Laila Alawa was born to Syrian parents in Denmark in 1991. Her family subsequently lived in Japan for several years, and then immigrated to the United States when the girl was ten. Alawa went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology and education studies from Wellesley College in 2012, and also studied leadership and social entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge. She became a U.S. citizen on April 14, 2015. “But I will always be Syrian,” Alawa wrote seven months later. “I will always be from Syria. I will always be of Syria.”

Since March 2011, Alawa has been as advisory board member with the humanitarian-aid organization NuDay Syria.

In 2014 Alawa launched Laila Alawa Consulting, a firm that develops marketing and sales strategies for nonprofits, new technology businesses, and personalities. She continues to head this company.

From March 2014 through June 2016, Alawa served as a communication specialist in the office of Democratic Congressman Andre Carson.

Alawa has long regarded the United States as a nation that oppresses and abuses Muslims, as she explained in a July 2014 piece which she wrote for The Guardian, titled “Muslims Aren’t Shocked to Discover We Are Watched.” Therein, Alawa said that ever since her arrival in America, she had “learned to view” law-enforcement officials and “my new government” with “a certain level of suspicion.” “After 9/11,” Alawa elaborated, “I learned quite quickly to keep my head down because I thought that, if I could stay under most people’s radars, I could thrive in a world in which stories of warrantless deportations, faith-based workplace discrimination (and termination) and arrests that resulted in unending detention were common.” Citing “the reality of constant surveillance, government stings and wannabe informants” to which she believed Muslims in the U.S. were being subjected, Alawa lamented that “my long-held suspicions have been confirmed—the knowledge that my faith makes me suspicious in the eyes of the government to which I’ve pledged my allegiance…. We know that we’re often discriminated against by our government and our fellow Americans.”

Alawa regularly disseminates views like these in her work as an opinion writer. She contributes not only to The Guardian, but also to such publications as Salon, Glamour, The Atlantic, Mic News, The Huffington Post, The Toast, and The Islamic Monthly. Further, she hosts The Exposé, a weekly podcast devoted to “tackling contemporary topics with wit and brutal honesty.”

Alawa also describes herself as an “online activis[t]” whose mission is “to elevate the voices of those who are often not heard.” Her specialties include “millennial issues, digital strategy, minority identity, gender advocacy and social media analysis.” Alawa’s Twitter posts are rife with allegations of American racism and Islamophobia. Some examples:

• “I can’t deal with people saying America is the best nation in the world. Be critical. Be conscious. Don’t be idiots.” (2/4/13)
• On April 15, 2013, Alawa responded to activist Pamela Geller’s assertion that the terrorist bombings that day at the Boston Marathon were acts of “jihad” by tweeting: “go fu** yourself.” (4/15/13)
• “We are living in a country that deems it ‘freedom of speech’ to spew absolutely hateful ish [slang for sh**] about Muslims. That’s not freedom of speech.” (4/22/13)
• “You can’t say something intolerant [toward Muslims] and not expect consequences. Not on my watch.” (4/26/13)
• “9/11 is your day to pull out your flag themed clothing, and my day [as a Muslim] to look behind my back as I walk home.” (9/17/14)
• “… I can’t wait until [the television program] @TheBachelor has a man or woman be the star of the show that isn’t pure white. Or ‘prettily mixed.’ Because, Ya know, @TheBachelor, white people in America? They’re not gonna be dominant majority for much longer.” (February 2015)
• On April 23, 2015, Alawa tweeted: “How the hell is the shit @PamelaGeller is spewing ‘free speech’? it’s straight up warmongering hate speech. It’s xenophobia.” (At the time, Geller had recently led a New York City ad campaign pointing out the inherent bigotry and anti-Semitism of Islam and the Koran.)
• “THE US HAS NEVER BEEN A UTOPIA UNLESS YOU WERE A STRAIGHT WHITE MALE THAT OWNED LAND. straight up period go home shut up.” (July 2015)
• “Being American [after 9/11] meant you were white. And my immigrant self started fighting for the right to be just as American.” (9-10-15)
• In September 2015—the day after Secretary of State John Kerry had announced that the U.S. was planning to accept some 185,000 Syrian refugees during 2016-17—Alawa mocked the “Salty white tears all over my newsfeed.” Her implication was that many white people opposed the plan because they were anti-Muslim bigots. (9-21-15)

Another tweet that drew much attention to Alawa was her September 10, 2014 assertion that “9/11 changed the world for good, and there’s no other way to say it.” But Alawa later claimed that her use of the term “for good” meant “permanently” and was not intended to suggest that the terrorist attacks were positive events.

In 2015, Alawa was one of 15 people whom the Obama administration appointed to serve on the newly formed Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Subcommittee on Countering Violent Extremism, which sought to promote the notion that authentic Islam is a peaceful faith that has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. In June 2016, this Subcommittee issued a report recommending that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) de-emphasize Islam’s terrorist ties by devoting more attention to the transgressions of “anarchists, sovereign citizens, white-supremacists, and others.” The Subcommittee also advised that the DHS—in order to avoid offending Muslims—should begin “using American English instead of religious, legal and cultural terms like ‘jihad,’ ‘sharia,’ ‘takfir,’ or ‘umma’” when discussing terrorism.

Since May 2015, Alawa has been a scholar at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, whose mission is to promote Muslim Americans’ interests and to enhance their public image.

Alawa also serves as CEO of The Tempest (formerly called Coming of Faith), a Washington, D.C.-based media and tech company which she founded in 2016 to address the needs and interests of “diverse millennial women.”

For additional information on Laila Alawa, click here.

Additional Resources:

Further Reading: “Laila Alawa” (LinkedIn.com); “Syrian Immigrant Who Said 9/11 ‘Changed the World for Good’ Is a Homeland Security Adviser” (Daily Caller, 6-13-2016); “Muslims Aren’t Shocked to Discover We Are Watched” (by Laila Alawa, 7-22-2014); “Meet Laila Alawa, the 25-Year old Syrian Immigrant on DHS Advisory Council Who Wants to Curb Your Speech Rights” (CounterJihad.com, 6-15-2016); “Interim Report and Recommendations” (Countering Violent Extremism Subcommittee, June 2016).