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The year's best Cultural BBQ, JUNE 29. Read newspaper article |
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| Feature Articles and Commentary |
| "They told me to cook, clean, do everything. I didn't speak English. And he told me, 'Don't say nothing.. she's going make you deported. And me, I'm going to be in jail." | Some Muslims in U.S. Quietly Engage in PolygamyAlthough polygamy is illegal in the U.S. and most mosques try to discourage plural marriages, some Muslim men in America have quietly married multiple wives. No one knows how many Muslims in the U.S. live in polygamous families. But according to academics researching the issue, estimates range from 50,000 to 100,000 people. More |
| " the government has adopted the "paradigm of prevention," | Trials of Muslim charities likened to a witch-hunt The U.S. government's anti-terrorist financing programs are based on the "guilt by association" tactics of the McCarthy era and have had a widespread negative impact on U.S. charities, critics say.
That is the view of Kay Guinane, director of the Nonprofit Speech Rights Program for OMB (Office of Management and Budget) Watch, an independent not-for-profit government watchdog group. Guinane told IPS that government actions have resulted in program cutbacks and increased fear of speaking out on important public issues. More |
| Why do they Love us? | Misreading the Arab Media
Rather than being the enemy, most Arab journalists are potential allies whose agenda broadly tracks the stated goals of United States Middle East policy and who can be a valuable conduit for explaining American policy to their audiences. Many see themselves as agents of political and social change who believe it is their mission to reform the antidemocratic regimes they live under. When asked to name the top 10 missions of Arab journalism, they cited political reform, human rights, poverty and education as the most important issues facing the region, trumping Palestinian statehood and the war in Iraq. More from the NYT |
 | Aref Assaf, The other side of memory: commemorating the Palestinian Nakba Every year, on May 15, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba ("the catastrophe"): the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homes and lands. In 1948 more than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages. More |
Israel has received more than 50% of total US foregin aid!
What did the US get in return? | By Alison Weir
April 1st I participated in a debate in San Francisco that raised the question of US aid to Israel.
It was highly appropriate that this debate was held two weeks before tax day, since in Israel’s sixty years of existence, it has received more US tax money than any other nation on earth.
During periods of recession, when Americans are thrown out of work, homes are repossessed, school budgets cut and businesses fail, Congress continues to give Israel massive amounts of our tax money; currently, about 7 million dollars per day. More |
| To-do list should be to connect the dots of regional issues to reflect the realities and interdependencies on the ground | The next President and the Middle East, the must do list
Listen carefully when a new president is inaugurated next January for the sigh of relief coming from most of those Middle Easterners whom President Bush embraced as allies. Conversely, Bush’s rivals in the region are likely to tune in to the occasion in a disgruntled mood. For them the Bush years have been good for business. The menu of grievances on which they’ve fed has become a veritable feast. Opposition to American designs in the region -- deployed with different emphases and with different goals by al-Qaeda, Iran, Hamas, Syria, and Hezbollah, to name but a few -- has been an easy sell and has won countless new adherents. Daniel Levy writes |
 | The Imam's Dilemma and the Community's Responsibility
Aref Assaf,
3/1/2008
We reprint a letter previously published to alert you to recent serious developments concerning the immigration plight of Imam Qatanani of the Islamic Center of Passaic County. Essentially, he and his family are awaiting "removal/deportation hearings' to determine their fate. A legal defense team has been set up to defend his case in court (set for early May). Concurrently, Americans 4 Qatanani, a grassroots campaign has been established to build mass support for the Imam and his family. A website will soon be available as well. President Aref has joined the media committee of the grassroots campaign, Americans 4 Qatanani, and he will coordinate all media contacts and coverage thereof. More |
| Tracking Transience is all about taking the intrusive "counter-terror" measures introduced after 9/11 one step further, to the point of absurdity. Tracking Transience can be seen here. | The eye of the beholder"Art is in the eye of the beholder," as the saying goes. What is deep and profound to one is just a meaningless mess of images to another; or in some cases, smut. The same goes for terrorism — one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and the distinction is based as much on perception and personal bias as it is on facts. Unfortunately, for many Americans, a dark-skinned Muslim with a name like Mohammed, Ali or Hasan warrants suspicion for being a terrorist, to be detained and questioned at places like airports and be sent on their way, sans dignity. In some cases, people have been jailed and harassed because their name resembled someone else's on a watch list. More |
| Online Arab Journalism and views of US | The Image of the United States Portrayed in Arab World Online Journalism This study is trying to examine to what extent the online journalism in the Arab World has adopted biased coverage of the United States. The study hopes to provide a current assessment of how the U.S. is portrayed in Arab World online journalism. This valid, updated information will enable researchers and communicators alike to better understand not only what is being done, but may lead to ways of providing a solid basis for better dealing with American issues and images in the future More |
| A Paradigm Shift? | Democrats Benefit From Shift in Muslim Voters’ Allegiance
Muslim Americans, many of whom gave President Bush enthusiastic support in his first election campaign in 2000, have largely fled the Republican Party and could help Democrats win key states this November. In surveys over the past six years, Muslims have cited administration policies in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as reasons why GOP candidates no longer appeal to them. Read more from CQ |
 | Waiting for our moment Ahmed Soliman
The Record January 31, 2008
One thing I never saw growing up was a positive portrayal of Arab-Americans.
IN TYPICAL Generation X form, I grew up watching a lot of television. In fact, it's common for the people of my generation to have grown up spending more time listening to and watching television than even our own parents, who both often worked full time while the children were home alone in the afternoons and summers. More |
 | I Am New Jersey: Amaney Jamal: Tapping Muslim opinion
On the streets of the Arab world, Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University politics professor, asks the kinds of questions that can get her put under surveillance, kicked out of the country, thrown in jail, or worse.
At 37, she is among a new crop of street-reporting academics who see their mission as helping the Western world better understand the views of Muslims here and overseas.
Jamal's particular specialty is polling, getting out with everyday Muslims to sample their opinions, to get a taste of ordinary life and the big political and religious issues that matter most to them. A Star Ledger feature. More |
 | An Arab in America
Dr. Abdelrahim Foukara
I attended the Annual Conference of the Arab-US Policymakers Conference in Washington, Dc (October 2007). I am pleased to share a thoughtful reflection on Arab-US relations presented by journalist Dr. Abdelrahim Foukara at the Conference in Washington. Dr. Foukara, the Washington Bureau Chief for Al-Jazeerah International, departed from the typical conference fare of hard-edged facts and figures to invoke poetic imagery to illuminate an understanding of Arab and American perspectives. We hope you will enjoy his presentation as much as we did. More |
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| The Racial Divide Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice | Race & Ethnicity in America The American Civil Liberties Union today released a comprehensive analysis of the pervasive systemic and structural racism in America. The report, Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice, is a response to the U.S. report to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released earlier this year. The U.S. report, which the ACLU called a “whitewash,” swept under the rug the dramatic effects of widespread racial and ethnic discrimination in this country.
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 | Palestinian poet gives new life to art form
The overflow crowd in the biggest Palestinian music hall jumped to its feet, cheering and whistling as the curly haired star took to the stage. Hardly your typical vibe at a poetry reading. Poet Tamim al-Barghouti gets rock star treatment like that. The 30-year-old Palestinian-Egyptian is bedazzling audiences with texts written in classical Arabic, but packed with modern-day politics. His appeal is part charisma, part hopeful message and part proof of the survival of an old Arab art form.
"The amount of love that they have bestowed on me is something that so far I don't know how to deal with," he said in an interview before a recent performance. "I hope I live up to their expectations." Read More |
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Palestine's Ghandi? | A History of Nonviolence
Palestinian leader Naim Ateek has long advocated nonviolence as the only way to secure peace between Israel and Palestine. So why is he so despised by hard-line Israel supporters?
"The Palestinians need to become really conscious of and sensitive to the horror of the Holocaust. ...We must understand the importance and significance of the Holocaust to the Jews, while insisting that the Jews understand the tragedy of Palestine for the Palestinians." More
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 | The Arab World Competitiveness Report 2007 United Arab Emirates is the most competitive economy in the Arab world among the countries at the third and most advanced stage of development according to The Arab World Competitiveness Report 2007. The Arab World Competitiveness Report series serves as a platform for public-private dialogue on issues related to competitiveness, as is being witnessed at the Arab World Competitiveness. More
View a 4-minute video about the Report
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| Meeting the FBI head on! | Words that Shape Attitude Aref Assaf, 11-13-2007
The FBI in New Jersey is setting an example which sadly is not being emulated in other parts of the country. A recent news article confirms the plans by the Los Angeles Police Department to “map Muslim communities”… “not as a form of a targeting or profiling… but as an effort to understand communities.” And “to ensure better community policing.” What’s next, a computer chip in the neck of every Muslim? Mr. Cruise, book your next flight to Los Angeles! They can learn from you. More |
| Thy Shall Make Peace | The Ten Commandments for Middle East Peace During the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the three of us worked on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for our respective peace teams -- Israeli, American, and Palestinian. Much has changed since those days, little of it for the better. Still, many lessons remain -- from the failures no less than from successes -- of that previous experience. Whether the Bush administration carries through on its self-proclaimed objectives (and there is some reason to doubt it will) or whether the task of reinvigorating peace efforts falls to the next president, we herewith offer 10 recommendations regarding what the United States ought to do – and what it ought to avoid. More |
 | Overview of Arab American Media in the United States There are a total of 81 newspapers and national magazines or newsletters that currently produce news in the United States, the majority serving Arab American populations in 5 regions and in 22 states. Several distribute editions through mailed subscriptions across the country. Yet, 28 states do not have official home based Arab American newspapers. (This list is compiled by members of NAAJA, the National Arab American Journalism Association. Click here for a study report |
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