African-American president, our society was also able to collectively (and finally) exhale, knowing that the mailbox at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. would now read "Obama" instead of "Bush"...

Read Arsalan's entire CNN.com column at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/12/iftikhar.obama/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

International human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar and counter-terrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on Al-Jazeera English (June 30, 2010) to discuss the ACLU lawsuit challenging the ‘No-Fly’ List. 

Watch 7-minute video of Arsalan at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK0I2SKh4KE

Date Posted: June 6, 2010 

Arsalan Iftikhar and Mona Eltahawy on BBC World Service ‘NewsHour’ program on whether it is now ‘sexy’ and ‘cool’ to be Muslim in America 

Interview begins at 36:45 mark here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p007wvpy

Date Posted: May 24, 2010 

From “Visions and Voices” (co-sponsored by WFIU Radio and Indiana University) 

Arsalan Iftikhar likes to call himself a “freelance hustler.” A human rights lawyer by training, over the years he’s become a fixture on CNN, NPR and other media outlets. Iftikhar is working, he says, to reframe the discussion about Islam. 

“I think it’s very important for Muslims, both here in America and worldwide, to tell our own narrative,” Iftikhar says. “For far too long after 9/11 we had a bunch of old white guys telling Muslims how we should act or how we should feel.” 

Iftikhar says too often Islam and Muslims are portrayed as violent, radical or extremist. He says he’s working to counter those stereotypes and as well as other misconceptions people may hold of the faith and its practitioners.