writings

Some selected essays:

• “A rebrand, not a revolution: our panel reacts to Trump’s inauguration speech.” The Guardian. January 20, 2025.
• “Daniel Penny’s lawyers used a racist defense strategy and it worked.” The Guardian. December 11, 2024.
• “The Banal Evil of Atrocity Photograph.” Hyperallergic. December 2, 2024.
• “Not changing course on Gaza was a colossal mistake by Kamala Harris.” The Guardian. November 11, 2024.
• “Between hate and nothing, hate won.” The Guardian. November 6, 2024.
• “‘I don’t have much hope for a Harris presidency’: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israeli apartheid and what the media gets wrong about Palestine.” The Guardian. October 23, 2024.
• “How long will the destruction of Lebanon continue? This is madness.” The Guardian. October. 11, 2024.
• “Vance or Walz: who won the VP debate? Our panel responds.” The Guardian. October. 2, 2024.
• “With their lies about Haitian immigrants, Trump and Vance have reached a new low.” The Guardian. September 19, 2024.
• “Who won Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s first debate? Our panel reacts.” The Guardian. September 11, 2024.
• “Gaza just had its first polio victim in 25 years. This war cannot continue.” The Guardian. September 4, 2024.
• “Revealed: first picture of war on terror detainee in CIA black site.” The Guardian. August 2, 2024.
• “Donald Trump sure makes a lot of ‘jokes’ about ruling as a dictator, doesn’t he?” The Guardian. July 31, 2024.
• “Trump v Biden in the first 2024 presidential debate: our panelists’ verdict.” The Guardian. June 27, 2024. 
• “Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza.” The Guardian. June 24, 2024. 
• “Why is Nikki Haley scrawling genocidal messages on Israeli bombs?” The Guardian. May 29, 2024.
• “Decades of spying and repression: the anti-Palestinian origins of American Islamophobia.” The Guardian. May 23, 2024.
• “It’s not enough to stop an Israeli invasion of Rafah. We need a ceasefire now.” The Guardian. April 12, 2024.
• “As Biden ignores death in Gaza, the ‘Dark Brandon’ meme is unfunny and too real.” The Guardian. February 17, 2024.
• “Edward Said seems like a prophet: 20 years on, ‘there’s hunger for his narrative’.” The Guardian. February 15, 2024.
• “Republican congressmen are now talking about throwing migrants from helicopters.” The Guardian. February 5, 2024.
• “Millions of Palestinians rely on UNRWA. Why is the US suspending funding based on Israeli accusations?” The Guardian. January 31, 2024.
• “The US election looms. Arab Americans feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.” The Guardian. January 9, 2024.
• “Biden officials decry Trump’s anti-migrant xenophobia – yet quietly copy his stance.” The Guardian. December 19, 2023.
• “The Harvard and UPenn presidents walked into a trap in Congress.” The Guardian. December 11, 2023.
• “Stuart Seldowitz’s hateful behavior is US foreign policy unmasked.” The Guardian. November 28, 2023.
• “Everyone loves diversity and inclusion – until you stick up for Palestinians.” The Guardian. November 14, 2023.
• “Is the US about to blindly march into yet another catastrophic war?” The Guardian. October 23, 2023.
• “Standing up for Palestine is also standing up to save the west from the worst of itself.” The Guardian. October 17, 2023.
• “Cambodia Is Teaching the World How to Clear Land Mines.” The Nation. October 14, 2023.
• “The double standard with Israel and Palestine leaves us in moral darkness.” The Guardian. October 11, 2023.
• “Why is Joe Biden campaigning for Donald Trump?” The Guardian. October 6, 2023.
• “The Vanishing of the Public Intellectual.” The Markaz Review. October 1, 2023.
• “A cop said a woman killed by a police crash had ‘limited value’. That’s appalling.” The Guardian. Sept. 19, 2023. 
• “This 9/11 suspect and ‘torture prop’ has spent 20 years in Guantánamo. Is he nearing a deal with the US?” The Guardian. May 17, 2023. 
• “What Was CNN Thinking?” The Guardian. May 11, 2023.
• “Jordan Neely, a vulnerable young man, was killed – and not by his medical history.” The Guardian. May 5, 2023.
• “Donald Trump has been charged. The swamp is finally being drained.” The Guardian. April 4, 2023.
• “The Iraq war started the post-truth era. And America is to blame.” The Guardian. March 14, 2023.
• “When it comes to immigration policy, Biden is increasingly Trump-like.” The Guardian. February 23, 2023.
• “Republicans have a serious antisemitism problem. It isn’t Ilhan Omar.” The Guardian. February 3, 2023.
• “Biden is throwing migrants under the bus to appease Republican fearmongering.” The Guardian. January 9, 2023.
• “Allah supreme: how Pharoah Sanders found freedom and rebellion in Islam.” The Guardian. December 29, 2022.
• “Division Is America’s Natural State.” The New Republic. December 2022: p. 29.
• “My View (on the TV Show Ramy).” Vogue Japan. No. 280 (December 2022): p. 179. (In Japanese.)  
• “The Problem With Jihad, Rehab Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion.” The Nation. Nov. 7, 2022.
• “Journey to Guantánamo.” The Nation (cover story). July 25/August 1, 2022: 14-21, 31. (This article was a finalist for the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association’s Walid El-Gabry Memorial Award.)
• “America is steeped in violence. And the roots of that violence go deep.” The Guardian. June 1, 2022. 
• “The alleged Buffalo shooter was also inspired by Islamophobia. That’s telling.” The Guardian. May 22, 2022. 
• “Facebook’s solidarity with Ukraine is impressive. Now extend it to others.” The Guardian. March 19, 2022.
• “They are ‘civilised’ and ‘look like us’: the racist coverage of Ukraine.” The Guardian. March 2, 2022.
• “Why is the White House stealing $7bn from Afghans?” The Guardian. February 16, 2022. 
• “The US government is deploying robot dogs to the Mexico border. Seriously?” The Guardian. February 14, 2022.
• “Can the K-pop boyband BTS … save the world?” The Guardian. February 9, 2022.
• “Wenn Man Plötzlich Der Feind Ist” (“When You’re Suddenly the Enemy.”) Terrorismus im 21. Jahrhundert. Ed. Jana Kärgel. Zeitbilder-Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Bonn, 2022: pp. 326-31. (In German.)
• “Justice prevailed in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers. In America, that’s a shock.” The Guardian. November 25, 2021.
• “Bari Weiss: I hear congratulations on your Palestine Studies department are in order?” The Guardian. November 13, 2021.
• “Men on horses chasing Black asylum seekers? Sadly, America has seen it before.” The Guardian. September 23, 2021.
• “Dangerous outsiders and exceptional citizens: being Muslim American since 9/11.” The Guardian. September 10, 2021.
• “How the War on Terror Created the “Muslim American.” The Nation. September 20/27, 2021. 
• “Meet the Woman Who Would Transform the Nation’s Most Powerful DA’s Office.” The Nation (cover story). May 31/June 7, 2021. 
• “Joe Biden’s silence in the face of Israeli violence is a disgrace.” The Guardian. May 17, 2021.
• “Defeating Far Right Extremism.” TEDxCUNY. (Delivered Dec. 4, 2020. Published May 6, 2021). 
• “The Biden administration has ended use of the phrase ‘illegal alien’. It’s about time.” The Guardian. (April 22, 2021). 
• “Ice reached a new low: using utility bills to hunt undocumented immigrants.” The Guardian. (March 3, 2021). 
• “Biden is locking up migrant children. Will the world still care with Trump gone?” The Guardian. (February 24, 2021). 
• “No, We Do Not Need New Anti-Terrorism Laws to Combat Right-Wing Extremists.” The Nation. (January 11, 2021).
• “With Trump voted out, can I finally feel at home in America again?” The Guardian. (November 9, 2020). 
• “Trump wants to convince Americans they are safer under him. They aren’t.” The Guardian. (September 1, 2020).
• “Why is Donald Trump Jr amplifying a quack who believes in ‘demon sperm’?” The Guardian. (July 29, 2020).
• “Why Did Cup Foods Call the Cops on George Floyd?” New York Times. (June 17, 2020).
• “Protestele din New York sunt fără precedent.” Scena9.ro (June 15, 2020). (in Romanian)
• “Confronting Internalized Islamophobia.” Muslim Matters. (March 12, 2020).
• “Even after Iraq, too many US elites still think war is a bloodless chess game.” The Guardian. (January 6, 2020).
• “Are the Republicans trying to get Ilhan Omar killed?” The Guardian. (December 6, 2019). 
• “Justin Trudeau’s brownface scandal is bad. But voting him out isn’t the solution.” The Guardian. (September 20, 2019). 
• “If the El Paso shooter had been Muslim …” The Guardian. (August 6, 2019).
• “Trump’s response to the weekend massacres shows he is an ethical black hole.” The Guardian. (August 5, 2019). 
• “The Squad v the mob: that’s what the 2020 election boils down to.” The Guardian. (July 18, 2019). 
• “This is what today’s America looks like. The squad is us.” The Guardian. (July 16, 2019). 
• “Is showing compassion to migrants a crime?” The Guardian. (June 17, 2019).
• “Ilhan Omar has become the target of a dangerous hate campaign.” The Guardian. (April 14, 2019).
• “The New Zealand Massacre Was Mass Murder as a Marketing Strategy.” The Nation. (Mar. 20, 2019).
• “White supremacy is on the march, and Trump is at least partly to blame.” The Guardian (Mar. 18, 2019).
• “I’m a brown Arab-American, and the US census refuses to recognize me.” The Guardian. (Feb. 14, 2019).
• “US bombs are killing children in Yemen. Does anybody care?” The Guardian. (Aug. 25, 2018).
• “The Muslim ban ruling legitimates Trump’s bigotry.” The Guardian. (June 27, 2018).
• “In America’s news headlines, Palestinians die mysterious deaths.” The Guardian. (May 16, 2018). 
• “The Syria bombing is a disgraceful act disguised as a noble gesture.” The Guardian. (April 14, 2018). 
• “Mohammed bin Salman’s talk of reform is a smokescreen.” The Guardian. (March 22, 2018). 
• “For Immigrants in Trump’s America, the Dystopian Future Has Already Arrived.” The Nation. (February 13, 2018). 
• “The Year I Stopped Breathing: On Being Muslim and American in the Age of Trump.” The Nation. (January 29 – February 5, 2018). 
• “Asian American Studies, the War on Terror, and the Changing University: A Call to Respond.” Asian American Matters: A New York Anthology, Russell C. Leong, Ed. (New York: AAARI, 2017): 21-24.
• “Jared Kushner is wreaking havoc in the Middle East.” The Guardian. (December 9, 2017).
• “The supreme court upheld bigotry before. Its Muslim ban ruling does it again.” The Guardian. (December 5, 2017).
• “We must end the terror double standards.” The Guardian. (November 1, 2017).
• “What’s a ‘lone wolf’? It’s the special name we give white terrorists.” The Guardian. (October 4, 2017). 
• “America’s soul as a nation of immigrants is in peril.” The Guardian. (September 6, 2017).
• “Trump is ignoring the Minnesota mosque bombing. We know why.” The Guardian. (August 10, 2017).
• “How the ‘homophobic Muslim’ became a populist bogeyman.” The Guardian. (August 7, 2017). 
• “My fellow Americans, it’s time to intervene in our failed state.” The Guardian. (August 3, 2017).
• “Survival of the Physics.” Minza 18:1 (2017). (Introduction to a special issue  of this literary journal, for which I was the guest-editor.)
• “Dislodging the Stupidity of Our Politics: On Film, Representation, and the Muslim Travel Ban.” Walkerart.org. (July 5, 2017). 
• “Trump doesn’t want Muslims in the US. That’s OK with the supreme court.” The Guardian. (June 26, 2017).
• “Trump is scared Brits will be mean to him? Classic strongman fragility.” The Guardian. (June 12, 2017). 
• “Trump’s Twitter attacks on Sadiq Khan reveal how pitiful the president is.” The Guardian. (June 6, 2017). 
• “Donald Trump is not blameless when white supremacists slaughter people.” The Guardian. (May 30, 2017). 
• “Why is Sean Hannity peddling bonkers conspiracy theories?” The Guardian. (May 25, 2017).
• “Ignore Donald Trump’s words on his foreign tour. Pay attention to his actions.”  The Guardian. (May 20, 2017). 
• “‘Will we survive 1,361 more days?’: Our panel’s verdict on Trump’s first 100 days.” The Guardian. (April 29, 2017).
• “Bill O’Reilly is vile. His departure from Fox is long overdue.” The Guardian. (April 20, 2017).
• “The west used colonies as laboratories for weapons. It’s not different today.” The Guardian. (April 14, 2017). 
• “Trump’s senseless Syria strikes accomplish nothing.” The Guardian. (April 7, 2017). 
• “A white supremacist slew a man in Manhattan. Why is the president silent?” The Guardian. (March 28, 2017). 
• “What is it with Trump and handshakes? This is getting awkward.” The Guardian. (March 18, 2017). 
• “Don’t be fooled. This travel ban is as bad as the last one – it must be fought.” The Guardian. (March 7, 2017). 
• “Border agents stopped Muhammad Ali Jr. Here’s how we can all fight back.” The Guardian. (February 26, 2017). 
• “Donald Trump’s handshake: never has a such a strong grip looked so weak.” The Guardian. (February 13, 2017). 
• “Donald Trump’s executive order means he is now officially gunning for the Muslims.” The Guardian. (January 27, 2017).
• “YouTube star Adam Saleh’s story is shocking – but only if it’s true.” The Guardian. (December 22, 2016). 
• “We need to talk about Donald Trump’s plans for Muslims.” The Guardian. (November 23, 2016). 
• “Muslims are terrified, but we won’t be intimidated by Trump.” The Guardian. (November 10, 2016). 
• “Donald Trump has made it clear: in his America, Muslim citizens don’t exist.” The Guardian. (November 8, 2016). 
• “The US just bombed Yemen, and no one’s talking about it.” The Guardian. (October 15, 2016). 
• “How we learned all the wrong lessons from 9/11.” The Guardian. (September 11, 2016). 
• “Don’t worry! Trump and Clinton are going to fix Israel/Palestine.*” The Guardian. (September 6, 2016).
• “Trump had made it clear exactly who should be barred from the US: himself.” The Guardian (August 16, 2016).
• “Guess what? You can be a Muslim American and oppose misguided wars.” The Guardian. (July 29, 2016). 
• “As an American Muslim, Donald Trump doesn’t scare me.” The Guardian. (May 10, 2016).
• “The Syrian Who Wanted the Revolution.” The Nation. (March 18, 2016).
• “It’s not just Trump–the US is gripped by anti-Muslim hysteria.” The Guardian. (December 14, 2015). 
• “Registry for Muslims has already created a decade of profiling and fear.” The Progressive. (November 30, 2015).
• “Islamophobia stirred by presidential candidates like Trump is nothing new.” National Journal. (September 29, 2015). 
• “A Texas teenager’s arrest points to a deep and growing trend of Islamophobia.” The Progressive. (September 16, 2015).
• “The Civil War in Syria is Invisible, but This Anonymous Film Collective is Changing That.” The Nation. (June 26, 2015).
• “Encouraging Signs for American Muslims.” The Bellingham Herald. (June 5. 2015). 
• “What Tina Wants.” The Normal School (Spring 2015): 65-73. (Click here to read.)
• “U.S. Needs to Stop Fomenting Violence in Yemen.” The Progressive. (April 24, 2015).
• “Why Do They Hate US?” The Nation. (April 6, 2015).
• “War Stories from Soldiers and Body  Washers.” The Progressive. (February 2015): 44-47. (Review essay discussing Phil Klay’s Redeployment and Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer. Subscription only.)
• “How the Chapel Hill Victims Deserve To Be Mourned.” The Intercept. (February 12, 2015).
• “Human Rights Lose in US-Saudi Alliance.” The Progressive. (January 27, 2015).
• “We took four New Yorkers to The Death of Kinghoffer: what was their verdict?” The Guardian. (October 21, 2014).
• “For Muslim New Yorkers, a Long Path From Surveillance to Civil Rights.” The Nation (cover story). September 9, 2014.
• “US public support for Israel weakens.” The Baltimore Sun. (August 15, 2014). 
• “Spied on for Being Muslim.” The Nation. (July 10, 2014.)
• “U.S. Backs Repression in Egypt.” The Progressive. (June 27, 2014).
• “That Pesky Muslim Problem, Again.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (Conversations blog). July 31, 2013.
• “Why Israel’s Syria Strike Helps Assad.” The Progressive. (Jan. 31, 2013).
• “Egyptians Renounce Authocracy.” The Progressive. (Dec. 8, 2012). 
• “Letter from Cairo: Holding the Square.” The GC Advocate. (Dec. 1, 2012). Reprinted in Warscapes.
• “Islamophobes.” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. (Fall 2012).
• “Men Behaving Badly.” Middle East Report. (Sept. 18, 2012). 
• “Did Islamophobia Fuel the Oak Creek Massacre?” The Nation. (August 10, 2012).
• “Fear and Loathing of Islam.” The Nation. (July 2-9, 2012).
• “Sage of Somalia” (A Profile of Nuruddin Farah). The Progressive (July 2012): 38-40.
• “Breivik’s Monstrous Dream–and Why It Failed.” The Nation. (May 21, 2012).
  
• “The Rites and Rights of Citizenship.” The Nation. (Sept. 9, 2011).
• “The Long Life of Profiling, Ten Years After 9/11.” The Nation. (Sept. 6, 2011).
• “Between Acceptance and Rejection: Muslim Americans and the Legacies of September 11.” Organization of American Historians Magazine of History 25:3 (July 2011): 15-19.
•  “Peter King’s ‘Islamic Radicalization’ hearings fan paranoid fantasies.” The Nation. (March 10, 2011).
• “My Arab Problem.” The Chronicle Review (Oct. 29, 2010).
• “Sects and the City.” The New York Times Magazine (May 23, 2010). 
• “‘Where Are You From?’ Is Not the Right Question.” CNN.com. (April 5, 2010).
• “Being Young, Muslim and American in Brooklyn.” Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global North and South. Eds. Linda Herrera and Asef Bayat. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• “Réconciliation sans contrainte. Said, Adorno, et l’intellectuel autonome.” Edward Said: théoricien critique. Tumultes 35 (2010): 27-48.
• “The God That Failed: The Neo-Orientalism of Today’s Muslim Commentators.” Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend. Ed. Andrew Shryock. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2010. 
• “The Race Is On: Arabs and Muslims in the American Imagination.” Middle East Report Online. March 2010.
• “East of the Sun (West of the Moon): Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America.” Black Routes to Islam. Eds. Manning Marable and Hisham Aidi. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
• “October 17, 1961.” On the Edges of Development: Cultural Interventions. Eds. John Foran, Kum-Kum Bhavnani et al. Routledge, 2009.
• “Racing Religion.” American Studies. Eds. Janice Radway, Kevin Gaines, Barry Shank and Penny Von Eschen. Malden: Blackwell, 2009.
• “A Dream Deferred.” The National (July 24, 2008).
• “American Girl.” New York Magazine (August 11, 2008).
• “The Searchers.” The Nation (November 10, 2008).
• Review of Endless War Hidden Functions of the War on Terror, David Keen. Development and Change 39, (September 2008).
• “Reconciliation without Duress: Edward Said, Theodor Adorno, and the Autonomous Intellectual.” Edward Said and Critical Decolonization. Ed. Ferial Ghazoul. American University in Cairo Press, 2007.
• “Arab America’s 9/11.” The Nation (September 25, 2006).
• “Disco Inferno.” Da Capo’s Best Music Writing 2006. Ed. Mary Gaitskill. DeCapo Press, 2006.
• “Inside Lebanon: A Cold Civil War.” The Brooklyn Rail (February 2006).
• “Disco Inferno.” The Nation (December 26, 2005).
• “In Beirut’s Tent City.” (Diary) London Review of Books (May 5, 2005).

My essays for The Guardian can be found here.

My contributions to The Nation can be found here.

My op-eds for The Progressive Media Project can be found here.