ONLINE: Maha Hilal

In the 2021 book Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, The War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience, Maha Hilal synthesizes years of her research on the U.S. government response to 9/11 and how its narrative continues to drive an ever-growing surveillance state. The policies may have changed names over the past two decades, but the effects on Muslim Americans have remained damaging. Hilal will discuss the book on Crowdcast with Madison journalist Kavin Senapathy, who reviewed the book for Tone Madison (and was a middle school classmate of Hilal in Madison).  

media release: A Room of One's Own welcomes Dr. Maha Hilal, author of Innocent Until Proven Muslim, for a virtual discussion of her book on Crowdcast with Kavin Senapathy!

About Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, The War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience: Since 9/11: It's been two decades since the 9/11 attacks and the onset of the War on Terror.  Addressing its catastrophic impact, Dr. Maha Hilal shares her insights on the last twenty years of the War on Terror, including the role of official narrative in justifying the creation of a sprawling apparatus of state violence rooted in Islamophobia, in addition to outlining just how vast the War on Terror's apparatus is and has become.  Centering the War on Terror's impact on Muslims and Muslim Americans, Dr. Hilal sheds light on how some have internalized oppression, 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, Dr. Hilal reflects on what it means to dismantle and abolish the War on Terror.

Dr. Maha Hilal is a researcher and writer on institutionalized Islamophobia. Her writing has appeared in Vox, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Newsweek, Business Insider, Truthout, and Vox, among others.  She is the co-founder of Justice for Muslims Collective and was previously the inaugural Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. where she produced research and writing on the consequences of the War on Terror on the Muslim community. Dr. Hilal is also an organizer with Witness Against Torture and a Council member of the School of the Americas Watch. She earned her doctorate in May 2014 from the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University in Washington, D.C.

Kavin Senapathy is an independent writer, journalist, and professional speaker interested in health, food, parenting, and science. She the author of the upcoming book The Progressive Parent with Hanover Square Press.