There is only Then and Now. There is only what we once were and what we have become.
-- Narrator/Layla (chapter 1)

Importance: Layla has this thought at the start of the novel while considering the increasing number of exclusion laws the government has inflicted upon Muslim Americans. The sweeping waves of Islamophobic sentiments have severed her world into these Then and Now divisions. Though Layla and her family have yet to be moved to Camp Mobius, this passage speaks to the constant borders and barriers the government erects at the expense of minority people's human liberties. These lines also address the narrative collisions of past and present, the repetitions of history that threaten the stability of a nation's peaceful covenants.

They didn't merely take my phone; they took my voice, my choice.
-- Narrator/Layla (chapter 4)

Importance: Layla has this thought after the Exclusion Officers storm her home and steal her phone. Though she is angry the men have...