Seasons of Fury - by Rozina Ali (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This sweeping narrative history chronicles the U.S. government's broken compact with its Muslim citizens, culminating in the post-9/11 era of mass surveillance and increased violence--from an award-winning New York Times Magazine journalist.

In this closely reported and devastatingly written book, Rozina Ali shows how the War on Terror conceived in the wake of the September 11 attacks only accelerated long-standing conflicts between American law enforcement and Muslim communities around the country.

Through the powerful stories of four families across eight decades, Ali narrates a range of Muslim experiences shaped by relentless suspicion and prejudice. Introducing readers to Abdeen Jabara, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, Shahina and Matin Siraj, and the pseudonymous Omar family, she shows how fears about American Muslims have always been inextricable from the Israel-Palestine conflict, stoking the idea of a religious war between Muslims and the west. Seasons of Fury is a history of policies that warped the American imagination, from laws in the 1990s that broadened the definition of terrorism, to mass detention and surveillance of entire Muslim communities in the 2000s, to the rise of think tanks and nonprofits that sowed panic about the threat of Islam itself.

Ultimately, the U.S. political machine disillusioned generations of Muslims who sought the promise of the American dream only to find their communities torn apart, their relatives imprisoned, and their religion villainized by politicians and media. This is the story of how we got to our terrifying present--the inevitable consequence of the country's willingness to turn its back on the founding principle of religious equality.

About the Author

Rozina Ali is a journalist and contributing writer at New York Times Magazine, a fellow at Type Media Center, a fellow at New America, and was previously a senior editor at The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. Ali writes primarily about the War on Terror, Islamophobia, the Middle East, and South Asia, and her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Harper's, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, The American Prospect, and more. Ali is a recipient of the National Magazine Award in Reporting.