BY KATIE BARNUM Diana remembers the drive from Ramallah to Nablus vividly. It was her first return home after deciding to remove her hijab—a decision she had made nearly six months previously, over her family’s objection. Her palms were furiously…
Day: February 23, 2020
New York City’s Generation 9/11: Growing up Muslim and American
BY SARAH SAKHA My father goes by “Fred”; his real name is Farzad, which sounds distinctly non-white and Muslim. My mother goes by “Sarah”; her name is Soheila. They named me Sarah, so I would blend into my predominantly white,…
A Well-Intentioned Visa Program that Allows so Few to Immigrate
BY BASBIBI KAKAR Letting down their best allies Behind the Special Immigrant Visa program lies a powerful story of loyalty, risk and promises betrayed, for the tens of thousands of people who risked their lives to help the United States…
The World’s Deadliest Ocean Crossing
BY SEAN HANSEN Forty-two miles off the Libyan coastline, the Ocean Viking races towards a sinking ship full of refugees. Acting on information reported to the Libyan Coast Guard, the ship’s crew prepares for a rescue effort in the bleak…
Taif Jany Brings Reality to U.S. Immigration Policy
BY MARJORIE TOLSDORF “On November 9, 2006, my father left for work in Al Hillah, a city below Baghdad, but never returned,” said Taif Jany. “He was kidnapped on his way home while in a car with two of his…
UN Insider Fights for Peacekeeping Reform
BY CAROLINE KORNDORFFER In 1993, a truck with a few American soldiers and a United Nations political official aboard was headed back to Mogadishu after visiting a remote post. Along the side of the road, the soldiers saw a woman…
A Career in Counterterrorism
BY JACK STONE TRUITT Throughout his 26 year career in counterterrorism at the FBI, John Anticev experienced some of the most significant failures and successes in American counterintelligence. He saw Islamic terrorism shift from a back-burner issue to the bureau’s…
Coming to Terms with the Taliban
BY SEAN STEINBERG The Bush administration launched the “Global War on Terror” in the aftermath of 9/11 as an unambiguous moral crusade framed with damning, unequivocal rhetoric. Yet today, the United States is negotiating with the Taliban — the very…
Discovering A History for Myself: My Grandfather’s Wartime Writings
BY LUCIA ZERNER I first met my grandfather about a year after I arrived in the U.S as a Chinese adoptee. I visited him with my parents once or twice a year. By then he was living in a retirement…
Young Veteran Seeks Community in Aging Organization
BY JOHN PATRICK DEES Mike Drake slams down the phone. The Veterans of Foreign Wars elders have canceled on him again. Disappointed, Drake emails his friends; yet again, they will have to postpone. For months, Drake, a U.S. Army combat…