Early on in his career, Pej Vahdat — who’s played elite Muslim scientist Arastoo Vaziri on Bones since 2009 — would audition for parts that were hackneyed Middle Eastern stereotypes. “Of course there were those terrorist roles,” he told BuzzFeed News, which along with “the bodega owner and the taxicab driver was the majority of the stuff you would be seen for, unfortunately.”

So Vahdat was happy to land the role on a Fox detective show, and happy when Arastoo turned into a recurring character; he thought it was “incredible that he’s a brilliant scientist helping people solve crimes, and not committing them.” The majority of TV portrayals of Muslims have been so one-note that they prompted then-President Barack Obama to say in 2016, “Our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security.” In that grim context, Vahdat has played a forensics expert and a poet whose faith is important but not his defining characteristic. He was subverting racist clichés, but quietly.

Over the last year, though, Vahdat has gotten louder. Like his character Arastoo, the 34-year-old actor is an Iranian-American Muslim who immigrated to the US — Vahdat himself came as a baby with his family. And just a day before he met with BuzzFeed News in Los Angeles, a panel of three federal judges ruled against the current administration’s travel ban for people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran (a slightly revised version of the order is expected soon). As he had throughout the election, Vahdat felt as though his humanity was on trial — now, almost literally.

“I’m not a political person at all, but this is hitting me,” he said. His Twitter account has been dominated by politics; with a newfound will to engage with that sphere, the usually press-averse Vahdat enthusiastically agreed to be interviewed this month. He wants to be as visible as possible, America’s Muslim next door neighbor.