The Arab American News
Author's Posts
Settlers occupy Palestinian home in Hebron
Grenades and gunfire have been heard in the West Bank city of Hebron after Israeli forces stormed a disputed building to remove Jewish settlers following days of clashes with Palestinians. An Israeli police officer orders a group of Jewish settlers out of a house during the eviction of Jewish settlers from a disputed building in...U.N. Assembly head blasts Israel
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) — The president of the General Assembly, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, dropped a political bombshell last week when he lashed out at Israel for repressive actions in the occupied territories, including the blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which was partially eased on Thursday. United Nations...
Aoun sees ‘bright future’ for ties with Damascus
December 6th, 20080 Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun on Wednesday predicted a "bright future" for ties between Lebanon and his former foe Syria after talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (R) shakes hands with Lebanese Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun before a meeting in...Saudi officals hope for safer Haj after renovations
RIYADH – Over two million Muslim pilgrims arrive in the holy city of Mecca this week for the haj pilgrimage amid a vast security operation to avert any militant attacks or deadly stampedes. Muslim pilgrims pray at the top of Mount Noor in Mecca, during the annual pilgrimage (Haj) December 4, 2008. The pilgrims will visit the...Treaty signed to ban cluster bombs
Handicap International says about 100,000 people have been killed or maimed by cluster bombs since 1965.A landmark treaty to ban some forms of cluster bomb has been signed by more than 100 nations in Oslo. Norway, which played a key role in hammering out the worldwide ban on using, producing, transferring and stockpiling...America’s diminishing role in Iraq
Many Iraqis say passage of the US-Iraqi security pact ushers in a new era in which US military power will be replaced by Iraqi political power. BAGHDAD — A surprising development has emerged in this city's streets and its corridors of power – the U.S. and its 140,000 troops have become increasingly irrelevant. Iraqi Prime...Obama urged to quickly engage Iran, Syria
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama should move quickly to engage Iran without preconditions and to promote an Israeli-Syrian peace accord, according to two veteran Middle East experts whose views are likely to have influence over Obama's just-announced foreign policy team. U.S....Al Haq lawyers tour in Canada
The National Council on Canada-Arab Relations is sponsoring a Canadian tour by two lawyers with Al Haq, a Ramallah-based human rights organization that monitors and defends human rights in the Occupied Territories. On Oct. 22, they spoke at Ottawa's Carleton University. Their appearance, publicized by a co-sponsoring campus group...
Arabic calligraphy explained
December 6th, 20080 Quebec, Canada – Syrian calligrapher Khaled al-Saa’i discussed Arabic calligraphy at a lecture held Nov. 11 at the Galérie Montcalm in Gatineau, Quebec. The same poetic verse ("wounding a dead man does not torment") written in the eight basic types of Arabic calligraphy by Khaled al-Saa'i. From top to bottom: Riq'a,...Will Palestinians hit Hillary’s glass ceiling?
It is difficult to recall a U.S. secretary of state who embodied the ideals of the position: the promotion of dialogue and privileging of diplomacy. Unfortunately, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's nominee, Hillary Clinton, is not likely to restore these ideals to the office. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (L) announces...JFK episode suggests Obama’s Iraq plan at risk
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The decision by President-elect Barack Obama to keep Robert M. Gates on as defense secretary has touched off a debate over whether Obama can pursue his commitment to rapid withdrawal from Iraq even though Gates has defended George W. Bush's surge policy and opposed Obama's 16-month timetable for...Novella serves as historical record of ‘Naqba’
Khirbet Khizeh, by S. Yizhar, Ibis Editions, 1949,translated from Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck. While Israel, as a collective entity, continues to wander the corridors of the retirement home of history as an old man with Alzheimer's, there are those who forever remain young and alert. One of those was S. Yizhar,...“Museum of Tolerance” to be built over Muslim cemetery
On Oct. 29, two years after mediation began in Israeli courts, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s "Museum of Tolerance" could build on a Muslim cemetery, called Mamilla, in Jerusalem. A rendering of the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance. The Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammad Hussein called...ADC releases hate crimes report, highlights recent military case
WASHINGTON — The day before releasing their latest hate crimes report, The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) received a message telling the group to go back to where they came from. ADC Executive Director Kareem Shora read the message in full to an audience of journalists and the public Thursday. The e-mail...
In dire financial straits, ADC prepares for annual fundraising gala
December 5th, 20080 The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)-Michigan is finalizing plans for its Annual Fundraising Gala on Dec. 12, amid increasingly difficult financial challenges. "LA-8" Attorney David Cole is to keynote ADC-Michigan's annual fundraising gala. The gala, to be held at the Hyatt Regency, 600 Town Center Drive in......
Three Arab Americans named Rhodes Scholars
December 5th, 20080 Abdulrahman El-Sayed has been busy. Rhodes Scholarship recipient Abdulrahman El-Sayed delivering a commencement address at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as a top graduate in Spring 2007. PHOTO: University of Michigan News Service At 24 years old, the Ann Arbor student has already acquired a joint bachelor’s degree in...
CAAO rejects latest Wygonik statement, insists on apology for “maligning Arabs”
December 5th, 20080 DEARBORN — After having his first three official statements rejected by the Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO), 19th District Court Judge Richard Wygonik released what he called his final statement on alleged insensitive comments he made about Arabs in July. Representatives of the Congress of Arab American......
Mumbai attacks strain Indian-Pakistani relations
December 5th, 20080 The Mumbai attacks have brought old suspicions to the fore. Indians suspect militants from Pakistan. Pakistanis reject what they call a typical blame game. NEW DELHI, INDIA AND KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Akash Maheshwari has no doubts about what will happen in the standoff between India and Pakistan. The Indian businessman said his country...
No election violations found by committee
December 5th, 20080 DEARBORN — After a complaint that there were stacks of campaign literature inside polling places on Election Day at two different sites, a meeting was called by the city's Election Commission to discuss the matter with local leaders and witnesses. Abed Hammoud, of the Arab American Political Action Commitee (L) and Dearborn...
My Palestinian wife
December 5th, 20080 Every now and then, the rumor arises that I have a Palestinian wife. Some of my kin were highly amused by a debate on that subject that was being conducted by letters to the editor in their local paper recently. Apparently, it does not occur to anyone simply to ask me. As a matter of fact, I don't have a wife. I'm a widower, and the...
U.S. charity found guilty
November 29th, 20080 Zolfa Elaydi, center, with her children Fidaa, left, and Jihad, reacting to news that the leaders of a Muslim charity had been convicted on Monday in Dallas. PHOTO: Dallas Morning News DALLAS — A U.S. court has convicted a Muslim charity and five of its former leaders on 108 charges in the largest "terrorism" financing trial in......
Lebanese waiting for death penalty verdict
BEIRUT (IPS) — The Lebanese government will use television to gain maximum attention for its plan to abolish the death penalty, giving one station the first right to question Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar about the details of an abolition bill which will be eventually presented to parliament. Lebanese peacefully protest the...Dems owe Carter an apology
Carter's controversial views on Israel cost him a place on the podium at the Democratic Party convention Jimmy CarterNow that the season of electoral expediency is over, Barack Obama owes Jimmy Carter an apology. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Party denied Jimmy Carter the traditional invitation to......
Mosque and synagogue together
When Sheykh Zahir Bacchus of Lote Tree Foundation in Brampton (a city near Toronto) and Rabbi Yossi Sapirman of Beth Torah in Toronto met at a seminar on serving the sick and dying, they became friends. And last year, the two were among a group of 13 rabbis and imams invited to a meeting in New York sponsored by the Foundation for Ethnic...End counterproductive racial profiling
Racial or ethnic profiling is nothing new. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Arabs and Muslims in America are often the targets of ethnic profiling, despite the argument that racial and ethnic profiling runs contrary to American values. Counterterrorism strategists argue that targeting particular ethnicities or......
