Emmy-award winning British actor Riz Ahmed spoke about representation of Muslims in movies and the discrimination he faces, at a conference in California, United States.
The Night Of actor shared how he has learnt tough lessons from being stopped and searched at airports around the world for the last 15 years due to his race. He was stopped by Homeland Security for boarding the plane last month when he was travelling to Chicago for the Star Wars convention, reports Variety.
“He [Hasan Minhaj] can win a Peabody, I can win an Emmy, Ibtihaj Muhammad can go to the Olympics, but some of these obstacles are systemic and we can’t really face them alone, we need your help. I’m basically here to ask for your help, because it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary,” he told the audience.
The actor added “I’ve often wondered, is this going to be the year when they round us up, if this is going to be the year they put Trump’s registry into action. If this is going to be the year they ship us all off.”
The activist called on Hollywood’s bigwigs in the room for reducing the Islamophobic sentiment in the media. They should begin with researching on how Muslims are represented on television and in movies in a certain way in order to ensure that they aren’t only portrayed as terrorists, explained Ahmed.
“I think lives are quite literally at stake here,” he said. “The representation of Muslims on screen — that feeds the policies that get enacted, the people that get killed, the countries that get invaded.”
Ahmed who spoke about inclusion in his presentation received a standing ovation from the audience at the Amplify leadership summit which focuses on diversity and multicultural issues. Other speakers who took the stage on Tuesday included Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Hasan Minhaj, Riz Ahmed and Eva Longoria.
