DEARBORN – The Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) distributed its official election literature, energized its membership and presented public service awards at its annual banquet on Friday.
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| Arab American Political Action Commitee awardees, elected officials and guests, including Rev. Wendell Anthony, head of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, at AAPAC’s annual dinner in Dearborn on Oct. 24. Anthony spoke about Arab American-African American unity ahead of the Nov. 4 election. PHOTOS: Nafeh AbuNab |
“If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything,” Anthony said about the importance of mobilizing communities to participate in elections. “And you won’t get anything if you don’t organize… Nobody can stop you if you’re organized.”
AAPAC’s endorsement newsletter, mailed to thousands of homes on Friday and handed out at the dinner, announces that the group did not endorse a presidential candidate for the November election.
For the first time in AAPAC’s history, no presidential candidate requested the group’s endorsement. The organization’s bylaws prevent it from endorsing any candidate for any position without a written request for support.
But the newsletter, while strongly critical of both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, hints at Obama as the preferred choice for Arab American voters.
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| AAPAC President Osama Siblani |
“That will never happen to AAPAC,” he said.
The group included a clause in its bylaws requiring written request for endorsement “to protect your integrity,” Siblani said to the crowd. “Sooner or later, our voices will be heard.”
Siblani is also publisher of The Arab American News.
“We believe change is necessary,” he said, alluding to Obama, “change in our domestic policy and change in our foreign policy.”
He said he expects Arab Americans to work alongside the African American community in the election “so that all our voices are heard.”
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| Rev. Wendell Anthony, a pastor at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit, speaks at the annual dinner of the Arab American Political Commite in Dearborn on Oct. 24. |
“Even though I may be African American and you may be Arab American, we’re all in the same boat,” he said. “Because you are all experiencing some of the stuff that we use to experience and are still experiencing… As Martin Luther King said, it’s still an injustice to everyone, everywhere.”
He said the NAACP will celebrate 100 years in 2009, and that the group has been successful because it “kept our eyes on the prize,” bringing people together for freedom and equality.”
Anthony spoke about an incident at a McCain rally in which a supporter told the Arizona senator she couldn’t trust Obama because “I heard he was an Arab.”
“If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny,” Anthony said. “If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be laughable… The unfortunate reality is – she’s not the only one that thinks like that.
“It’s alright to be an Arab. It’s alright to practice Islam… Do not Arabs bleed when they are cut?”
He described Obama as “the Jackie Robinson of presidential politics.”
“He took everything that they threw upon him.”
He said that, like Robinson, who was not the best black baseball player of his time, but the first to be allowed to play in the major leagues, Obama is not the best politician, not the smartest African American, not the best person who can fight for social justice…
“But he is the one that has been chosen for this moment.
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| Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard (L) and AAPAC President Osama Siblani |
“He has to be in the house in order to talk about what’s wrong with the house.”
Anthony implored the community to make the upcoming election “not about ego, but ‘wego,’ as in ‘we go to the polls and vote.”
Michael Chami, a member of the Arab Student Union at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, said Anthony’s speech served to demonstrate the parallel between the bigotry Arabs and Muslims face – demonstrated intensely during this election season – and what African American have always battled.
“The Reverend understands what Arab Americans are going through today,” he said. “It seems this type of racism is the same type of racism that African Americans experienced 40 years ago.
“It makes people realize the parallel. I think he’s very sincere when he says he stands with us.”
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| AAPAC Endorsement Chair Abed Hammoud |
Chair Abed Hammoud, “but we’ve never gone in the same direction.”
In addition to the presidential race, AAPAC made 17 endorsements in local and state races, explaining each decision in detail.
The group’s leaders said the choices are made only after several meetings of its executive board, which interviews each candidate seeking support and deliberates at length. The group struggled to choose between two judicial candidates in one local race, and held a community forum in which 19th District Judge Mark Somers and challenger Candyce Abbatt debated, helping them decide on Somers in the end.
“Real change happens from the bottom, up,” said Siblani. “This is why we focus on local and state races as much as we focus on national races.”
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| Michigan state House Speaker Andy Dillon speaks after receiving a Public Service award at the annual dinner of the Arab American Political Action Committee. |
Bouchard said hopes to encourage more Arab Americans, particularly young people, to run for office. He said activists, regardless of what party they belong to, can always look to him for help, “because I’m an American first. And I’m an Arab
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| Community Activism awardee Maha Mustafa |
The group awarded local teacher Maha Mustafa, for her work in Dearborn parent-teacher-student circles and for her activism during election seasons.
“She’s the unknown soldier that fights in every single election,” said Hammoud.
An “AAPAC Member of the Year” award was given to activist Ronald Amen.
AAPAC was founded in 1998 by a group of Arab American professionals to organize and encourage political activity among Arab Americans.
The group calls the annual dinner the largest political gathering of Arab Americans in Michigan.
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