The Unjust Case
Racial and Religious Profiling
State-sanctioned Islamophobia
The Case
Shifa was racially profiled and preemptively prosecuted.
Shifa is a victim of State-sanctioned Islamophobia.
On April 17, 2006, Shifa was returning home from shopping with his new bride and was kidnapped by authorities in Bangladesh and missing for days until the FBI picked him up and brought him to New York aboard a “secret” CIA rendition aircraft via Alaska, stripping off his clothes and wrapping him in a clear-like plastic like material during the flight. At a press conference in Bangladesh, his father requested the help of journalists and the public in finding his son. The Bangladesh government kept silent at the time.
In New York, Shifa was charged with making a “false statement” to the FBI but the case was later dropped. In August 2006, the US government transferred Shifa to Atlanta and preemptively accused him of “material support” related charges. No government agencies communicated about his arrest to his father and wife in Bangladesh or his family in Atlanta. The case stemmed from “evidence” from 2004 and 2005 when Shifa was 18 and 19, and the “secret” evidence against Shifa included online chats between teenagers and religious literature that he had translated from ancient Arabic to English for an online website.
The case also involved two additional Atlanta Muslim youths who were friends of Shifa: one was a co-defendant. The other co-conspirator in the case worked with the government as a “cooperating criminal witness” and testified against Shifa to put him in prison.
Shifa is a victim of State-sanctioned Islamophobia.
The judge granted the prosecution all their requests and suppressed key evidence. Information related to the kidnapping of Shifa in Bangladesh, the physical assault on him in prison, the torture during solitary confinement, and the persecution of his free speech and expression were kept from consideration.
The prosecution took advantage of Shifa’s experience of the law and submitted evidence that had no connection to Shifa. The majority of government witnesses were FBI agents who did not participate in the online chats between teenagers but were allowed to present and interpret the “evidence” at trial. No participants in the chats were brought to testify at trial to interpret the chats for the jury. Jurors prejudicial towards Islam and Muslims were chosen for the trial with some jurors caught sleeping as evidence was being presented.
Shifa was the first Muslim American youth in the United States to represent himself at his own trial and defended all Muslims, without any legal background, during a time when Muslim American “leaders” in Atlanta, GA, and across the country were living in fear and aligning themselves with the U.S. Empire to protect their self-interests.
Shifa spoke truth to power.
Shifa addressed the court directly throughout the four-year legal proceeding and represented himself at his trial from jury selection to sentencing. Through his self-representation, Shifa challenged the federal court, the American judicial system, the foundation and narratives of the US Government's War on Terror, and hidden aspects of the US Empire.
His case and trial convey a legal significance that existing categories and precedents fail to capture, challenging the legal framework and exposing the shortcomings of legal logic and national security law and discourse.
Shifa was racially profiled and preemptively prosecuted.
Read the official legal report on Preemptive Prosecution from the Coalition for Civil Freedoms
Learn about the “material support” statute from the nationally renowned attorney Joshua Dratel and a US Federal Court Judge
Learn about the history of US Surveillance State documented by Project South
The United States Kidnaps Shifa From Bangladesh
United States authorities had Shifa kidnapped from the streets of Bangladesh in April 2006.
Sadequee’s family sues the Bangladesh government for unjustly transferring Shifa over to US authorities.
Bangladesh Supreme Court Lawyer Discusses Shifa’s Illegal Rendition to the United States
The Unjust Case in the United States
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US Government Hide Evidence From the Jury
US government bars Shifa from speaking about his kidnapping from Bangladesh to the Jury
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Selective Prosecution - Racial and Religious Profilng
US government bars Shifa from speaking about racial and religious profiling to the Jury
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US Government Hide Inhumane Prison Condition from the Jury
US government hides 3 + years of pre-trial inhumane solitary confinement of Shifa from the Jury
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Use of Confidential Informant
Shifa asks the US government to disclose confidential informant
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Shifa Self-Represents at Trial
Shifa asks the court to represent himself at his own trial
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Expert Testimony 1 - Fawaz Gerges
Scholar of Global Islam gives testimony at Shifa's trial
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Expert Testimony 2 - Fawaz Gerges
Scholar of Global Islam gives testimony at Shifa's trial
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Shifa Interrogates Government Expert on Jihad
Shifa questions the notorious, non-Arabic speaking "expert" witness of the government on Shariah and Jihad
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Shifa's Closing Argument
Shifa's closing argument
Shifa's Closing Statement - August, 2009
Live Coverage of Shifa’s Trial
Justice For Shifa
Shifa was racially profiled and punished for exercising his First Amendment Rights and Human Rights to Free Speech. The U.S. Government convicted Shifa based on his freedom of views and expression and objections to U.S. foreign policy and U.S. treatment of disenfranchised people like Muslims around the world.
This is structural anti-Muslim racism.
Shifa was stripped of his rights because he is a scholar and a religious and spiritual Muslim American.
People around the world believed and knew Shifa was the victim of political and religious discrimination and profiling strongly advanced by the U.S. government towards people of color, immigrants, South Asians, Arabs, Muslims, and other minorities.
This is state-sanctioned Islamophobia.
We believe the U.S. Justice Department succumbed to post-9/11 Islamophobic racist hysteria and set aside the United States Constitution and International Human Rights protocol and a long legal tradition of due process and respect for the constitution and the human rights to sanction illegal government policies aimed primarily against Muslims like Shifa.
This is state violence.
As Americans and world citizens, we can not sit by and let such violation of human rights and our constitutional rights go unnoticed.
Staments from Family and Community
FAMILY STATEMENT FOLLOWING SHIFA'S TRIAL
August 11, 2009
- We believe in and support the courage of our little brother to stand and defend himself against these false charges.
- We believe that Shifa has provided adequate defense to show that he and his co-defendant had no intention to join or conspire to join any foreign terrorist group.
- We believe that the government has used every weapon in its arsenal to condemn our brother regardless of the absurdity of the evidence.
- We believe that disrespect and ignorance of Muslim culture, studies, and political dialogue has fueled the targeting, arrest, and trial of our brother to justify the government’s War on Terror.
COMMUNITY STATEMENT
August 11, 2009
- We believe that this case represents the absolute worst of the Bush-era targeting of Muslims and the most extreme interpretation of the USA PATRIOT Act, an act that has been challenged as to its constitutionality and just cause.
- We believe that our collective safety is threatened when two young men are incarcerated for three years in solitary confinement before trial and then tried without substantial evidence.
- We believe that no matter the outcome, this case serves as a harsh and ominous warning of the intent of the US Homeland Security Department and Department of Defense to control and intimidate critical thinking and free speech.