“Out of homesickness one night I started collecting some materials that I had collected because [as] architecture students we build a lot of models so [we] end up with a lot of scrap materials,” Hafez said. “And I remember this was the very first piece I did, one night I started working on this piece and I found it very therapeutic, cathartic and healing. Of course, I was too young and naive to understand therapeutic art. I was connecting to home and it passed time. I worked on it for twelve hours straight because I really enjoyed it. So I started making more, so I started developing this interest in architecture and art.”

At the start of his art career, Hafez only created his three-dimensional models of Damascus as a pastime while he worked at an architectural firm. His artwork is characterized by his experience growing up in Damascus. He described Damascus as having not only  beautiful architecture, but also a mosque next to a synagogue, next to a church and an art gallery with nude sculptures that contained thousands of years of history.

Madeleine Albright and celebrities pledge to "register as Muslims," but that's not how it works

On Wednesday, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tweeted that she was "ready to register as Muslim."

While she and other prominent allies might have good intentions, such pledges will be ineffective in resisting or duping the federal government.

In response to 9/11, George W. Bush created the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), often referred to as "Special Registration."

Under NSEERS, the federal government required visa holders from a list of 25 countries to register and provide their own biodata.

The federal government would also register immigrants or tourists from the list of countries before they entered the United States. 

This was required for people whose country of origin was Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan or Syria — including those who also held dual U.S. or European citizenship.

NSEERS had a devastating impact on Arab and Muslim communities. 

According to the ADC, 14,000 Arab and Muslim visa holders who registered with NSEERS were deported. Not a single registrant was charged with terrorism. Many faced detainment before deportation.

If Trump's proposed Muslim database is similar to NSEERS, it would be impossible for Albright to voluntarily register as Muslim. 

But for those who do want to show solidarity and resist the concept of a Muslim database in a real way, Hilal has some advice.

For Immediate Release Dec. 22, 2016

For More Information, Contact: Brett Schuster, Communications Manager [email protected], 202-775-9555

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) applauds the announcement by the Obama Administration that the Department of Homeland Security issued a final rule in the Federal Register to rescind the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which targeted individuals from 25 largely Arab, African, Muslim, and South Asian countries and which could have served as the basis for the creation of a broader “Muslim registry.”

NAPABA is opposed to programs and proposals that seek to profile communities and create national security registries based on an individual’s actual or perceived race, religion, or ethnicity. The Asian Pacific American community directly experienced the harms of such policies during the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and stands strongly against similar discriminatory policies that profile and target Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities.

Originally enacted by the Bush Administration in 2002, NSEERS was deactivated by the Obama Administration in 2011, but the regulatory structure remained in place. Advocates, including NAPABA, encouraged the Administration to rescind the program and documented the negative impacts that such policies would have on Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian immigrant communities.

For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at 202-775-9555 or [email protected].

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of approximately 50,000 attorneys and approximately 75 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government.

NAPABA continues to be a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network of committees and affiliates, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession.

Article of the day: Obama has just dismantled a 9/11-era registry aimed at Muslims.  As The Atlantic reports, “The Department of Homeland Security will take apart the vestiges of a controversial program that was used to register and track visitors from Muslim-majority countries, a move which will make it more difficult for Donald Trump to instate a registry system for Muslims once he takes office next month.

The change, which comes just four weeks before the end of President Obama’s last term, removes the skeleton of a program that hasn’t been in use since 2011. When it was active, the “special registration” program—the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS—had two parts, and applied only to people from 25 countries named by DHS. Twenty-four of them were Muslim-majority countries...

The complete dismantling of NSEERS doesn’t prevent Trump from creating a new program to track people from Muslim-majority countries. But nor is it only a symbolic rejection of similar programs from the outgoing president. Leaving the program in place would have given Trump a turnkey registry in waiting.

“The Obama administration is dismantling a dormant national registry program for visitors from countries with active terrorist groups — a program that President-elect Donald J. Trump has suggested he is considering resurrecting.

“The registry, created after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has not been in use since 2011, so the move is largely symbolic and appeared to be aimed at distancing the departing administration from any effort by the new president to revive the program, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or Nseers.”

WATCH: Obama Childproofs The Oval Office – Moves Registry Program To A Higher Shelf

In the latest, last-ditch efforts to nail the floorboards down and child-proof the Oval Office, President Barack Obama announced that he would end a program used for the registry of visitors from countries with active terrorist groups, The Boston Globe reports.

Although it truly is hard to predict what President-elect Donald Trump will actually do in the future, given his erratic and…

WATCH: Obama Childproofs The Oval Office – Moves Registry Program To A Higher Shelf

In the latest, last-ditch efforts to nail the floorboards down and child-proof the Oval Office, President Barack Obama announced that he would end a program used for the registry of visitors from countries with active terrorist groups, The Boston Globe reports.

Although it truly is hard to predict what President-elect Donald Trump will actually do in the future, given his erratic and…