Last year, I was fortunate to be a part of
@interruptcrim
's abolitionist journalism cohort where I was paired with an incarcerated journalist named Lyle May. Lyle, who is now a good friend recently published an incredible book called "Witness: An Insider's View of the Carceral
"Guantanamo Bay is one of the most notorious examples of how the public narrative has justified the detention, torture, and murder of Muslim men by constructing them as inherently terroristic and irredeemable."
#CloseGuantanamo
#Biden
#Islamophobia
#Muslim
It's outrageous to learn that the murder of 4
#Muslim
men in
#ABQ
was allegedly perpetrated by a Sunni Muslim, motivated by anti-Shia hatred. For all of us who identify as
#Sunni
, it's past time to condemn Sunni hegemony & antagonism towards
#Shia
#Muslims
. No one owns Islam.
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." Thank you
#DesmondTutu
for everything you brought to the world & for everything you taught us about resistance. Rest in power
🧵Instead of focusing on the
#Muslim
men who were harmed by the
#JihadRehab
documentary, the
@nytimes
took it upon themselves to solicit sympathy for the filmmaker by reducing the problem to one of identity politics. Whitewashing the violence of the doc is itself,
#Islamophobia
.
Thread: 1/18
I graduated with a Ph.D. in Justice, Law, and Society from
@AmericanU
in 2014. During my PhD, I learned how violent
#academia
is especially for students of color. The memories of what I endured continue to haunt me, so I decided to share my experience.
I wish more people understood that
#depression
is not sadness. It's so much more: feelings of worthlessness, lacking motivation, dis-engaging with life & the list goes on. For those who know someone battling depression, just listen without rebutting their feelings
#mentalhealth
Today marks one year since my book was published & I'm grateful to everyone who bought, read & shared it! As the never-ending
#WarOnTerror
,
#Islamophobia
& the targeting of
#Muslims
continues, my book remains relevant. So today, I present the unofficial conclusion of my book 👇
I received a beautiful statement from a former
#Guantanamo
prisoner re:
#CloseGuantanamo
."When you’re sitting in a prison cell & you find out that someone out there in the world refuses to forget you, it’s like a window is carved into the wall, letting the light of day in." See👇
I've been attacked left and right for my op-ed on
#HamzaYusuf
. But I'm not going to back down as long as he is appointed as the representative of Muslim Americans. Thx 2 my amazing friends 4 supporting me in taking this risk
#Muslims
#Trump
#Islamophobia
2 years ago I was asked by a
#Muslim
scholar to decline an invitation to speak at a conference I was never officially invited to b/c of an op-ed I wrote on Hamza Yusuf. I stand by everything I wrote & shame on Muslims who continue giving him a platform:
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf was heckled & booed on stage with the fire alarm pulled at the RIS conference in Toronto. Check out my pinned thread on how this anti-Palestinian & anti-Black "scholar" is a snake & the whole conference should be boycotted.
Today is the 20th year anniversary of one of the
#torture
memos from Jay Bybee (written by now Berkeley law prof. John Yoo) to Alberto Gonzales that redefined torture as treatment that had to rise to the level of organ failure, impairment of body function or death.
#Guantanamo
I can’t believe today is the day! After so much sweat, blood, & tears, the launch of my book is finally here! Please join me virtually at 7 PM EST tonight to commemorate the occasion. RSVP at: . ASL interpretation & CART captioning will be available.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the opening of
#GuantanamoBay
prison, one of the oldest, most infamous relics of the
#WarOnTerror
, & an emblem of institutionalized Islamophobia. The following are key 2021 events related to Guantanamo.
1/2021:
@Amnesty
report + UN press release
Calls to close
#Guantanamo
"should also robustly challenge how the Islamophobic discourse surrounding Guantanamo has perpetuated a narrative of unequivocal guilt, even after the men have been transferred."
My latest op-ed in
@thedailybeast
Did you know that Jeff Bezos is so wealthy that $1 spending by an average American is equivalent to Bezos spending $1.9 million because he is so rich? Who’s really getting a good deal on
#PrimeDay
?
Two
#Guantanamo
prisoners & brothers Mohammed Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani & Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani were transferred home today to
#Pakistan
after spending nearly 2 decades behind bars. Insha Allah, they find healing, ease & contentment in their new lives.
Today we demanded
#JusticeForPoushawnBrown
outside
#JeffBezos
DC mansion. Pou worked at an Amazon warehouse in VA & died suddenly in Jan. 2021 after being made to conduct COVID testing without being given any protective gear or PPE. We will continue to hold
#Amazon
accountable.
If you want to learn about perfecting dehumanizing & demonizing language, turn to
#Israel
& and
#CNN
, who use "targets" as an intentional replacement of civilians to justify state violence. "Targets" precludes the possibility of ever holding Israel accountable for its violence.
#InnocentUntilProvenMuslim
My book is finally here after weeks of research, writing, editing, crying, & now, basking in the joy of accomplishing part of my life's work. I hope it contributes to understanding & dismantling the
#WarOnTerror
.
Pre-order at:
I’m publishing a book, available to pre-order now: ! “Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror & the Muslim Experience Since 9/11” addresses the War on Terror's impacts over the last 20 years. Please spread the word w/a tag or re-tweet!
Twenty years ago today, on April 28th, 2004, horrific photos of
#torture
at
#AbuGhraib
prison in
#Iraq
were exposed to the world on CBS' 60 minutes. No one in the
#Bush
administration was held accountable to this day. But thanks to
@theCCR
, the corporation that conspired with
On March 5th,
#Alabama
executed
#NateWoods
, an innocent Black
#Muslim
. In this piece, I interviewed Nate Woods' Imam Yusef Maisonet at Holman prison. Like other cases, this one reveals the depth of the violence that Black Muslim prisoners are subjected to.
So much has been already said about the Islamophobic film
#JihadRehab
that premiered at
#SundanceFilmFestival
. As someone who has worked to close
#Guantanamo
& end
#torture
for almost 15 years, the prison's Islamophobic foundations have minimized and/or erased.
🧵
Two weeks ago during
#JudgeKetanjiBrownJackson
's confirmation hearings,
#GOP
Senators weaponized
#Guantanamo
and
#Islamophobia
to undermine Judge Jackson's candidacy and credentials. I deconstruct their arguments in my op-ed and thread here:
Yesterday I cried after a presentation I gave on
#Islamophobia
&
#HateCrime
. I dont usually cry, so this was a reminder of how much you have to hold in to do social justice work rooted in your identity. So 4 allies doing this work, remember that's its not a hobby for some of us
My new op-ed: "From its inception,
#Guantanamo
was about creating a separate system of justice that would make it easier for the US to utilise tactics such as torture, based on the premise that US laws did not apply to prisons outside of the US mainland."
Finally, I'll end with one of my favorite quotes I remember b/c of everyone helped me find my light again. "Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light"
~Albert Schweitzer
18/18
Poushawn Brown, a 38-year-old Black Amazon worker died suddenly in early Jan. She was assigned to conduct COVID-19 testing for other employees with no PPE. Join us tomorrow @ 3 PM EST to show solidarity with her family and their call for justice.
Poushawn, who worked at Amazon’s Springfield, VA warehouse, died suddenly in January. She’d been assigned to do COVID testing without being given any PPE.
Join us tomorrow at 3pm EST to honor Poushawn’s life and support her family’s fight for justice.
There's a lot more I could say, but 6 years after I started my PhD, I graduated with a dissertation titled "Too Damn Muslim to be Trusted: The War on Terror and the Muslim American Response." I never felt as proud of myself as I did for finishing that program from hell.
14/18
Thread: Yesterday, January 11th, 2020 marked the 18th year that
#Guantanamo
Bay prison has been in operation. As a researcher and writer, I have written extensively on the myriad of issues that Guantanamo presents. Below are a few.
#CloseGuantanamo2020
Tomorrow will mark 20 years that
#Guantanamo
Bay prison has been open under the guise of the War on Terror to detain Muslims. Last year I wrote a piece on the need to
#abolish
the prison & a year later, this message bears repeating
#GITMO20
#Islamophobia
🧵Meg Smaker who produced the documentary
#JihadRehab
along w/ her supporters have cried
#CancelCulture
b/c of the criticism she's gotten. To challenge this idea, highlight ethical concerns, & provide tips for journos, I wrote this piece in
@NBCUAcademy
Here's a sneak peak of some of the images in our
#WarOnTerror
timeline. If you're in DC come through to see the exhibit and to hear from me and The Sanctuaries. Also, we will be using
#shatteringjustice
for the event.
***Note: No reproduction allowed
Alhamdullilah, Saifullah Paracha, 75,
#Guantanamo
’s oldest prisoner was transferred home to Pakistan after 20 years in detention. I wonder what justice looks like to him, but in the meantime, may Allah grant him a long life to reinvent his stolen world:
On this day 19 years ago in 2003, the
#Bush
administration launched the
#IraqWar
based on false pretenses of weapons of mass destruction & the promise of freedom. 200k + murders later, there has been no accountability for the US' war crimes in
#Iraq
& the violence continues.
Today is not the day for op-eds by White people reflecting on Juneteenth, especially for accolades on all the "progress the US has made." Today is a day to uplift and center Black voices, period.
#JUNETEENTH2020
#BlackLivesMatter
I published my 1st book
#InnocentUntilProvenMuslim
exactly 2 mths ago today. I was supposed to write 60K words, but ended up writing 110K words b/c I felt the urgency of saying so much about the targeting of
#Muslims
in the WOT. Pls help uplift my book:
My new op-ed on the role of narrative in sustaining the violence of
#Guantanamo
on the 21st anniversary: "Guantanamo Bay is one of the most notorious examples of how the public narrative has justified the detention, torture, and murder of Muslim men..."
The
#USA
launched Operation Iraqi Freedom 20 years ago today under
#Bush
& mercilessly bombed
#Iraq
. Less than 2 months later after killing 1,000's of Iraqis & causing massive destruction, Bush declared "mission accomplished" - only actually marking the expansion of US empire.
When I write about the War on Terror, I emphasize the narratives that
#dehumanize
#Muslims
& serve to justify violence in the first place and to support its perpetuation.
#Russia
's war on
#Ukraine
has shed so much light on what happens when your humanity is actually recognized.
I'm looking forward to moderating this panel w/ survivors from
#Guantanamo
@MansoorAdayfi
,
@MohamedouOuld
, Lakhdar Boumediene, & Ahmed Errachidi. As June
#torture
awareness month comes to a close, join us for this critical conversation. Rsvp here:
🧵1/
Today is the
#4thOfYouLie
, a day where the
#UnitedStates
celebrates its "
#independence
day" from their colonizer cousins. Instead of engaging in the facade of this holiday, get yourself educated! Even better, read my book, Innocent Until Proven
#Muslim
!
#depression
is like someone who has a permanent home in your attic. Sometimes they come to the main floor, sometimes they stay in the attic, but either way it's always there. The daily fight is figuring out where it's going to meet you & if you'll get any reprieve
#mentalhealth
In case you can't conceive of right wing violence on its own (New edition
#VanillaISIS
) here's a piece I wrote last summer about leaving Muslims out of discussions on
#WhiteSupremacist
violence. Stop being Islamophic & tying violence back to
#Muslims
D.C. friends: Join me on 10/26 at 7PM at Open Gov Hub for the launch of
#InnocentUntilProvenMuslim
. This book was a year in the making. I'm excited to put it into the world to continue resisting Islamophobia.
RSVP:
Pre-order:
Today, January 11th marks the 18th year anniversary of the day Guantanamo was opened under the War on Terror in 2002. Please come out to the rally today calling for the closure of this horrendous prison and an end to torture.
#CloseGuantanamo2020
🧵8 years ago today the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on
#CIA
#torture
conducted from 2002-2008. Despite gruesome details revealed about the program,
#Obama
still referred to the torture as "enhanced interrogation techniques," in his statement on the release.
Accountability for Muslim leaders is imperative especially if they claim to represent the community. My new op-ed on why we should hold Hamza Yusuf accountable.
#HamzaYusuf
Yusuf surely knows the human cost of the "war on terror".
He's clearly aware of the devastation & death "tolerant" UAE caused in Yemen.
It's time for Muslim Americans to condemn Hamza Yusuf —
#AJOpinion
, by Maha Hilal
The torture that happened at
#AbuGhraib
was one of the worst consequences of the US invasion of
#Iraq
and there has been no accountability whatsoever. Here's an article I wrote on the case that was brought by
@theCCR
:
The US government will never admit that
#Guantanamo
post 9/11 has been a site of institutionalized
#Islamophobia
with every single prisoner being
#Muslim
. Since this fact continues to be omitted, we decided to update the Joint Task Force logo to reflect the reality of the prison.
Today on
#MemorialDay
let's remember that no one should/has to die because of the US' state violence in the form of war and imperialism. But nothing will change until this country abandons its absolute commitment to violence, which honestly seems so hard to fathom at this point.
You know what you can do
#Trump
? STOP TARGETING
#Muslims
. Stop droning Muslims. Stop surveilling Muslims. Stop murdering Muslims.Stop demonizing Muslims. All you've done is display outright violence towards Muslims.
#NewZealandMosqueShooting
#NewZealand
I've been accepted to the Virginia Progressive Leadership Project. Excited to learn and build with progressive leaders across Virginia!
#Cohort7
#VAPLP
@WeEngageVA
Nevertheless, and despite this accomplishment, I have worked for years to undo the many ways the program taught me that I wasn't smart enough, that my research wasn't good enough, that I didn't belong in academia, and that I would ultimately fail.
15/18
Today,
#June1st
marks the beginning of
#Torture
Awareness Month. This is a good time to remember that torture is as
#American
as
#ApplePie
. It's also a good time to support survivors of torture through our recently launched
#Guantanamo
Survivors Fund:
🧵Today is
#InternationalArtistsDay
which celebrates the amazing contributions artists make & the cultural richness they bring to our lives. There are so many incredible artists out there, including many from
#Guantanamo
& who have faced a campaign of repression from US gov't.
"That’s why after 20 years, we must dismantle and abolish DHS.... and collectively subvert and disrupt the problematic and demonising narratives of communities (and "homeland")it has preyed on to justify its existence."
My new op-ed in
@MiddleEastEye
So many of my
#family
members have died in November/December & so it is with yet another year. My
#2021
is ending w/news that my uncle in
#Egypt
died today. I'm heartbroken & remembering how hard it is to lose a loved one when you live in the
#Diaspora
انا لله و انا اليه راجعون
For the last 4 years, I have been directing and curating a War on Terror exhibition with the support of incredible artists
@zaynub_s
and
@mauradwyer
. It was first launched as a physical exhibition and we have now converted it to a virtual, 3-D exhibition.
After 20 years of the War on Terror, what does it mean to be “Innocent Until Proven Muslim?”
- to be othered & surveilled
- to wonder if we can travel freely
- to prove we are not “the enemy”
- to be dehumanized & morally excluded
- to be a target of human & civil rights abuses
I continue to work on overcoming what was one of the most traumatic experiences in my life and try to support other POC graduate students who are facing oppression in their programs. There are more details of my story for another day.
16/18
Thread: 1/3
The
#Muslim
community should collectively agree on a moratorium on "women's right in Islam" lectures, seminars, workshops, etc. for the external gaze, until we get it together internally.
#Islam
#Alhamdulillah
for another transfer of a
#Guantanamo
prisoner, Abdel Razaq who was the last Algerian detained. May he find peace, healing, and justice so he can rebuild his life & may and he his family have a blessed
#Eid
Insha Allah after so much time apart.
BREAKING NEWS: The military has released the last Algerian held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Said Bakush, aka Ali Abdul Razzaq, had been held here without charge or trial since 2002. Today the United States holds 30 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
I'm still so moved from the event that we at
@dcmuslimjustice
held yesterday, "Shattering Justice & Re-Making the Muslim Threat with the launch of our War on Terror visual timeline. This project took over a year and involved a lot of painful research on the targeting of Muslims.
#EidMubarak
to my Muslim family. May this be a day of resistant joy. Prayers for Muslims whose Eids are marked by repression & state violence including my Sudanese family, the Rohingya, the Uighurs & so many others. May our collective prayers bring all Muslims liberation. Ameen
I have been expecting this and worse. This is what
@prisonculture
and I talked about in our book. Human disposal and excluding people from the means of survival will be increasingly normalized. Rejecting this will be increasingly rebellious.
Wednesday, March 1st marks 20 year since
#DHS
- an institution that has inflicted massive state violence on BIPOC communities - was created. Join
@MuslimCpLab
& other orgs at ICE's HQ in DC on 3/1 @ 5:30 PM 2 demand the dismantling of DHS & the defunding of
#ICE
&
#CBP
!حرية الآن
Friends, I am thrilled to introduce my new organization
@MuslimCpLab
! Muslim Counterpublics Lab (MCL) is a radical discursive space focused on combatting systems of oppression rooted in Islamophobia. Learn more at our website: .
Thank you for your support!
"Lutfi bin Ali's death was not inevitable, but it was predictable because it is demonstrative of the way the US government manipulates and controls the lives and deaths of the men held at
#Guantanamo
Bay Prison."
@PradhanAlka
@theCCR
@WitnessTorture
The
#US
finally transferred Majid Khan out of
#Guantanamo
to Belize after being brutally tortured and detained first by the
#CIA
and then at the notorious prison. Praying that he can rebuild his life with some semblance of normalcy and the support he needs.
#CloseGuantanamo
"I feel like I am reborn. I have reentered the world. I am a free man. I am beginning a new life in a new country and a new culture. It's all new to me, and I have a lot to learn."
– Our client Majid Khan in a statement
Read his full statement here:
There has never been any semblance of justice for survivors of
#Guantanamo
&
#JihadRehab
adds further insult to injury. It's time to stop showing the documentary & to stop conversating about it.
#Islamopbhobia
is violent and whitewashing this will never erase this fact.
1/10 The recently released
@HBO
documentary “The Forever Prisoner” ignores the ongoing brutal harms against Abu Zubaydah, the focus of the documentary, and all victims of the “War on Terror.”
Even among liberal & progressive groups, the fact that all those detained at
#Guantanamo
post 9/11 have been
#Muslim
, has been treated as an unintended consequence of the War on Terror. So now is the time to actually confront the reality of Islamophobia beyond this atrocious film
But for now, I'll end with gratitude for all of my family and friends who helped get me through these horrible years, especially
@DarakshanRaja
who affirmed my intelligence and ability to succeed. I hope I can support others with the care and love that I received.
17/18
Check out my new op-ed on
#Amazon
's attempts to whitewash its violence and deny its workers' demands - especially for protections related to
#COVID19
. It is time Amazon heeds the demands of its workers
@AJEnglish
#Guantanamo
has been open for nearly 20 years now under the guise of the War on Terror. At the
#Senate
Judiciary hearing on
#Guantanamo
, the same tired narratives are being used including the idea that the prison is a moral stain on the US. But torture is an
#American
value.
"Talk is cheap, and the US feigning concern over torture is even cheaper. Absent true accountability & tangible corrective measures, torture will continue to be an
#American
value."
My new op-ed on official statements made by
#USA
officials on
#torture
:
The
@nytimes
obtained photos documenting the beginning days of
#Guantanamo
that the
#UnitedStates
government kept secret since 2002. There's nothing surprising about these pictures, but they further emphasize how deep the dehumanization has always been.
Today is the first annual
#UN
International Day to Combat
#Islamophobia
& ofc the
#UnitedStates
used this as an opportunity to whitewash its own violence including mentioning the
#UnitedWeStand
summit. Symbolism can be very dangerous when it's used to deflect away from reality.
Eid Mubarak to my
#Muslim
family. Special Du'aa for Muslims in prison, Muslims resisting settler colonialism & all Muslims whose lives have been shaped by Islamophobic violence. iA we will all be safe from
#whitesupremacist
violence and make them rage in seeing our joy. Takbir!
It has now been
#100DaysWithBiden
& there is little progress in closing
#Guantanamo
. Now is the time to
#Abolish
not just close this prison.
"We can't just close Guantanamo Bay prison, we also have to abolish the injustice that allowed it to exist"
“Now I’m living as if I’m dead and being told I am free when I am not." This is a quote from former
#Guantanamo
prisoner Sabri Al-Quraishi, who was resettled in Kazakhstan without support from US gov't. Pls read
@eliseswain
's excellent piece about Sabri:
What does
#burnout
mean for those of us who live the violence that has defined our identity & become our work because our lives depend on it? Can you really disconnect, separate your identity out, or take a break when your very existence provokes violence against you?
#Selfcare
#Thread
1/2:
Stop going out of the way to emphasize the "peaceful"
#protests
. This makes the false presumption that the state's response would have been different, had it not been for the "violent" (in quotation marks, because whose violence and/or who provoked violence).