There is an interest in putting us in a box of constantly defending our identities.

And I am not interested in being in a box.

I am interested in defending my ideas and not my identity.

Hello, this is Mehdi Hassan and you're listening to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota

during her appearance on this very podcast back in February.

At the time, she was in the midst of a massive media scandal surrounding her tweets about

A-Pak and the Israel lobby which had resulted in an avalanche of death threats from the far

right.

You now have a literal target on your back.

How much do you have to worry about your safety right now?

I'm a person of faith.

So I know that I will leave this earth when the time comes.

And I know that there is important work for me to do and so I'm focused on that.

Over the last year and a half, many of you have written in to say that you appreciate

how we cover topics, often ignored or distorted by other media, how we like to include the

kinds of voices you don't normally find in the mainstream press.

More recently, the show has welcomed Indian author and activist Arondati Roy.

India's position on Kashmir has never been a moral position.

It is a kind of moral corrosion that has corroded all of us.

Palestinian-American scholar Nora Erichat.

Israel is going to be a 2020 issue.

And of course, living legend, Nome Chomsky.

...