At the top of NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, host Chuck Todd dismissed security concerns over terrorism as nothing more that bigotry: “How will the ISIS threat and the politics of fear impact the 2016 campaign? Also, Syrian refugees and America, are there legitimate reasons to slow the process or is this just Islamaphobia?”
Further teasing the upcoming segment later in the show, Todd proclaimed: “...the Republican presidential candidates have been playing on the politics of fear in an extraordinary way.” After soundbites ran of some of the GOP contenders discussing the topic, he lectured: “The politics of fear can be effective politically, but when does tough rhetoric turn into Islamophobia?”
Minutes later, Todd interviewed The Islamic Monthly senior editor Arsalan Iftikhar “who is also writing a book about Islamophobia in America.” Todd sympathetically wondered: “How tough has it been to be a Muslim-American this week?”
Iftikhar lamented:
Well, Chuck, in the seven days since the Paris attacks, we've seen mosques attacked here in the United States in Omaha, Nebraska; Pflugerville Texas. There was a 43-year-old man in Saint Petersburg, Florida, who was arrested by the FBI for saying that he's going to shoot and kill every single Muslim child that he sees. And Southwest Airlines actually had two or three flights where Muslims were taken off of the flights simply because they were Muslim. And so, it's pretty much been par for the course since September 11th.
When panelist and Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker suggested “Muslim community leaders” demand Republican candidates “tone down the rhetoric,” Iftikhar ranted: “...during the 2008 presidential campaign when there were whisper campaigns going around of Barack Obama being some sort of crypto-Muslim Manchurian candidate, you didn't see anybody, you know, speak out against that until Colin Powell actually came on this show to tell his fellow Republicans to shut the hell up.”
He then implored his fellow panelists: “I wonder if this forum will take place in, you know, these American-Muslim internment camps which I'm sure is going to be the next step in the rhetoric. And I hope you all come visit me in these internment camps because it's getting absurd.”
National Journal’s Ron Fournier encouraged Iftikhar to scold Americans over their social media activism in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks: “...you asked on your Twitter feed, I think just yesterday, why is it that so many people put the French flag in their avatar, but very few people put the flag of an African – Mali in their Twitter feed?...Why do you think so few people have rallied behind Mali in that public of a way?”
Iftikhar predictably replied: “I mean, I think that race has a lot to do with it. I mean, you have a black predominantly Muslim country in Mali, which is 92% Muslim and then you have a white European country like France.”
Wrapping up Republican bashing, Iftikhar announced: “You know, it's important to keep in mind, there was a recent poll that happened in Iowa amongst Republican registered voters, which showed that 33% of Iowa Republicans believe that Islam should be illegal in America today, against the law, we still –”
Todd interjected: “So how do we change this? Public opinion – overall, 56% of Americans say it doesn't match American values. So is it an education campaign?” Parker joked: “Re-education camps for adult Americans.”
Iftikhar continued: “Yeah, let's not forget 59% of Americans today believe that Barack Obama is still a Muslim....You know, "Muslim" has become a slur in America today.” Todd agreed: “It is.”
Here is a full transcript of the November 22 segment:
10:54 AM ET
CHUCK TODD: Welcome back. The attacks in Paris have shifted the focus of the campaign, at least temporarily, from the economy to terrorism. And while President Obama's response to the Paris attacks was roundly criticized for being a bit tone deaf and dispassionate, the Republican presidential candidates have been playing on the politics of fear in an extraordinary way.
DONALD TRUMP: A database is okay. And a watchlist is okay. And surveillance is okay. If you don't mind, I want to be – I want to surveil! I want surveillance of these people that are coming in. I want surveillance of certain mosques, okay? If that's okay. I want surveillance. And you know what? We've had it before and we'll have it again.
SEN. TED CRUZ [R-TX]: Those planes that flew into the Twin Towers weren't piloted by a bunch of ticked off Presbyterians.
BEN CARSON: If there's a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you're probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you're probably going to push your children out of the way. Doesn't mean that you hate all dogs.
TODD: The politics of fear can be effective politically, but when does tough rhetoric turn into Islamophobia? That's the discussion we're going to have right after the break.
(...)
10:58 AM SEGMENT
CHUCK TODD: Welcome back. We're going to talk about whether the political response to the ISIS attacks has boiled over into Islamophobia. To have that conversation, I'm also joined by Arsalan Iftikhar, he's a human rights lawyer and a senior editor of The Islamic Monthly, who is also writing a book about Islamophobia in America. The panel is also back, as well. Arsalan, has this week been a – how tough has it been to be a Muslim-American this week?
ARSALAN IFTIKHAR: Well, Chuck, in the seven days since the Paris attacks, we've seen mosques attacked here in the United States in Omaha, Nebraska; Pflugerville Texas. There was a 43-year-old man in Saint Petersburg, Florida, who was arrested by the FBI for saying that he's going to shoot and kill every single Muslim child that he sees. And Southwest Airlines actually had two or three flights where Muslims were taken off of the flights simply because they were Muslim. And so, it's pretty much been par for the course since September 11th.
TODD: I want to play – we've seen all the Republican rhetoric this time, I want to play for sort of a comparison, what you've heard today from some of these Republican Presidential candidates and what we heard from the last Republican President on the issue of Islam, here it is.
DONALD TRUMP: I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering
GEORGE W. BUSH: The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO [R-FL]: That would be like saying we weren't at war with Nazis because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi party but weren't violent themselves. This is a clash of civilizations.
BUSH: When it comes to the common rights and needs of men and women there is no clash of civilizations.
BEN CARSON: If there's a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you're probably not going to assume something good about that dog.
BUSH: We respect the faith, and we welcome people of all faiths in America. And we're not going to let the war on terror or terrorists cause us to change our values.
TODD: Arsalan, what did the Bush White House do behind the scenes to make sure they got this right?
IFTIKHAR: Well, I think, you know, what George W. Bush said after 9/11 in terms of ensuring solidarity with American Muslims, sadly, he'd be considered an outcast in today's 2015 Republican Party. You know, we see people like Donald Trump saying that we should have a database of all American Muslims.
I wonder if the two Muslim members of Congress, my buddy, Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, would they be in that database with Mohammed Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, funniest guy in America, Dave Chappelle? You know, we talked about special IDs for Muslims. Would that be similar to the yellow Stars of David that many Jewish people had to wear in Nazi Germany? Would it be a yellow crescent this time?
You know, we see people like Donald Trump saying that we should have a database of all American Muslims. I wonder if the two Muslim members of Congress, my buddy, Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, would they be in that database? Would Mohammed Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, funniest guy in America, Dave Chappelle? You know, we talk about special IDs for Muslims. Would that be similar to the yellow Stars of David that many Jewish people had to wear in Nazi Germany? Would it be a yellow crescent this time?
KATHLEEN PARKER: Would it be helpful if you, if some Muslim community leaders got together with these candidates and actually requested a sit-down to have a conversation to tone down the rhetoric, ask them specifically to tone down the rhetoric? And has anything like that taken place that you know of?
IFTIKHAR: You know, Kathleen, you know, during the 2008 presidential campaign when there were whisper campaigns going around of Barack Obama being some sort of crypto-Muslim Manchurian candidate, you didn't see anybody, you know, speak out against that until Colin Powell actually came on this show to tell his fellow Republicans to shut the hell up.
You know, we need allies from outside of the community, we need people, you know, to speak on the behalf of American principles of tolerance and pluralism. You know, people expect Muslims to speak out. But it's important for allies to speak out, as well.
PARKER: Of course, I agree with – sorry, I agree with that, I was just simply thinking that if you put those people on the spot, if they refuse to sit down and have a conversation, that's one statement unto itself.
TODD: Almost like a forum.
PARKER: Yeah, exactly.
TODD: Maybe a public forum?
PARKER: A public forum.
IFTIKHAR: Well, I wonder if this forum will take place in, you know, these American-Muslim internment camps which I'm sure is going to be the next step in...
PARKER: Maybe right here.
IFTIKHAR: ...the rhetoric. And I hope you all come visit me in these internment camps because it's getting absurd. I mean, it's absolutely, you know, beyond the pail that, you know, when Ben Carson says that Muslims should be allowed to be President, you know, he clearly hasn't read the Religious Test Clause of the Constitution.
And so, in many cases, not only should these people not be allowed to run for President, they should retroactively fail 8th grade social studies for not knowing the Constitution.
RON FOURNIER [NATIONAL JOURNAL]: Another public forum is Twitter and you asked on your Twitter feed, I think just yesterday, why is it that so many people put the French flag in their avatar, but very few people put the flag of an African – Mali in their Twitter feed? You answer that question. Why do you think so few people have rallied behind Mali in that public of a way?
IFTIKHAR: I mean, I think that race has a lot to do with it. I mean, you have a black predominantly Muslim country in Mali, which is 92% Muslim and then you have a white European country like France. And obviously, you know, we're horrified at the Paris terrorist attacks, but there are terrorist attacks that occur every single day.
Let's not forget in the same week as the Paris terrorist attacks, there were suicide bombings by ISIS in Beirut, Lebanon, in Baghdad, Iraq, you know, but we never saw any sort of, you know, moral outrage –
HELENE COOPER [NEW YORK TIMES]: Don't forget Nigera.
IFTIKHAR: And Nigeria, as well.
FOURNIER: Is it simply racism, though? If I, for one, had the French flag, I didn't even think of putting the Mali flag in my avatar, what does it say about me?
IFTIKHAR: Well, I have to give Facebook credit here, because Facebook created a photo tool for the people of France –
PARKER: That made it easy.
IFTIKHAR: It made it a lot easier, but again, we have to have these conversations. But you know, what's most important is that we're letting this talk by these Republican presidential frontrunners, you know, go unchallenged. When Ben Carson –
PARKER: That's –
IFTIKHAR: When Ben Carson, you know, refers to refugees as "rabid dogs," and you know, Donald Trump talks about “these people” and “I'm going to surveil people and I'm going to make them have special IDs and databases” and people are cheering. When you don't see any push-back, any meaningful push-back, it allows it to go unchallenged.
TOM BROKAW: Well, another thing that I think that happens within the Republican Party, apart from those who are running for President, there's been no voice on that side to challenge their own presidential candidates.
And the President, I think, has made a mistake by just saying, “We know what we're doing, trust us.” When actually, there's palpable fear out there. He ought to engage the American people in a dialogue that goes beyond just some kind of a statement from far off Asia, when he's talking about what we can do.
COOPER: I think, though, that there's also a responsibility in the news media to make sure that we're covering these events, we're covering this stuff the way it is happening.
BROKAW: Right.
COOPER: For instance, there's still no link between Syrian refugees and the attack in Paris, okay? Nobody is – you know, these guys are Belgian and French nationals, they're not Syrian refugees, we don't have a link to that yet. And yet, all of this rhetoric, we’re not – I would love to see the press and I'd like to see the media really –
TODD: There's an untested passport. There's a rumor of a passport
COOPER: Right but that's it, that's it.
BROKAW: Well I agree, listen. You know, when Donald Trump talks about security or Ben Carson, we're talking about three-year-old orphans who are orphans and refugees because of American policies.
COOPER: Yes.
FOURNIER: This – excuse me, but if this week is a reflection of how our leaders are going to respond to the next 9/11, I really think that we're one major hit away from a national unraveling. And I think of Bill Clinton who talked about in times of insecurity, people would rather have a leader who is wrong and strong than right and weak.
Well, we have a lot leaders right now, especially on the right side of the paradigm, who are trying to pretend that they're strong and they're very, very wrong.
TODD: Arsalan, I'm going to give you the last word.
IFTIKHAR: You know, it's important to keep in mind, there was a recent poll that happened in Iowa amongst Republican registered voters, which showed that 33% of Iowa Republicans believe that Islam should be illegal in America today, against the law, we still –
TODD: So how do we change this? Public opinion – overall, 56% of Americans say it doesn't match American values. So is it an education campaign?
PARKER: Re-education camps for adult Americans.
IFTIKHAR: Yeah, let's not forget 59% of Americans today believe that Barack Obama is still a Muslim. I feel like Jerry Seinfeld needs to pop on and say, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." You know, "Muslim" has become a slur in America today.
TODD: It is. Well, Arsalan Iftikhar, thanks for coming. It’s good to see you.
IFTIKHAR: My pleasure. It’s good to be here.
TODD: We'll have you again, appreciate it. And we're going to have more of this conversation, I promise you, guys.
