Host Sahar Aziz is in conversation with scholar and organizer Dr. Maha Hilal as she unpacks two decades of the War on Terror and its devastating impact on Muslim communities. This eye-opening episode, based on Dr. Hilal's book Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11, explores how government narratives have been weaponized to build an extensive apparatus of state violence rooted in Islamophobia.

Dr. Hilal offers unique insights into: (1) the evolution of counter-terrorism laws and policies (2) how Muslim Americans have internalized systemic oppression and (3) the complex role prominent Muslim American voices have played in reinforcing notions of collective responsibility.

Through personal and academic perspectives, our guest illuminates what it means to belong to a community perpetually treated with suspicion and discusses pathways toward justice and accountability in a post-9/11 world.

Listen to this timely conversation about civil liberties, religious discrimination, and the ongoing struggle for human dignity in America.

#Islamophobia #Muslims #CivilLiberties #Discrimination #Equality

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Sahar Aziz speaks with Josh Paul about the law, politics, and policies surrounding the United States decades long military aid to Israel and specifically how such aid makes the U.S. complicit in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza since October 2023.

Josh Paul resigned from the State Department due to his disagreement with the Biden Administration’s decision to rush lethal military assistance to Israel in the context of its war on Gaza. He had previously spent over 11 years working as a Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which is responsible for U.S. defense diplomacy, security assistance, and arms transfers. He previously worked on security sector reform in both Iraq and the West Bank, with additional roles in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Army Staff, and as a Military Legislative Assistant for a Member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. he is a recipient of the 2023 Callaway Award for Civic Courage and 2024 MedGlobal Award for Courage.

Currently, Josh Paul serves as the co-founder of a New Policy, an organization dedicated to transforming American foreign policy toward Israel/Palestine to reflect American values and foundational principles of liberty, equality, democracy, and human rights.

At the time of the conversation in late May 2025, Israel’s bombings and targeted assassinations in Gaza of doctors, journalists, and professors had killed over 65,000 Palestinians including more than 18,000 children and injured over 150,000 Palestinians. Israel’s military has destroyed every university. Its military fully destroyed more than 70% of hospitals, and partially destroyed the remaining 30 percent, resulting in an unknown number of Palestinians dying from otherwise treatable diseases and injuries.

For 11 months in the spring of 2025, Israel banned the entry of all humanitarian aid and food into Gaza as part of an intentional mass starvation campaign that has caused unprecedented severe malnutrition for tens of thousands of Palestinian children.

The devastation that Israel has wreaked upon the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza – as collective punishment for Hamas’ militant attacks and war crimes on October 7, 2023 – so extensive that even supporters of Israel are acknowledging the genocidal nature of Isreal’s military campaign. Such violence inflicted upon a helpless civilian population would not have been possible without $20 billion in military aid from the United States of America since October 2023 – all funded by American taxpayers.

Listen to the conversation about the policies and practice of U.S. arms exports to Israel that has become a permanent stain on U.S. foreign policy and undermined the rule of law internationally.

#Israel #Genocide #Gaza #Palestine #JoshPaul #MilitaryAid

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Dr. Audrey Truschke and Professor Ivan Kalmar analyze the alarming global surge in Islamophobic violence and discriminatory policies, particularly in Eastern Europe and South Asia.

Our guests explore how economic and political insecurities have fueled dangerous scapegoating of Muslim citizens and refugees, transforming vulnerable religious minorities into targets of state-sanctioned persecution. This thought-provoking episode examines the human cost of populist rhetoric and offers critical insights into one of today's most pressing human rights issues: the systematic marginalization of Muslim communities across national borders.

Listen to the conversation on the intersection of religious identity, nationalism, and the global struggle for dignity and belonging. The conversation is based on their contributions to the book Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism published by Oxford University Press in 2024.

#Hindutva #GlobalIslamophobia #Populism #India

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