Andrew O'Keefe

Right to reply — Dear Qanta Ahmed: What ambush? Where?

Dear Qanta,

Our names are Andrew O’Keefe and Monique Wright, and we were the hosts who interviewed you on Weekend Sunrise. We were also partially behind the decision to invite you on to our show, having read about and admired your work for some time. It is with great sadness, and some surprise, that we now read your article “A Muslim’s Ambush: How I was stitched up by Australian breakfast TV.

We both recall very fondly that you took the time, on the day, to remark upon the very pleasing content and conduct of the interview in question. As you said in the interview itself, it was “refreshing”. And indeed, anyone who watches the interview could only conclude that we were very sympathetic to your points about Islamism, very interested in exploring the profound ethical and humanitarian collaboration between doctors of different backgrounds at Hadassah, and very open to your discussion of Israel as a liberal pluralistic nation.

Your suggestions that you were somehow set up as a stooge, that you were in any way “ambushed” or exploited, or that our producer Iman had anything other than your best interests at heart in constructing the segment, are completely false.

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