MUSLIM COUNTERPUBLICS LAB

HomeAboutGallery ModeFeatured ResourceBibliographyContactDonate
©2021 Justice for Muslims Collection

2021 B

Intro

2019 C

2008 B

2021 A

2020

2019 B

2019 A

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009 B

2009 A

2008 A

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

About Us

Dr. Maha Hilal, Exhibition Director & Curator

Dr. Maha Hilal is a Muslim Arab American an expert researcher and writer on institutionalized Islamophobia and author of the book Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11. Her writings have appeared in Vox, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Newsweek, Business Insider,Truthout, among others. She is the founding Executive Director of the Muslim Counterpublic and an organizer with Witness Against Torture. She earned her doctorate in May 2014 from the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University in Washington, D.C. She received her Master's Degree in Counseling and her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Maura Dwyer, 
Exhibition Artist

Maura Dwyer is an artist from northeast Baltimore, where she paints murals, works with grassroots organizations to design graphics and illustrations, and co-creates interdisciplinary events that use the arts as a strategy to communicate complex ideas and spark critical dialogue.

Zaynub Siddiqui, Exhibition Artist

Zaynub siddiqui is 21 and is currently pursuing M.S in Counseling at Johns Hopkins University, she is a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Where she earned her degree in Psychology with a focus on children’s education and psychology. She currently is an Art teacher and teaches grades 4th-8th. In her free time Zaynub is an illustrator and often has exhibitions in the DMV.

Art instagram @zaynub_s

Katie is a white woman with short brown wavy hair who is smiling. Katie is wearing a black and white striped blouse with a bookshelf and throw pillow in the background.
Katie Wylie, 
Exhibition Research and Content Creator

Katie Wylie is the editorial and content manager of the Muslim Counterpublics Lab.

Kris is a white person wearing a backwards cap, red glasses, a floral polo shirt, an Allah pendant and is smiling. Blurred behind them is a meadow of white flowers
Kris Garrity,
Exhibition Writer and Editor

Kris Garrity, they/them, is a white Muslim who lives in Washington, DC on the unceded Lands of the Nacotchtank, Piscataway, Doeg-Tauxenants and Pamunkey Peoples. Kris is a parent, researcher, writer, and community organizer. They are the Program Associate with Muslim Counterpublics Lab and co-coordinator of the For Us Not Amazon Coaliton in the DMV with Dr. Maha Hilal. Kris also organizes with Serve Your City/Ward 6 Mutual Aid in DC. Their research focuses on surveillance, state violence and whiteness.

Bibliography

Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11. Edit. For Example. Start Editing.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists hijacked four airplanes and carried out attacks on the United States, killing more than three thousand Americans and sending the country reeling.

Three days after the attacks, President George W. Bush declared, "This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace." Yet in the days following, Bush declared a "War on Terror," which would result in years of Muslims being targeted on the basis of collective punishment and scapegoating.  

In 2009, President Barack Obama said, "America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace." Instead, Obama perpetuated the War on Terror's infrastructure that Bush had put in place, rendering his words entirely empty. President Donald Trump's overtly Islamophobic rhetoric added fuel to the fire, stoking public fears to justify the continuation of the War his predecessors had committed to.  

In Innocent until Proven Muslim, scholar and organizer Dr.Maha Hilal tells the powerful story of two decades of the War on Terror, exploring how the official narrative has justified the creation of a sprawling apparatus of state violence rooted in Islamophobia and excused its worst abuses. Hilal offers not only an overview of the many iterations of the War on Terror in law and policy, but also examines how Muslim Americans have internalized oppression, how some influential Muslim Americans have perpetuated collective responsibility, and how the lived experiences of Muslim Americans reflect what it means to live as part of a "suspect" community. Along the way, this marginalized community gives voice to lessons that we can all learn from their experiences, and to what it would take to create a better future.

Twenty years after the tragic events of 9/11, we must look at its full legacy in order to move toward a United States that is truly inclusive and unified

Featured Resource

Innocent Until Proven Muslim:

By Maha Hilal

For more information and to purchase the book, please go to bit.ly/InnocentUntilProvenMuslimBook