Mohsin Hamid Quotes

There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation, or a distinct group by its least worthy members.

It is tragic that all Arabs—all Moslems—are stereotyped because of the actions of a few.

When we blame all Muslims, all Syrians, or all members of any other group because of the actions of individuals, we fall into the trap of asserting collective guilt. We empower the narrow-minded ideology that we are trying to defeat.

To characterize all Muslims as terrorists is fear-mongering of the worst kind.

Othering people is something that humans have done for ever.

Everyone that we disagree with is a racist and a homophobe and Islamophobe and a bigot. It's just silly. It's lazy thinking, and I think it gets us nowhere.

It's just amazing that there are so many prejudices even now.

Ethnic stereotypes are boring and stressful and sometimes criminal. It's just not a good way to think. It's non-thinking. It's stupid and destructive.

My tenure at 'The Daily Show' started during the decade after September 11, and fear of Muslims was at an all-time high. Politicians and the media seemed to dial the fright, mistrust, and animosity up to a fever pitch to gain votes and ratings.

People would write me hate letters. How dare I try to represent Hispanics when I was so white? I tried to make them see it was racism.

It is dangerous when you start calling people from one part of the world terrorists or fanatic, and you reduce them to some abstract notion. If evil has a geographical place, and if the evil has a name, that is the beginning of fascism. Real life is not this way. You have fanatics and narrow-minded people everywhere.

At times one feels that what is being said in the West is that the fact that you are a Muslim predisposes you to this blind, stupid terrorism.

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.

Americans have almost been conditioned to believe that the majority of people who seek to do us harm are those of Muslim descent.

You'd never know that listening to people in the UN but tribalism is the father of racism.

Islam is not a race, yet Islamophobia partakes of racist characteristics.

I remember people saying: 'You look funny, your hair is so black, you have a flat nose,' but I didn't think of it being racism, and I still don't. But there was a sense of difference, of being an outsider.

I figure if people don't want to make the distinction between a Muslim and a terrorist, then why should I make a distinction between good scared white people and racists?

You see, that's the problem I have with 'you people.'

Like many physical diseases, anti-Semitism is highly infectious, and can become endemic in certain localities and societies. Though a disease of the mind, it is by no means confined to weak, feeble, or commonplace intellects; as history sadly records, its carriers have included men and women of otherwise powerful and subtle thoughts.

Social distance makes it all the easier to focus on small differences between groups and to put a negative spin on the ways of others and a positive spin on our own.

We are never racist against somebody who is very far away. I don't know any racism against the Eskimos. To have a racist feeling, there must be an other who is slightly different from us - but is living close to us.

Non-Muslims with some justice now regard the Muslims as little better than animals.

Muslims are like wild dogs. You can't deal with them, you can only kill them.

Islamaphobia is the only form of racism which is socially acceptable.