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Criminalizing the profession
POSTED ON October 18 th, 2018
Historically, the role of translators and interpreters has suffered from multiple misconceptions. In theaters of war, these linguists are often viewed as traitors and kidnapped, tortured, or killed; if they work in the terrorism arena, they may be prosecuted and convicted as terrorist agents. In a complex, highly charged post-9/11 case, Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic linguist and scholar of Middle Eastern history, was labeled such an agent, his work as a translator/interpreter construed as material support to terrorism, and his subject-matter expertise recast as dangerous knowledge. For an in-depth ethnographic examination of his trial, which was the impetus for launching Red T, go to: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/226/