From CBS This Morning
by Jean Song | CBS News
Arsalan Iftikhar, also known as “The Muslim Guy,” thinks the next civil rights battle in America will be for Muslims.
“We’ve seen Japanese-Americans placed in internment camps during World War II, obviously the African-American civil rights struggle, which continues until today, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic sentiments in the earlier parts of the 20th century. So Islamophobia is the sort of that next chapter in the civil rights history of the United States in my opinion,” Iftikhar said.
When it comes to Islamophobia, the 38-year-old human rights lawyer and senior editor of The Islamic Monthly said Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is “fanning the flames” with his anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“I think Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from the United States is about as un-American as you get,” Iftikhar said. “I think that if you can replace the word ‘Muslims’ with ‘Jews’ and sound like a Nazi, you probably shouldn’t say it.”
For Iftikhar, being a Muslim means following the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Despite the numerous death threats he’s received throughout his career, Iftikhar said he doesn’t feel like his safety is in jeopardy.
“I’m very proud of my country, I’m very proud of my religion, and those are two things that I’m very proud of and that I will never compromise,” Iftikhar said.
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