Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan lashed out online after Americans pushed back against his defense of the Islamic call to prayer being played in U.S. neighborhoods.
The Islamic call to prayer, or adhan, is broadcast five times daily and serves as a prominent auditory reminder of faith across Muslim communities. Hasan went on an extended rant on X, blasting what he called right-wing intolerance and claiming Muslim Americans face growing hostility from conservatives.
“I think that if you can play church bells you can pray the [Islamic] call to prayer. We are as American as anyone else and don’t take any BS,” Hasan can be heard saying in a video that was circulated on social media Tuesday. Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill quoted the video showing Hasan making those comments on the same day, sparking an exchange between the two.
Hasan responded by pointing out that Gill’s wife is Indian American and the daughter of an immigrant. The congressman’s father-in-law is prominent Christian conservative documentary filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.
Gill in return responded to Hasan, pointing out that his wife is a Christian who “doesn’t want to hear your oppressive Muslim prayer calls. He added, “If you want to live in a Muslim country, go back to the UK.” Hasan was born and raised in England to Muslim parents from India.
Hasan fired back, accusing Gill and other Republicans of bigotry.
“Multiple sitting GOP members of Congress now sound like Ku Klux Klan wizards. The levels of ignorance, racism, and Christian nationalism are off the charts. Good luck to the poor Muslim Americans who have to live in this guy’s district,” Hasan wrote.
Hasan also targeted The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, who said that America was built by free men, not slaves, during an exchange that was sparked by Walsh’s quote of the viral video featuring the ex-MSNBC host.
“This country was not built by slaves, much less the handful of Muslim ones owned by the 2 percent of Americans who ever had slaves to begin with,” Walsh wrote. “Every Muslim country on the planet had slavery for exponentially longer and relied on it exponentially more than the USA ever did. Which is why western countries had to shut down the Arab slave trade by force.”
“I had a suspicion your response would be ‘hey slavery wasn’t so bad.’ Also, there are no railroads without slaves, no White House or Capitol without slaves. Happy to educate you on your (actually, our) history. Muslims helped build this country long before the Walshes,” Hasan responded.
Hasan also posted a sweeping historical claim.
“One in three of the slaves who built this country were Muslims. They were here long before the Walsh family arrived. You’d know that if you’d studied history but I know MAGA has an issue with studying. Oh, and I am guessing you don’t count slaves as people, or Americans,” Hasan wrote.
Historians estimate that only about 15% to 20% of enslaved Africans brought to America were Muslims, according to Harvard Divinity School. Harvard’s research and other scholarly sources confirm that while some enslaved Muslims contributed to early American life, there is no credible evidence they made up a third of the enslaved population or uniquely “built the country.”
Hasan’s online outbursts came weeks after he laughed at a joke mocking Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast’s combat injuries during a September event in Dearborn, Michigan. Appearing alongside comedian Bassem Youssef at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s ArabCon 2025, Hasan joined discussions criticizing Israel’s campaign against the terrorist group Hamas and took aim at Mast, a veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan.
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