Dr. Maha Hilal Profile picture
Author of Innocent Until Proven Muslim, available now! Founder & Executive Director of @MuslimCpLab, PhD w/focus on Muslim rights & War on Terror
Jan 12, 2022 11 tweets 7 min read
#CloseGuantanamo
#Gitmo20

If you tuned into the Senate Judiciary hearing on closing #Guantanamo, led by Senator Dick Durbin in #December, you might have noticed that the word #Muslim was only mentioned once.

Thread & my op-ed in @MiddleEastEye below.

middleeasteye.net/opinion/us-gua… The failure to explicitly confront the role of #Islamophobia in the existence of Guantanamo Bay & the use of torture demonstrates a willful neglect of the fact that neither would have been possible without the dehumanizing logics of Muslims in the War on Terror.
Jan 11, 2022 13 tweets 6 min read
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 3/2021: Lufti bin Ali's death
Jan 6, 2022 11 tweets 8 min read
On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 #CapitolInsurrection, I’m reminded: This IS who we are. We are a nation of #WhiteSupremacy. As a counter to the US “this isn’t who we are” narratives related to #RacialInjustice, #StateViolence & prejudice, I’ve pieced together the following post. The following are excerpts from my Jan. 2021 op-ed in @Truthout: “If @POTUS Wants to Confront White Supremacy, He Must Also End the #WarOnTerror.’”
Dec 28, 2021 12 tweets 8 min read
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.” 2/10 The shortcomings of filmmaker Alex Gibney’s documentary remind us that justice delayed is justice denied and acknowledging harm should be a goal worth pursuing in and of itself.
Dec 10, 2021 10 tweets 3 min read
Today on #HumanRightsDay, I'm thinking of former #Guantanamo prisoner Nizar Sassi who said, "if you want a definition of this place, you don't have the right to have rights." (Find the rest of my thoughts in the thread below.) I'm also thinking about how, despite commemorating a day meant to celebrate universal human rights, that many in the global majority are denied these rights, with some outright expelled from the global community on the basis of being undeserving.
Dec 10, 2021 9 tweets 3 min read
Today on #HumanRightsDay, I'm thinking of former #Guantanamo prisoner Nizar Sassi who said, "if you want a definition of this place, you don't have the right to have rights." (Find the rest of my thoughts in the thread below.) I'm also thinking about how, despite commemorating a day meant to celebrate universal human rights, that many in the global majority are denied these rights, with some outright expelled from the global community on the basis of being undeserving.
Nov 18, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read
I recently learned from @fatemaaaahmad that @Middlebury is developing a CVE game. This is disappointing, but not surprising. A decade ago, I got a scholarship to study #Arabic at Middlebury's summer institute and my experience there was pretty disturbing National security was an undertone of the program. My class included a student from the #ARMY, the #CIA, and a #Zionist. Instead of studying #Arabic in peace, I felt like I constantly had to do better because I knew that Arabic was going to used to hurt members of my community