Maverick Muslim author Michael Muhammed Knight, who I interviewed awhile back about his book The Five Percenters, is being sued by another Muslim writer, Asma Gull Hasan, because she thinks Knight encouraged a punk band to write a song about her being slutty or something. She also thinks he defamed her by portraying her as “uninformed” and “self-absorbed” in the book Blue Eyed Devil, about his cross-country trip to discover the true identity of W.D. Fard, the mysterious founder of the Nation of Islam.
Officially she’s suing for defamation, but it sounds more like she’s suing him for um, not liking her. I mean, it’s one thing if somebody makes a false statement of fact about you. Like for instance, accusing you of eating babies. However, if someone expresses an opinion on your character, that’s a whole different matter.
Hasan’s case, like her skin, seems pretty thin. The ironic thing is, that by suing Knight for portraying her as “wealthy and self-absorbed,” she’s actually bolstering that perception. It seems pretty self-absorbed to sue someone for not liking you and you’d need to be able to afford blowing quite a bit of money to go forward with this particular lawsuit.
Of course, I could be totally wrong.
Here’s the Denver Post article for your own conclusion-making:
A Denver lawyer and writer is suing an East Coast Muslim writer and a Muslim punk band, charging they defamed her in a song.
Asma Gull Hasan claims Michael Muhammad Knight wrote an unflattering portrayal of her in his book “Blue- Eyed Devil” and influenced The Kominas to write defamatory lyrics describing her performing a sex act.
“The purpose … of these highly offensive, denigrating and defamatory lyrics (written and performed by The Kominas with Knight’s knowledge, encouragement and support) was to mock, deride and ridicule Hasan,” Hasan’s attorney wrote in the lawsuit, filed Friday in Denver.
Knight, who met Hasan while interviewing other Muslims in America, said he never defamed her in his book and did not influence The Kominas’ music. “You can’t defeat writers by censoring or punishing them, you only defeat writers by outwriting them,” Knight wrote in an e-mail response to The Denver Post. “And she can’t do that, so she has to resort to this.”
Hasan, who has supported the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, is the author of “American Muslims: The New Generation” and “Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey” and has written opinion columns for The Post. She claims Knight’s book portrays her falsely as “wealthy, self-absorbed, insensitive and acutely uninformed.”
What do you think?
I think Michael has accurately expressed what any perceptive person can see from reading about and of Asma Gull Hasan. In fact, he has been rather easy on her.