Last week, alt.muslim's Associate Editor Naeem Mohaiemen was interviewed by David Brancaccio of PBS's NOW program in the United States. In the interview, Naeem discusses the fallout from the London attacks and what Muslims and non-Muslims can do to combat extremism. Here is the transcript (a video stream is also available here):

DAVID BRANCACCIO: A Pakistani man was beaten to death on the streets of Nottingham and more than a dozen mosques were vandalized across Great Britain. And in London, police reported 58 crimes they considered "faith-related" in the week that followed the bombings that's compared to one in the same week a year earlier. Naeem Mohaiemen knows something about the challenges facing moderate Muslims in the wake of the attacks. Born in Bangladesh, he's now a New York-based human rights activist and filmmaker.

DB: Naeem, thanks for joining us.

NAEEM MOHAIEMEN: Thank you David.

DB: What's your sense of the vibe on the street since the terrible bombings in London? I mean I'm trying to get a sense toward evolving attitudes toward people of Middle Eastern origin.

NM: Well, I think they're changing as we speak. I was in London the week before the bombings, I'm going back this weekend for a screening. And-- as I've been talking to my friends, that first couple of days were calm, and people were appealing for calm. And then it started getting worse. You know, there was a Pakistani man who was beaten to death a couple days after the bombing.

DB: In England.

NM: In England. So things have been getting worse. They can also get better, because when you have politicians making statements saying, "We can't allow this sort of thing to happen, and we must respect diversity," if people listen to that, that's very important. And will people listen? I think, after 9/11 here in New York, Rudy Giuliani was a crucial player in sort of calming the tempers, at least in New York. And the question is whether that will happen in London as well.

DB: Still, these terrible attacks, yet again, must frustrate someone who works for human rights. How can you make an argument about understanding other people's point of view, in an environment where there's terrorism going on which does not breed compassion?

NM: Right. I mean you just hit it on the head. It's really difficult. And what happens is human rights work in this context is a long term thing. So you have to presume there'll be ups and downs. And what basically happens, what happened after 9/11, the first couple of months after it, you couldn't talk any human rights of civil rights issues. People just said, "No, absolutely not." And, over time, it changed. You know, and over the last three years, a lot of people in America have actually spoken out against civil rights violations. And a lot of people now, in America, say, "Yes, terrorism has to be stopped. But, also, we must have due process. Even for people that we suspect of being terrorists."

DB: But you don't think the bombings themselves have put you back to square one on this?

NM: To some degree, yes. I mean I hope it's not exactly square one, but, yes, it's undone a lot of work. I definitely feel that.

DB: I mean really, do you blame the authorities? You have this jihadist movement aimed at creating mayhem in this country, in Britain, in Spain, elsewhere. Of course investigators turn their attention to this community when trying to uncover more information and stop it.

NM: I agree with that. And I understand that this is a community that they'll look at. But the question is, if you arrest the entire community, what have you accomplished? You know, you basically got this thousands of people in detention, so you can't process it. So you can't actually find out if there are actually any terrorists in here, right? As opposed to the way you should be catching terrorism is by doing police work. By following actual leads, and finding actual terror cells. What's happening is, when you arrest entire communities, you also have no informants within that community. Because now, even if someone knows that someone possibly in the community could be a terrorist, who is going to come forward, because they'll be afraid of getting arrested themselves.

DB: What you're saying, there needs to be some sort of basis of trust within, for instance, the Middle Eastern community living in a-- in a country like the United States.

NM: Right.

DB: Because you might not pass along important information.

NM: Right. Right. Well, you might be too afraid for your own sake, you know. And, ultimately, as any law enforcement official will tell you, the way to break, let's say crime cells, is to find informants within a community. Like-- whether it's the way they probe the Mafia, or with the way they probe drug rings, it's always you find informants. Right? And, in this case, instead of finding informants they're trying to basically arrest everybody. Which won't work in the end.

DB: Naeem, you said something fascinating in the past. You criticize Western countries, including the US, for their treatment of Muslims around the world, and the immigrants at home. But you also campaign against human rights violations by Muslims against Muslims in Middle Eastern countries.

NM: Absolutely.

DB: I'm sure you've been asked this on your travels, whose side are you on Naeem?

NM: I'm on the side of human rights. And part of that is about criticizing human rights violations wherever they are. And, actually, we live in a zero sum situation where some people believe that, because the U.S. is committing civil rights violations, that they don't have to do anything about it back home. So, for example, when I go to Bangladesh, which is where I'm originally from, and I criticize human rights, the typical response I get is, "Well, why don't you talk about Guantanamo." And my response is, "No, you can't link the two. Just because Guantanamo is going on doesn't mean we don't have to fix our own problems." And if you look at Saudi Arabia which is an atrocious violator of human rights where South Asian immigrants, who live in Saudi Arabia live in near slavery conditions still today, you know. That's a big concern of mine. And just because civil rights violations are happening in the U.S. doesn't mean that doesn't have to stop. You have to work on both.

DB: No impulse on your part to lie low, given the, sort of, these world events.

NM: You know, of course there's some nervousness. I mean, even coming onto this show, I was a little bit nervous about, you know, just being that public. But I think you have to continue doing the work. So there's, of course, some nervousness about your work, but even more of a feeling that you have to speak up now. Because, unless we as progressives Muslims speak up, things will get worse. I think it's really important right now for both the Western world and the Muslim world to hear our voices. Because one of the things that's also going on is that there's a civil war within Islam between radical extremists, and the vast majority of Islam which I believe is progressives and moderates. You know, so there's--

DB: And the progressives and moderates also have suffered in recent weeks with these attacks.

NM: Absolutely. And they're going to end up being the collateral damage, you know.

DB: Well, in what way? Explain that.

NM: Because, if you look at Muslim communities, one of the largest Muslim communities is in the West, right? The-- migrant communities in North America, Europe who are making lives here. And they will be the most directly affected. Because, when there's a crackdown, they'll be affected. And future generations will not be able to immigrate to these countries to make their fortune. So, for Western Muslims, our number one priority is to root out terrorism, and to speak out against terrorism, and to, you know, take action against terrorism. And I want to give one example. In London, Finsbury Park Mosque was a haven for radical Islamist groups. And, about a year ago, this group of moderate Muslims took over the board. And they did it by staging what I would call a palace coup. They just took over the board, they kicked out the radicals and they took over, you know. And it wasn't necessarily a super democratic process, but maybe that's what's needed to get those out. And I feel that that was a situation where Muslims were cleaning out their own house. Where they're pushing out the radical extremists, instead of waiting for the West to take care of it.

DB: Do you feel that the moderate Muslims are speaking out loudly enough against these atrocities?

NM: I think the moderate Muslims are speaking out loudly enough. But speaking out is not enough. The example I gave of Finsbury mosque is action. You know, where you can't just expect to change the radical extremist's mind. You know, you have to unseat them from positions of power. You know, if they are in any of the mosques, you have to get them out so they can't speak on our behalf, you know. I mean I don't want these people speaking on my behalf. I want me speaking, you know, on behalf of progressive Muslims. So that's part of the struggle.

DB: Naeem Mohaiemen is a human rights activist who uses film and his writings to raise awareness on these issues. You can see links to some of his work on our Web site, pbs.org. Naeem, thank you very much.

NM: Thank you, David.