Aramica slides!

Aref Assaf
March 19, 2008

Aramica, the self-proclaimed “best" Arab American newspaper admittedly does have great original articles. For some reason or perhaps due to an oversight, many in the community have expressed their disappointment when the paper  recently printed three distasteful and most inappropriate jokes. Theirs is an example of freedom of expression gone astray, a misaligned moral compass, or may be a commercially motivated scheme.

Read at your own risk. We have edited the offensive words and omitted the third joke:

Page 38, Aramica Edition 119, February 22- MARCH 6, 2008

http://www.viewda.com/webpaper/aramica/

A man marries a deaf girl

He mimes:" let's make a code: if I want s-x, I will squeeze your breasts. In response, you can pull my pen-s once for yes, 50 times for No"

It gets worse:

John asks his grandpa:

Do you still have s-x with Granny?'

Grandpa says:" Yes, but only oral"

John says: "what is oral"

Grandpa says:" I say F--k you and she says: F--k you too"

I hope you do share my sentiments that Aramica must apologize for their distasteful taste and poor judgment. If they ignore our reasonable demands, we ought to weigh in more serious steps not excluding a campaign to shun the paper from our places of worship, and business establishments. We should also urge advertises to cease from dealing with Aramica. I hope Aramica will recognize our hurt and our desire to continue to enjoy wholesome and original articles and news.

If you agree with me that there is no place for this xxxx in our community newspapers, then please take a moment and share your sentiments with Aramica. Tell them in your own words that the quality of the newspaper is seriously devalued by such a resort to sexually explicit language.  This not an attempt to muzzle free speech, it is our attempt to prevent hate speech from becoming so normal.

Send your respectful but concise objections via email to:

Mr. Antoine Faisal, Editor/Owner at; editor@aramica.com and please cc us at info@aafusa.org

You can also call their office: 718-921-4788

I am disappointed in the paper's low standards for what is proper and what is readable by a wide audience. Admittedly, I have had  my editorial disagreements with Aramica over the forced expulsion of Debbie Al-Montasser . Now the paper does not publish our work and even delete our name when using articles published by other sources.
But I  have also singularly recognized their positive work as well. Last year, I wrote that,  "The only shining star in the Arabic owned media is by far the Brooklyn, NY based Aramica. For the last six years, I have followed its phenomenal growth, unmatched coverage of our community, and consistent editorial maturity. Aramica stands alone in breaking many taboos about what can and should be said about our people and their issues. It is not afraid to ruffle feathers or just as willingly to bestow accolades. " I, of course,  never expected they would so shockingly insult our sense of good manners.  Be kaffee, Eeib Aleike Ya Aramica!