DEARBORN — While some progress has been made, the challenges for Arab Americans in the civil rights and liberties arena continue to be, in a word, overwhelming. 

From discrimination to immigration issues, spying allegations against federal departments and everything in between, it seems there’s no shortage of challenges to be tackled.

In response to this great need, the new Arab-American Civil Rights League (ACRL) has been formed, with Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner and Canton-based attorney Nabih Ayad leading the way. 

The newly-formed organization plans to hold an official launch event on December 15 at 5:30 p.m. at a location to be announced as it seeks to rally support to begin the process of its stated mission of promoting, advocating, and defending the constitutional and civil rights of Arab Americans and securing justice and equality for all. 

“No other group in this country has been more subject to discrimination than Arab Americans,” Ayad said. “Common sense dictates that we need to be a strong, resistant force to counter negative stereotypes.

“We’ve done some wonderful things with prior organizations but we feel the need that is out there now for a more aggressive stand and to use different methods to address the concerns of Arab Americans…the community is growing yet we’re seeing more discrimination and less tending to the issues.” 

The ACRL will have the support of the Ayad Law team which has taken on high profile cases recently including the Amer case in which a Dearborn family is suing the State of Michigan’s Judson Center over the wrongful removal of three of their children. 

Using the slogan “We will not stand idly by,” the ACRL will also seek to combat negative stereotyping, highlight the contributions of Arab Americans to the U.S., working with federal, state and local authorities to promote more positive policies, education and governance, aim to assure equal representation in government and the private sector, monitor and combat defamatory material on the Internet and other forms of media, promote cross-cultural and interfaith cooperation between the Arab American community and its neighbors, and to work with the media to ensure adequate and fair representation on issues of concern in the community. 

The organization plans to be active on social media outlets and is expected to launch a website soon. 

The executive director is Rashid Baydoun, the current Arab American Political Action Committee chairman of the Membership Committee, with board members to be added as the organization begins its work. 

“We know that in the post 9-11 era, discrimination and Arab are almost synonymous,” Baydoun said. 

“But we don’t face quite the same discrimination of the past, now it’s more hidden within, systematic, it’s embedded in the workplace or institutions and almost become a social norm. 

Unfortunately, our people have developed an apologetic mentality instead of being reminded of their civil rights and to know that they shouldn’t be excluded, they should be part of the fabric of society.” 

Baydoun and Ayad both commended the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for their continued work in fighting for civil rights and liberties and against discrimination, but noted that there is a huge need for extra advocates and organizations. 

“No existing organization can claim to be able to fully attend to these challenges and in that regard, in this positive spirit we welcome any additional member to this family (of civil rights organizations),” said ADC-Michgan Regional Director Imad Hamad about the ACRL. 

“As a well established institution we have had many who came through ADC and they graduated through us like many other institutions…Our students do good and do better and in this case we wish them the best.” 

In addition to the many additional cases that are reported and not given the full attention they deserve from rights groups, Baydoun said that he knows several friends and family who experience discriminatory incidents often.

“How many incidents go unreported? Someone is always telling me this or that happened at school or work…I’m baffled that this is going on and there needs to be another visible and strong force out there to defend against this.”