High-profile Muslims have a right not to expect an inquisition | Nesrine Malik

Attacks on a young US congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, show Muslims are expected to prove their liberal credentials

There is an interrogation that begins whenever a Muslim assumes any role in the public eye, a sort of Muslim inquisition. One can be a writer or a politician or a chef, and be asked questions that have nothing whatsoever to do with the matter at hand. Do you think homosexuality is a sin? What do you think of underage marriage? Do you think Israel has the right to exist? These questions are also asked in spurious surveys commissioned in the hope of generating headlines that suggest the majority of Muslims are violently homophobic, or conform to whatever latest trope is doing the rounds.

In the US, this persistent questioning continues despite the fact that Muslims are growing more liberal (specifically, more accepting of homosexuality than their white evangelical Christian counterparts) while simultaneously suffering increased levels of discrimination. But in the inquisition it’s the questions, not the answers, that are truly revealing.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2SkMCKd