STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have a response to rhetoric against American Muslims. More than 1% of Americans are Muslim - three or 4 million people, maybe more. Some vote Republican, but some Republicans campaign against them. This week, Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles said, quote, "Muslims don't belong in American society." House Speaker Mike Johnson defended what he characterized as the right of lawmakers to oppose, quote, "the imposition of sharia law," which would mean imposing Islamic law on everybody. Maya Berry is watching all of this. She is executive director of the Arab American Institute, and she came by our studios. Good morning.
MAYA BERRY: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Thanks for coming by early. I just got to ask the question since somebody put it on the table, is anybody imposing sharia law in the United States at this time?
BERRY: No, Steve. That's not accurate.
INSKEEP: OK, so not happening. Sure plenty of people would be against it if it did, but not happening. How do the remarks that I just quoted compare with the rhetoric after 9/11, if at all?
BERRY: Actually, in some ways, I think they're worse, primarily because post-9/11, we had leadership in our government who asked us to pause and make sure that we didn't indict an entire community for the actions of an individual or group of individuals. Right now, we actually have the presidential bully pulpit. We have members of Congress who've decided that American Muslims are a useful target in their campaigning and their fundraising. And regrettably, the target of this are individual people who are harmed when elected officials choose to speak this way.
INSKEEP: You remind me that President George W. Bush very openly said, we're not targeting a religion. He even appeared with Muslim leaders and did things like that after 9/11.
BERRY: He went to a mosque immediately after 9/11 to say, this isn't who we are.
INSKEEP: OK. So how are individuals being directly affected by these words?
BERRY: Well, I mean, look, the first thing I would say is that there's a complete lack of understanding of what sharia is, even. I - it's a talking point. It's something that regulates my own individual actions. I don't get to regulate Steve's individual actions with sharia laws. I don't even know what that means when they talk about it the way that they do. But what happens here is that there are congressional elected officials who have constituents that are American Muslims that they represent. And when they disparage an entire faith this way, it's that individual student who goes to school, whose fellow classmates reduce him to a potential problem. Look, this week, I saw a video that just made my skin crawl. A young person was on an airplane whose app went off. This is the month of Ramadan.
INSKEEP: OK.
BERRY: So Muslims are fasting. He has an app that went off that declares the call to prayer when it's time to break your fast or pray.
INSKEEP: OK. So you hear that famous sound.
BERRY: You - I - it's on my app. It went off on an airplane. Literally, someone decided that was the reason to reroute an airplane. And you could see the footage with the flight attendants with their hands up saying, face down, hands up. And this young man gets removed from a plane by police with arms because an app went off saying, (speaking Arabic). This is a problem in our country, for sure, but when elected officials are the ones feeding it, that's where I think we really need to worry about where we are as a democracy.
INSKEEP: Just briefly, the - of course, there's a war under way against Iran. It strikes me that most Iranians in America, most of whom are Muslim, are among the most vocal opponents of that regime, rather than the opposite. Is that your understanding?
BERRY: To be honest, I think - certainly, I think a lot of people are critical of the regime for good reason. The issue is that we just have to understand that elected officials have a different role to play here, and the way that dehumanization of American Muslims plays out certainly finds its role in American foreign policy.
INSKEEP: Maya Berry of the Arab American Institute. Thanks for coming by this morning. Really appreciate it.
BERRY: Thank you, Steve.
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