It’s a question that stunned many viewers of CNN and the person it was asked of, Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights attorney who founded the website,the Muslim Guy.
CNN invited Iftikhar to discuss the killings at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris that left 12 dead. Charlie Hebdo has skewered many religions including Catholocism, Islam and Judaism.
According to the Raw Story, this is how the exchange went down between Lemon and Iftikhar who was regular commentator on NPR’s Tell Me More.
Iftikhar condemned the attack on Charlie Hebdo as a “crime against humanity” and added he had no problem with the satirical depictions of Islam in the newspaper.
Subsequent questions from Lemon focused on Islamist extremists.
Finally Lemon asked “Do you support Isis?”
Iftikhar was stunned by the question.
“Did you just ask me if I support ISIS? I just answered your question. I said that obviously these 16 percent of people support the ideology, but again, I don’t think that would necessarily extrapolate to supporting of killing of innocent people.”
It didn’t take long for Twitter to explode condemning Lemon’s question.
@TheMuslimGuy Was shocked & appalled when I heard @donlemon interrupt you mid-sentence to ask whether you supported ISIS. Disgusting!
— holly (@hollytheresee) January 8, 2015
I hope Jon Stewart skewers @donlemon on Daily Show for asking @TheMuslimGuy if he supports ISIS. You can’t make up this level of ignorance.
— Sheila Musaji (@SheilaMusaji) January 8, 2015
@donlemon asking @TheMuslimGuy shows how Muslims are perceived to be guilty until proven innocent. Shameful from @CNN
— Ajdin Dautović (@AjdinDautovic) January 8, 2015
By asking @TheMuslimGuy if he supported #ISIS @donlemon confirmed why he deserved being named 2014’s worst journalist http://t.co/xN5vNJUUu4
— Amad (@amadshk) January 8, 2015
You can watch the entire exchange for yourself. Let us know what you think?
