N.J. Muslim and Arab communities want new commissionThe tragedy of 9/11 continues to generate repercussions in New Jersey; according to a local American Arab leader, it’s the direct cause of a push to establish a state Arab Muslim Heritage Commission.
Add to that the war in Iraq and five decades of struggle between Arabs and Israelis, said Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum in Denville, and there becomes an "urgent need to ensure our history and culture are properly portrayed" in texts and the media. "We don’t want people to think Arabs are anti-American."
Now, the Arab and Muslim communities in New Jersey are pushing for the establishment of a commission to broaden and improve understanding of their communities within the public schools and in society generally, he said. The current high school curriculum especially is "inadequate," because it doesn’t properly show the contribution of Arab civilization.
Assaf said that the commission would cover both Arabs and Muslims because, although most of New Jersey’s Arab community is Christian, Islam is the dominant religion in the Arab world. Assaf, a Muslim, said non-Arab Muslims in the state are helping establish the commission.
The language in the draft bylaws for such a commission is patterned closely on the bylaws of the N.J. Italian American commission, said Assaf. The state also has a Holocaust commission, Amistad commission, and Asian commission.
Jay Doolan, an acting assistant commissioner in the N.J. Department of Education, said the influence of the various special commissions is felt most directly in the social studies curriculum, which includes world history and world religions. Teachers, who use multiple teaching materials, including textbooks and the Internet, are sensitive to "the need to ensure there’s much more of a global perspective."
He noted that the state’s English-as-a-second-language classes are offered in approximately 160 languages.
Doolan said he’d heard of the proposed Arab heritage commission only through his department’s public information office, but would see the draft legislation for it if and when that happens.
Assaf said that, through the commission, his community wants to "humanize the Palestinians and their plight" as people already "humanize" the issue of Holocaust survivors. Also, Muslim holidays need to be recognized in the public schools, albeit not in a religious fashion, "so we’ll no longer be seen as foreigners, not fully American."
Born in a refugee camp near Jerusalem, Assaf said that, while raising his five children to be very aware of their Palestinian heritage, it would be unfair to have "my own fears and my own prejudices to be shared by my son."
As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, he said, "It’s not our intention to engage in a debate over who was right and who was wrong," but people must see that "the struggle is between two nationalities over land."
The purpose of the commission is not specifically an anti-discrimination curriculum, because that would only vent anger and would be "short-sighted." Asking for such a commission altogether "is a fair demand to ask the governor," said Assaf, noting that the state’s Arab and Muslim community is "growing in numbers and political clout."
He estimated that community "conservatively" at over 500,000 people, larger than the state’s Jewish community, "but much weaker." Figures from the 2000 U.S. census, however, put the total number of Americans with Arab ancestry at 850,027 and at 1,189,731 if combined with one or more other ancestries.
"It is good for the U.S. to be engaged" in the Arab-Israeli situation, he said. "It’s no longer a zero-sum game of America being on one side of the game or pretending to be."
The proposal for the commission fell through the cracks during the McGreevey years, said Assaf, but he sent a letter to Gov. Jon Corzine’s transition team and hopes it will be dealt with soon.
Although he’s found interfaith dialogue unproductive, Assaf said he "aches" for political dialogue with Jewish leaders in New Jersey, but the opportunities don’t exist. "I’m not willing to compromise on many issues, like the right of return for refugees, but hear me out."
Joy Kurland, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey, said her group has contacts in the area’s non-Arab Muslim community, but has no ongoing relationship with its Arab world, Muslim or Christian.
Etzion Neuer, N.J. regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it’s too early to know what the proposed commission is all about, but noted that one could envision a time when, faced by demands for more heritage commissions, the government could "throw up its hands and say ‘enough already.’" Still, allowing the whole mix of cultures and ethnicities and even religions "into our own sheltered world" would only benefit students.
The proposed commission, said Assaf, "is not our attempt to be singled out, but to be melted into the pot."
The tragedy of 9/11 continues to generate repercussions in New Jersey; according to a local American Arab leader, it’s the direct cause of a push to establish a state Arab Muslim Heritage Commission.