Khaled Alqahtani

I write for a world where I’m no longer afraid.

My brother still wasn’t back with our sheep, but I had to tweet this as early as possible. The devil works hard, but Islamophobes work harder. And I was right.

I may have tried to wash the Arabic off my tongue, as if rejecting the bitterness of some of the herbs Jiddoh and Yummah made me drink.

The police state is normalized through individual acts; everyone carries a cop within them. We all know pigs who police and surveil our everyday lives.

It haunts me that certain aspects of my identity can only be articulated and understood in English — they’re basically invisible, or actually, nonexistent, when discussed in my mother tongue.

“ ‘i love myself.’/ the/ quietest./ simplest./ most/ powerful./ revolution./ ever.”

When I think of dismantling all forms of capitalism in our lives, I think of Islam. I think of praying.

I didn’t realize how these different personal artistic expressions captured and reflected rapidly evolving political, social and economic climates.

Authorities have established this dominance and control over transgender and queer people, and they wield their power to devastating effect: surveilling, tracking and quite literally hunting them.

Whether or not we will ever come to terms with this, we have internalized this racism; it is reflected daily in our actions and cultural practices.