Prominent Egyptian-American Muslim scholar Dalia Mogahed appeared Thursday on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, discussing Islamophobia and the media's role in spreading the phenomena.
Mogahed is one of the most outspoken advocates for Muslim communities both online and offline, raising awareness about issues such as the vilification of Muslims in the media and the discrimination they face on a daily basis.
The scholar, who directs research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, an organization that addresses the challenges facing the American Muslim community, talked about the various misconceptions that surround Muslims on the show.
Mogahed said that many misunderstandings lie behind anti-Muslim sentiment, adding that there's a huge misunderstanding about radicalization and its association with mosques.
"Here are the facts: Mosques are places where people go to connect with their community, they are actually a force of moderation. Attending a mosque regularly is linked with greater civic engagement and more tolerant views of people of other faiths," Mogahed said.
She added that the media was responsible for perpetuating the belief that all terrorists were Muslims, a belief that Mogahed said didn't correspond with the facts about terrorism in the real world.
"The problem is that when we fall into this kind of fear-mongering, it hurts everybody, it doesn't just hurt Muslims. When we normalize bigotry, it doesn't hurt just one group, it hurts everyone. So this is something we all have to stand up against."
Mogahed also spoke about the view that veiled Muslim women were oppressed, saying that she is accused of being oppressed "all the time", which is another belief that is not supported by research.
The scholar added that assuming veiled Muslim women are oppressed is not only Islamophobic but harmful to all women as well, as she says it is an assumption that implies that women's power stems solely from their appearance.
In the online extended interview, Mogahed discussed the recurrent need to reassure people that Muslims are not what the media portrays them as, a need that arises in the wake of terror attacks around the world.
"Muslims have been reassuring people for the past 14 years, and at some point we have to call out the demand for the reassurance as pretty offensive."
"If we look at the statistics, the majority of terrorists are not Muslim, yet only Muslims are expected to apologize. I think it's time that we afford Muslims and people of color generally, the same assumption of innocence that we afford the majority," Mogahed said.
Mogahed was born in Cairo and immigrated to the United States when she was a child. She gained prominence when she was appointed to the advisory council of U.S. President Barack Obama's White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009.
In addition to her work at the ISPU, she also runs Mogahed Consulting, a consulting firm that provides research-based advice on the Middle East and Muslim communities around the world. In 2015, Mogahed was named one of Forbes' 10 most powerful Arab women in the world.