Author and religious scholar Reza Aslan said on Sunday that pundits and leaders who claim Muslims haven’t condemned the attacks in Paris “don’t own Google.”
“Let’s be clear that every single organization, major organization, Muslim organization throughout the world and in the United States, every prominent individual, be it political or religious leaders, everyone has condemned not just this attack but every attack that occurs in the name of Islam,” Aslan told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Anyone who keeps saying that we need to hear the moderate voice of Islam, ‘why aren’t Muslims denouncing these violent attacks,’ doesn’t own Google,” he said, to laughs from the panel.
Aslan’s fellow panelist Arsalan Iftikhar — a Muslim human rights lawyer who on Thursday was inexplicably asked if he supported ISIS by CNN anchor Don Lemon — agreed that Muslims are held to a different standard than other believers when members of their faith commit crimes.
“The answer to Islamic bigotry is Islamic pluralism, and so that’s why I put the onus on the Muslim community,” Aslan continued, “but I also recognize that that work is being done, that the voice of condemnation is deafening.”
“If you don’t hear it, you’re not listening,” he added.
Watch the clip, courtesy of Media Matters:
