The Origins of Muslim Racialization in U.S. Law
![handle is hein.journals/ucjicneal7 and id is 125 raw text is: THE ORIGINS OF MUSLIM
RACIALIZATION IN U.S. LAW
Nagwa Ibrahim*
INTRODUCTION
Yasser Esam Hamdi was a United States citizen who was born in Loui-
siana and moved to Saudi Arabia as a child. After U.S forces captured him
during their invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, they interrogated and then sent
him to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002. After they learned in April 2002
that Hamdi was an American citizen, authorities transferred him to a naval
brigade in Norfolk, Virginia, where he remained until his subsequent transfer
to Charleston, South Carolina. Hamdi was twenty-one years old when U.S.
forces in Afghanistan captured him.' He was interrogated, tortured, and de-
nied due process for almost three years based on the government's contention
that Hamdi was an 'enemy combatant,' and that this status justifie[d] holding
him in the United States indefinitely-without formal charges or proceed-
ings-unless and until it [made] the determination that access to counsel or
further process [was] warranted.2 The government's evidence to prove its
case was a declaration from Colonel Michael Mobbs, the Special Advisor to
the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, who was not in Afghanistan at the
time of Hamdi's capture.3 Nevertheless, in 2004 the Supreme Court rendered
a decision that provided the legal ambiguity necessary for the administration
to continue its treatment of Hamdi and others like him who are denied their
civil and human rights in the name of national security. According to the
Supreme Court, Hamdi, although technically a citizen, is presumptively an
enemy of the state based on the executive branch's initial determination that
* Nagwa Ibrahim is a civil rights attorney with the law firm of Hadsell Stormer Keeny
Richardson & Renick. She is also an alumna of the UCLA School of Law Critical Race
Studies Program. I would like to thank all my friends and family for their incredible support
and insight. I would also like to thank Professor Sarabia, Professor Robinison, Professor
Carbado, Professor Harris and Professor Daulatzai for their encouragement, guidance, and
wisdom throughout the years that I have been developing this piece.
I Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507, 509-10 (2004).
2 Id. at 510-1.
3 Id. at 512.
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The Origins of Muslim Racialization in U.S. Law
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