Posted on 09/14/2019 9:19:56 PM PDT by robowombat
Visual timeline project traces 'underlying Islamophobia' in war on terror Sep 11, 2019 by Aysha Khan, Religion News Service Justice
On the 18-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that set off the ongoing global war on terror, a new visual timeline seeks to document the U.S. policies and programs that Muslim and civil rights activists say have resulted in major encroachments on human rights.
"The goal is to really underscore how the war on terror is so rooted in Islamophobia and to really lift up the story of the ways that Muslims have been impacted," said Maha Hilal, a researcher on the war on terror and co-director of the Justice for Muslims Collective who directed the yearlong effort to produce the timeline.
"We don't have the resources to create a whole museum, but we hope this visual representation will help people understand the war on terror has almost exclusively targeted Muslims," Hilal said, noting that the timeline highlights the "underlying Islamophobia" linking nearly two decades of torture, immigration crackdowns, surveillance overreaches and more.
Illustrator Zaynub Siddiqui and graphic designer Maura Dwyer from The Sanctuaries DC, a community space for artists and activists that includes several Muslim members, illustrated and designed the 19 panels that comprise the timeline.
The resulting exhibition, "Shattering Justice & Re-Making the Muslim Threat: A Visual Timeline," will open in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11. Attendees will also hear a talk from Hilal on dismantling "the expanding apparatus of state violence," a workshop by The Sanctuaries on cultural organizing, as well as parts of speeches by Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush related to the U.S.-led global campaign against terrorism.
"This is not about Trump," Hilal added. "Trump is just building off the infrastructure that was perpetuated by Obama and pushed through by Bush."
Events on the timeline include the campaign against Afghanistan and authorization for use of military force in 2001; the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the signing of the so-called Torture Memos in 2002; the 2004 release of photographs showing abuse and torture of Abu Ghraib prison inmates; the murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi last year; the Supreme Court's controversial February ruling against a Muslim death row inmate seeking to have an imam at his execution; and Trump's July veto of congressional resolutions that sought to block his administration from selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without Congress' approval.
As she illustrated the 100-plus events on the timeline with just a pencil, a black marker and white paper, Siddiqui said she was struck by just how "emotionally straining" the process was.
webRNS-9-11-Timeline1-091019.jpg A detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at the detention facility Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba on Feb. 2, 2002. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) "Every single time I read one of the event's descriptions, I would just be horrified," she said. "I could have finished it earlier but it was so grim … it was difficult to read about these things that were happening to my people, to our ummah (community), and realize that this was planned."
When viewers pair that language with her drawings, she said, they will walk away with a better understanding of how the war on terror has impacted Muslims.
"Reading what happened in 2001 doesn't compare to seeing what happened in 2001," she said. "You can read anything and it won't always resonate with you. The hope is that a graphic timeline will invigorate some emotions."
But the timeline may also serve as a wakeup call for Muslims who have missed the global impact of the campaign against terrorism.
Hilal told Religion News Service that war on terror policies have created a "sense of hierarchy" and "false distinction" between the rights of U.S. citizens and noncitizens, so much so that most Muslim civil rights groups have left behind noncitizens in their advocacy, particularly detainees like those in Guantanamo Bay.
"Guantanamo sets the moral boundaries of what is considered acceptable treatment for Muslims," Hilal said of the prison where dozens of detainees remain without charge. "When you have a place where the most egregious forms of torture have been utilized against Muslims, then anything less than that is considered almost benign."
The work is equally critical for non-Muslim audiences and "all people who care about creating a more just world," said the Rev. Erik Martínez Resly, who founded The Sanctuaries and oversaw the timeline's production.
"People will understand and really feel the impact of these policies and the broader structure of Islamophobia on their lives and the lives of people that they know and love," Martinez Resly said. "They'll see that this isn't just a set of abstract policies, but this viscerally impacts people's lives in oftentimes violent and cruel ways. I hope, with the way we're depicting it, they leave with a deepened sense of how this has been constructed and, by extension, how we can deconstruct it."
"What's striking is how much power the government wielded and how all these policies were put in place, and just caused so much trauma to Muslims in the name of protecting Americans," said Dwyer, who designed the timeline. "And how much of it actually worked? Seems like not much."
Islam is conquering civilized nations right before our eyes. Of course the counter strikes are rooted in opposition to the advance of that particular form of barbarianism.
I hope, with the way we’re depicting it, they leave with a deepened sense of how this has been constructed and, by extension, how we can deconstruct it.”
America...constructed in 1776...deconstructed 911 01.
how all these policies were put in place, and just caused so much trauma to Muslims in the name of protecting Americans,” said Dwyer, who designed the timeline. “And how much of it actually worked? Seems like not much.”
If it didn’t work, why are ya bitchin???
There is a great line from Papillion where the prisoners are introduced to Devil’s Island. ‘Make the best of what we offer you, and you will suffer less than you deserve’ Yep. I’m having a hard time feeling any sympathy here. To add insult to injury they do this on 911 no less. Hutzpuh , thy name is ISlAM!
Islam has been at war with the rest of humanity for 1397 years.
We haven’t even really started fighting back.
Yeah but we knew that muzzies and their useful idiots were garbage to begin with.
They haven’t died in NEARLY high enough numbers so she is right that’s it’s a “horror”.
But the horror is that Sauds are still breathing and parts of Pakistan aren’t leveled.
Probably a Muslim Brotherhood member is good standing.
It’s not necessary to employ science to trace the cause of normal people loathing moslems.
So she was 11 years old the first time Muslims attacked the World Trade Center (killing a few Americans in the process)?
Who cares what she thinks?
The Muslim saturation of the US and Europe is their form of evangelism. When the numbers are sufficient they will make their move for conquest.
Bring back the “Winged Hussars!” Why September 11 is bad memory for Muslims - https://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/09/other-september-11th.html
1400 years of unprovoked violence deems any fear RATIONAL.
Well 19, but who’s counting. 8>)
Looking forward to future exhibits of how 9/11 and the aftermath have impacted Jews and Christians. Waiting...
Schall answers with refreshing candor: “Briefly, the assigned mission of Islam is to conquer the world for Allah.” But this simple truth about Islam flies in the face of politically correct and religiously correct notions that all religions are peaceful and opposed to violence. “To conquer the world for Allah?” Religious people, we assume, just don’t think like that. Thus, we convince ourselves that terrorist acts committed in the name of Allah, have “nothing to do with Islam.” “Dealing with Islam,” writes Schall, “is a function of understanding Islam,” and until we admit some very basic facts about Islam we will be unable to meet the challenge of Islam. The result? “I think it very possible, if not likely,” he writes, “that Islam will successfully establish itself in many areas of Europe and America.”
—'On Islam' Is on Target
Doh, I missed the first time part, LOL My bad you are right.
Someone other than me said this:
First Principles
In consciously choosing to avoid the pitfalls of Koranic hermeneutics and choosing instead to chronicle the collective sociopolitical behavior of Islam in pursuit of hegemonic control over its neighbors during nearly the entirety of its 1400-year history, Dr. Bill Warner’s presentation “Why We Are Afraid” must form the bedrock for the non-Muslim understanding of this militant, expansionist faith-based system of authoritarian control and serve as the starting point for any consideration of that incessant topic of public debate, “Is Islam a religion of peace?”
In brief, Dr. Warner’s work reminds us of the wisdom found in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ... Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” (New King James Version)
Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” And the Angel of the Lord said to her:
“Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:7-12
No worries; just wanted to point out that she had no grasp as to what Muslims have done to others (she paints them as targeted victims).
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