WATCH: Free speech advocate Faisal Al Mutar faces criticsm from right and left – Salon

My conversation with Faisal Saeed Al Mutar can be best summed up with one word: Balance.

Al Mutar is an Iraqi-born human rights activist who has been published in The Humanistand appeared as a guest multiple times on The Rubin Report, the talk show hosted by classical liberal pundit Dave Rubin. He has a nuanced view on questions pertaining to relations between the West and the Islamic world, denouncing both the Islamophobia of reactionary politicians like President Donald Trump and what he perceives as the apologist tendencies of certain factions on the left.

It is difficult, in this age of increasingly polarized extremes, to strike a balance between two positions. In terms of the ongoing fight against Islamist terrorism, there are sides who claim that all criticism of Muslim individuals is somehow bigoted, while others seem incapable of or unwilling to recognize the difference between the majority of innocent Muslims and the handful of terrorists.

I picked apart these distinctions and tried to have a measured, balanced conversation with Al Mutar.

On the similarities between the far right critics of Islam and the Islamists themselves:

There are all these people trying to push what a Muslim should be. So with ISIS theyre telling youif you want to be a Muslim you have to follow these strict codes. And for the alt right-ers they say the ISIS narrative is the only way to be a Muslim. So somehow they kind of compliment each other. And so after the same-sex marriage which I think it was great, like a celebration of diversity and love, and love is love, right? And amazing that in a country that is as free as the United Kingdom that they allowed that to happen. And I was watching, observing what people were saying. And you go to alt-right websites, other than saying Wow, thats amazing that there arefresh liberal voices coming up, they were attackingthem.Like, oh these guys arenot real Muslims, theyre infidels. Which is kind of the same thingthat ISIS says about these people!

On why he is so critical of President Donald Trump:

If you are really standing for fighting against Islamic extremism and stuff like that, when you ban entire nations especially countries like Iraq and Iran and many of these folks who are on the front lines of fighting Islamic extremism and terrorism and so on and, if you ban them from coming to the country or make an entire condemnation of entire nations, youre not really siding with the allies that you claim that youre siding with.

Watch our conversation for more on finding balance in the Islamic extremism debate.

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WATCH: Free speech advocate Faisal Al Mutar faces criticsm from right and left - Salon