The Muslim American Women’s Policy Forum is proud to present State Violence: Surveillance of Movements and Communities from Black Liberation to ‘The War on Terror.'”

The panel discussion will cover the history of surveillance against Black liberation movements and the War on Terror post 9/11. Specifically, this panel will cover COINTELPRO tactics against Black liberation leaders in the 60s and the recent surveillance and disruption of organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement. The panel will also discuss the War on Terror tactics of FBI entrapment, surveillance and civil rights violations that target Muslim communities. These issues and struggles will be connected in order to paint a picture of what state violence looks like vis a vis these two (not mutually exclusive) communities of Muslim Americans and Black Americans.

The event will include a short video presentation.  We are also honored to present the following esteemed individuals as panelists:

• Aaron Goggans is a local grassroots organizer with #BlackLivesMatterDMV. He is a Campaign Coordinator at the DC Employment Justice Center.
• Dr. Maha Hilal is the Deputy Executive Director of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms, the only organization in the U.S. that works directly with the victims of the ‘War on Terror.’ Dr. Hilal received her PhD in 2014 from American University, with the focus of her dissertation being on Muslim American responses to the ‘War on Terror.’
• Naureen Shah is director of Amnesty International USA’s Security and Human Rights Program. She is the author of several studies on U.S. counterterrorism including on drone strikes, domestic terrorism investigations and torture. She is a frequent media commentator on U.S. national security policies. Naureen holds a B.S. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, cum laude. She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, and received the Lowenstein Fellowship awarded to outstanding graduates pursuing public interest law.
• Netfa Freeman is with the Institute for Policy Studies and the Wayside Center for Popular Educaiton. He’s been a political organizer and activist since 1985, holds a B.A. in History from the University of DC, and has writings published on the Black Agenda Report, an online publication from the Black leftist perspective.

The panel will be moderated by Darakshan Raja, with the Muslim American Women’s Policy Forum, and Program Manager of the Washington Peace Center.