Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, global media commentator and author of several books, including FEAR OF A MUSLIM PLANET and SCAPEGOATS which former US President Jimmy Carter called “an important book that shows Islamophobia must be addressed urgently.”
Arsalan is the founder of the GeoMuslim Institute (GMI) which is a non-profit global watchdog group dedicated to challenging anti-Muslim bigotry and promoting human rights around the world. Previously, Arsalan was a faculty member for 5 years at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington DC where he researched and wrote about Islamophobia as a Senior Research Fellow for The Bridge Initiative. He is also a national advisory board member for the John C. Danforth Center for Religion & Politics at his alma mater Washington University in St. Louis and Arsalan has also been an adjunct professor of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago.
Additionally, Arsalan was also awarded the 2013 Distinguished Young Alumni Award from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. He is a longtime on-air commentator for National Public Radio (NPR) and CNN named one of Arsalan’s opinion editorials as one of the top “100 CNN Op-Eds That Tell The Story of the 2010s” decade in December 2019.
Throughout his career, Arsalan’s on-the-record media interviews have appeared in virtually every major news outlet in the world including: CNN, BBC World News, Al-Jazeera English, The TODAY Show, National Public Radio, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Associated Press, C-SPAN, Voice of America, Agence France-Presse, USA TODAY, NBC Nightly News, The Washington Post, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, TIME, Newsweek, The Economist, ABC News “NIGHTLINE” & NBC News “Meet The Press” (among hundreds more worldwide).
Over the years, Arsalan’s published columns and written articles have appeared in major publications around the world including: USA TODAY, TIME.com, The Atlantic, CNN.com Esquire Magazine (Middle East edition), Houston Chronicle, Detroit Free Press, The Providence Journal, San Diego Union-Tribune, Charlotte Observer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Miami Herald, The Jakarta Post and many more worldwide.
Throughout his career, Arsalan has given keynote speeches and guest lectures at prestigious institutions & global venues around the world including: Harvard University, Stanford University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, Brown University, The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, Cornell University, University of Michigan School of Law, Washington University in St. Louis, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), The Newseum, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Carter Center, The British Museum in London, the U.S. State Department International Speakers Program and The Aspen Ideas Festival.
In March 2008, Arsalan was one of four international debaters selected to participate in The Doha Debates on BBC World News Television, whose stage has been shared with the likes of Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former United States President Bill Clinton.
Additionally, Arsalan was cast as a Hollywood movie ‘featured extra’ in the October 2008 Warner Brothers spy movie thriller Body of Lies starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. He was also a contributing author to Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today (Columbia University Press) and Taking Back Islam (Rodale Press); winner of the 2003 Wilbur Communications Award for Religion Book of the Year.
In 2006, the French Ambassador to the United States personally named Arsalan to the Personnalites d’Avenir (Personalities of the Future) World Leader Program in Paris sponsored by the French Foreign Ministry.
Arsalan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999 and received his law doctorate from Washington University School of Law in 2003. A native of Chicago, he specializes in international human rights law and is licensed to practice law in Washington DC.
