January 2024 marks 22 years of U.S. detention of Muslim men and boys at the Guantánamo Bay prison. Thirty Muslim men remain at the notorious facility: most have never been charged with a crime despite spending decades behind bars, and none have ever had access to a fair trial.

Unjust detention, torture and abuse, the demonization and dehumanization of Muslims under the guise of national security,and impunity are essential pieces of why Guantánamo remains open and how and why such brutal and unlawful practices are being replicated around the world. Join us for a webinar focusing on these threads and the manifestations and connections to state violence, arbitrary detention, and occupation in Iraq and Palestine.

This virtual event is co-sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Muslim Counterpublics Lab, and Adalah Justice Project. ASL and CART will be provided.

The detention of Muslim men at Guantánamo Bay as part of the “War on Terror” is the latest iteration of U.S. policy of criminalization and detention on this usurped Cuban land. Since 1903, the U.S. has maintained a naval base at Guantánamo, which has been used to detain Cubans as well as Haitian refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. The “War on Terror” was also the driving force in the U.S. government’s war and occupation of Iraq, where it continues to have a military presence today. The incarceration and torture of Iraqis – with a prime example of both being the notorious Abu Ghraib prison – has allowed the United States to further assert its imperial domination.

Israel  – a country founded on violent settler-colonialism – has been administering a prolonged and belligerent military occupation of Palestine. While the United States has always supported Israel’s state violence, is it now giving unconditional support for Israel’s unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people. Compounding the ongoing violence is the fact that the Israeli government has long used administrative detention as a mechanism of social control and an attempt to squash any and all Palestinian efforts to demand freedom and justice. The recent scenes of mass round-ups, forced nudity, and humiliation of Palestinians chillingly mirrors the tactics and imagery of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.

Join us in marking this shameful Guantánamo anniversary and the reverberations of U.S. impunity on communities around the world. Together with formerly incarcerated people, lawyers, and advocates, we will learn, build community, and take action that disrupts the U.S. government’s power to suspend human rights and elevates our collective demands for justice, accountability, and transformation.

Speakers

Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
Mansoor Adayfi, writer, activist, and Guantánamo survivor
Sahar Francis, Director, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

Co-moderated by Aliya Hussain, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Dr. Maha Hilal, Muslim Counterpublics Lab