Muslim in Plain Sight-logo

Muslim in Plain Sight

News & Politics Podcasts

Twenty years after 9/11, producers and hosts Anisa Khalifa and Khadija Khalil explore what it meant to come of age in that moment. With a lineup of amazing guests who, like us, grew up Muslim in the shadow of 9/11, we’ll dig into how that changed the trajectories of our lives, and how the experience differed either side of the Atlantic. Muslim in Plain Sight features interviews with artists, activists, academics, religious leaders, and more. As a generation, we were just discovering our own voices when they were suddenly silenced from mainstream narratives. Instantly, we became both invisible and hypervisible. Our conversations here are a small attempt to remedy that erasure. Join us as we talk about how our world changed, and how we changed the world. Follow us on Twitter at @mipspod. Email us at musliminplainsight@gmail.com.

Play Button

Location:

United States

Description:

Twenty years after 9/11, producers and hosts Anisa Khalifa and Khadija Khalil explore what it meant to come of age in that moment. With a lineup of amazing guests who, like us, grew up Muslim in the shadow of 9/11, we’ll dig into how that changed the trajectories of our lives, and how the experience differed either side of the Atlantic. Muslim in Plain Sight features interviews with artists, activists, academics, religious leaders, and more. As a generation, we were just discovering our own voices when they were suddenly silenced from mainstream narratives. Instantly, we became both invisible and hypervisible. Our conversations here are a small attempt to remedy that erasure. Join us as we talk about how our world changed, and how we changed the world. Follow us on Twitter at @mipspod. Email us at musliminplainsight@gmail.com.

Twitter:

@mipspod

Language:

English

Episodes

Plant a tree at the apocalypse

9/16/2022
It's the end! At least of this season. One year after we started, the week of 9/11, feels like the perfect time to say goodbye—for now. In this episode, we share our reflections on the series and sign off with our hopes for the future. Thank you for taking this emotional, cathartic, moving journey into the past with us. References: The Trojan Horse Affair vs. the British Press New information on the Shamima Begum case The Trump administration's plan to denaturalize citizens Follow us on...

Duration:00:51:38

Lost and found at Guantánamo with Mansoor Adayfi

4/14/2022
Mansoor Adayfi is a former Guantánamo detainee, coordinator of CAGE’s Guantánamo Project, and author. In his unforgettable, haunting memoir, Don’t Forget Us Here, he recounts his 14 years of detention, torture, resistance and brotherhood in the vile camps of Guantánamo. In this interview, Mansoor tells us how his living nightmare started, how faith, art and brotherhood sustained him, and how, amazingly, he’s held onto both his sense of humor and his hope for the future. References: Buy...

Duration:01:52:54

A little less fearful, a little more fierce with The Qarawiyyin Project

3/13/2022
The Qarawiyyin Project is a global initiative aimed at reviving Islamic discourse among Muslim women. Through their work, they analyse contemporary challenges through an Islamic lens. We talk to Aisha and Sarah of TQP, who, like us, are on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Unlike us, however, they never really experienced a pre-9/11 world. We discuss the legacies of the early response of Muslim communities to 9/11 and the shape of the post-War on Terror world, how Muslim identity has been...

Duration:01:15:19

Bonus: ISIS with Imam Mohamed AbuTaleb

2/21/2022
This week we bring you a bonus episode from Me and My Muslim Friends, a podcast about Muslim identity and experiences hosted by our friend Yasmin Bendaas, and partially produced this season by Anisa at WUNC. In this episode, Yasmin interviews Imam AbuTaleb of the Islamic Association of Raleigh about the ideology of ISIS, or Daesh, whose rise can be directly linked to the post-9/11 US invasion of Iraq. We found Imam AbuTaleb's nuanced rebuttal of ISIS' vile rhetoric using Islamic texts a...

Duration:00:28:14

Do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way with Chaplain Joshua Salaam

2/7/2022
Joshua Salaam is the Muslim Chaplain at Duke University and a member of iconic musical group Native Deen. He has a Doctorate of Ministry from Hartford Seminary and has mentored youth throughout his career. He talked to us about becoming Native Deen almost by accident—or perhaps destiny—his years in the army, and how his professional life took shape post-9/11. We tackled the hard questions, like our relationship with the military as American Muslims, and how to deal with anti-Black racism in...

Duration:01:36:19

Fake personas and real surveillance with Johana Bhuiyan

1/25/2022
Johana Bhuiyan is a senior tech reporter and editor at The Guardian. A born and raised New Yorker now residing in San Francisco, she's been a journalist since 2013, and has previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, Recode, BuzzFeed News, and Politico. Johana talks about growing up in New York after 9/11, and how the current state of surveillance of marginalised communities has evolved over the last 20 years. She shares her personal experiences as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman in newsrooms...

Duration:01:08:13

Every little thing can create a change with Senator Mehreen Faruqi

1/3/2022
Dr. Mehreen Faruqi is the Greens Senator for New South Wales in the Australian Parliament and the first Muslim woman to hold public office in the history of Australia. She is a civil and environmental engineer and lifelong activist for social and environmental justice. Mehreen tells us about migrating to Australia from Pakistan, how she made a home and then a political career down under, and how things changed in Australia post-9/11. We cover the rise of right-wing populism, the influence of...

Duration:01:16:57

At armslength, under a miscroscope with Dr. Khadijah Elshayyal

12/20/2021
Dr. Khadijah Elshayyal, Associate Fellow at the Alwaleed Centre (University of Edinburgh) and specialist in contemporary British Muslim history, joins us this episode to trace the changing relationship of British Muslims and the state, before and after 9/11. Khadijah relives her experience of the day of the 7/7 bombings in London and looks at its impact on counter-terrorism policy, and the initiation of the Prevent strategy. We finish with a discussion on the dark legacies of empire, what...

Duration:01:18:06

Making space for the discourse of justice with Dr. Jasmine Gani [Part 2]

12/6/2021
Dr. Jasmine Gani, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, sits down with us for a deeply moving conversation about her journey through the academy, as a student and a teacher, as well as her experiences with community organizing. Our discussion was so wide-ranging that we had to split it into two parts! Listen to Part 1. In Part 2, Jasmine tells us why she chose academia as a career, the sacred duty of mentorship, and how and why we make space for the...

Duration:01:01:58

Putting the humanity into history with Dr. Jasmine Gani [Part 1]

11/22/2021
Dr. Jasmine Gani, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, sits down with us for a deeply moving conversation about her journey through the academy, as a student and a teacher, as well as her experiences with community organizing. Our discussion was so wide-ranging that we had to split it into two parts! In Part 1, we talk about confronting the open and extreme hostility against Muslims after 9/11, university life, being thrust into activism, and how we...

Duration:01:11:21

A brief history of American Islamophobia post-9/11 with Anisa Khalifa

11/1/2021
Anisa presents a brief oral history of Islamophobia in the US in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. We often reference "what Muslims went through" but what exactly did that involve? We cover the big stuff, the little stuff, and how it all formed the epicenter of a global campaign of terror and violence that targeted over a billion people. Including: the ideological framing of a political phenomenon, the state's exclusive right to kill, and the two sides of American...

Duration:00:59:34

You need to have breakdowns to have breakthroughs with Dr Mona Masood

10/18/2021
Dr Mona Masood is a psychiatrist and founder of the Physician Support Line. She talks to us about the emotional fallout of our post-9/11 lives and the power of going small, whether western psychiatry has the answers for Muslim problems, and how to deal with people who hate you. We also look at what's behind our impulse to divide people into heroes and villains, and how that affects the way we treat them. (Did we lowkey just get some therapy? I feel like we did.) Follow us on Twitter. Email...

Duration:01:15:07

Good is not a thing you are, it’s a thing you do with G. Willow Wilson

10/4/2021
G. Willow Wilson, author and co-creator of Ms. Marvel, joins us to talk navigating Muslim identity over the last twenty years, as some things have changed and others have stayed the same. We cover how her journey to Islam was interrupted by 9/11, her gorgeous memoir on life in Egypt, the intense fear our communities lived under as our men were disappeared, and how Islam has inspired her work—including Kamala Khan's excellent superhero philosophy. References: Ms. Marvel and The Butterfly...

Duration:00:53:54

How the Patriot Act stole our civil rights with Zahra Billoo

9/20/2021
Zahra Billoo is a civil rights lawyer, activist and Executive Director of CAIR-SFBA, where she leads a team dedicated to the empowerment of American Muslims through legal services, legislative advocacy, and community organizing. We had a great time talking to her about waking up to a new world twenty years ago, how her faith forms the backbone of her advocacy, and why we have to stand against injustice even when we're not its targets. (Many mics were dropped.) Follow us on Twitter. Email us...

Duration:01:07:38

Into the Terrorverse

9/11/2021
In this first episode, we relive that terrifying day twenty years ago, and discuss why we’re doing this oral history/sociology project/group therapy session, who it's for (hint: everyone), and what we want to achieve. Follow us on Twitter. Email us at musliminplainsight@gmail.com. References: Covering Islam and Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said Adam's World Hosts and Producers: Anisa Khalifa and Khadija Khalil Editor: Khadija Khalil

Duration:00:53:51

Introducing: Muslim in Plain Sight

9/7/2021
Coming September 11: Twenty years after 9/11, producers and hosts Anisa Khalifa and Khadija Khalil explore what it meant to come of age when we did. With a lineup of amazing guests who, like us, grew up Muslim in the shadow of 9/11, we’ll dig into how that changed the trajectories of our lives, and how the experience differed either side of the Atlantic. Muslim in Plain Sight features interviews with artists, activists, academics, religious leaders, and more. As a generation, we were just...

Duration:00:01:25