Fareed Zakaria Is Not Sexy (a syllogism)

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The Village Voice tries to make everything it likes into something sexy, cool, and happening.

They’re aiming to do the same with Fareed Zakaria in their profile of him in this week’s issue. Joy Press piles on the adjectives, starting with the subtitle to the article: “Muslim, Heartthrob, Super-Pundit.” A rather unlikely string of words, isn’t it? (Especially jarring is “Muslim” and “Pundit.” But we’ll let it go.)

Press pushes the sexy button a bit more before Zakaria’s anti-sexy, policy wonk energies start to dominate the interview:

Sitting in his airy corner office at Newsweek, Zakaria is the definition of dapper, clad in a pale yellow checked shirt and crisp khakis. He ignores the constant ambient ping of incoming e-mails and phone calls as he talks about his PBS show. Zakaria may be the pundit world’s answer to the Backstreet Boys, but there’s nothing sexy about Foreign Exchange. It has the standard muted tones of a serious news program, complete with generic set and antiquated electronic theme music. “People ask how we’ll distinguish ourselves from the competition,” Zakaria says animatedly. “What competition? There’s literally not another show on American television that deals only with foreign affairs–you know, the other 95 percent of humanity.” (link)

She starts off this paragraph with a kind of journalistic optimism that her subject is in fact hot and happening. Looking dapper! Ignores email pings! (Translation: he’s a busy man, but cool about it.) Argably, the reference to the Backstreet Boys doesn’t help her cause (though maybe the Backstreet Boys are cool again and I am just out of the loop). However, this earnest effort at Cutening Fareed is betrayed by Zakaria’s use of the word “foreign affairs,” which is about as appealing to the fashion-obsessed Voice as a Slurpee in January. From here on out, the interview is all rigor, internationalism, policy, and PBS.

The other 95 percent of humanity is not sexy. Fareed Zakaria is interested in them. Therefore, Fareed Zakaria is not sexy. QED.

For the record, that’s just fine with me: the U.S. media needs more unsexy Muslim heartthrob superpundits. And less Botox News, please.

See more Zakaria SM posts here, here, here, here, and here.

40 thoughts on “Fareed Zakaria Is Not Sexy (a syllogism)”

  2. Yep, the U.S. media needs more unsexy Muslim superpundits. Unfortunately, unsexy brown people don’t get their own TV shows.

  3. Dirty Miss Martini. Now that’s sexy!

    Seriously though, I think Voice has a cookie cutter intro when discussing brown people. I recall exactly the same words to describe Srinivas Krisna two decades ago.

  4. I wonder whether Fareed is Muslim. I remember I saw him once on Charlie Rosie as he flippantly pointed out the contradictions in the Quran. Now must practicing Muslims wont do that. I suspect that at best hes of Muslim origin.

  5. Al-Mujahid, Actually there’s a paragraph later in the piece where he talks about it. He’s pretty clear that he doesn’t consider himself religious.

    But the distinction between “Muslim origin” and “practicing Muslim” is probably too much to ask of the Village Voice.

    Here’s the paragraph in question:

    In the last few years, Zakaria has become a kind of bridge to the Arab world�an Asian-born Muslim with a Yale and Harvard education who seems willing to act as a cultural interpreter. In some ways he was born for this role: His mother was the editor of an Indian newspaper, his father an important politician and scholar who wrote several books about religion, including one titled The Struggle Within Islam. Growing up in a country like India, riven by sectarian violence, Zakaria says, “you’re absolutely aware of the power religion has, in a positive and negative sense�in its ability to inspire people and its ability to inspire people to kill.” On the other hand, his own upbringing was open-minded and secular; he sang Christian hymns at school and celebrated Hindu as well as his own Muslim holidays. “I do know a lot about the world of Islam in an instinctive way that you can’t get through book learning,” he says thoughtfully, but admits he finds the role of token Muslim explainer in the American media slightly uncomfortable. “I occasionally find myself reluctant to be pulled into a world that’s not mine, in the sense that I’m not a religious guy.”

  6. I think it’s at least a start, you know, for an Indian of Indian origin to get recognized – and it’s a step towards breaking the ‘doctor-engineer-PhD’ stereotype.

  8. I wonder whether Fareed is Muslim

    Fareed is married to a Jewish Lady and he used to run a wine tasting group in the NY area. I think he has mentioned that he is not religious.

  9. His flippancy about Quranic contradictions and now his increasing exposure might be troublesome in the future. Who want to participate in Fareed Zakaria Fatwa Pool?

  10. Hey you leave Sreenath alone, DD! 🙂

    Not only does he do SAJA stuff, but he also can do things with Google that would make your toes curl.

  11. Babloo,

    Nope, no fatwa on Fareed — at least from the India side of things. His father was the mighty Rafiq Zakaria; I suspect the son of such a widely respected scholar/politican will get a pass from conservative Muslim groups.

    Rafiq Zakaria, incidentally, just passed away last month.

  12. Well apart from his flippant dismissal of Quranic contradictions on the Charlie Rose show, I have also had family members who know Fareed and his family discuss the fact that Fareed is an atheist. Now I have never talked to Fareed nor do I know him personally so it might very well be desi gossip or a lame attempt by the jealous indian muslim diaspora to tear down a successful desi. I dont really care whether Fareed is a practicing Muslim or if he is an atheist. However I am troubled by the fact that a person born to Muslim parents will always be a Muslim to the American media. I dont believe being a Muslim is an ethnicity. Hirshi Ali (Holland) is similarly still referred to as a Muslim when she has clearly left Islam. The Western Media it seems to me does not give the opportunity to Muslims to leave Islam and they treat Islam as an ethnicity.

  13. Well if he ever does become National Security Advisor, he’ll make a sexier NSA than Kissinger any day! 🙂

  14. He is clearly becoming the one stop source for the “us vs. them” debate (btw – what happend to Fouad Ajami?)

    I admire his intentions but was never quite on the same wavelength with the Fareed of yore.

  17. Nope, no fatwa on Fareed — at least from the India side of things. His father was the mighty Rafiq Zakaria; I suspect the son of such a widely respected scholar/politican will get a pass from conservative Muslim groups.

    Yes, let’s hope so. I was speaking in half-jest anways. Given the tendency of conservatives to take on a more -holier-than-thou stance one can never be sure. India was one of the first countries to issue fatwa on Rushdie, his being Indian etc. notwithstanding. But you are right, Zakaria has much stronger political connections. He won’t be harmed. It is interesting that you bring up Rafiq Zakaria, I think like all the great intellectual men of his generation he was instrumental for laying the secular and democratic foundation of the country. However, it was bothersome to me that towards the end, he was bitter towards Abdul Kalaam. He (Zakaria) felt Kalaam wasn’t a true muslim and that his being a muslim president didn’t really count. Kalaam’s speeches and writings as you know, can be very free flowing in Hindu scriptures, Tamil literature and other non-islamic texts. I don’t know if this was a islamification of Rafiq Z. towards the end or a throwawa comment of the inability of ‘true’ muslim to become the president or jealousy … don’t know.

  18. Al-M-f-deb,

    NNDB isn’t an especially reliable source. No more so than Wikipedia etc.

    His website bio is really the only authoritative place to look. No references there at all, which is fair. I wouldn’t put my religion down on my bio either (though it’s still publicly obvious in another way).

    He probably isn’t going around telling people, “Look, don’t call me a Muslim,” because a big part of the reason he gets called in so often on the news talk shows (and the Daily Show) is his Muslim background & name.

    I’m not calling him an opportunist, but I do think he knows very well how to capitalize on his assets. This is one of them.

    But I see your point about people like Hirsi Ali. Incidentally, she had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, which you might want to check out. I personally think she’s a little nutty/over-the-top.

  19. India was one of the first countries to issue fatwa on Rushdie, his being Indian etc. notwithstanding.

    India was indeed the first to ban Satanic Verses. But a fatwa!

    And even the ban was joke. “A friend” took back two satanic verses on request from US to his family in India. When he got there he was informed by apologetic family members that they had already bought cheap pirated copies.

  21. India was indeed the first to ban Satanic Verses. But a fatwa! And even the ban was joke. “A friend” took back two satanic verses on request from US to his family in India. When he got there he was informed by apologetic family members that they had already bought cheap pirated copies.

    Overwhelming majority of fatwas are on mundane matters (how to wear clothes, how to take bath etc.). It is not just about death to people. It is also not binding by all people of the faith, in fact nobody gives a rat’s ass about fatwas issued by little councils. The book banning was a fatwa AFAIK since it had come from a religious body, it didn’t involve killing nor was it binding to all communities.

  22. The ban was an administrative order from the Home Ministry of India. It happened because of petitions from Muslim bodies. But the ministry took advice from other intellectuals also. I believe Khushwant Singh was one.

    So no, it wasn’t a Fatwa.

  24. btw, i tend to second AMs statement about the media not wanting to make islam a choice, like christianity is. ergo, my handle. at least three times commenters on these boards saw my name, and inferred my muslimness, and responded to me assuming views i didn’t have. i will be honest and straight and say i think part of the problem is that a subset of the media (and liberals) are sensitive to non-white cultures (so they know what muslim or hindu means) and they tend to exoticize them so much they have a difficult time imagining them outside of the cultural stereotype. that is, individuals with free will who can leave their cultural baggage behind them just like many westerners have…because a lot of us are westerners and perceive of ourselves in that way.

    the most extreme case though was one guy who not only upbraided me for my atheist, but stated that my family’s natural religion was hinduism and that they should never have been muslim. he, being a buddhist sufi individual of jewish origin….

  26. Razib,

    Damn, they also seem to be playing the “Zakaria is sexy” card… Perhaps I should leave it to people more, uh, experienced at evaluating the attractiveness of men than myself.

    Or maybe it’s just the smell of success: success == sexy.

  28. my gf (who obviously has a thang for the brown) says he would be good looking if his teeth were a bit smaller. they are kind of like a 6’5 guys teeth in a normal sized head.

  30. Didn’t Riz Khan join Al-Jazeera? Who knows after a lifetime of debauchery maybe he has found religion …

  31. Uncleji, Rageh Omar’s still at the BBC. I think he’s great (I’m talking talent here, not looks) and he became a big star during and after his coverage of the war in Iraq. With his Arabic ability he was able to get a great deal of opinion from those on the ground. He’s originally Somali. He’s a role model of mine and HIS role model was George Alagiah, also at the BBC.

    You know, on the subject of sexy newsreaders, I never got into the whole Daljit Dhaliwal phase that Letterman kicked off, but does anyone else find Monita Rajpal hot? She really does something for me in a she’s-blatantly-taller-than-me-especially-with-that-great-big-hair-but-clearly-looks-like-she-wants-disciplining kind of way. Get HER on the Kingfisher calendar. Posh totty. Or the CNN equivalent.

  32. Ah, having done a little search, I realise this is old ground. Apologies. I see my Monita fandom is rivalled by my esteemed British colleague Punjabi Boy. Good lad.

  33. Zakaria sexy? When I saw him on the Daily Show, I found him kind of … effeminate. Something about his accent, I suppose. Not exactly my idea of a heartthrob in any case.

  35. That is a freakish screenshot. I feel like I forgot to staple the bibliography to my term paper and Professor Zakaria is not amused. I’ve seen the man in person, and he didn’t seem scary then at all, but yeesh. You’ve probably set off a new set of final-exam nightmares, Amardeep.

  38. Gosh he is so sexy.Too bad he is married.I wonder why all the super hot guys are either married or gay.

  39. Yes Indeed, he certainly cant be Muslim if married to a Jewish girl. The only Muslim I know who ever married a Jewish girl wash Prohet Muhammed, (PBUH) He is probably a very Moderate Muslim.

  40. Without a jewish connection, it must be admitted, he could not have ever climbed so high on the ladder of mainstream media.