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Go topWith all the anti-Arab bashing we see in the news every week, Arab America is determined to expose those who discriminate against our community. We will recognize those who vilify the positive influence and contributions Arabs have made to the fabric of American society. And we will use hummus as our weapon. By naming those … Continued
By Dustin Luca The Salem News The Friendly Mini Mart on Lafayette Street has a sign alongside its front door, saying, “We appreciate your business.” But a much darker message was scrawled across the convenience store’s front windows Friday morning. The words “Arab I.E.D. Sleeper Cell” were spray-painted across one window, and “I.E.D. Arab” across the … Continued
By Samuel Freedman New York Times ROSS, N.D. — Richard Omar drove his pickup truck through the cemetery gate and pulled to a stop in sight of the scattered headstones. As he walked toward a low granite monument, his running shoes crunched the dry prairie grass and he tilted forward into an unrelenting west wind. … Continued
With all the anti-Arab bashing we see in the news every week, Arab America is determined to expose those who discriminate against our community. We will recognize those who vilify the positive influence and contributions Arabs have made to the fabric of American society. And we will use hummus as our weapon. By naming those … Continued
Three Egyptian immigrants who saw a demand for Halal food in New York City started the Halal Guys street food carts serving up hot halal meats, pita brea, and sauces. They went from having one cart, to 355 throughout the country, and even one in the Philippines. From their franchise, they began a scholarship fund … Continued
by Vrushali Mahajan
NewsGram
Despite all the hoopla over tolerance versus intolerance, USA continues to be the land of freedom of speech, justice and multiculturalism. Hamtramck- a town in Detroit area elected its first Muslim-majority city council. A town that was predominantly Polish Catholic in 1970s is today a Muslim -majority place.
That was in the first week of November of 2015. We profile one of the new councilman, Saad Almasmari.
Winning the majority of votes in Hamtramck City Council, Saad Almasmari described his excitement and experience about the race to it. “I am a social guy, I like helping my community, my city” says Almasmari.
Among three American-Muslim candidates on the ballot, Yemen born Saad Almasmari was one of them. All three received the most votes in a town that has the largest percentages of foreign born citizens in Michigan. “This is the city that has distinguished itself among others that the majority of the people on the city council are Muslims” Osama Siblani, publisher of Arab American News. But this news made a bigger remark due to its timing. “While presidential candidates are trying to prevent Muslims from coming to this county, they are becoming majority in one of the cities. I think this is the news” he adds.
Hamtramck was unhappy to know Mr. Donald Trump’s statement to ban Muslims from coming to America. “We have about 27% of Yemenis in Hamtramck, 22% Bengalis and about 11% Brazilians who are all Muslims” says Almasmari. From a Polish Catholic auto workers’ settlement, to Muslim American shop owners and businesses Hamtramck has been a case study for changing demographics by recent immigration. “Yes, it has all been quite surprising, all these national and international attention” Karen Majewski, Mayor- Hamtramck.
But this attention couldn’t last longer. When Almasmari attended his first general city council meeting in January, only two media organizations were present to record the moment. “In the council, I am an American before I am a Muslim. One of the newspapers asked me if I was able to meet Mr Trump, would you? I said yes I have no issues in meeting him. And then three days later, I received an email from their campaign asking if I can meet him for like 15-20 mins.”
If he ever meets Mr. Trump, he wouldn’t talk about his faith, but helping Hamtramck which is in financial trouble and has highest poverty rates in the state of Michigan clears Saad Almasmari.
Source: www.newsgram.com
The Lebanese box office sensation What About Tomorrow – consisting of old 8mm footage of performances of legendary singer/writer Ziad Rahbani’s play of the same name ̶ will make its U.S. premiere during the Arab American National Museum’s 2016 Arab Film Festival, part of the Cinetopia International Film Festival June 3-12, 2016, at venues throughout southeast Michigan. Leyla Bouzid’s … Continued
The New York Times
Good morning on this drizzly Tuesday.
You’ve probably heard of Little Italy. But Little Syria?
Travel back in time, New York.
From the 1890s to the 1920s, Washington Street from Rector Street to Battery Place was the heart of New York’s Arab world, filled with thousands of immigrants from Greater Syria — roughly present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Many left their homelands because of troubles like starvation, lawlessness and religious intolerance.
Others came for economic opportunity, said Matthew Jaber Stiffler of the Arab American National Museum, in Dearborn, Mich.
Many of those involved in Greater Syria’s silk industry, for example, took their talents to New York, where they became renowned for making kimonos and women’s undergarments, Mr. Stiffler told us.
The streets of Little Syria were also vibrant with smoking parlors, cafes whipping up Turkish coffee and shops brimming with everything from rugs and brass lanterns to pistachios imported from the Middle East.
But the bustling neighborhood began to dwindle after the Immigration Act of 1924, Mr. Stiffler said.
And the Little Syria that remained was demolished when construction for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel began in the 1940s.
You won’t catch a whiff of the hookah and spices there anymore, but look closely at Washington Street today, and you can still see traces of the quarter’s Downtown Community House and St. George Chapel.
You can learn more about Little Syria and its legacy at an exhibit by the Arab American National Museum that opens tomorrow evening at the Department of Records and Information Services on Chambers Street.
Source: www.nytimes.com
By Fabian Van Onzin
Fight Back! News
Houston, TX — On May 21, right-wing groups attempted to intimidate the Muslim community in Houston by holding an armed rally outside of the Islamic Daw’ah Center. The fifteen white supremacists displayed racist symbols, including the confederate flag, and chanted racist and anti-Muslim slurs. However, scores of people came out to fight back and confront the white supremacists’ message of hate and fear.
Over eighty people showed up to protest the white supremacists Islamophobic hate speech. Arab-Americans, Chicanos and progressive white activists joined together to defend Muslim Americans. The activists guarded the Islamic Daw’ah Center so that the Islamophobes could not get near the building. A huge line of cops stood between the white supremacists and the protesters. The chants of the Center’s defenders could be heard for blocks, “When Muslims are under attack. What do we do? Stand up fight back!” and “Islamophobes go home!”
Angelica Hernandez with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Wall Street, Trump, and his fascist supporters promote Islamophobia at home in order to wage their imperialist wars abroad. They create fear of the Muslim community in order to get the public to support their wars. These wars have one purpose, and one purpose alone: to expand US imperialist hegemony in the Middle East and gain access to new markets. To oppose Islamophobia is to oppose US imperialism and stand with oppressed peoples in their struggle for liberation”.
Ian Cox, with Students for a Democratic Society, said, “Islamophobia is designed to strengthen the State of Israel, which only exists so that the US can continue its wars and domination in the Middle East. These fascist crooks across the street are no different than the Zionists in Israel who create fear of the Palestinian people in order to legitimate their occupation.”
Source: www.fightbacknews.org
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders applauds fellow panelist Linda Sarsour, Executive Director at Arab American Association of New York, during a discussion at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in the Brooklyn borough of New York April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson America’s Arab and South Asian activists are redefining whiteness BY Zahir Janmohamed Newsweek … Continued
Susan Greene PNN/ Oakland Arab Resources Organizing Coalition (AROC) and Art Forces on the 68th Nakba day presented George Jackson in the Sun of Palestine; a multimedia cultural event that expresses the interconnections between current and historic struggles against colonization from Palestine to the streets of Oakland. The event displayed posters that came from the original exhibition that … Continued
BY: Fred Shwaery/Arab America Contributing Writer Last month, we signed off for a few weeks as not much was going to happen until the conventions. Well, like just about everything else in this election, the expected didn’t happen and the unexpected did. Here we are, two months before the conventions and the Republicans have … Continued
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