Atiya Husain, "No God But Man: On Race, Knowledge, and Terrorism" (Duke UP, 2025)
Apr 5, 2025
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Atiya Husain, an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College, explores the intersections of race, Islam, and terrorism. She analyzes how FBI Most Wanted posters shape our understanding of racial identity, particularly focusing on Assata Shakur's unique categorization. Husain reveals the complexities of how Muslims are often racialized in ambiguous ways while Shakur stands out due to her visibility as a Black revolutionary. Drawing on Black Studies, she challenges conventional narratives and emphasizes the need for nuanced discussions about race and representation.
Atiya Husain explores how the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list reveals complex intersections of race and identity, especially regarding Muslim and Black individuals.
The genealogy of wanted posters demonstrates how racialized descriptions perpetuate societal constructs around race, identity, and policing practices.
Husain advocates for a reevaluation of racial categorizations and encourages transformative approaches in understanding race, terrorism, and anti-racism movements.
Deep dives
Introduction to Atia Hussain's Work
Atia Hussain explores the intersection of race, knowledge, and terrorism in her book, focusing particularly on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list and its implications for understanding race and Islam in America. She emphasizes that while many men on this list are labeled raceless, Asata Shakur's inclusion in 2013 as the first woman on the list highlights a complex relationship between race and identity. The book contends that Shakur's portrayal contrasts significantly with the typically raceless representations of Muslim men in FBI documents. This discussion points to a larger discourse on how the categorization of individuals reflects societal attitudes towards race and identity.
The Genealogy of Wanted Posters
Hussain delves into the historical context of wanted posters, tracing their origins to 19th-century statistical practices that shaped policing. The integration of concepts like the 'average man' into identification practices illustrates the racialized dimensions of these systems. This chapter critiques how descriptions on wanted posters serve not just to identify suspects, but also to propagate societal constructs surrounding race and normativity. By understanding the genealogical roots of these materials, Hussain demonstrates how contemporary practices continue to reflect complex racial dynamics in law enforcement.
Asata Shakur's Role and Impact
Asata Shakur, a prominent figure in the Black liberation movement, becomes central to Hussain's analysis of race and Islam in contemporary America. Hussain examines Shakur's activism, highlighting her status as an influential symbol for modern movements such as Black Lives Matter. The FBI's decision to add her to the Most Wanted Terrorist list and its implications are analyzed, suggesting that the state aims to deter young activists by maligning Shakur's legacy. This discussion offers insight into the intersection of race, gender, and activism, revealing how Shakur's identity challenges dominant narratives in the fight against oppression.
Racelessness and Identity in the FBI's Discourse
The chapter discusses the pattern of racelessness among Muslims on the Most Wanted Terrorist list, where prominent figures lack explicit race categories, yet possess descriptions based on complexion. This absence signifies not only a failure of representation but also a deeper commentary on how racial categorization functions within the context of national security. By contrasting this with how race is noted in other categories of crime, the chapter interrogates the implications of leaving Muslim identities raceless. Hussain complicates the discourse by drawing connections to broader issues of power and surveillance within the war on terror.
The Broader Implications for Race and Anti-Racism
Hussain concludes by linking her findings to contemporary discussions on race, terrorism, and anti-racism activism, specifically reflecting on the current resonance of these issues within the Palestine Solidarity Movement. She examines how racism is strategically used in political discourse, highlighting the discrepancies between anti-racist rhetoric and the acts it often justifies. The work advocates for a reevaluation of how race is conceptualized, urging scholars to critique traditional frameworks that may limit our understanding of human relations. Ultimately, Hussain calls for a transformative approach that seeks to move beyond existing racial categorizations to forge new connections in the pursuit of justice.
Atiya Husain’s No God but Man: On Race, Knowledge and Terrorism (Duke University Press, 2025) uses the FBI Most Wanted lists to rethink theoretical relationships between race and Islam in the United States. Husain traces the genealogy of wanted posters and how theories of the “average man” informs the use of photographs and its accompanying descriptions on most wanted posters. To probe this pattern further, she closely considers the activism and Islam of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur and her addition to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List in 2013. Shakur was the first woman added to this list and joins Muslims, who are oddly not racialized in the descriptions on the poster. This peculiar pattern forces us to contend with how race as a category oscillates between racelessness and race, and therefore reveals the categorical limitations of the discourses of racialization of Muslims. It is here that the work of Black Studies scholars, such as Sylvia Wynter, offers us necessary conceptual pathways forward. This book will be of interest to anyone thinking about race, Islam, and terrorism, surveillance or security studies, and Black Studies.
