MER Article

The Muslim Ban and Trump's War on Immigration

Within one week of taking office, President Donald Trump made good on his campaign promise to implement a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Clothed in the language of national security, Executive Order 13769, issued on January 27, 2017, immediately prohibited the entry of immigrant and

Louise Cainkar • 18 min read

Current Analysis

The Muslim Ban and Trump's War on Immigration

Trump's war on immigration from the Middle East, enacted through multiple executive orders and proclamations since January 2017, is collectively known as the Muslim ban. Eventually approved by the Supreme Court, it hit the Yemeni community particularly hard with overwhelming costs and other hurdles

Louise Cainkar • 17 min read

MER Article

Being Muslim in the Trump Era

Moustafa Bayoumi is author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (2009) and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches From the War on Terror (2015). He is professor of English at Brooklyn College. In this interview with MERIP editorial committee me

Moustafa Bayoumi • 6 min read

MER Article

The Ties That Bind

Yemeni-American activist Rabyaah al-Thaibani was born in Ta‘izz, Yemen’s largest city, in 1977. She moved to the United States as a child to join her father, who was working nights cleaning office buildings in Manhattan. She grew up in Brooklyn, attended Columbia University and since has worked in c

Stacey Philbrick Yadav • 9 min read

Current Analysis

The Travel Ban and Iranian-Americans

By the end of his first few weeks in office, President Donald Trump had managed to rile up most everyone in the country who was not agitated already. Of the many unsettling Trump initiatives, one of the most contentious has been his effort to make good on campaign promises of

Semira Nikou • 15 min read

Current Analysis

Fort Hood Shootings: Again We Will Be Judged for Acts We Didn't Commit

So much is still unknown about the shooting at Fort Hood Army base and the motives of the alleged shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, but still I have that same queasy feeling in my stomach that I've had before: this will not be good for Muslims. First things first. Major Nidal Malik Hasan is in custody. W

Moustafa Bayoumi • 2 min read

Current Analysis

Vilifying Muslims Is Un-American

Muslim-bashing has become socially acceptable in the United States. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 46 percent of Americans hold negative perceptions of Islam, 7 percentage points higher than after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The poll also discovered that a third of the

Moustafa Bayoumi • 2 min read

MER Article

"Let Us Be Moors"

“Seamos moros!” wrote the Cuban poet and nationalist José Martí in 1893, in support of the Berber uprising against Spanish rule in northern Morocco. “Let us be Moors...the revolt in the Rif...is not an isolated incident, but an outbreak of the change and realignment that have entered the world. Let

Hisham Aïdi • 33 min read

Current Analysis

Targeting Muslims, at Ashcroft's Discretion

On September 11, 2002, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), then part of the Department of Justice, began implementing a broad program of "special registration" for certain "non-immigrant aliens" resident in the United States to facilitate the "monitoring" of people so registered "in

Louise Cainkar • 10 min read

MER Article

Jihadis in the Hood

In his classic novel Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed satirizes white America's age-old anxiety about the "infectiousness" of black culture with "Jus Grew," an indefinable, irresistible carrier of "soul" and "blackness" that spreads like a virus contaminating everyone in its wake

Hisham Aïdi • 24 min read

MER Article

A Part of US or Apart from US?

Is the American public willing to accept suspended freedoms, if not for everyone, then for a select few disfavored groups, such as Muslims and Arab-Americans? Much press reporting has said yes, but a survey conducted directly after the September 11 attacks says no.

Kathleen Moore • 8 min read

MER Article

No Longer Invisible

Unlike other ascribed and self-described "people of color" in the United States, Arabs are often hidden under the Caucasian label, if not forgotten altogether. But eleven months after September 11, 2001, the Arab-American is no longer invisible. Whether traveling, driving, working, walking through a

Louise Cainkar • 16 min read