CAIR on AIR: 25 Years After 9/11: Why Is Anti-Muslim Hate Still Rising?
Dr. Saher Selod, is a sociologist and researcher whose work focuses on Islamophobia, racialization, surveillance, and the experiences of Muslim Americans. She is the author of Forever Suspect: Radicalized Surveillance of Muslim Americans in the War on Terror and coauthor of A Global Racial Enemy: Muslims and 21st Century Racism. In today’s episode, Saher joins me to discuss the current state of anti-Muslim hate in America and the striking contradiction between increasing Islamophobia and the growing political and social visibility of American Muslims. Saher shares her perspective on how anti-Muslim rhetoric has evolved since 9/11, explaining how policies created during the War on Terror became institutionalized over the past 25 years. She also explains the role of political campaigns in portraying Muslims as a perceived threat and how Donald Trump made anti-Muslim rhetoric more overt. The conversation also explores surveillance, airport profiling, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the broad and sometimes ambiguous definition of “material support for terrorism.” We also discuss how these policies can affect Muslim nonprofits, charities, student organizations, and people who simply criticize U.S. foreign policy. Saher explains why these issues should concern all Americans, not only Muslims, and how policies created around counterterrorism can eventually affect other communities.
