Why I Wrote My New Book? The New Crusades

Islamophobia is a Global Phenomenon, exported by the American "War on Terror"

Right now, all over the world, Muslims are observing the Holy Month of Ramadan.

Nearly two billion Muslims, across every country and continent, are linked by the Islamic pillar that calls us to fast, focus, and refocus on the centrality of faith. While Ramadan is outwardly characterized by the themes of detachment and restraint, the Holy Month internalizes a fullness nourished by a revitalized consciousness.  

A consciousness of self, and in turn, cognizance of those among us permanently living with voids. Voids of food and clean water, housing, and stability.

For us Muslims living in the west – Ramadan is a moment to divest from the material bounty around us: the trappings of materialism, the food, and of course, the water.

I released my new book, The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims, on the first day of Ramadan. I did so with the intention of highlighting the struggles of Muslims in countries all over the world during this Month’s focus on those among us who live with the permanent voids of necessity.

To center those Muslims, enduring the vilest strains of Islamophobia, who fast as a matter of circumstance instead of spirituality; who are punished for practices we deem routine; or who are systematically denied the right, the human right, to be Muslim.

The face on the cover of the book manifests the latter. The young Uyghur teen, aptly named Muslima, endured the systematic genocide against her people in China. She bears the face of my book, The New Crusades, because her people are currently bearing the most horrific front of Islamophobia in the world.

Right now, in real time, while we fast, one to two million Uyghur Muslims are languishing inside of China’s dystopian system of concentration camps.

Right now, while we fast, Uyghur Muslims are legally denied the right to observe the rites of Ramadan.

Right now, as we wait to break our fast, Uyghur Muslims are force-fed pork and alcohol. This crude practice stands at the center of China’s design to eliminate the Uyghur people, slowly and systematically, and decimate Islam – a religion they call a “mental illness.”  

Since 2018, I have written extensively about this unseen genocide, working closely with Uyghur leadership in the diaspora, coordinating with activists, and raising funds to build an orphanage in Istanbul – home to a concentrated Uyghur Muslim community.

Islamophobia is a global phenomenon. And thus, a phenomenon that transcends the horror unfolding in China.  It is a system, and even more so, a culture, engineered by an American War on Terror designed in the heart of Washington, DC.  Inside the belly of the political beast that peddled the War on Terror, across borders physical, cultural and linguistic, embedding the abominable myth that Islam inspires terrorism. That terrorism is rooted in Islam, confusing and conflating the two to the measure of war, proxy wars, incessant drone strikes, ethnic cleansing, occupation, imperialism, occupations, systems of surveillance and their enabling legal structures of ungodly terror.

The United States exported the language of Islamic terrorism and the legal template to police, punish, and persecute Muslims on a global scale. This was the rational objective of the War on Terror, which emboldened the crackdown on Muslims in France, Sweden and across Europe; which enabled the ethnic cleansing campaigns unfolding in India and Myanmar; which incited the occupation of Palestinians and the imperial expansion into Kashmir; and, as I articulate above and in the book, opened the door for the cultural genocide unfolding in East Turkistan, the native land of the Uyghur people.

I wrote this book, as an American, in recognition of my country’s culpability in creating the global Islamophobia that ravages my coreligionists around the world.

I wrote this book, as a Muslim, with obligation rooted in crafting a narrative that speaks to the unseen struggles of Muslims, the unheard voices of victims narrowly seen through the distorted prism of terrorism and counterterrorism.

I wrote this book as a testament to Muslim resilience, to truth, and to shed the straight-jackets of villainry and victimhood imposed on our people.

I wrote this book, The New Crusades, for you to read during this Holy Month, this Ramadan. A moment where physical restraint should be refilled by far more than just passing philanthropy, but an intellectual awakening to remain vigilant against the evils of global Islamophobia beyond the Month of Ramadan; and to feed that vigilance, perpetually and permanently.

Ramadan Mubarak.  

I hope that The New Crusades sparks that intellectual crusade in you. 

Order The New Crusades Here.