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Muslim Counterpublics Lab (MCL)

Website:

www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/
Location:

Washington, DC
Status:

Fiscal Project of Defending Rights & Dissent
Type:

Activist Group
Formation:

2022
Executive Director:

Maha Hilal

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The Muslim Counterpublics Lab (MCL) is a left-of-center activist organization that focuses on Muslim issues and is rooted in the critical race theory-influenced concept of liberation. 1

A project of the left-of-center activist organization Defending Rights and Dissent (DRAD), 2 MCL aims to shift the narrative regarding Muslim communities and the War on Terror. The organization also supports the dismantling and defunding of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the DHS agencies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 3

MCL has participated in International Women’s Day activities organized by the left-wing Code Pink 4 and in other rallies calling for the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 5

History and Leadership

The Muslim Counterpublics Lab was founded in 2022 6 as a project of the left-of-center activist organization Defending Rights and Dissent (DRAD). 7

Maha Hilal is the founder and executive director of Muslim Counterpublics Lab. She has previously worked at the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Justice for Muslim Collective, Institute for Policy Studies, National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms Foundation, Government Accountability Project, and the National Academy of Sciences, and has authored several books. 8 9 Hilal has also held roles with the Center for Victims of Torture, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and others. 10

She has claimed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent two decades terrorizing Muslims and minority groups in the United States and subjecting them to violent abuse. Hilal has also said that DHS institutionalizes nativism, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, and Islamophobia and that the agency has a commitment to targeting “non-white populations” based on the belief that they constitute the sole threat to the United States. 11 In 2023, Hilal spoke at a rally calling for the closure of the detention facility located at the U.S. Navy installation in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 12

Activities and Funding

The Muslim Counterpublics Lab is a project of the left-of-center activist organization Defending Rights and Dissent (DRAD) 13 and is rooted in critical theory-influenced concept of liberation. 14 The organization has described itself as a “radical discursive space focused on combatting systems of oppression rooted in Islamophobia” 15 and stands in solidarity with the Palestinian territories in their “fight for liberation” against Israel. 16

MCL organizes direct advocacy campaign programming to challenge what it identifies as systems of oppression rooted in Islamophobia. In its research and writing, MCL attempts to identify state and state-sanctioned violence including perceived surveillance and persecution of Muslim communities by law enforcement and immigration authorities and indefinite detention of detainees. The organization believes it must confront what it identifies as pervasive dehumanization of Muslims and offer support to groups it identifies as historically marginalized and oppressed. 17

In 2023, the organization participated in International Women’s Day activities organized by the left-wing activist group Code Pink. 18 Muslim Counterpublics Lab has also participated in a rally calling for the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 19 and helped stand up the Guantanamo Survivors Fund to provide financial support to former Guantanamo Bay detainees with left-of-center No More Guantanamos and Witness Torture. 20

MCL aims to shift the narrative regarding Muslim communities and the War on Terror. The organization supports organizing activities and direct action to confront politicians, prison systems, and corporations that it believes perpetuate violence, marginalization, and inequity. MCL engages in what it calls political education regarding “institutionalized Islamophobia as manifested in U.S. wars in Muslim-majority countries” and redressing what MCL identifies as injustice in the War on Terror. 21

MCL supports the dismantling and defunding of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the defunding of the DHS agencies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 22

Muslim Counterpublics Lab has called online retailer Amazon’s work with the United States government “problematic” 23 and opposes the company’s cooperation with immigration agencies and police departments across the United States. 24

Muslim Counterpublics Lab organizes supporters on the left-of-center organizing and fundraising platform Action Network  25 and is a member and co-director of the Justice for Muslims Collective, a group of organizations that advocates against what it calls “structural Islamophobia.” MCL also opposed Trump administration immigration policies that were designed to prevent immigration from terror-sponsoring nations. 26

On February 1, 2024, The Nation released an op-ed, originally published on TomDispatch, written by Muslim Counterpublics Lab’s executive director Maha Hilal, in which she compared Israel’s reaction to the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023 to the United States’ response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She claimed that both countries had used those attacks to justify a, “genocidal war in a world where “terror” is seen as an eternal threat to “liberal democracies.”” 27 She further accused the United States of helping back genocide against Palestinians by Israel while claiming that the attacks on October 7 gave Israel, ” further license for unfettered state violence under the guise of a war on terror.” 28

References

  1. “About.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/about.
  2.  “Donate.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab.” Accessed May 17, 2023. https://rightsanddissent.salsalabs.org/muslimcounterpublicslab2022/index.html?eId=c379b041-1cd0-4cbc-b680-f255677caa17&eType=EmailBlastContent.
  3. “Defund Hate: Dismantle DHS and & Defund ICE & CBP.” GrassrootsDC. March 1, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.grassrootsdc.org/events-list/2023/defund-hate-dismantle-dhs-defund-ice-cbp.
  4. “International Women’s Day: #IWDEndWar Across the Country.” CODE Pink. Mach 10, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.codepink.org/iwd2023blog.
  5. “Close Guantanamo -21 Years Later – January 2023.” National Religious Campaign Against Torture. January 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://ccrjustice.org/2023-sign-letter-urging-president-biden-close-guantanamo.
  6. “Tweet.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab Twitter. Posted March 24, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://twitter.com/MuslimCpLab/status/1507050110940815363.
  7. “Donate.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab.” Accessed May 17, 2023. https://rightsanddissent.salsalabs.org/muslimcounterpublicslab2022/index.html?eId=c379b041-1cd0-4cbc-b680-f255677caa17&eType=EmailBlastContent.
  8. “Maha Hilal, PhD.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahahilal/.
  9. “Maha Hilal.” Middle East Eye. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/maha-hilal.
  10. “Our Team.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/about.
  11. Hila, Maha. “Homeland Security: Two decades of terrorizing people of colour.” Middle East Eye. March 8, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/homeland-security-two-decades-terror-minorities.
  12. “Close Guantanamo Rally at the White House.” Center for Constitutional Rights. January 11, 2023.  Accessed May 17, 2023. https://ccrjustice.org/home/get-involved/events/close-guant-namo-rally-white-house.
  13. “Donate.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab.” Accessed May 17, 2023. https://rightsanddissent.salsalabs.org/muslimcounterpublicslab2022/index.html?eId=c379b041-1cd0-4cbc-b680-f255677caa17&eType=EmailBlastContent.
  14. “About.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/about.
  15. “Tweet.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab Twitter. Posted March 24, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://twitter.com/MuslimCpLab/status/1507050110940815363.
  16. “Tweet.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab Twitter. Posted May 15, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://twitter.com/MuslimCpLab/status/1658191569302724620?cxt=HHwWmICxncycioMuAAAA.
  17. “About.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/about.
  18. “International Women’s Day: #IWDEndWar Across the Country.” CODE Pink. Mach 10, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.codepink.org/iwd2023blog.
  19. “Close Guantanamo -21 Years Later – January 2023.” National Religious Campaign Against Torture. January 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://ccrjustice.org/home/get-involved/events/close-guant-namo-rally-white-house.
  20. “Tweet.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab Twitter. Posted. April 12, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://twitter.com/MuslimCpLab/status/1646258201485099011?cxt=HHwWhoC-wZXH19gtAAAA.
  21. “What We Do.” Muslim Counterpublics Lab.” Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/programs#page-section-6223a52e1c636258a8cf4fee.
  22. “Defund Hate: Dismantle DHS and & Defund ICE & CBP.” GrassrootsDC. March 1, 2023. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.grassrootsdc.org/events-list/2023/defund-hate-dismantle-dhs-defund-ice-cbp.
  23. “Media.” Muslim Counterrepublics Lab. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.muslimcounterpublicslab.org/media.
  24. Rodrigo, Chris Mills. “Activists protest Amazon’s cloud conference over company’s work with police, immigration agencies.” The Hill. May 24, 2022. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3500041-activists-protest-amazons-cloud-conference-over-companys-work-with-police-immigration-agencies/.
  25. Muslim Counterpublics Lab.” Action Network. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://actionnetwork.org/groups/muslimcounterpublicslab.
  26. “JMC Announcement.” Justice for Muslims Collective. March 24, 2022. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://www.justiceformuslims.org/jmc-announcement.
  27. Hilal, Maha. “Israel Is Using Bush’s War on Terror Playbook.” The Nation, February 1, 2024. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/september-11-october-7/
  28. Hilal, Maha. “Israel Is Using Bush’s War on Terror Playbook.” The Nation, February 1, 2024. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/september-11-october-7/
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Muslim Counterpublics Lab (MCL)

1325 G St. NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC