The Arab American News
Author's Posts
Feds seize four mosques, New York skyscraper
Federal authorities said Thursday's move to seize the assets of the New York-based Alavi Foundation over alleged Iranian ties should not effect the activities of the organization's many tenants, which include mosques in Maryland, New York, Texas, and California. The forfeiture action, however, is raising concerns about religious...IN BRIEF: Exhibit details growth of Islam in Detroit
DEARBORN — "Building Islam in Detroit: Foundations / Forms / Futures," an academic exhibition that has toured the world, is being put on display by the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The exhibit opened Nov. 13. "Building Islam in Detroit charts the growth of mosques and Muslim...UM silences debate about Palestine
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has long been a haven for political movements, and many times, they've been started at least partly by non-students. But the right for non-students to speak at Michigan Student Assembly meetings has been compromised since the MSA passed a controversial resolution on Oct. 27 that will restrict...I am a proper Zionist Jew after all
Yes, I am a survivor, for I have managed to survive all the scary accounts of the Holocaust: the one about the soap, the one about the lamp shades, the one about the camps, the mass shooting, the one about the gas and the one about the death march. I just managed to survive them all. In spite of all these fear inflicting stories, that...Right calls Ft. Hood killings “Islamic terror”
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Senior military and Barack Obama administration officials have been on a full-court press to preempt an anti-Muslim backlash since the shooting spree by a Muslim soldier at Fort Hood, Texas, but right-wing pundits have wasted no time in characterizing Major Nidal Malik Hasan's actions as an act of terrorism by a...Engineers, architects hold annual banquet
The Arab American Engineers and Architects Association held its 4th annual banquet on November 6 at the Farmington Hills Manor, awarding scholarships and celebrating the year's accomplishments. Dr. Mumtaz Usmen Interim Dean of Engineering at Wayne State (r) receives an award from AAEA member Awni Qaqish. PHOTO: Nafeh...Dearborn teams flounder in playoffs
DEARBORN — What began as a promising playoff season ended in heartbreaking fashion last Friday night as both Dearborn Public Schools football teams dropped first round games, effectively ending their seasons. Fordson and Edsel Ford, both among the top point-getters in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Playoffs, were...
Arab film fest offers award-winning lineup
November 10th, 20090 DEARBORN — They originated in Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria and the U.S.A. They've won dozens of awards in festivals in the Arab World, Europe and the U.S. And they won't be popping up on the marquee at your local multiplex anytime soon. "Dawn of the World" The 2009 Arab Film Festival at the Arab American...Muslim-run health clinic gets BCBSM grant
DETROIT — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is awarding free clinics throughout the state a total of $1 million in grants that will provide health services to individuals and families without health insurance. With the Michigan unemployment rate currently at 15.3 percent more Michigan residents than ever are going without health...ACLU tells Detroit schools to stop student abuse
DETROIT — In a letter this week to Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan expressed concerns over reports of unconstitutional mass searches and the indiscriminate use of pepper spray on students by the district's police force. Robert Bobb, Detroit...Need for U.S.-sponsored Arab-Israeli deal
Palestinians and Israelis are locked in a relationship of deep mistrust. A credible outside force must intervene to break an enduring cycle of despair. A Palestinian boy sits outside a tent near his house, which was destroyed during the three-week offensive Israel launched last December, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza...Truth, human dignity and the Goldstone Report
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following statement on the House Floor about H. Res 867, condemning the Goldstone Report or the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. The resolution later passed. "Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt. Almost as serious as...Read Goldstone’s report on Gaza
Editor's note: the following oped by Rep. Keith Ellison appeared in Politico.com the morning of the vote in Congress to dismiss the Goldstone report. Who is afraid of Richard Goldstone? No one should be. Not even the U.S. Congress — yet it is poised on Tuesday to condemn the United Nations Human Rights Council's Goldstone report on...No emergency summits for Arab human development crisis
When the first Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) was published in 2002, a star glistened in a vast, gloomy sky. The fact that a UN-sponsored report, authored by independent Arab scholars, would receive so much attention in Arab media, was in itself a promising start. The fact that such terminology as human security, personal...Innocent post 9/11 detainees get $1.26 million
-Press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights NEW YORK — The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has announced that five men who had been living in New York and were ultimately deported won a $1.26 million settlement from the United States government in a case challenging post-9/11 racial profiling, illegal......
Another legal setback for Arar torture case
NEW YORK (IPS) — A federal appeals court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought against a former U.S. attorney general by a Canadian citizen who sought damages for being unlawfully detained by U.S. authorities in New York and then secretly shipped to Syria, where he was imprisoned for a year and allegedly tortured. Maher...Obama’s outreach to Muslim World teetering
WASHINGTON (IPS) — U.S. President Barack Obama's extraordinary efforts since his first days in office to reassure Muslims in the Greater Middle East about U.S. intentions in the region have suffered a series of setbacks that threaten to reverse whatever gains he has made over the past 10 months in restoring Washington's badly......
Beirut’s Shi’a bastion revives after ’06 war
BEIRUT — The sprawling Shi'a suburb of south Beirut has made a comeback after the destruction wreaked by Israel during 2006 fighting, a symbol of the community's resilience at a time when its political patron, Hizbullah, is seeking a greater voice in Lebanon's government. Women walk in the Dahiyah district. The district,...Loosening of F.B.I. rules stir privacy concerns
WASHINGTON — After a Somali-American teenager from Minneapolis committed a suicide bombing in Africa in October 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating whether a Somali Islamist group had recruited him on United States soil. Instead of collecting information only on people about whom they had a tip or links to...What’s in a name?
As parents, one of the first decisions we make is what to name the child that we have been entrusted with. This decision is never made lightly. Aimee Blackburn For some, a name is chosen for the old-world meaning, for others as a tribute to someone famous, and for many, names are handed down through the generations as a...A campaign for all
I would like to thank the community for supporting me throughout OUR campaign. Ali Sayed Your support, generosity, and commitment to this campaign was, without a doubt, something special and really humbled me as an individual. I emphasize the word "our" because this campaign was not about Ali Sayed running for city......
WSU student group to host screening of documentary on film portrayals of Arabs
Shaheen's research concluded that when Arab characters are included in Hollywood films, they play the role of villain about 97 percent of the time.The Middle Eastern Law Student Association is scheduled to host a screening of the Jack Sheehan film "Reel Bad Arabs" on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 3-5 p.m. at Wayne State University. The 2006...
Hussein Berry elected to Dearborn School Board, O’Donnell unseats Thomas
November 7th, 20090 Campaign volunteers are seen from inside a passing car outside McDonald Elementary School polling stations on Election Day. PHOTO: Nafeh AbuNab/American Elite Studios DEARBORN — Tuesday's elections will result in some moderate shakeups in city councils and school boards of several municipalities. Sekna Yehya, 39,......
Outrage erupts after killing of imam
November 7th, 20090 Groups call for independent investigation of FBI actions Several rights groups continue to speak out against the FBI's fatal shooting of the leader of a Detroit Muslim community on October 28. Omar Regan, the son of slain Detroit Muslim leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, embraces a family member. PHOTO: Pan-African News...IRS effort to provide bilingual tax help Nov. 7
DETROIT — The Internal Revenue Service has announced a special event called Solution Saturday. The program offers personalized tax help to over four million taxpayers in the Metro Detroit area, one of only five cities around the country sponsoring the event. Assistance in Arabic will be available or you can bring your own......
