I was not expecting the aggressive onslaught, but I stood my ground and rebutted each point systematically. I said: he was incorrect in stating that I had written and collaborated with Tariq Ramadan in an article or any other project. I had no contact with him nor had met him. And about my not condemning the terrible practices against women, I have condemned them as un-Islamic. I also explained to the audience that the talk of Sharia being imposed in America, to me, was absurd because a population of less than two percent could not impose its will, even if the majority wished, which they did not, through democratic and constitutional means on the non-Muslim 98 percent of the population. Besides, I pointed out, even in Muslim countries like Pakistan, where the population is 98 percent Muslim, Sharia has not been imposed as the law of the land. I pointed out that countless heroic Muslim women in the Muslim world, including my own daughter, are promoting understanding and building bridges in a very difficult environment. Furthermore, at least four or five members of my wife’s family had been shot by militants for supporting a modernist Islam in the turmoil in that part of north Pakistan where many men insist that women should not be educated and locked up in their homes. So for ill-informed men in America to condemn the entire body of Muslim society while unaware of the challenges and sacrifices of Muslim men and women in the field reflects on their ignorance and lack of information. Demonstrating the many similarities and connections between Christianity and Islam, I also pointed out that not only is Jesus one of the most revered figures in the Quran for every Muslim, but Mary, the mother of Jesus, is especially revered and has an entire chapter in the Quran named after her and devoted to her. A Muslim cannot, by definition, be disrespectful of either Jesus or Mary. The showdown in Tennessee gave me not only insights into American society today, but real hope and confidence that given the facts Americans ‘will always do the right thing’ I asked the questioner if he had actually read anything I had written or was he just making things up. I urged him to get his facts right and obtain more information. I again emphasized the use of the Socratic method, which emphasized facts, research and logic. I had barely finished my detailed answer when the audience burst into a prolonged applause. If the audience had been wavering between its preconceived ideas of Islam and my explanations, it wavered no more. Being Muslim with a Pakistani background meant I was asked tough questions in every forum about US-Pakistan relations. President Trump’s first tweet in the New Year had accused Pakistan of extracting billions from the US and giving “nothing but lies and deceit” in return, bringing the issue to the fore across America. Some accused Pakistan of hiding Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad. I explained why Pakistanis are so upset. Pakistan had lost some 60,000 lives and billions of dollars in property damage by being thrown against its will into America’s War on Terror, yet the world had come to know Pakistanis not as victims but promoters of terrorism. Nonetheless, the US and Pakistan needed to restore normalcy in their relations. Without working with Pakistan it will be impossible for the US to settle the war in Afghanistan and it may end up losing both nations as geopolitical allies in that critically important part of the world. In light of this challenging time for America and the growing gap between the West and the Muslim world, I emphasized the ideal of a pluralist, religiously inclusive America as reflected in the vision of the Founding Fathers and gave the example of the statue of the angel alongside that of Thomas Jefferson at his University of Virginia, which holds a tablet saying “Religious Freedom, 1786” and has the various names of God including Allah. I also pointed out that Islamophobia is a slippery slope. Muslims may be the target today, but tomorrow other minorities will be in the line of fire. It does not take long for an audience, however distinguished, from turning into a mob and uniting against what it perceives as a common foe. If the questioner had succeeded in whipping up anti-Islamic sentiments, which are more widely accepted in society than we imagine, things could have turned ugly. Instead, the audience rose to give me a prolonged standing ovation. After it was over, many individuals came up to me beaming from ear to ear, some of them clearly Muslim, and said they were thrilled to be present at the event. I met Uzbeks, Arabs, Kurds, African American converts and a Pakistani doctor with his wife. They said they had to endure these hostile questions almost daily and this was the best way to convincingly and strongly refute them. Many non-Muslims had brought various copies of my books for signature. Just days later, Georgiana Vines, a prominent local journalist, wrote about the event for the Knoxville News Sentinel under the headline, “Leading authority on Islam talks religion bridge-building at UT.” Frankie Martin, who had accompanied me from DC, also wrote an excellent account, “Discussing Islam in East Tennessee,” in the Pakistan Link. Martin’s conclusion is noteworthy: “Thinking about the event afterward, I believed that I understood why the Knoxville audience had responded so positively to the talk, and it partly had to do with the hostile question and Ahmed’s response. Many people may feel uneasy about stereotyping and responding with hatred towards a large group of people but lack the understanding and arguments to effectively push back against such voices. In Ahmed’s response, I believe they encountered a fact-based argument that made sense and appealed at the same time to the cherished American ideal of religious freedom and liberty. The challenge is to have more of these events and for the increasing hatred of Islam and Muslims to be refuted in this manner in public events and in the media.” The showdown in Tennessee gave me not only insights into American society today, but real hope and confidence that given the facts Americans, in the end, to quote a statement attributed to Winston Churchill, “will always do the right thing.” The writer is an author, poet, filmmaker, playwright, and is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington, DC. He formerly served as the Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland. He tweets @AskAkbar Published in Daily Times, February 25th 2018.