To fully and accurately relate the Arab American experience in a book, an author would have to present the stories of communities and individuals of countless backgrounds from

throughout the country.

Alia Malek did exactly that in “A Country Called Amreeka.” A civil rights lawyer born to Syrian immigrants in Baltimore, Malek traveled the country interviewing Arab Americans in vastly diverse communities from Birmingham, Ala. to Dearborn, Mich.

In an appearance to be aired on C-SPAN2’s Book TV, Malek is scheduled to speak at the Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn, 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10.

Each chapter of the book focuses on one event in a different moment in history, in a different part of the country, telling the stories of refugees, laborers, activists, politicians, soldiers, Christians, Muslims, Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Yemenis.

Author Alia Malek

Malek said that in interviewing dozens of subjects across the nation, she latched onto stories telling of turning points in people’s lives, surprised by some experiences and recognizing others from her own past.
“I was connecting with the people, connecting with their experiences,” she said Wednesday over the phone from a train car while traveling the Midwest on a book tour. “I was quite moved by all of them… I recognized my parents and I recognized my friends in the characters.”

A portion of the book focuses on the Detroit area’s Arab American history.

“The concentration is unique, and the longevity and the mix,” she said about the local community. “The community in Detroit is very diverse. There’s much more diversity and much more numbers… The blue collar aspect of it was a little different. It’s much more of a mature community… one that kind of keeps replenishing.”

A moment in history when the 1967 Detroit rebellion, the Vietnam war and the 1967 Arab-Israeli were all occurring at once holds a major place in the memories of many Arab Americans, and in “A Country Called Amreeka.”

Malek, while she’s become a full-time writer, is still a social justice advocate at heart, and hopes the book can make a difference in fostering tolerance and equality.

“You can make a lot of change by affecting hearts and minds,” she said. “I feel like this has that power to get through to folks.”