According to its own mission statement, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) “is a civil rights organization, committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage.”

However, the current leadership of the organization has turned its back on many Arab American women, who claimed their rights were violated by a leader within the organization.

After a 4-month long investigation into sexual harassment allegations made by several women against former ADC-MI Director Imad Hamad, the ADC National Board determined, two weeks ago, evidence in the case was “inconclusive.”

ADC, not only disregarded the complaints of the women, but they also lied about it. The organization initially claimed that the determination was made by the investigator in two different statements. The claim was later denied by ADC officials and the investigator, who stated that the decision to determine the evidence as “insufficient” was solely made by the ADC National Board. The investigator had only gathered and presented facts and statements by the alleged victims and Hamad.

By lying to the public, the decision makers at ADC put the organization’s credibility on the line and impaired its ability to fight for its founding principles. How can an organization, which has knowingly issued false press releases, prove future claims of discrimination by Arab Americans? 

 

 It is now widely known that the investigator was not asked by ADC to judge the evidence it gathered, but to merely gather and document statements from the women, alleging sexual harassment by Hamad, even though the organization was made aware of these allegations in 2007, 2011 and 2012. Hence, the investigator was given no power to make a conclusion, based on her own findings.

One wonders why the ADC National Board did not grant the investigator they hired, who is a “highly credible” attorney, the authority to provide them with an opinion on the evidence.

ADC also refuses to tell the public about the specific findings of the investigative report; keeping the community in the dark about the nature of the evidence, which board members supposedly based the decision on. The organization says the report cannot be published, due to attorney-client privileges, which protect the identities of the people who participated in the investigation. However, the names in the report can easily be blocked, before it is released. The people deserve to know. ADC is not a private business. It is a civil rights organization, funded by donors to serve and protect the civil rights of the people. ADC has a moral obligation to be transparent and accountable to the community.

ADC National Board Member Dr. Souheil E. Elia stressed to The Arab American News that the board is not a court and could not tell who is telling the truth.

However, by determining the evidence to be inconclusive, the board did, in fact, issue a verdict. State Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rana Abbas went public and shared detailed stories of sexual harassment and assault that they personally experienced, and others that they were informed about, which took place at ADC offices. These are credible women, known in the community, with no plausible motives to harm ADC. But they were implicitly painted as liars by the organization.

In some Arab countries, victims of sexual assault are criminally prosecuted. Although we are in the United States, our culture still wrongly holds on to some reactionary traditions that shame the victims. Many social obstacles bar women from publicly complaining of sexual harassment, yet some women in our community courageously defied that stigma and came forward with their stories. Sadly, their calls for justice fell on ADC’s deaf ears.

The organization has set a terrible precedent for current and future victims of sexual harassment in our community. They essentially told Arab American women that their complaints will not be heard, discouraging them from publicly protesting harassment.

 

ADC states on its website that one of its objectives is to “combat stereotypes and discrimination against and affecting the Arab American community in the United States.”

But “the largest Arab American grassroots organization in the U.S.” has reacted in complete contradiction of its own mission, by denying that any sexual harassment occurred in its offices, despite numerous claims from credible people. ADC reinforced the negative stereotype that Arabs do not care about women.

Our young men are accused of being sexist, simply because of their names and skin color. ADC gave fuel to racists to add to their fire of stereotypes and hatred that they nurture dearly.

 Attorney Shereef Akeel, Hamad’s lawyer, told The Arab American News that the allegations against Hamad hurt everybody, including ADC, Hamad and his family, the community and the cause.

We agree that the situation did not benefit anybody, but the way ADC handled the allegations deepened the wounds inflicted by the scandal.

Due to the reckless decisions of the national board, the integrity and credibility of the victims were called into question, ADC lost its credibility and the community had to endure negative media scrutiny. 

While Hamad has served the community and ADC, the organization’s decision did not help him, or his reputation. Hamad’s name remains in the public eye, hurting him and his family as well.

 

We have always been committed to the highest standards of objectivity and professionalism when covering any story, and this one was no exception.

Our writers did not use a single adjective describing anything but the truth, when writing about the sexual harassment case. Our reporters reached out to everybody and provided a platform to all for their perspective. In many cases, ADC leaders turned down requests for interviews by TAAN, yet we still pressed for comment and strove for balanced reporting.

As a part of the community, our paper was affected by the story, as well. But we are a news organization. We simply followed our commitment to our readership, by seeking and reporting the truth.

Some insignificant voices in the community have attempted to play a dangerous hand, by making outrageous claims that TAAN was after Hamad for sectarian and political reasons.

In reality, our paper is only after the truth. We are committed to the secular principles of pan-Arabism.  In fact, it is known to all that Tlaib, who led the calls for a transparent investigation, is of the same background as Hamad.

We have always been supportive of ADC and its mission. Our record speaks for itself. We refer those who accuse us of conspiring against ADC to our archives, which are full of positive coverage that we have given to the organization. After all we share ADC’s objectives to protect the civil rights of all people, especially Arab Americans.

It is a shame that some people would incite sectarianism to promote personal agendas, when we have all been witness to its bloody, devastating effects in the streets of Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other places.

Finally, we like to stress that sexual harassment is a social epidemic. It is not exclusive to Arab Americans, nor limited to one organization. Other major organizations in the community have been faced with sexual harassment allegations but they kept them quiet and shoved them under the rug. Victims should follow Tlaib’s example, come forward and expose the predators.