N.J. Muslim and Arab communities want new commission
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.
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."