The Arab American News
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Arab festival this weekend
DEARBORN — The Lebanese American Heritage Club, the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, ACCESS and the city of Dearborn will host the 14th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival this weekend, June 19-21. The event is the largest Arab festival in the nation. The festival will occupy more then half a mile of Warren Avenue and...ACLU report blasts terror financing laws and investigations
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Muslim charities in the United States are subject to unfair treatment by the government under terrorism financing laws, according to a new report that says the effect has been a chill on charitable giving that violates Muslims' right to freely practice an important requirement of their religion. The...Iraqi cultural attaché builds bridges
For the last three decades or so, Iraq has suffered tremendously from wars, destruction, economic sanctions, foreign invasion, occupation and the horror of sectarian strife and ethnic clashes. Perhaps the most horrifying loss inflicted on Iraq besides civilian casualties is the loss of Iraqi scientists, professionals, experts and...
The people fight back in Detroit
June 19th, 20090 DETROIT — As voices of anger and frustration echoed through the air at Grand Circus Park in Detroit on Tuesday, many onlookers couldn't help but stop by to see what all the noise was about. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, center, and Reverend Edwin Rowe, L, of Central United Methodist Church in Detroit. PHOTO: NIck...Lebanon’s intelligence war with Israel
BEIRUT— Israel's ability to wage another war against Hizbullah may have been compromised by an unprecedented wave of arrests of people in Lebanon alleged to have been spying for the Israelis. Experts say the arrests appear to add up to a major strategic blow to Israel. Mobile phone footage circulating in Beirut shows one of the...Netanyahu offers a state and a half
Could Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu become the Richard Nixon of the Middle East, as Barack Obama invited him to do? Could he break with his hard-line past and reach out to the Palestinians the way Nixon did with the Chinese? Or will he pay lip service to peace even as he does everything he can to keep the Palestinians from...Anger, arrogance cause quandary in Iran
Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi (C waving) speaks to supporters at a rally in Tehran June 18, 2009. REUTERS Friday, June 12, 2009 was a dynamic day in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thirty years after its establishment under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, the Iranian democracy should...
Iranian election riots not homegrown
June 19th, 20090 As this is being written, official announcements in Iran today of a landslide victory by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are being met with cries of "fraud" by supporters of his principal challenger, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The New York Times is reporting that "at least one person had been shot dead in...Netanyahu’s speech draws sharp criticism
DEARBORN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech on Sunday, June 14 that some have described as a groundbreaking acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state, while others call it a debilitating step backwards in the peace process. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on June 17,...Future wide open for ethnic media
Ethnic media voices are critical to the national discourse, according to University of Michigan administrators at a university press conference. The June 12 convening was part of University of Michigan-Dearborn's series on media diversity and social change, and the first ever to include a panel of ethnic media. Journalists of a...
Arab American shot to death by Miami police
June 19th, 20090 The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee called Tuesday for an investigation of the Miami Beach Police Department for the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Husein Shehada. Husein Shehada, killed by Miami Beach police Monday. According to the Washington Post, Shehada was killed Monday after being approached by police who were...
Film fest to screen local Arab American’s upcoming film ‘Street Boss’
June 19th, 20090 DEARBORN — "Street Boss," a film by Dearborn director/screenwriter Lance Khalid Kawas, is scheduled to be screened as the opening feature at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival, which opens June 25. The movie is one of two productions Kawas has just completed back-to-back. "Street Boss," based on a true story from the...Book review: Must-read about the nuclear mess
Stephanie Cooke's "In Mortal Hands"In an era when corporate media, corporate politicians and corporate military men gang up together and denounce and threaten other countries because of their nuclear related activities, they should spend much of that rhetorical energy cross-examining themselves in a mirror. North Korea's latest...CAIR holds civil rights townhall amid concerns
CAIR holds civil rights townhall amid concerns DETROIT — The Council on American Islamic Relations held a meeting on Friday, June 12 to discuss several issues in the Muslim community. These included airport profiling, FBI informants and citizenship processing delays. CAIR-Michigan Director Dawud Walid, L, and CAIR...
What are Mousavi’s options now?
June 15th, 20090 The Associated Press reported on Monday that one of its photographers witnessed Iranian security forces firing at a crowd of protesters, killing one person and seriously wounding several others, after hundreds of thousands of chanting opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marched in central Tehran to support their pro-reform leader......
Palestinian legislator speaks on the Hill
WASHINGTON — "President Barack Obama's Cairo speech generated excitement among Palestinians." That was part of the message Dr. Mustafa Barghouti expressed when he spoke on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC early last week. "Finally, we have a president that recognizes the right for Palestinian dignity and equal opportunity," he said....Long way from ‘Settlerland’ to ‘Palestineland’
JERUSALEM — Has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got the Obama message? To judge by his minimalist response to President Barack Obama's landmark Cairo University address and his continuing reluctance to meet Obama's demand for a total freeze on Israeli settlements, the answer would seem to be, 'No'. It's a mighty......
Lebanese vote for status quo
June 12th, 20090 WASHINGTON (IPS) — The victory of the Western-backed coalition in Lebanon's Sunday elections will likely allow the U.S. to avoid making tough decisions about how to deal with the country had the opposition, led by Hizbullah, won. Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora casts his ballot at a polling station in Sidon, southern...Iranians keen on improved ties with U.S.
WASHINGTON (IPS) — More than three out of every four Iranian citizens favor improved relations with the United States, according to a major survey conducted less than one month before this Friday's presidential elections in Iran by a U.S. non-governmental organization, Terror Free Tomorrow (TFT). Just over half (52 percent) of the...
Goodbye, GM
June 12th, 20090 I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled. As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will...AIPAC wall beginning to crack
For years, AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has helped to stonewall the Middle East peace process by building a solid wall around the Israeli government, protecting it from criticism in the U.S. Senators and representatives have feared the wrath of AIPAC come Election Day, even in states and districts where the......
Is Lebanon now a Wahabi state?
The fifth series of parliamentary elections held in Lebanon's Second Republic since its birth in 1989 were in some respects the most dominated by Saudi Arabia. Vote-buying was perhaps more rampant than ever before. In order to influence the election result, Saudi Arabia directly addressed the citizens of Lebanon by buying votes in...Good place to start learning about Iran
Robert Baer's "The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower" Iran is obviously a key player in the Middle East. The many references within other texts dealing with other aspects of the Middle East and the several texts dealing specifically with Iran highlight its significance. Part of that significance is that Iran......
Mixed local reactions to Lebanon election
A Lebanese family show their ink-stained fingers at a polling station in Beirut's suburbs June 7, 2009. Lebanese voters cast ballots in a tightly contested general election on Sunday pitting March 14th coalition against the March 8th coalition. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi Lebanese Americans from throughout Metro Detroit are expressing...
Clinton to address ADC convention
June 12th, 20090 WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton is to accept the ADC Global Leadership Award and deliver keynote remarks on Saturday, June 13 during the 2009 American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee National Convention in Washington D.C. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton The three-day convention is also to feature......