DEARBORN — In the wake of a recent scandal that’s rocked the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s national and local offices, five additional women have reportedly come forward alleging they were also sexually harrassed by Imad Hamad, senior national advisor and regional director of ADC Michigan, according to Democratic State Representative Rashida Tlaib, who worked for the organization in 1999 as an intern, and Rana Abbas,  who was the deputy director of the local ADC chapter before leaving in 2008. 

Tlaib and Abbas say the five women came forward after a letter sent to ADC President, Warren David and the chair of the orgnaization’s national board, Dr. Safa Rifka, was made public last Friday, May 31. Since then, Hamad was placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation into the sexual harrassment claims. 

The significant number of women who have come forward amid the controversy that’s made national headlines, are not willing to speak out publically because of the stigma that surrounds sexual harrassment in the Arab American community. 

The controversy is getting a lot of media attention because Tlaib and Abbas who came out publically with the accusations are both credible, and ADC is the country’s premier civil rights organization at the forefront of fighting for Arab Americans. Hamad has been a prominent community leader, and civil rights advocate while working at ADC for nearly 20 years. 

After the letter was sent and made public, Tlaib and Abbas shared their stories with local media on being victims of sexual harrassment by Hamad when they worked for ADC.  

In the letter written by Tlaib, concern is expressed that the multiple sexual harrassment claims made against Hamad in 2007 to ADC National were not taken seriously. 

According to Tlaib and Abbas, eight to ten women complained about being sexually harassed by Hamad to ADC National officials in 2007. The two say the exact number of complaints still isn’t certain because details on the investigation were never released.  Abbas says many of the complaints were made through affidavits that were submitted to ADC National in 2007. A sources close to ADC National says a total of five affidavits were submitted to its office in 2007. 

At the time the complaints were made in 2007, the ADC National President was Mary Rose Oakar, a former Democratic Congresswoman from Cleveland, Ohio. Abbas says Oakar came from Washington D.C. to metro-Detroit, met with Hamad about the claims, and served him with a memorandum, which a source says Hamad admitted he received. 

Abbas says the women who filed complaints never learned what the memorandum entailed, and following Oakar’s visit, Hamad was required to take a sexual harassment course.  

The investigation into the sexual harrassment claims that was launched in 2007, lasted approximently three months Abbas says.

She said, according to the national office at the time, the allegations were not serious enough to warrant greater action.  

A source told TAAN that in 2007 Oakar placed Hamad on probation for one whole year, and restricted his power to hire and fire employees without national office approval.  

Oakar was reached by phone Wednesday, but wouldn’t comment on the 2007 complaints, unless TAAN asked Abbas a few questions, and called her back with the answers. 

Some of the questions Oakar had for Abbas included whether she ever filed a affidavit in 2007 or whether she continued to attend ADC events after leaving the organization. 

Abbas worked for Global Linguist Solutions based in Washington D.C.  after she left ADC, and often had to attend gatherings the organization  held as part of her job. GLS recruites bilingual people into military, and Abbas was its deputy director of corporate communications, and national director of Arab American outreach.   

 

Hamad’s ex-wife Arwa Aden issued a statement defending Hamad against the sexual harrassment claims. The two were married for 24 years, and recently divorced.

“I am surprised and saddened to learn that my former husband and the father of my three children is being accused of “sexual harassment” by a woman who worked with him for five months, fifteen years ago and another woman who worked with him as his deputy for a period of eight years but left the organization five years ago,” Aden said in a statement. 

“I am surprised that our divorce is coming up in the context of these awful allegations. Our marriage has nothing to do with these wild and unfounded allegations. Our marriage unfortunatly broke down just like that of many other Americans.” 

She went on to say Imad worked tirelessly for others to have rights such as a fair hearing and fair treatment in the media, and is entitled to that now. 

The local ADC chapter’s civil and human rights building, located on Chase Road was under construction, but never completed. It went into foreclosure and was lost because funding for the project was used for other purposes. 

The building that housed the ADC national headquarters in Washington, D.C. which Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal donated $2.6 million towards was also reportedly lost after going into forclosure. The latest accusations could hurt ADC financially, especially considering the local chapter has been a good source of revenue for ADC National. The controversy has already caused some corporations to reconsider supporting ADC. 

State Rep. Rashida Tlaib

People are questioning why Abbas and Tlaib have just now decided to come forward with these claims, but this isn’t the first time they have tried to contact the ADC National about the accusations. In 2007 and 2011 both made attempts to notify the organization’s national office about the issue. 

Tlaib says she decided to raise concern to ADC National for the third time after seeing a photo of new ADC female interns posing with Imad, and felt compelled to do something to protect them. 

“I thought, the same thing could happen to them,” she said. “As a public official I feel like it’s my responsibility to take action.”  

In the letter, she notifies the ADC National that Hamad recently recruited a number of female summer interns, and urges the organization to take immediate action. 

A source says since the controversy began, the interns have submitted their resignations and left ADC Michigan. 

Abbas and Tlaib say they didn’t go public when the harrassment first occurred because they were young and scared of the stigma that comes with sexual harrassment, and at the start of their careers. They were also afraid their reputations would be hurt in a community where Hamad had connections and power.  

They say over the years they have also tried to raise concern to community leaders. In 2011, Tlaib and Abbas say they contacted David after another woman had come forward that same year making claims that Hamad also sexually harrassed her. They wanted to inform ADC National that even after 2007, claims of sexual harrassment against Hamad were still being made. The woman who made the accusations in 2011, discussed them with Tlaib, and was open about them with others. 

Hamad told a source he was shocked about the accusations allegedly made against him in 2011, and told a source he was never appproached by David about them. 

Imad Hamad.

The source says Hamad believes the latest accusations are a melicious attempt to assassinate his character, destroy his reputation and wipe out his decades of community service. 

“I have so much to lose and nothing to gain. If anything I have put out something deeply personal and extremely painful,” Abbas said. 

Tlaib’s most recent effort to get ADC to take action may have been more successful because of the fact that the letter was made public, and also sent to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade, and the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, putting more pressure on the ADC to act. 

David didn’t return a call or message from TAAN asking him why the 2007 investigation was never reopened in 2011, but never responded. TAAN did get a hold of ADC National Vice President Nabil Mohamad, but he refused to comment saying, “this is my cell phone, it’s private, you have to call the national office.” 

Hamad, 52, was also reached, but didn’t comment, and instead provided the numbers of the two attorneys representing him, who are Shereef Akeel and Doraid Elder.

Akeel said the accusations are very serious, and a fair and independent investigation is being conducted. He says the whole situation has been hard on Hamad and his kids. Elder didn’t respond to a message left by TAAN. 

Abbas says over the years, other victims of Hamad’s have ranged from ADC staff members, interns and even clients. Tlaib says one woman who claimed Hamad sexually harassed her was a client at ADC, who turned to the group for help after facing discrimination at her job.

Tlaib, 36, and Abbas, 33, say the sexual harrassment they endured from Hamad involved groping, playing with their hair, rubbing his body against them, trying to kiss them, and making inappropriate remarks about their body parts, pressuring them to sleep with him, and pushing them against walls.  They say the five women who are now speaking up, also had similar experiences.  

On Saturday, June 1 leaders from the local Arab American community met with Hamad at TAAN’s office here, and urged him to step aside from his post temporarily, and let an independent group investigate the serious allegations.  

Hamad co-founded the group BRIDGES and has been its co-chairperson for 11 years. The group brings law enforcement agencies together with Arab American leaders frequently. It was created in response to the Sep. 11 attacks. Hamad is no longer the chairperson of BRIDGES because of the controversy, and Attorney Ali Hammoud, an activist in the Arab community, has temporarily replaced him.

Michael Bsharah, the president of Bsharah Public Relations resigned as a member of the ADC Advisory Board days after the letter was made public, and says the move is the result of ADC National’s lack of action to Tlaib’s letter. 

The first statement David made to the media regarding Tlaib’s letter was, “I haven’t had time to digest it…I have to discuss it with my staff.” 

Speaking to TAAN about his resignation, Bsharah said, “I don’t get it, what is there to digest?” He says ADC National’s second response should have been its first reaction.

In a subsequent statement the national office put out afterwards, the organization announced that Hamad was placed on administrative leave pending a full investigation into the allegations. 

The organization also noted that, “sexual harassment is not and will not be tolerated, and that it takes with the utmost seriousness any and all allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.” 

In the letter, Tlaib says when she spoke with Abed Ayoub, the legal affairs director for the ADC, he was dismissive and didn’t believe there was anything they could do, and said, “We will stop him from hiring women.” Ayoub didn’t return a call from TAAN. 

Osama Siblani, publisher of TAAN questioned why ADC Washington didn’t act swiftly and decisively, and says that’s where the buck should stop. 

“Imad has served this community for the last two decades, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt. He is entitled to due process, even though the allegations are serious and coming from credible people,” Siblani said.