The Arab American News
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ABC’s cancels ‘Roseanne’ following star’s Islamophobic, racist tweet
May 29th, 20181 "It's as joke." That's how TV star Roseanne Barr characterized her Tweet that said former aid to President Obama Valerie Jarrett looked like if "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby." But that so called joke got her hit TV show, ABC's "Roseanne", canceled. In a statement, Channing Dungey denouncing Barr's...
Lebanon begins offshore oil and gas exploration
May 29th, 20180 BEIRUT ― Lebanon’s search for its first oil and gas reserves began on Tuesday after authorities approved an exploration plan submitted by a consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek. Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil also said in a televised statement that Lebanon hoped to launch a second...
Party City first national retailer to offer Ramadan decorations
May 25th, 20180 Party City said it's become the first national retailer to offer a dedicated line of decorations for Ramadan, after numerous requests from customers. Ramadan began on May 16 and ends at on June 14, kicking off the start of the day-long Eid al-Fitr celebration. The chain, which has more than 900 stores in the United States and...
Arab American activist set to take reins at Massachusetts Teachers Association
May 25th, 20180 BOSTON — Merrie Najimy, the president-elect of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), was inspired to become an educator and later a unionist after experiencing in her own youth that the curricula taught in the Massachusetts public schools she attended felt exclusionary to Arab American students. Growing up in the Lebanese...
Palestinians in Jerusalem reject Ramadan meals provided by UAE
May 25th, 20180 WEST BANK — Jerusalemite activists have launched a hashtag on Twitter – #we are not hungry – as a rejection of Ramadan meals provided by the UAE for visitors to Al-Aqsa Mosque. They argue that the Gulf State is consorting with the Israeli occupation of Palestine, having sent a team of cyclists to participate in the international...
Thomas Jefferson hosted America’s first Ramadan iftar
May 25th, 20182 The United States’ first iftar took place at the home of the third president. In 1805, the month of Ramadan fell in December. Far from his friends, family and home, one Tunisian man was attempting to observe it in Washington, D.C. This was the statesman Sidi Soliman Mellimelli, who was spending six months in the United States, on...
Pompeo lays out U.S. demands on Tehran, Khamenei sets condition for EU to stay in deal
May 25th, 20180 The nuclear deal: List of U.S. demands vs list of Iranian condition WASHINGTON/TEHRAN — on Monday, the Trump administration demanded that Iran make wholesale changes in its military and regional policies or face "the strongest sanctions in history" as it sought to turn up heat on Tehran after President Trump's decision to withdraw...
I just visited Iran. Here’s what I heard about the U.S.
May 25th, 20180 By Peter Van Buren Iran is a dangerous place these days, at least in a car. Traffic in the cities here moves like Tetris, with drivers pushing their cars into any open space that will fit. Trips begin in chaos and play out in confusion. How it ends is always up to God’s will, everyone says. I went to Iran this month to...
Pompeo’s Plan B: Pouring more venom on Iran
May 25th, 20180 By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi It is now perfectly clear that this administration has no diplomatic track with Iran and is simply bent on regime change, which will only wreak havoc on regional and global peace and stability. The scene at the Heritage Foundation on Monday could have come from the film “The Ugly...
Workers hit McDonald’s with multiple sexual harassment claims
May 25th, 20180 LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK — Ten women who work at McDonald’s restaurants in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and six other cities have filed sexual harassment complaints in the past few days with the federal government against the company and its franchisees, which they said ignored or retaliated against them for such complaints. The...
U.S. ends practice that gave some immigrants reprieves from deportation
May 25th, 20180 NEW YORK — On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions barred immigration judges from a once-common practice of shelving deportation cases involving some immigrants with deep ties to the United States. The practice known as administrative closure allowed judges to clear low-priority cases off their dockets, effectively letting some...
Pastor’s parting gift to Bay Ridge’s Arab Americans, a new political club
May 25th, 20180 By Paula Katinas BAY RIDGE, NY — The Reverend Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian-born cleric who founded the Salam Arabic Lutheran Church 20 years ago and became a political force in Bay Ridge when he ran for City Council last year, announced that he is forming a new political club to carry on his work after he leaves...
Netflix spotlights Arab American comedian Mo Amer
May 25th, 20180 By Jen Rice HOUSTON, Texas — Comedian Mo Amer calls Houston home and he’s coming to Austin next month to record his first hour-long Netflix comedy special. He’s been called a pioneer of Arab American standup and he’s toured for years with Dave Chappelle. Amer made international headlines when he was upgraded to a...
Detroit Police sees substance abuse as an element of youth fatalities
May 25th, 20180 By Eman Jassem The Arab American News intern DETROIT — Officers at the Detroit Police Department’s 11th Precinct stressed the importance of youth substance abuse during a May 21 alcohol and drug awareness information session. Attending organizations included Detroit Recovery Project, EMS, Frontier International...
Warren city official resigns after anti-Muslim social media post
May 25th, 20180 WARREN — A Warren city official has turned in her resignation papers after making anti-Muslim posts on social media. Diane Toni Deliso Kozlowski, a member of the Elected Officials Compensation Commission, said she wasn’t talking about Muslims, but terrorists, and sparked a nerve with a local Muslim civil liberties......
The Islamic Center of America is facing challenging times that require leadership
May 25th, 20180 Controversies have plagued the Islamic Center since the passing of its founder, Imam Mohammad Jawad Chirri, in November 1994. Since then, several religious figures have come and gone after deep differences surfaced between the board and the successive imams. This week, the Islamic Center of America’s board of trustees made...
Syrian air defense intercepts missile attack on airport, state media reports
May 24th, 20180 BEIRUT - Syrian state media said a military airport near Homs city had come under missile attack which was repelled by its air defense systems on Thursday. “One of our military airports in the central region was exposed to a hostile missile attack, and our air defense systems confronted the attack and prevented it from achieving its......
Israeli minister: U.S. may soon recognize Israel’s hold on Golan
May 23rd, 20180 TEL AVIV — Israel is pressing the Trump administration to recognize its sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Wednesday, predicting U.S. assent could come within months. Interviewed by Reuters, Intelligence Minister Israel Katz described endorsement of Israel’s 51-year-old hold on the...
Lebanese parliament re-elects Nabih Berri as speaker
May 23rd, 20180 BEIRUT — Politician Nabih Berri, a close ally of the Hezbollah group, was re-elected for a sixth term as speaker of Lebanon’s parliament in an uncontested vote on Wednesday. Reflecting a shift in Lebanon’s political landscape in favor of the heavily armed Shi’a Muslim group, another Hezbollah ally, Elie Ferzli, was elected...
Saudi Arabia expands crackdown on women’s rights activists
May 22nd, 20180 RIYADH ― Saudi Arabia has arrested at least three more women’s rights activists in a widening crackdown just weeks before a ban on women driving is set to end, international rights watchdogs said on Tuesday. Rights groups last week reported the detention of seven activists, mostly women who previously campaigned for the right to...
Palestinians demand full investigation into Israel at Hague court
May 22nd, 20180 THE HAGUE ― Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki asked prosecutors at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday to launch a full investigation into accusations of Israeli human rights abuses on Palestinian territory, saying the evidence was “insurmountable”. Maliki submitted a so-called “referral”, giving the......
U.S. toughens stance on Iran, lists sweeping demands
May 21st, 20180 WASHINGTON/ANKARA — The United States on Monday demanded Iran make sweeping changes — from dropping its nuclear program to pulling out of the Syrian civil war — or face severe economic sanctions as the Trump administration hardened its approach to Tehran. Iran dismissed Washington’s ultimatum and one senior Iranian official...
Young Palestinians organize to advance their struggle, retain identity
May 18th, 20180 DEARBORN — A new nonprofit organization called New Generation for Palestine (NGP) held its first community-wide event Thursday, May 10, at Byblos Banquet Hall in Dearborn. The "Nakba Commemoration Dinner” attracted more than 300 guests, mostly Palestinian Americans. May 15 marked the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic......
Nakba: As Israel celebrates, my family mourns
May 18th, 20180 By Mohamed Mohamed “It was like a dream.” That is how my maternal grandfather, Abu Ahmad, described his memories of our village near Safad in the Galilee in the northern part of Palestine, after I had curiously asked him about it as a kid. He told me it was cradled within a lush, beautiful landscape, where cherry and...
Facts about the ICA controversy This is why Eide Alawan should not be thrown under the bus
May 18th, 20180 By Rafael Narbaez, Jr. Disputes or differences between members of the board of directors of a mosque or even among different groups within the community is not something new. Having done fundraising for dozens of mosques throughout the country, this was always a sad reality that I encountered when visiting Muslim......
