Countless generations of Arabs and Muslims have called the United States “home.” Yet while diversity and pluralism continue to define contemporary America, many Muslims are viewed by their neighbors as painful reminders of conflict and violence. In this concise volume, renowned historian Yvonne Haddad argues that American Muslim identity is as uniquely American it is for as any other race, nationality, or religion. Becoming American? first traces the history of Arab and Muslim immigration into Western society during the 19th and 20th centuries, revealing a two-fold disconnect between the cultures—America’s unwillingness to accept these new communities at home and the activities of radical Islam abroad. Urging America to reconsider its tenets of religious pluralism, Haddad reveals that the public square has more than enough room to accommodate those values and ideals inherent in the moderate Islam flourishing throughout the country. In all, in remarkable, succinct fashion, Haddad prods readers to ask what it means to be truly American and paves the way forward for not only increased understanding but for forming a Muslim message that is capable of uplifting American society.

Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora (e-Book)

Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora traces the production and circulation of discourses about “the Middle East” across various cultural sites, against the historical backdrop of cross-Atlantic Mahjar flows. The book highlights the fraught and ambivalent situation of Arabs/Muslims in the Americas, where they are at once celebrated and demonized, integrated and marginalized, simultaneously invisible and spectacularly visible. The essays cover such themes as Arab hip-hop’s transnational imaginary; gender/sexuality and the Muslim digital diaspora; patriotic drama and the media’s War on Terror; the global negotiation of the Prophet Mohammad cartoons controversy; the Latin American paradoxes of Turcophobia/Turcophilia; the ambiguities of the bellydancing fad; French and American commodification of Rumi spirituality; the reception of Iranian memoirs as cultural domestication; and the politics of translation of Turkish novels into English. Taken together, the essays analyze the hegemonic discourses that position “the Middle East” as a consumable exoticized object, while also developing complex understandings of self-representation in literature, cinema/TV, music, performance, visual culture, and digital spaces. Charting the shifting significations of differing and overlapping forms of Orientalism, the volume addresses Middle Eastern diasporic practices from a transnational perspective that brings postcolonial cultural studies methods to bear on Arab American studies, Middle Eastern studies, and Latin American studies. Between the Middle East and the Americas disentangles the conventional separation of regions, moving beyond the binarist notion of “here” and “there” to imaginatively reveal the thorough interconnectedness of cultural geographies.

With Stones in Our Hands: writings on Muslims, Racism, and Empire(e-Book)

With Stones in Our Hands compiles writings by scholars and activists who are leading the struggle to understand and combat anti-Muslim racism. Through a bold call for a politics of the Muslim Left and the poetics of the Muslim International, this book offers a glimpse into the possibilities of social justice, decolonial struggle, and political solidarity.

April Arguments at the United States Supreme Court

From SCOTUS Blog:

Monday, April 25, 2022

Nance v. Ward – (1) whether an inmate’s as-applied method-of-execution challenge must be raised in a habeas petition instead of through a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action if the inmate pleads an alternative method of execution not currently authorized by state law; and (2) whether, if such a challenge must be raised in habeas, it constitutes a successive petition when the challenge would not have been ripe at the time of the inmate’s first habeas petition.

Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist. – (1) whether a public-school employee who says a brief, quiet prayer by himself while at school and visible to students is engaged in government speech that lacks any First Amendment protection; and (2) whether, assuming that such religious expression is private and protected by the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses, the Establishment clause nevertheless compels public schools to prohibit it.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Shoop v. Twyford – (1) whether federal courts may use the All Writs Act to order the transportation of state prisoners for reasons not enumerated in 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c); and (2) whether, before a court grants an order allowing a habeas petitioner to develop new evidence, it must determine whether the evidence could aid the petitioner in proving his entitlement to habeas relief, and whether the evidence may permissibly be considered by a habeas court.

Biden v. Texas – (1) whether 8 U.S.C. § 1225 requires the Department of Homeland Security to continue implementing the Migrant Protection Protocols, a former policy under which certain noncitizens arriving at the southwest border were returned to Mexico during their immigration proceedings; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit erred by concluding that the Secretary of Homeland Security’s new decision terminating MPP had no legal effect.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta – whether a state has authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country.

April Oral Arguments at the Ohio Supreme Court

You can view the live stream of oral arguments on the Court’s website or see them after the arguments take place in the Ohio Channel archives.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

State v. Fuell – (1) whether juvenile offenders have a state and federal due process right to cross-examine witnesses whose hearsay statements are presented to provide probable cause for mandatory transfer to adult court; and (2) whether under Miller v. Alabama, State v. Long, and State v. Patrick, Ohio Rev. Code § 2929.02(B)’s mandatory fifteen-years-to-life sentence for murder is unconstitutional as applied to juvenile offenders because it does not permit judicial consideration of youth at sentencing. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

State v. Hough – whether the trial court erred by not conducting a hearing on his Motion for Competency Evaluation. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

In re J.F. and J.A.F. – whether, in a juvenile court proceeding to terminate parental rights, a is child entitled to independent attorney representation when there is evidence the child’s wishes differ from a guardian ad litem’s recommendation of the child’s best interests. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Ohio ex rel. Hicks v. Clermont Cnty. Bd. of Comm’rs – (1) whether a public body that goes into executive session must present proof that its conversations were consistent with the reason for entering executive session; and (2) whether a person who successfully demonstrates a violation of the Open Meetings Act is entitled to reasonable attorney fees if the public body reasonably believes it lawfully entered into executive session. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

State v. Weaver – (1) whether an appellate court owes the same amount of deference to the trial judge’s post-conviction determination of a witness’ credibility as it does to a jury’s determination of credibility; and (2) whether an appellate court should reverse the judgment if the record demonstrates bias or prejudice. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

State v. Schubert – whether an officer can reasonably presume a warrant to search a cell phone found at a crash scene is valid, when the affidavit supporting the warrant only states that the police “may” find evidence on a cell phone of how a crash occurred on the phone, without any actual evidence that the driver was using his phone when the crash occurred. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

State v. Sanford – whether the results of laboratory tests from samples taken on the day of arrest are considered “new information,” which could alter the calculation of speedy trial time. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview

Legally Speaking Blog Entries for This Week’s Oral Arguments

Prof. Marianna Brown Bettman, Oral Argument Preview: Propriety of Search of Cell Phones Found at Crash Scene. State of Ohio v. Alan Schubert (Student contributor Max Londberg)

Prof. Marianna Brown Bettman, Oral Argument Preview: Does a Mandatory Life Sentence with Parole Eligibility Violate a Child-Defendant’s Eighth Amendment Rights? State of Ohio v. Austin M. Fuell (Student contributor Max Londberg)