Wittes tells us all about about his intentions behind starting the viral hashtag campaign in a brief phone interview.

Interview has been edited and condensed.

Why did you decide to start the #MuslimAmericanFaces hashtag?

The rhetoric against Muslim-Americans is becoming very ugly. I work on national security and legal issues and I generally believe that in counter-terrorism, sometimes you need to do things that aren’t pretty. But, I also believe that you never have to confuse that with bigotry or disgusting generalizations about people. So, I was thinking today about the Muslim-Americans whom I deal with in various capacities and think very highly of, and that I certainly would want their faces to be what people think of when they think about Muslims. I started by tweeting Mai El-Sadany's picture (whom I work with) and she started tweeting other photos and it caught on!