Debating Female Genital Mutilation and the Muslim World

Debating Female Genital Mutilation and the Muslim World
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Reza Aslan is a frequent commentator on the subject of Islam, having made appearances on CNN, The Daily Show, and numerous other outlets. In many ways, Aslan has become a leading voice in the public conversation. In a clip from the January 11 edition of The David Pakman Show, I dug deeper into some of the claims made by Aslan. He made some claims that are untrue, such as, "Bangladesh and Malaysia are free, open societies for women." Take a look:

More recently, a journalist named Sulome Anderson published an article on VICE titled, "What My Dad's Kidnapping by Muslim Terrorists Taught Me About Islamophobia." In a paragraph towards the end of the piece, Anderson references The David Pakman Show, namely the critique of Reza Aslan I mentioned above. She states that I've "...dedicated several episodes of [my] show to questioning Aslan's credentials and trying to poke holes in his arguments." In addition to this, she says I present my "own stats." As I explain in this clip, the stats I cite are in great part the same as those used by Aslan to affirm his claims.

The day after the piece was originally published, Sulome edited the paragraph so it now reads, "who stopped responding to my requests for comment," instead of, "did not respond to requests for comment." This is the only change she made to the paragraph regarding The David Pakman Show. That same day, Anderson tweeted the following: "If @dpakman stops hiding behind his computer screen & feels like having an adult conversation about Islamophobia, more than happy to oblige." I responded by inviting her on the show, tweeting back that I'd be, "absolutely happy to have Sulome on in an audiovisual format where comments can't be excerpted." On May 23, Anderson came on The David Pakman Show and what follows is our discussion:

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