The Arab American News
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Guantanamo’s child is America’s and Canada’s shame
"For me, Omar's age has always been the greatest factor." Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was 15 at the time of his capture in Afghanistan in 2002. That's the bottom line for Michelle Shephard, the Toronto Star reporter who has covered the Khadr story since his capture. And indeed his age is an issue on more than one...
A useful guide to racist Hollywood
April 4th, 20080 As any Muslim will tell you, one of our biggest enemies is the image makers of Hollywood, who for years have advanced bad policies and encouraged stereotypes and discrimination against a community already caught in the vise of foreign policy. Anti-Muslim, anti-Arab propaganda existed long before 9/11, but the images continue to...Ghosts from the land of milk and honey
NEW YORK (IPS) � Somewhere in Baghdad, a family sits down to dinner. Heaped plates of food line the long table. A man sits at the head, fork in hand. Beside him, a youngish woman with immaculately shaped eyebrows turns to speak with a young girl. Forks and spoons face upwards on still empty flowered plates. Somewhere in Baghdad,...Cross-over music good, but lacks anger
One of the most unfortunate drawbacks of the 1979 Iranian Revolution was the suppression of creativity and artistic freedom in the name of Islamic purity, as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini cemented theocratic rule over an increasingly frustrated populace. In recent years, some of the rules governing the purchase of Western pop music and...Film designed to anger Muslims divides the West
The timing could not be more truthful. Just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a peacekeeping mission to Israel-Palestine and declared her opposition to Israeli settlement expansion, Israel announced plans to build 1,400 new settler homes in the West Bank. Last week Secretary Rice gave a press...We need to protect Michigan’s waterways
Current legislation puts our water at risk Both the Michigan House and Senate are currently holding important legislative committee hearings around competing packages of water legislation. In short, the debate is centered on corporate versus public control of our water. There are House Bills 4343 and 5065-5073, and...Deterrence: Mother’s milk of nuclear proliferation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced last week that he was cutting France's total nuclear capability to fewer than 300 warheads. This, he said, was a return to Charles de Gaulle's vision of minimal deterrence that would create "strength from weakness." His speech was not only, or even primarily, about French nuclear weapons. It...Canada tries to change immigration rules
Canada's minority Conservative government is trying to change the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The changes are in accord with the government's over-all style. When elected, the Conservatives pledged a more open government, but in fact everything is tightly controlled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He...Battle of Lebanon’s political players on billboards
BEIRUT � Hours after Hizbullah commander Imad Mughnieh was killed, huge billboards of his burly face stenciled like the iconic Che Guevara portrait or a photo of him in battle fatigues were printed and ready to display all over Lebanon. Pictures of this man on America's Most Wanted list are among the first images to greet visitors...Iraq lawmakers seek help from Iran
BAGHDAD (IPS) � Despite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure. The date March 25 of this year will be remembered as the day of truth through five years of occupation. Fighting had...Turkish scholars aim to modernize hadith
Theologians are revisiting the collections of the Prophet Muhammad's sayings that Muslims use as a guideline for daily life. Ankara � For centuries, the hadith � a collection of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad � has guided Muslims in their daily lives and served as a basis for Islamic jurisprudence, offering...PLO representative discusses challenges to Palestinian statehood
Palestinian ambassador calls for non-violent resistance movement, discusses peace prospects TUCSON � The Palestinian ambassador to the United States said Palestinians should move toward a non-violent resistance movement in the Occupied Territories, even as latest reports reveal Israel does not intend to halt its settlements in the...Whispers for engagement with HAMAS
WASHINGTON (IPS) � Two years after HAMAS was isolated almost unanimously by the international community following its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, the militant Islamist group has repeatedly proved that it can disrupt U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for a decisive agreement on Palestinian-Israeli peace by the...
A third American war in the making?
April 4th, 20080 The U.S. Congress, the U.S. media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran. If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If there were a shred of integrity left in American political life, perhaps a third act of naked aggression � a third war...
Divided Arabs deliver little at summit
April 4th, 20080 DAMASCUS (IPS) � The Arab summit held in Damascus over this weekend has convinced many Iraqis that Arab leaders do not speak for them. More than anything done or not, the very absence of many Arab leaders at the summit has left displaced Iraqis here angry. "It was a disappointment to us that some Arab leaders decided not to attend......
A responsible response to Geert Wilders
NEW YORK ? As soon as I heard that right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders' anti-Islam film had been uploaded onto an internet site, I did what any self-respecting Muslim would do: I clicked on the link and prepared to be offended. Talk about anti-climax! What happened, Geert? Like a magpie stringing cheap trinkets together,...What Christians don’t know about Israel
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? American Presidents as well as most members of Congress support Israel � and they know why. U.S. Jews sympathetic to Israel......
Two Muslim scouts attain Eagle status
DEARBORN � Two local Arab Americans have earned the rank of Eagle Scout after being part of the Muslim Scouts of Michigan for more than a decade. Adel Makki and Abraham Baydoun, both 18, are set to receive their badges at a code of honor ceremony to be held on March 28, 7 p.m. at Bint Jbeil Cultural Center. Makki, a student...Let our people go!
Arab American political activist Muthanna al-Hanooti was arrested and jailed this week by federal officials upon arrival at Detroit Metropolitan Airport returning from a trip to the Middle East. The following day he was charged with two counts of conspiracy and three counts of lying to the FBI about working for agents with the Iraqi...SMART debuts bilingual bus service
DEARBORN � SMART, the Detroit-area's bus system, announced its first bilingual transportation program along with Dearborn city officials Wednesday. Two new Arabic-speaking employees, a bus driver and dispatcher, were hired to enhance services in the Arab American community, offering translation for residents who need help when...Interfaith effort launched at ICA
DEARBORN � People from various faiths and backgrounds joined together for a gathering held by the Interfaith Partners of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion (MRDI), on Tuesday, March 25, at the Islamic Center of America. Interfaith Partners is a grassroots network made up of over 30 board members representing......
With friends like these, Israel needs no enemies
The amount of support being shown for Israel these days is almost embarrassing. The parade of highly-placed foreign guests and the warm reception received by Israeli statesmen abroad have not been seen for quite some time. Who hasn't come to visit lately? From the German chancellor to the leading frontrunner for the American...Speaker conflates Islamism, terrorism
ANN ARBOR � On March 10th, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser spoke at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on the subject of "Understanding Islamism: The Ideology Fueling Terrorism." Jasser's lecture was sponsored by the pro-Israel campus group, StandWithUs and drew approximately 50 attendees. Throughout the lecture, Jasser described his......
EFHS staff wear their support for sophomores
DEARBORN - Once again the staff at Edsel Ford rallied the school in a show of support for 11th grade students during the all-important MME testing days that took place during the week of March 10. The entire staff at Edsel Ford wore matching blue shirts with the slogan: "Get into Gear to Make a Great Year." "A few years back we...Free throat cancer screenings
ANN ARBOR � Can you live without your voice? What about your jaw? Would you miss it if you couldn't swallow food? Throat cancer can take all of those things away, along with your ability to eat, talk and breathe normally. These debilitating problems can be prevented, but you have to catch cancer early. The University of......