At a “diversity leadership event,” the actor Riz Ahmed opened up about his fears of anti-Muslim prejudice: “it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now.”
Ahmed is opening up about his experiences with discrimination — including a time when he says Homeland Security blocked him from boarding a plane on his way to a “Star Wars” convention in Chicago.
Ahmed, who is of Pakistani descent, said that due to his race he’s typically stopped and searched at airports. He said airport security guards have swabbed him for explosives, then requested selfies or start rapping his lyrics.
It is not “due to his race” that Riz Ahmed was stopped and searched at airports, but due, rather, to his faith. Hindus, of the same “race” as Ahmed, were not stopped and searched in the same way. Since there is a worldwide scourge of Islamic terrorism, with more than 35,400 attacks by Muslim terrorists since 9/11 alone, it makes sense for Homeland Security to stop and subject to more thorough searches those passengers who, like Riz Ahmed, bear identifiably Muslim names. It was not the color of his skin that made him an object of interest, but his Muslim identity, revealed in the name “Ahmed.” A white Muslim, or a Uighur, would have been subject to the same intensive search; race had nothing to do with it. But Riz Ahmed has a vested interest in attributing more thorough searching of Muslims to “racism,” for that is the charge designed to shut down all critical thought; “racism” is in today’s world the primal sin, and its invocation is meant to, and often does, put paid to any islamocritical remarks.
“The Night Of” actor made the comments during diversity leadership event Amplify in California hosted by the CAA Foundation and the Ford Foundation, per the Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
USA TODAY has reached out to Ahmed’s reps and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
He also talked about the importance of improving Muslim representation.
What did Riz Ahmed mean when he discussed the importance of “improving Muslim representation”? Did he mean he wanted to see more Muslim actors? Wanted more Muslims at all levels in Hollywood, from gaffer to studio head? Wanted more Muslim actors in roles having nothing to do with terrorism? Since 9/11, and all the subsequent attacks by Muslim terrorists in this country, Hollywood has flung its doors wide open to Muslim actors, who have never had so many opportunities for work. Naturally they play various roles: first, as the terrorists themselves; second, as the Good Muslims who work undercover for the government as double-agents, keeping tabs on “extremists” in their communities. If anything, Hollywood exaggerates the numbers and significance of the Good Muslims, and is silent on the activities of CAIR in persuading Muslims not to collaborate with the FBI. Where did Hollywood, where did Americans, get this crazy idea that Muslims have an unusual connection to terrorism? Could it have been the attacks by Muslim terrorists around the country during the last 18 years? Possibly those attacks by Muslims in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Fort Hood, Little Rock, Chattanooga, Orlando, San Bernardino, and a dozen other places, have established that link between Muslims and terrorism. Hollywood scripts that are based on the news naturally have work for Muslim actors, playing both terrorists and the loyal American Muslim foilers of terrorists. Muslim terror attacks in this country were more than enough to persuade Hollywood to create endless dramas with terrorist plots, but if they had not been, there were all those other attacks by Muslims in Europe, in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Tours, Montauban, London, Manchester, Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Malmö, Helsinki, Turku, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Beslan — and those attacks would surely have put paid to any doubts about the central role of Islamic terrorists in creating anxiety throughout much of the civilized world. Hollywood has been weaving terrorism narratives — movies, television series — nonstop since 9/11. It can hardly have done otherwise.
While onstage with comedian Hasan Minhaj, Ahmed pointed to him and said “He can win a Peabody; I can win an Emmy; Ibtihaj Muhammad can go to the Olympics, but some of these obstacles are systemic and we can’t really face them alone, we need your help. I’m basically here to ask for your help, because it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary. I’ve often wondered, is this going to be the year when they round us up, if this is going to be the year they put Trump’s registry into action. If this is going to be the year they ship us all off.”
Here is Riz Ahmed, at the highest point of his career, having won an Emmy in 2017 as an Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series; he is deluged with offers for work, as are several of his fellow Muslim actors. But despite all this mounting fame and fortune, he wants his audience to feel sorry for him. He appeals to that audience for unspecified help against those who are making his life, he claims, so difficult and dangerous. But who are these sinister islamophobic bigots? What are their names? Just how have they managed to stymie the career of Riz Ahmed when that career is so obviously at its apogee? We need a little more information from Riz Ahmed before we drop a ready tear for his supposed plight.
Riz Ahmed is opening up about his constant battle with discrimination — including one such incident when Homeland Security blocked [him] from boarding a plane.
It is not “discrimination,” but commonsensical realism by Homeland Security when, and only “in one incident,” it blocked him from boarding a plane. In Ahmed’s telling, that was the whole story: he was a Muslim, and for that reason alone Homeland Security prevented him from boarding. But plenty of Muslims — many thousands — fly every day without incident in this country. There had to be something else about Ahmed’s behavior that led to his being prevented from boarding. I suspect he became angry, made a great fuss, at first refused to let himself be searched, claiming that he wouldn’t submit to a “racist” search. It was that kind of behavior, and not his merely being a Muslim, that would have led Homeland Security to have banned him from the flight.
Fellow Pakistani celebrity Tan France, of Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” has also spoken out against racism he’s faced as both a flight attendant and a regular traveler.
Once again the word “racism” appears, as false a charge coming from Tan France as it was when made by Riz Ahmed. Let’s reject it one more time: Islam is not a race but a faith, no matter how often Muslims insist otherwise. That faith, that set of beliefs, is very clear; it commands Muslims “to fight” and “to kill” and “to smite at the necks of,” and “to strike terror in the hearts of” the Unbelievers. See such Qur’anic verses as 2:191-193, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4. Are non-Muslims wrong to be worried? Haven’t they seen, in the observable behavior of Muslims around the world, that Believers take to heart, and act on, those very verses and many others just like them? Haven’t those who have studied Islamic history seen similar aggressive behavior by Muslims toward non-Muslims, over the past 1,400 years of continuous Jihad?
What was particularly difficult for him [Tan France] was dealing with drunk passengers who could be racist.
Those “drunk passengers” whom Tan France encountered when he worked as a flight attendant may have been obstreperous and unpleasant; some may, in their drunken state, even have made anti-Islam or anti-Muslim remarks. But that still does not constitute, as Tan France thinks, a form of racism.
“This was a couple of years after 9/11, and they had no qualms about openly referring to my people as terrorists,” France wrote in his new memoir. “The flight would start off well enough, but by the end of the flight, it would be clear they weren’t so happy that I was the one serving them.”
He also talked in the book about trouble he’s encountered at the U.S. customs desk and has previously spoken out on social media accusing the TSA of labeling him a “security risk” because of his skin color.
In Tan France’s memoir, he makes a series of unproven charges meant to suggest the existence of “anti-Muslim racism.” As a flight attendant, he claims that some of the passengers, once they had had enough alcohol, “openly referred to my people as terrorists.” How exactly was this done? Did they say to him “you Muslims are all a bunch of terrorists”? Or “I’m surprised you’ve been hired as a flight attendant. Aren’t you people a security risk”? Without knowing the details, we cannot judge the remarks he claims to have been subjected to, and of course, he may have made the whole business up, as we have ample evidence of Muslims claiming victimhood based on tales of attacks fueled by “anti-Muslim racism” that later turned out to have been fabricated. And it is most doubtful that the TSA would have labelled hm a “security risk” because of his skin color rather than because of his Muslim identity. The TSA members have been properly trained to identify those who might, as Muslims of any race, be security risks; that organization makes sure its members do not take skin color as a marker for the ideology of Islam.
Robert Spencer has previously reported on how he has so often been subject to extra searches at airports, no doubt because he takes on board materials — books, papers, printouts from Internet websites — about Islam. He has never thought to complain; after all, these TSA searches are for the passengers’ own safety; they are a necessary inconvenience in this Age of Islamic Terror, nothing more. Riz Ahmed wants to have such searches regarded as manifestations of racism, an abomination that must end. But he knows as well as anyone that Islam is not a race. He is playing, as part of his own “victimhood” narrative, fast and loose with the lives of fellow passengers. He wants to make those searches of Muslim passengers less thorough. Does he really not recognize that paying more attention to Muslim passengers is amply justified by the recent record of Islamic terrorism?
Halal Bacon says
he says round “US” up, yet he is not responsible or does not condemn the jihadi when it goes boom?
mortimer says
Riz Ahmed has gone ‘boom’ prematurely without preparing his remarks to conform with facts or reason … another theatrical production. His slanderous cheap shot against all Americans went off half-cocked.
Riz Ahmed should take his cheap shots and hate-filled anti-Americanism back to Pakistan where critical thought is almost never demanded of anyone.
Riz Ahmed is typical of many Muslims who love to slander Americans, while at the same time eagerly seeking American residency.
What a two-faced hypocrite.
Reziac says
Less a boom than a fizzling dud. Jut like his career.
As to his question, my answer is “Real soon now. If you don’t like it, vamoose to a Muslim country.”
juleonly says
Remind this guy that ‘diversity’ is opposite to Islam. And the ones who will be rounded up are the ones who actually try to practise the Qur’an as it is written and do the things it says Allah demands.(even if they try to hide it and pretend its politically correct & normalized) Because it calls for criminal activity, apartheid, bigotry and traditions long out worn. But it has to be the same for nazigroups, KKKlan, ANTIFA, Crips, Bloods, MS13 and any Supremacist types who harm what we are.
DogOnPorch says
Playing the victim card…
mortimer says
Yes, Islamic Victimology 101 … play the victim card until you win, then remove mask and show your supremacism.
Even moderate Muslims will reveal their unconscious supremacist belief that Muslims should be in charge of everything.
Even moderate Muslims have an inherent dislike of dirty kafirs which they keep concealed in their subconscious.
gravenimage says
Riz Ahmed is best known for “The Night Of…”, where his character may have murdered a young woman.
Whether or not he is the killer is soon treated as essentially irrelevant, and the focus switches to his being a victim–other prisoners are mean to him, and his parents supposedly lose their jobs and have to take more menial employment.
This thing was a critical hit, and was indeed well done–but it was also just more Muslim victim-mongering.
Ahmed knows how well that worked in fiction–so now he is doing more of it himself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Of
(You can read the encapsulated plot of each episode here)
Charles says
Why doesn’t he speak out against the pattern of Islamic aggression in Nigeria? Sri Lanka? India? They can only focus on themselves. Why not address the imperatives to attack, kill, plunder, extort, or enslave the unbelievers on the pretext of their disbelief? Are these imperatives and exhortations immutable? Are the actions of Muhammad and the Rashidun Caliphs the perfect example? We can read and assess for ourselves. Nobody is attacking the Muslims in this country so his statement is propaganda and hyperbole. Nor would I advocate any violence as they do against us. Instead I conserve the right to criticize doctrine, patterns and behavior. And I expect self examination from the Islamic demographic. I have seen none. Its time, as the last of the Christians in the middle east are being forced to leave. We know the patterns and we have a right to not allow them to repeat. Islam is a doctrine, not a race. Let’s have a discussion, beginning with the self evident truth. Or has “truth” become a racist term as well?
The Political Oracle says
Islamophobophobia: An irrational fear of the fear of Islam. This man needs to be banned from acting immediately! We will not tolerate Islamophobophobia here!
mortimer says
Riz Ahmed insults the people who pay his bills. Boycott.
Rufolino says
Thanks to political correctness and the incessant distortions of the MSM, there are many, many people who will fall for this outrageous stuff, hook, line, and sinker.
Oren Wysocki says
Once again, the muslims and the left get to make up A narrative that is the complete opposite of reality, and excluding jihad watch and maybe some more sites that make up less than 5% of the internet, and zero percent of the tv media, nobody will question the truth of his implication. Do republicans believe in freedom and liberty? Do republicans believe in freedom of speech? Do muslims and leftists believe in freedom of speech? Do muslims and leftists believe that we can debate our ideas, empathize with those who are different than us, and utilize our representative governments to allocate power and influence according to votes, to help achieve peaceful coexistence? Obviously the muslims and the left believe in none of these things, how else could they violate the rights of white and Jewish racists? How else could they deny racists the right to speech, to vote, to representation, to security, to not be discriminated against in the workplace, to be allowed to write books, because the left and muslims hate white and Jewish identity so much, how else do they explain that no white advocates exist? If whites are not an oppressed people why don’t they have groups that represent them like all other people do? If leftists and muslims are not hateful of Jews, why do muslim and leftist governments vote against Israel so much at the United Nations? More than all the nations in the world combined? There are almost 200 hundred of them. Islam has almost A dozen land claims that are being violently fought over right now, why the preoccupation with Israel? Why do leftist nations support such obvious Jew hatred, if they support equality before the law like they claim? Why is it ok for muslim nations to support closed borders, but not white gentile nations, nor for the Jewish people to consider that coexistence does not work for Jews given the unique hatred of Jews that is obviously being covered up in 2019? Maybe the Jews of the past were not so guilty, because we cant make obvious points that get past the censors. In G-d I trust.
Westman says
Let us imagine that Germans, mostly sweet and innocent, were reading Mein Kampf, belonged to the Nazi organization and expected to dominate the world under a glorious leader. And to make their life difficult, some Germans, a minority, were acting on the ideas in Mein ampf. Would it be racist if other nations kept a closer watch on most Germans when most germans read the boo that inspires the violence?
The problem is Islam’s own scriptural works that inspire violence, leaving non-Muslims unable to know which Muslim is infected by the prescription to violence of the Quran and Hadith.
Islam carries the potential of violence and is retrograde in the modern world. Riz Ahmed should be asking himself why is he still a Muslim when it is his own jihadic “brothers” who are bringing difficulty upon him by following the “book” that he also reads?
James Lincoln says
Westman, excellent post – my compliments.
Reziac says
It’s the jellybean problem: Here’s a bowl of 100 delicious jellybeans. But two of them are invisibly laced with cyanide. Which re a tasty treat, and which will kill you? you can’t know until it’s too late. Will you eat??
Likewise, you can’t know if I’m lying and they’re actually ALL invisibly laced with cyanide.
David says
You must know about the poisoning of muhammad? Check it out. It was islamb, instead of jelly beans.
tedh754 says
Hey Ahmed! Imagine being a Christian in Pakistan!
Fred says
Exactly!
E T says
politicianophobia: A fear of all the left loon politicians worldwide who have promoted and collaborated with Islamic leaders (OIC) to Islamize the world.
“This Islamic homeland is a refuge for any who accepts the ISlamic Shari’ah to be the law of the state, as is the case with the Dhimmies. But any place where the Islamic Shari’ah is not enforced and where Islam is not dominant becomes the home of Hostility (Dar-ul-Harv) for both the Muslim and the Dhimmi. a Muslim will remain prepared to fight against it, whether it be his birthplace or a place where his relatives reside or where his property or any other material interests are located.
And thus Muhammad- peace be upon him-fought against the city of Mecca, although it was his birthplace, and his relatives lived there, and he and his Companions had houses and property there which they had left when they MIGRATED; yet the soil of Mecca did not become Dar-ul-Islam for him and his followers until IT SURRENDERED TO ISLAM and the SHARI’AH became operative in it”.
“A Muslim will remain prepared to FIGHT against it”, so who is going to round up who?
E T says
Dead on Westman, why the hell would anyone who can read follow this cult?
Paul J says
More than half of all muslims can’t read or write anyway, they just listen to the nutcase up the front of the mosque. Throw in the stupidity caused by centuries of inbreeding and rational thought goes out of the window in the ones who can. People can be highly intelligent but incredibly stupid at the same time. Western leftist academics for instance.
somehistory says
He should get a big part in something like a remake of “Towering Inferno,” as his pants are already on fire.
Or, does this lying creep wear a skirt?
All “obstacles” have been removed from the path of moslims…due in large part to their acts of terrorism and violence and due in part to the lying and whining they do after their cohorts have engaged in terrorism and violence and lying.
Tom says
Being detained or questioned while attempting to board a plane is not exclusive to being a Muslim, so get over it Mr Ahmed.
My brother, caucasian male, used to be stopped and questioned when taking international flights, why? Because, apparently, a guy in New York with the same name and birthdate, was on a no fly list.
So suck it up Ahmed, tuck in your personal insecurity, put on your big boy pants, and get on with life instead of trying to stir the pot.
ooicu812 says
When you have political regime (Islam is not a religion) tell you flat out how they’re going to take over your country and kill anyone who doesn’t approve it would be a natural response to resist. Unless your completely stupid and clueless. Internationally, the proof is in the facts of their agenda. Deport or exile them all to the land of their BS “Religion”
Fred says
They will “round us up”! Hope springs eternal
don vito says
The fear described is the definition of phobia, unfounded fear, kufrs have real fear, in reality.
Eric says
We cant trust ANY muslim. Their ultimate goal is to conquer the planet. Skeptical of that statement? Look back 1450 years of jihad and ask yourself if this a pattern.
No Muzzies Here says
It is absolutely the right thing to do to search Muslims at airports. Unfortunately, there will be no rounding up and expelling.
ploome says
what’s the problem?
Angemon says
“
”
Indeed.
Hudson says
“Is This Going to be the Year When They Round Us Up?” I sure hope so!
hornedviper9 says
He HATES the Country But he LOVES the Money, KICK his Ass OUT!
Ade Fegan says
What ? just for following a mass murderer, rapist, wife-beater, thief, liar, torturer and pedophile
and calling him your prophet ? .. don’t be so silly, you have nothing to worry about !
roberta says
This question has probably been asked. Does he mean round up the muslims here in the USA — the way muslims round up Christians in muslim majority sh-t holes all over the world?
Indiana Tom says
I have a dream….
Battle says
Roberta hits nail on head. Good.
firefolx says
For any practical reasoning, the letters above pretty well say it all.
gravenimage says
Muslim Actor Riz Ahmed: “Is This Going to be the Year When They Round Us Up?” (Part 1)
………………………
What grotesque projection. Note that he has *no* problem with the institutionalized persecution of Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs in Pakistan, where his family comes from.
Chand says
Riz Ahmed, in his 1013 movie “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, directed by Mira Nair, played this typical Pakistani-American yuppie Changez Khan, who slowly drifts towards Islamic fundamentalism. He gradually got alienated from his American homeland and the American Dream, beginning with random security checks at airports, because of his name. He is also interrogated in a demeaning way by federal agents in another scene. He starts sporting a beard and begins advertising his religion in defiance. Then he travels to Pakistan, his homeland, and gets further radicalized.
Seems like a case of life imitating art here.
gravenimage says
Doesn’t sound all that “reluctant” to me…
Geof Barrington says
Some people say there are 1.8 billion to many muslums on the planet . Imagine !
Georg says
“Is This Going to be the Year When They Round Us Up?”
No. But it is yet another year where so many of you spit in the faces of those who’ve given you so much; as will be next year and so many to come. And nicely done mocking both the Holocaust and 9/11 in one ignorant, hate-filled statement–that’s quite something. This is a magnitude of cowardly hate and dissimulation worthy of the Red-“Green” alliance.
dsr says
I am a dark skin Native/American Indian. Get use to it. muslin cry just like little baby’s over anything that goes against them. Grow up or go back to what ever sand box you came from.
Mixtli says
+1! 🙂
Mike says
We can only hope.
UNCLE VLADDI says
Re: “Is This Going to be the Year When They Round Us Up?”
Hopefully so – it’s long overdue for these holy mobster minions of the world’s largest and oldest ongoing crime and murder gang to be rounded up and deported. And merely deporting them is the nicest solution.
David says
It seems a lot of decent people are getting sick and tired of muslime. Ahmed is sensing this. Good.
Anjuli Pandavar says
Riz Ahmed claims, “it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary. I’ve often wondered, is this going to be the year when they round us up, if this is going to be the year they put Trump’s registry into action. If this is going to be the year they ship us all off.”
—
This is obscene. This piece of candyfloss has no idea what it means to live with the possibility of getting rounded up. He has no idea what it means to get shipped off. This is an obscene abuse of every human being who has ever faced such realities: Jews in Nazi Germany, anyone Stalin and his thug-machine didn’t like, those South Africans who opposed apartheid in the 60s, 70s and 80s, the victims of every tyrant and every dictator — for *them* life was and is “super-scary”. Candyfloss should try being a Christian in Pakistan for a while. Perhaps then he can make this kind of claim.
Anjuli Pandavar says
I now understand the profound meaning of “Let not the left side of your mouth know what the right side is saying.” The left side could be saying, “it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary,” while they right side says, “we love death more than you love life.” You’ve got to feel for these people.