Who is Shifa?

Shifa Sadequee is a scholar and researcher of classical Islam and a translator of historical Islamic scholarship. As a Muslim American youth, he was racially profiled, unjustly targeted, and politically imprisoned by the United States from 2006-2020 in the secretly-created prison “Communication Management Units” for exercising his right to express his piety and religiosity.

Shifa is the first Muslim American youth in the history of the United States to fully represent himself at his trial in the US federal court. Through his self-representation, Shifa challenged and exposed the foundational narratives of the government's War on Terror and hidden aspects of the US Empire.

The State and its authorities racially profiled him. He was a victim of structural Islamophobia— state-sanctioned anti-Muslim racism.

Family Background

Shifa’s family has lived in the metro Atlanta area since the 1980s. His family was one of the first immigrant Muslims in the Atlanta Muslim community to promote civic engagement, at a time when many South Asian and Arab Muslim professionals and leaders didn't even understand its significance. As early as the 1990s, Shifa’s family encouraged Muslim leadership in Atlanta to become involved in the broader civic culture and society, but few were courageous and most lacked knowledge of the American political culture and society to grasp its importance for immigrant Muslim communities. Shifa’s family became active in American civil society in the 1990s, campaigning for local and national election candidates by inviting representatives from both levels to engage with the community.

Shifa’s father was also one of the first immigrant Muslims in the Atlanta community to

support and campaign for the US presidential election candidates. A forward-thinking family of

Bangladeshi descent, Shifa’s family paved the way for today's Atlanta immigrant Muslim community’s

civic engagement to flourish.

About Shifa

Shifa was born in Virginia and grew up in Roswell, GA. As a newborn infant, Shifa traveled to his ancestral homeland, Bangladesh, with his parents where, in his first year of life, he began experiencing acute respiratory illnesses such as chronic asthma and bouts of broncho-pneumonia. Because of these health issues, well-respected doctors in Bangladesh advised Shifa’s parents that they should not remain in Bangladesh but return to the U.S. where Shifa could receive the best medical care and thrive in a better climate. Shifa’s parents immediately complied, returned to the United States, and took extra care of their youngest child, continuing to feed him through a tube to avoid aggravating his delicate respiratory system.

Despite facing serious medical challenges, Shifa had a playful and happy childhood growing up in Roswell. Friends remember him as a kind, jolly, and moderately shy little boy who enjoyed drawing, painting, and learning new languages like

Arabic and translating ancient Arabic religious texts into English. He was also an avid

reader delving into books of poetry, religion and spirituality, and history. At home,

Shifa gladly performed household chores and enjoyed receiving guidance from his older

brother and two older sisters.

His siblings, in turn, enjoyed taking care of their little brother and often bought him books to read. His

favorite gifts were books of riddles and jokes which he liked reading aloud to his family in order to make

them laugh. Shifa also cared for a menagerie of pets including cats, dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits. As Shifa grew and his health improved, he was able to take part in outdoor activities and, as a teenager, he participated in several sports such as soccer, tennis, and swimming.

Shifa’s sister, Sharmin, recalls that, as a little boy, her brother was concerned about the plight of living things, often reminding his big sister to keep her eyes on the ground or pavement when she walked to make sure she didn’t step on small bugs. One day, when Sharmin tried to give her 11-year old brother a sandwich, some fruit, and several other snacks he said that he only needed the sandwich because “it is a good thing to keep our stomachs a little empty, so we can feel the people who are hungry in this world.”

Shifa attended a Muslim high school in Canada, taking classes in religious and classical Arabic studies. Soon after, in 2001, he returned to Bangladesh to live with his parents. Once again, however, he fell ill from environmental pollution in Dhaka so his parents decided to keep him at home where they home-schooled him.

When he returned to the US in 2004, Shifa worked with his sister Sonali at a prominent women’s rights organization in Atlanta dedicated to the eradication of violence against women. He volunteered and co-organized social justice events with Men Stopping Violence and many local social justice and civil rights organizations.