The Arab American News
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Nader to rally in Detroit
September 6th, 20080 Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader After two weeks of intense media focus on the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, independent candidate Ralph Nader intends to have his voice heard as he tours the Midwest gathering support for his anti-war, anti-corporate message. Nader, who is Arab American, is...
Mayor attracts audience
September 6th, 20080 Reporters and curious citizens camped out in front of the Manoogian Mansion waiting for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to leave for his final address to the city in the hours following his resignation Thursday. Some citizens were supporters while others, like Joseph Salmassi (right), 21, and Mohamed Kaddoura, 18, both Arab Americans...
Bully-Cummings retires as Detroit Police Chief
September 6th, 20080 DETROIT — Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, who was appointed by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, announced her retirement Thursday through a news release minutes after Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felonies and agreed to resign. Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee and Assistant Chief Robert Dunlap will handle the affairs of the...Some charges tossed in case against Muslim charity
DALLAS (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped most charges against two men accused of helping a Muslim charity finance terrorism, an apparent sign that the government will focus its case on two other men who were leaders of the group. Leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, based in Richardson, Texas, are accused...
Al-Arian finally free; ex-professor released on bail
September 6th, 20080 Dr. Sami Al-Arian, the Palestinian professor at the center of a terrorism case, was just granted a release on bond after five-and-a-half years in government detention. He will await further legal proceedings with his family in Virginia. His many supporters around the country are relieved that he is at least free from...Sarah Palin’s frontier justice
Long before any of us knew about Sarah Palin's daughter's baby-daddy, the stage was being set. And the narrative that preceded her apotheosis was one of life and death. The Palin family "chose not to murder that beautiful soul," said an evangelical friend, as she closed her eyes and lifted her palms heavenward. "Choosing not" to...Neither respected nor feared
In an exalted phrase, the keynote speaker at the Republican convention reviewed the record of the administration, and asked, "When have we rested more secure in friendship with all mankind?" That wasn't in St. Paul, where the Republicans are gathered this week, but at the 1904 Republican convention in Chicago, when the speaker was Elihu...
Our twenty-fourth year
September 6th, 20080 With this issue of The Arab American News, we head down the stretch to our Silver Anniversary. That momentous event will occur September 7, 2009. Twenty four years ago, not many people believed it would ever happen. Over the past year, we have strengthened our outreach to and coverage of the local community, one of our primary...Religious accommodation in universities
Muslim students at McGill and the University of Montreal have been battling for prayer space, facing the contention of the schools that they are non-sectarian and not obliged to provide space for religious practices. Besides, they say, the space is simply not available. Students have complained to the Quebec Human Rights...
Israel pushes ahead with settlement expansion
September 6th, 20080 JERUSALEM (IPS) — Israel has published tenders for the construction of 1,761 illegal housing units for Israeli settlers in occupied east Jerusalem alone, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now. The expansion plans come despite promises by the Israeli government at last year's peace summit at Annapolis, Maryland (in the...Israel of the Caucasus
WASHINGTON (UPI) — NATO guarantees that an attack against one member country is an attack against all are no longer what they used to be. Had Georgia been inside NATO, a number of European countries would no longer be willing to consider it an attack against their own soil. For Russia, the geopolitical stars were in perfect...‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ looks for revival
BEIRUT (IPS) — Lebanon was long dubbed the 'Switzerland of the Middle East' for its advanced banking sector. It lost its status 23 years ago at the dawn of the 1975 civil war, which lasted 15 years. The country has since been unable to regain the title, in spite of the brief economic revival witnessed in the 1990s. Since 2005,...Iraq says all troops out by 2011
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signaled last week that that all U.S. troops — including those with non-combat functions — must be out of the country by the end of 2011 under the agreement he is negotiating with the George W. Bush administration. That pronouncement, along with other moves indicating that...The Saudi Arabia of solar energy
In the wake of the first Gulf War, the U.S. Army assessed Saudi Arabia's solar energy resource potential in a classified effort to determine how oil fires had affected the region. The results were clear and surprising. In addition to being a vast petroleum repository, the desert nation was also the heart of the most potentially...Stretching the truth at the GOP
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth. Some examples: PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by......
Syria sets basis for peace talks
Damascus has sent a proposal to Israel laying out the basis for direct peace talks, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has said. "We are awaiting Israel's response to six points that we have submitted through Turkey," he said on Thursday. "Our response would be positive, paving the way for direct talks after a new U.S....Muslim charities negotiate a minefield
NEW YORK (IPS) — As Muslims begin one of their most important holidays — the month of Ramadan — charitable organizations serving the American Muslim community are taking what some observers believe is a desperate last step to keep the U.S. government from shutting them down. Muslim Advocates (MA), a San Francisco-based national......
Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick pleads guilty, resigns
September 6th, 20080 DETROIT — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges Thursday in a sex scandal and will step down after months of defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation's 11th-largest city. He was ordered jailed for four months and fined $1 million. The plea deal brings to an end a seven-months-long ordeal that led to...
ACC celebrates 29 years of service
September 6th, 20080 Detroit — The Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC) will host its 29th Annual Civic and Humanitarian Awards Gala at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center, 100 Renaissance Center, at 6 p.m. Sept. 13. ACC is dedicating its annual fundraiser this year to honoring foundations that have joined ACC in the development of the...
Free Gaza boats challenge Israel’s siege
August 29th, 20080 An international group of peace activists took on Israel's crushing siege of the Gaza Strip. After two years of organizing two ships to sail to Gaza's shores, the ships made their journey in defiance of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ships left with several Palestinians in need of medical treatment and others...Joe Biden’s mixed up bag on the Middle East
Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, Joe Biden, is a self-avowed Zionist. As he explained to an American Jewish TV station last year, you don't have to be Jewish to be Zionist. Of course, this discovery is not uniquely his. It is shared by the likes of John Hagee of the Christian Zionists, whose power is courted by Israel but whose......
Arrest warrant for Kadhafi over missing Imam
BEIRUT (AFP) Lebanon has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi over the disappearance 30 years ago of a senior Shi'a Muslim cleric after a visit to Libya, officials said on Wednesday. Kadhafi was also indicted for allegedly "inciting the abduction" of Imam Mussa Sadr, the spiritual guide of Lebanon's Shi'a...
Dems rally behind Obama, Biden
August 29th, 20080 Election stirs hopes, fears in U.S. Iraqis WASHINGTON (IPS) — As the November election nears, Iraqis in the United States appear divided over their preferences for the next U.S. president, according to a series of interviews carried out by IPS. Some see in Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican candidate who has opposed a......
Local law enforcement of immigration rules debated
Washington — Over 200 scholars, government officials, community and law enforcement leaders gathered to discuss the impact of local law enforcement of immigration law, during a conference August 21-22, in Washington, D.C. The conference, entitled "The Role of Local Police: Striking a Balance between Immigration Enforcement and...
How does it feel to be part of the solution?
August 29th, 20080 Racism is as American as apple pie, H. Rap Brown/Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin once said, and any cursory observation of American history and culture would conclude that racial hatred and categorization is an integral and predictable fact of American life. From slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans to Jim Crow, from the......