Audio: the political praxis of Jamil Al-Amin
Host James Pope and Arun Kundnani go deep on the life of Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, in this conversation for the Africa World Now radio show.
For Black Panthers, Radicalization Entailed Self-Transformation
As a new generation rises up against racist police and vigilante violence, organizers are thinking through how to build a mass movement that fully engages the most marginalized. Useful lessons can be found in the history of the Black Panther Party, if one reaches beyond the imagery of leather jackets and shotguns. Susie Day’s new…
Don’t Expand the War on Terror in the Name of Antiracism
Co-authored with Jeanne Theoharis Declaring white nationalism a form of terrorism won’t combat white nationalism — but it will grant more arbitrary powers to a carceral state that preys on the most vulnerable. Over the last few months, there have been growing calls to categorize white nationalism as a form of terrorism and to extend…
Did the FBI Spy on This Black Muslim After 9/11 Because His Dad Was Linked to Malcolm X?
Critics say the case raises serious questions about how the government treats radicals of all stripes. Co-authored with Erin Corbett and Anevay Aponi Zapata. President Donald Trump has pledged to end the “anti-police atmosphere” he associates with the Black Lives Matter movement. And the most powerful man in America enjoys at least some audience for that kind of talk: Last year, more than a hundred…
The Guantánamo in New York you’re not allowed to know about
Before every phone call that Fatuma Hashi has with her brother Mahdi, FBI agents come on the line to tell her what she is not permitted to talk about. “You’re not allowed to speak about political issues. Or whatever’s happening in the outside world. Or his case,” she told The Intercept. Mahdi Hashi, a young man of…
Race, Surveillance, and Empire
Co-authored with Deepa Kumar Beginning in June 2013, a series of news articles based on whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s collection of documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) took the world by storm. Over the course of a year, the Snowden material provided a detailed account of the massive extent of NSA’s warrantless data collection. What…
How One Man Refused to Spy on Fellow Muslims for the FBI — and Then Lost Everything
Co-authored with Emily Keppler and Muki Najaer The case of Ayyub Abdul-Alim fits a decades-long pattern of government criminalization of African-American Muslims. On the night of December 9, 2011, Siham Stewart called her husband, Ayyub Abdul-Alim, as he closed down his corner store, Nature’s Garden, in Springfield, Massachusetts. She asked him to bring home…
Five Book Plan: Political Policing
I was recently asked by Verso Books to list 5 books on political policing that informed my writing of The Muslims are Coming!. 1. If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance by Angela Y. Davis, Ruchell Magee, the Soledad Brothers, and Other Political Prisoners (Orbach and Chambers, 1971) If They Come in the Morning is…
No NSA reform can fix the American Islamophobic surveillance complex
Muslim Americans likely make up the bulk of US domestic spy targets. This is what it’s like for innocent citizens to live in fear. Better oversight of the sprawling American national security apparatus may finally be coming: President Obama and the House Intelligence Committee unveiled plans this week to reduce bulk collection of telephone records.…
Missing the best chance to prevent terror bombing
Since the bombing of the Boston marathon – in which three people, including a child, were killed and more than 200 injured – attention has naturally focused on what could have been done to prevent it. Some, such as Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, have argued for increased surveillance of Muslims…