Lawyer/humorist Wajahat Ali tackles the serious topic of ‘Islamophobia’ – San Jose Mercury News

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Lawyer/humorist Wajahat Ali tackles the serious topic of 'Islamophobia' – San Jose Mercury News.

Playwright, lawyer and humorist Wajahat Ali is known to fellow Fremont residents as a man of many projects. As we meet for an interview downtown, a passer-by interrupts to ask Ali, in Urdu, "What are you working on now?" One answer is scripting an HBO pilot, with novelist Dave Eggers, about a Muslim cop in San Francisco. Ali, 30, has made a career of writing about ordinary Muslim Americans with humor and candor. Another project marks Ali's first big dive into political advocacy, with a report (due out this week) he has co-authored with researchers at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Ali says it exposes how a small network of anti-Muslim activists transformed a fringe movement into a mainstream cause.

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