The Arab American News
Author's Posts
State graduation rate lower than U.S. average
LANSING — High school seniors in Michigan are graduating, yet the statewide rate is still lower than the national rate. The Great Lakes State's rate is 79.8 percent for the school year of 2014-2015, which increased 1.21 percentage points from the year before. On Monday, the federal Department of Education declared that it is 3.4...Michigan unemployment below national rate
LANSING — On Wednesday, Governor Snyder stated that Michigan's unemployment rate is still 4.6, which is below the national rate of 5 percent, after the announcement that an extra 11,000 residents were employed in September. "More Michiganders are joining the labor force again to look for jobs, demonstrating the strength of our...Man gets one year in prison for assisting in Army base bomb plot
KANSAS - A man has been sentenced to one year and four months in prison for helping in the assistance of an unsuccessful attempt to plant a bomb at an Army post in northeast Kansas. A federal judge sentenced 29-year-old Alexander Blair on Tuesday. The Topeka man was accused of loaning $100 to...
Naked Hillary Clinton statue removed from New York street
October 20th, 20160 A statue of a bare-breasted and goat-legged Hillary Clinton being groped caused a confrontation in downtown New York before police ordered it removed. The statue, which depicts the Democratic presidential nominee with her breasts bared while being assaulted by an unknown bald man — thought by some to represent a generic Wall Street...Turkey bombs Syrian Kurdish militia close to U.S.
Turkish air strikes pounded a group of Kurdish fighters allied to a U.S.-backed militia in northern Syria overnight, highlighting the conflicting agendas of NATO members Ankara and Washington in an increasingly complex battlefield.The jets targeted positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in three villages, northeast...Yemen missile launch, Saudi-led air strike strain truce
SANAA — A 72-hour truce in Yemen came under pressure on Thursday when missiles fired from Yemen injured civilians in southern Saudi Arabia, according to an Arab coalition which launched air strikes that Houthi fighter militants said killed three people.Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have been embroiled in a conflict...Hariri backs Aoun for president in Lebanon
BEIRUT — Lebanon's former prime minister Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday he would back Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun to become president, a step that may help resolve the country's political deadlock."This decision comes from the need to protect Lebanon and the state and the people ... but it is a decision that depends on...Iraq war veteran gets five years for mosque arson, Planned Parenthood plot
KANSAS CITY, Miss.,-- A Missouri man who set fire to a mosque and attempted to set fire to a Planned Parenthood facility twice was sentenced to 63 months in prison for the crimes on Tuesday in federal court. Jedediah Stout, an Iraqi veteran, pleaded guilty to causing damage at the Islamic Society of Joplin mosque and two...Hamtramck High School evacuated following bomb threat
HAMTRAMCK, MI (WXYZ)- Hamtramck High School is closed for the day due to bomb threats against the school. A heavy police presence could be seen at the school. Bomb-sniffing dogs and the bomb squad responded as a precaution. Hamtramck police, Detroit police and Highland Park police were also on scene. After the...Man gets probation for ripping off woman’s hijab on Southwest flight
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A North Carolina man who acknowledged grabbing and pulling off a Muslim woman's hijab on a flight from Chicago to Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been sentenced to a year of probation that includes two months of home confinement. Federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Gill Parker Payne of Gastonia also was ordered...A Military college’s first Hijabi student
NORTHFIELD, Vt. (AP) — Despite being the first woman allowed to wear a Muslim headscarf beneath her military uniform at the nation's oldest private military college, Sana Hamze says she doesn't feel like a pioneer. Her focus is on learning details of life as a "rook" at Vermont's Norwich University, in the school's Corps of Cadets...Woman convicted for smashing beer-mug in Muslim woman’s face
MINNEAPOLIS — A woman plead guilty Monday to attacking another woman in a restaurant because she was speaking Swahili. The assault happened at a Coon Rapids Applebees restaurant in October 2015. Forty-four-year-old Jodie Burchard-Risch got upset when she heard Asma Mohamed Jama and her relatives speaking in their native...
Two Wisconsin men arrested for trying to join ISIS
October 18th, 20160 WISCONSIN - Two Wisconsin men have been charged for attempting to join ISIS by traveling through Mexico to Syria, according to the New York Daiy News. Jason Ludke, 35, and Yosvany Padilla-Conde, 30, both of Milwaukee, outlined their plan to join the brutal Islamic State group in Facebook conversations and emails sent to an...Man charged for vandalizing New Jersey mosque
BAYONNE, New Jesey - Police have arrested a 20-year-old man on charges of vandalism directed at a local mosque. On Friday morning, police discovered numerous acts of graffiti, written with spray paint on the exterior walls of the old St. Henry's Elementary School on Avenue C. Police said that the vandalism -- crude phrases such as...Three Kansas men charged for plotting to bomb Mosque
KANSAS (Reuters) - Three men were arrested on Friday and charged with plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex in western Kansas where 120 people lived, including Muslim immigrants from Somalia who also used one apartment as a mosque, federal officials said.The three men, Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49 and Patrick Eugene......
How Israel convinces the world it is under constant ‘existentialist threat’
October 14th, 20160 The Israeli official narrative regarding its conflict with the Palestinians is deliberately confounded because a muddled up discourse is a convenient one. It allows the narrator to pick and choose half-truths at will, in order to create a falsified version of reality. For instance, this is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
Remembering the words of our friends
October 14th, 20160 Religious and racial intolerance are reaching alarming levels. Populist politicians have taken advantage of the spread of violence across the world to scapegoat Arab and Muslim Americans. The bigotry is manifesting itself institutionally, through unfair government programs and policy proposals, but also in society as evidenced by......
Local Yemenis express grief and anger after funeral massacre in homeland
October 14th, 20160 DEARBORN – Yemeni Americans are divided over the events unfolding in their homeland, but after a Saudi-led air strike claimed as many as 140 people at a funeral in Sanaa, they came together in condemning the attack.Yemen is facing a humanitarian and political crisis because of the ongoing war that intensified after an Arab coalition,...
Resident threatens to bomb newly announced Dearborn Heights mosque
October 14th, 20160 DEARBORN HEIGHTS- This week, Imam Hassan Qazwini, the former leader of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, announced plans to build a mosque in Dearborn Heights, in the spot of a previous Baptist church.But that news was quickly overshadowed by a threat that was made on social media that police are...Arizona woman accused of helping inmate husband plot prison bombing
ARIZONA - An Arizona woman accused of smuggling publications distributed by Islamist militant groups into a prison as part of a plot to help her inmate husband build a bomb, has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism and conspiracy, court documents showed on Thursday. Michelle Bastian, 49, was taken...Accused New York bomber pleads not guilty from hospital bed
NEW YORK - The man accused of last month's bombings in New York and New Jersey that injured dozens of people made his first court appearance on Thursday from a hospital bed, pleading not guilty to attempting to murder police officers. Ahmad Khan Rahimi, 28, whose last name had previously been reported......
Grand jury called to inspect Snyder’s use of public funds
LANSING — Former Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer called for a one-person grand jury to inspect Gov. Snyder's use of public funds— related to the Flint water crisis— for his private legal defense. Brewer filed papers in Ingham County Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon. "Mr. Brewer wants this investigation into the governor's...Fatalities due to deer-vehicle collisions increased by 80 percent
LANSING — According to the Michigan State Police, the deaths of motorists in deer-vehicle crashes rose over 80 percent from 2014 to 2015. There could be a number of factors that play into these statistics, according to the Michigan Deer Crash Coalition. An increased number of drivers, distracted driving and a higher deer population......
Morgan Freeman attends Shia Muslim ceremony
October 14th, 20160 LONDON — Photos have been circulating on Twitter of Hollywood giant Morgan Freeman attending a commemoration ceremony for Shia Muslims in London. Freeman was pictured sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by worshippers marking Ashura, a major festival for Shia Muslims. He was attending the ceremony at Al-Khoei Foundation,...
High voltage, strawberry-flavored e-cigarettes worst for health
October 14th, 20160 When it comes to e-cigarette safety, flavorings added to the liquid nicotine burned in the devices may influence how much the fumes lead to health problems, a recent study suggests. Researchers tested vapor released by a variety of devices filled with some popular e-cigarette flavors – tobacco, pina colada, menthol, coffee and......