Source: Lecture 15, Week 8 | Professor Hatem Baziam
Tags: Islamophobia, Muslim registration, NSEERS, virtual internment, SSSS, Patriot Act, Japanese internment, racial profiling, surveillance, FBI entrapment, material support, civil liberties
After 9/11, the U.S. government required people from Muslim-majority countries to register with immigration authorities, creating a system of surveillance, entrapment and deportation that functioned as a form of virtual internment. Statistical evidence shows Muslims account for a small fraction of terrorism in both the U.S. and Europe, yet anti-Muslim sentiment and policy have escalated dramatically. The lecture draws direct parallels between this treatment and the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
Special Registration (NSEERS)
The post-9/11 programme requiring individuals from designated (mostly Muslim-majority) countries to register with the INS. North Korea was added to the list to deflect claims of religious targeting. Approximately 100,000 to 113,000 people registered.
SSSS (Secondary Security Screening Selection)
A designation on boarding passes that flags individuals for additional screening, questioning and potential detainment at airports. Muslim community leaders were routinely subject to this.
Virtual Internment Structure
The concept that a population can be effectively confined and controlled without physical camps, through pervasive surveillance, communication monitoring, travel logging and entrapment operations.
Entrapment (FBI context)
The practice of FBI agents infiltrating Muslim organisations and encouraging young people to express or admit intent to commit violence, then arresting them on those statements.
Material Support
A legal charge used to prosecute individuals who provided any form of service (even incidental, such as repairing a fax machine) to a person or group the government links to terrorism. Used broadly as a tool to detain and imprison individuals.
Executive Order 9066
The 1942 presidential order authorising Japanese American internment. Cited in this lecture as a historical parallel to post-9/11 treatment of Muslims.
Latent Islamophobia
Deep-seated, often unspoken prejudice against Muslims that underpins policy and public attitudes, even when not expressed openly.
Manifest Islamophobia
The visible, active expression of anti-Muslim prejudice, including discriminatory policies, public hostility and organised campaigns of othering.
Islamophobia Industry
Networks of organisations, media figures and policymakers that actively work toward generalising and othering Muslims as a group.
Citizens on Probation
The idea that Muslim American citizens hold a lesser, conditional form of citizenship compared to white Americans, needing to continually prove their loyalty and equality.
The U.S. government required people from Muslim-majority countries to register with the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS)
North Korea was added to the country list as political cover, so the government could claim it was not exclusively targeting Muslim nations
Consequences of registering:
Arrested upon arrival at the immigration office
Required to post bail
Deported
Between 100,000 and 113,000 individuals registered under the programme
Muslim travellers flagged with SSSS on boarding passes, triggering extra questioning and detainment
Every Muslim community leader was subject to SSSS screening
All travel by flagged individuals was logged and tracked
The lecture's central argument is that you do not need to place people in physical camps to control them. The modern surveillance state achieves the same result through:
Monitoring all communications
Logging all travel
Deploying detection programmes (e.g. radioactive material scanning outside Iranian-owned businesses in LA)
Collecting metadata on a mass scale
Subcontracting data collection to private telecommunications companies, which pass information to the government
Cameras and digital infrastructure provide constant oversight without visible fences or guards
FBI agents infiltrated Muslim organisations and engaged young people in conversation, steering them toward admitting intent to commit violence
Two mothers and two sons were arrested on charges of threatening food security
This arrest coincided with a heated congressional debate over Patriot Act reauthorisation
After the arrests, the Patriot Act passed with little remaining opposition
Since 9/11, only 6% of terrorist activity in the U.S. was committed by Muslims; the majority was committed by white individuals (FBI data)
After 9/11, 406,000 people in the U.S. were killed by gun violence
After 9/11, 43 individuals in the U.S. were killed by Muslim terrorism
Only 2% of terrorism in Europe was conducted by Muslims
These figures illustrate that the scale of surveillance and policy response directed at Muslim communities is vastly disproportionate to the statistical threat.
During WWII, the U.S. interned Japanese Americans while Nazi Germany was interning Jews
The military claimed Japanese Americans were using radioactive signals; this claim was rejected by the government's own legal arm
Because the legal justification failed, Executive Order 9066 was needed to authorise internment by executive authority rather than legal finding
The parallel to Muslim Americans: physical camps are no longer necessary when digital surveillance and legal tools (material support charges, no-fly lists, SSSS) achieve the same control
American citizenship does not provide equal protection for Muslims
The value of citizenship held by minorities is treated as lesser than that held by white Americans
Muslims described as "citizens on probation," always needing to prove their loyalty
Parallels drawn to "driving while Black and brown," where minorities face suspicion in routine activities
The U.S. did not intern German Americans during WWII
The government actively recruited and protected Nazi scientists after the war (for missile and nuclear programmes)
This selective treatment underscores that internment and surveillance have always been applied along racial and religious lines, not purely on the basis of threat
Muslims treated as inherently inferior
Dramatic increase in anti-Muslim sentiment from 2006 to 2016
An organised Islamophobia industry works toward generalising and othering Muslim communities
The lecture calls for action from civil society leaders, policymakers and responsible media to counter this trajectory
If the government determines you provided any service (even fixing a fax machine) to a Muslim individual or group under suspicion, you can be charged with "material support" for terrorism
This charge is used broadly as a tool to detain and imprison people, functioning as another layer of the virtual internment structure
⚠️ The concept of "virtual internment" is the lecture's central framework. Be able to define it and list its components (surveillance, metadata, entrapment, material support charges, SSSS, travel logging).
⚠️ Know the key statistics: 6% of U.S. terrorism by Muslims, 43 killed by Muslim terrorism vs. 406,000 by gun violence, 2% of European terrorism by Muslims. These figures challenge the proportionality of the policy response.
⚠️ The Japanese internment parallel is not incidental. Be ready to compare the mechanisms: E.O. 9066 and physical camps vs. digital surveillance and legal tools. The argument is that the outcome (control and marginalisation of a population) is the same.
⚠️ "Citizens on probation" connects to broader course themes about how citizenship rights are experienced differently along racial and religious lines.
⚠️ The selective non-internment of German Americans, and active protection of Nazi scientists, is evidence that threat level alone does not explain who gets targeted. Race and religion are the determining factors.
⚠️ Material support charges function as a catch-all legal mechanism. Understand how even incidental contact can be prosecuted.
Q: What was the Special Registration programme, and how did the government deflect accusations of religious targeting?
A: The programme required individuals from designated countries (mostly Muslim-majority) to register with the INS. The government added North Korea to the list so it could claim the programme was not exclusively targeting Muslims. Approximately 100,000 to 113,000 people registered, and registrants faced arrest, bail requirements and deportation.
Q: Define "virtual internment" as used in this lecture and identify at least four of its components.
A: Virtual internment is the control and confinement of a population without physical camps, achieved through pervasive surveillance. Components include: communication monitoring, travel logging, SSSS airport screening, metadata collection, subcontracting surveillance to private telecom companies, FBI entrapment operations, and material support charges.
Q: What statistics from the lecture challenge the proportionality of anti-Muslim security policy?
A: Only 6% of U.S. terrorist activity since 9/11 was committed by Muslims (FBI data). Just 43 people in the U.S. were killed by Muslim terrorism post-9/11, compared to 406,000 killed by gun violence. In Europe, only 2% of terrorism was conducted by Muslims.
Q: How does the lecture connect Japanese American internment during WWII to the post-9/11 treatment of Muslim Americans?
A: Both involved targeting a racially or religiously defined group on the basis of perceived threat. The military's legal justification for Japanese internment was rejected, requiring E.O. 9066 to proceed. For Muslim Americans, physical camps are replaced by digital surveillance, legal tools and entrapment, but the effect of controlling and marginalising a population is comparable.
Q: What does "citizens on probation" mean in the context of this lecture?
A: It describes the condition of Muslim Americans whose citizenship carries less practical protection than that of white citizens. They must continually prove their loyalty and equality, and their civil liberties are more easily overridden by security-state measures.
Q: How was "material support" used as a legal tool against Muslim communities?
A: The government charged individuals with material support for terrorism for providing any service, even incidental ones like repairing a fax machine, to a Muslim person or group under suspicion. This broad application functioned as a mechanism to detain and imprison people who had no involvement in terrorism.
Islamophobia, Muslim registration, NSEERS, virtual internment, SSSS, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Patriot Act, FBI entrapment, material support, Executive Order 9066, Japanese American internment, racial profiling, surveillance state, metadata collection, citizens on probation, racial hierarchy, citizenship inequality, Hatem Baziam, ES21AC, Berkeley, comparative racial and ethnic studies, War on Terror, post-9/11 policy, Islamophobia industry, othering, generalisation, anti-Muslim discrimination