Published October 22, 2010

This is my last post on this topic, at least for now. But I want to bring the conversation back to real people.

NPR fired news analyst Juan Williams for saying he gets “nervous” when he sees people in “Muslim garb” on an airplane.  What do two Bostonians who are Muslim think about it?

M. Bilal Kaleem:

NPR is “Channel No. 1″ on my car radio’s speed dial — I love them — I think they run one of the few media institutions where the standards of journalism are being maintained in this era of polemics.

M. Bilal Kaleem (courtesy photo)

But I think NPR may have reacted too quickly in firing Juan Williams. It seems to me that his remarks on Fox News arose out of a set of prejudiced stereotypes he holds about Muslims: that the average “visibly Muslim looking person” is a potential threat to his safety. It is tragic (and personally hurtful) that an educated and rational media figure would maintain such unexamined prejudice, even if at an irrepressible emotional level.

Still, it did not seem to me that his comments tried to proclaim Muslims to be in league with terrorists or that Muslims are responsible for terrorism. I wish I could say the same for media figures such as Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly (or political leaders like Newt Gingrich), and dozens of others leading public figures. Their nefarious goal often seems to be to deliberately stoke fear of all Muslims — they go out of their way to tie all Muslims to extremists in a seeming effort to marginalize them from having any influence or credibility in the public sphere.

Meanwhile, it seemed Juan Williams was trying to express his instinctual gut reaction to “visible” Muslims. It is a sad commentary on our times that public figures like him feel free to share their unreasonable prejudices about Muslims in a manner that they would not do with any of their other irrational prejudices regarding other minorities. But in my opinion while having such a prejudice is tragic and hurtful, it does not merit being fired. Had he made it his deliberate goal to continually stoke fear of Muslims (as others I have mentioned), then it would be justified to let him go for the sake of NPR maintaining a balanced journalistic image.

M. Bilal Kaleem is president of the Muslim American Society of Boston and a Dubin Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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Mohamed Brahimi:

I have no question in my mind that the firing of Juan Williams was just and justified.

Mohamed Brahimi (courtesy photo)

Mr. Williams’ statement is wrong because it constitutes a logical fallacy known as ad populum — “If many believe so, it is so.” This is why I think that NPR should have fired Mr. Williams — not only because of his bigoted comments, but on the grounds of his poor analysis.

Muslim garb? Really? People are now defined by the clothing articles they decide to put on?

I guess I have been wearing Christian garb all my life.

This is reductionism at its best. What does that say about the quality of Mr. Williams’ analysis? I am hoping this will tell him that there is no room in NPR for people who can’t tell the difference between paranoid rant and bonafide political analysis.

Fox News has already stepped up and offered Williams a $2 million gig to spew his racist garbage. Good riddance, brother.

Mohamed Brahimi is president of Muslim American Civic and Cultural Association.