Deepa Kumar: The racist roots of the War on Terror

In this fascinating conversation, Arun Kundnani interviews Deepa Kumar who traces the longer historical and racist roots of the War on Terror that in the last 20 years has killed at least one million people. They discuss how Arab and Muslim communities were racialised and targeted well before 9/11 and what interests this dehumanisation served.…

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…

Race and America's Long War book cover

Book review: Race and America’s Long War by Nikhil Pal Singh

Until recently, US academia maintained a strong division between the analysis of racism and the analysis of capitalism. The former flourished within certain limits while the latter was neglected; each was artificially separated from the other. But that is no longer true. A body of work has emerged in the last few years that draws…

Professor Removed From a Southwest Flight Is Symbolic of a Pattern of Airline Islamophobia

Co-authored with Khaled A. Beydoun, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Detroit Mercy. Millions of people have now watched the video of Anila Daulatzai, a pregnant 46-year-old college professor, getting dragged off a Southwest Airlines plane on September 26 at Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore. After it happened, the airline put out a statement alleging that…

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…

Crypto and empire: the contradictions of counter-surveillance advocacy

Since Edward Snowden’s revelations of US and UK surveillance programs, privacy advocates, progressive security engineers, and policy makers have been seeking to win majority support for countering surveillance. The problem is framed as the replacement of targeted surveillance with mass surveillance programs, and the solutions put forward are predominantly technical and involve the use of…

Some of Europe’s politicians are doing ISIL’s work for them

On June 26, an ISIL-supporting gunman trained in Libya carried out a massacre on a Tunisian beach. Over the course of 47 minutes, Seifeddine Rezgui shot and killed 38 holidaymakers, including 30 British tourists. It was the worst terrorist attack targeting British civilians since the 7/7 bombings on London’s transport system a decade ago. As…

Will the UK government’s counter-extremism programme criminalise dissent?

A post-election analysis of the UK government’s new proposals to tackle extremism.   From 1 July, a broad range of public bodies – from nursery schools to optometrists – will be legally obliged to participate in the government’s Prevent policy to identify would-be extremists. Under the fast-tracked Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, schools, universities and health service…

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…