“First, whenever people get arrested unjustly in the novel, they claim their Americanness, their American citizenship as a defense…Is that to say that anyone non-American deserves to be suspected of terrorism?…The other question is: can’t a US citizen be a terrorist?”

This is a really valid objection: put another way, it’s the implication that only Americans (or Westerners) are worthy of human rights. We can add that to the fact that who gets to be an “American” is problematic: people of color, women, and persons of non-hetero sexual orientation, e.g., often do not have the same access to “American rights” as white male etc.

I’m also reminded of how no one thought that Christians were terrorists when McVeigh, a Christian, killed over 100 people; on the other hand, after 9/11, Muslims (and even people who “looked like Muslims,” like my friend, a Hindu from Detroit whose family is from South India) were the target of verbal harassment, profiling, and, at times, violence.

More recently, noted demagogue Ted Cruz wrote a bill that would strip citizenship from any American who joined ISIS. I’m no fan of ISIS, of course, but I’m waiting for Mr. Cruz to propose stripping the citizenship of, say, Everest Wilhelmsen, leader of the Christian American Patriots Militia, who has literally offered a “reward for the capture” of President Obama.