Detained Without Cause: Muslims' Stories of Detention and Deportation in American After 9/11

Part of a series of oral history projects, this brave book presents the first-person narratives of six Muslim men detained on flimsy or invented charges and ultimately deported after September 11, 2001. Though Shiekh originally profiled 40 such cases, this cross-section clearly represents an undeniably larger trend. The introduction coherently frames Shiekh's own experiences with racial profiling (two of her brothers, both U.S. citizens, were investigated by the FBI), along with a concise history of America's penchant for "creating enemy aliens," and the government's systematic tactics for entrapping and justifying this most recent round of detentions. Shiekh is methodical about her research methods and explicit about her communication with detainees, who were humiliated, lied to, and abused in prison. The stories are heartbreaking both in their individuality and their repetition. The power of Shiekh's profile of Pakistani Anser Mehmood grows as we learn the perspective of Mehmood's wife and children. Egyptian national Yasser Ebrahim reflects that, "[a]fter two towers fall, you can build hundreds of new towers, but you can't bring back even one life." Though his claim is irrefutable, Shiekh's dedication to honoring these voices and exposing the mistreatment of these men creates momentum from what these families lost. (Apr.)