When Asad Dandia received a message from a young man named Shamiur Rahman in March 2012, he had no reason to suspect that he was under the eyes of national surveillance surveillance.
Rahman seemed interested in deepening his ties with Islam and engaging in charity. As a Muslim community organizer in New York City, Dandia was happy to help.
The young man quickly became regular with meetings, social events and efforts to support the low-income people in the community. Rahman spent the night at Dandia’s family home.
But almost seven months later, Rahman confessed to social media. He was a secret informant of the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Dandia eventually joined the class action lawsuit, claiming that New York City had selected Muslim communities for surveillance as part of the wider “war on terrorism.”
Four years later, the city settled and agreed to protection against excessive investigations of political and religious activities.
However, Dandia sees the echoing reaction of his experience with the current arrest of pro-Palestinian student protesters from abroad.
He is one of the activists and experts who have observed the escalation of patterns and practices that have become a core feature of the “war with fear,” and even the extensive use of enforcement.
“What I endured was very similar to what students today endure today,” Dandia said.
He said the lawyers representing him are working on the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and permanent resident who is facing deportation for his pro-Palestinian activities.
President Donald Trump’s administration has accused Halil of supporting terrorism, but has not accused him of any crime or evidence of release to demonstrate the claim.
Dandia said he considers the belief that Muslim, Arab and immigrant communities inherently questionable as a general thread between their experiences. “Even if what Trump is trying now is unprecedented, it’s drawn from years of tradition and policy.”
From neighbors to enemies
Scholars and analysts say one of the sloop lines is a combination of tough immigration enforcement with rhetoric focused on national security.
The “war on terrorism” began mostly after the attacks on September 11, 2001. One of them targeted New York City.
Over the next few days, former President George W. Bush’s administration began detaining scores for almost all immigrants from Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities over their ties to terrorism.
The U.S. Immigration Council, a Washington-based nonprofit, estimates that 1,200 people were arrested in the first sweep. Many were eventually deported.
However, the migrant attacks did not result in a single conviction for terrorist allegations. A 2004 report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the government nevertheless touted the deportation as “in connection with the September 11 investigation.”
“Nearly soon on 9/11, Muslim communities were treated as potential accessories, witnesses or assailants of subsequent attacks, rather than as fellow New Yorkers living through the trauma of attacks on cities,” said Spencer Ackerman, reporter who covers the war on terrorism and author of the terrorism.
According to an ACLU report, some of the detained people were held in isolated confinement, allowing them to leave cells behind with bondage in their hands and legs. Some were detained long after the government wiped out the misconduct on them.
The fear of “hometown”
Nikhil Singh, a history professor at New York University, believes that the United States has made its enemies look inward within its community due to an increasing period of fear.
“The argument that the US was fighting these non-state groups that had no borders began to imply that fighting those enemies could occur anywhere, including what the Bush administration began calling them “hometowns,” Singh said.
He noted that detention after September 11 exercised a broad view of the administration to justify the lack of a legitimate process for suspected suspects.
“A lot of what’s going on right now can be traced back to this moment, where the argument must be normalized that executives are responsible for keeping the country safe, and therefore they must be able to suspend fundamental rights and ignore constitutional restraints.”
Art Eisenberg, executive adviser to the ACLU’s New York chapter, explained that the history of targeting immigrant communities for national security concerns goes beyond “war on terrorism.”
“The origins of police, surveillance and undercover investigations targeting immigrant groups date back to the beginning of the 20th century. The New York City Police Intelligence Bureau was once called the Red Team, but previously known as the ‘Italian Squad,'” Eisenberg said.
Over time, those operations fluctuated to target new sources of potential dissent, such as communists, civil rights activists, and the Black Panthers.
However, he added that “war on terrorism” marked an escalation of its targeting. And these types of actions can have lasting impact on the community.
The ACLU notes that over a third of Pakistanis in Brooklyn district, known as “Little Pakistan,” have been deported or chosen to leave the area for several years since the attack on September 11th.
Then, in 2012, when it was revealed that authorities were spying on Dandia’s organization, donations began to dry out, and the mosque where they had a meeting told them to meet outside instead.
No one was charged with a crime. However, the calm effects of surveillance have ultimately shut down the doors, according to Dandia.
“People always ask this question. If you’re not doing anything wrong, why should you worry?” Dandia said. “But it’s the government that decides what’s right or wrong.”
Escalation of attack
Under the Trump administration, critics say vague allegations of terrorism continue to be seized as an excuse to silence dissent.
In a statement regarding Khalil’s arrest, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that his involvement on the campus had shown protests in protest against Israeli war with Gaza.
On Wednesday, masked federal agents grabbed a 30-year-old Turkish graduate student named Lu Mesa Oztaak from a street near Tufts University and took her away on the way to dinner.
In that case, the Department of Homeland Security similarly accused Ozture of taking part in the activities “in favor of Hamas” but without providing details.
The United States has designated Hamas foreign terrorist organizations since 1997. US law prohibits citizens and residents from providing “material support” to such organizations.
But Samuel Moyne, a professor of law and history at Yale University, said the recent arrests failed to meet that threshold.
“The scary thing is that they dropped the pretense of criticizing people for material support against terrorism,” Moyne told Al Jazeera. “They rely on the assertion that these views are at odds with US foreign policy.”
Singh pointed out that the seemingly arbitrary detention allows Trump to draw out the legacy of “war on fear” while pursuing his own purposes, including cracking down on immigration.
“It’s an immigration agenda that intersects with the war on terrorism,” Singh said. “The former involves slowly reducing traditional constitutional rights, while the latter gives you a broad framework of presidential power.”
If left unchecked, Ackerman said the vast views of the presidential power could pave the way for further human rights abuses, even beyond the immigrant community.
“If there is no accountability for institutionalized abuse, those abuses will continue and they will be strengthened,” he said. “It’s not just a war on terrorism, but a lesson from many harmful human history.”
“If the Trump administration can put what you say, what you post on social media, what you put on placards and give back to the benefits of the terror group, there’s really nothing you can do to protect the freedom that people in power say disapproved,” he added.
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