From Michigan to Texas: Harvey victims find refuge among Arab and Muslim Americans
September 7th, 20170 HOUSTON, DEARBORN — Striding strenuously down a freeway, mostly mothers and their children were knee deep in water, making the journey away from their drowned homes. They carried on their shoulders only what they could save. The water rose so fast that few families in Southeast Texas were left unthreatened by Hurricane Harvey's...
Police search for suspects of fight at Dearborn Walmart
September 6th, 20170 Dearborn — On September 4, an argument at a local Walmart between four women turned into a fight to remember for the evening shoppers. A 35 year-old Pinckney resident told police an argument she had with two women escalated into an assault when a third suspect walked up behind the victim and struck her in the head. As the...
Report spotlights Muslim American contributions in Michigan
September 3rd, 20172 DEARBORN, MI— “Ten percent of Michigan Muslims are physicians.” This was a myth that the Muslims for American Progress (MAP) project powered by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) was able to debunk. “We kept hearing that rumor,” said MAP Principal Investigator Rebecca Karam about Muslim physicians in...
Arab American community liaison position created at Henry Ford College
September 3rd, 20170 DEARBORN — Henry Ford College has named Sam Bazzi to be the college's first Arab American community liaison. The position is in its first year and will attempt to, "promote the mission of HFC within the Arab American community, continue to build and nurture personal relationships and facilitate a productive dialogue regarding...
The Twelve Oaks incident: Hate speech vs. free speech in the Trump era
September 3rd, 20170 NOVI — On August 8, a Muslim family was accosted in the parking lot of Twelve Oaks Mall by a White man in his 30s who hurled epithets and derogatory slurs at them. The mother, out of fear for her two children, called the Novi Police Department. After driving past the family, the assailant parked his car and approached the family...
Former Dearborn Clerk’s pension permanently reduced
September 3rd, 20170 DEARBORN — On August 30, former Dearborn City Clerk Kathleen Buda, who'd previously pled no contest to several felonies, was ordered by Judge Lawrence S. Talon to reimburse the city for its pension contributions from the date of the offense until her retirement, which totaled $2,716.88. Buda was sentenced to 24 months probation on an...
Islamic fund offers media scholarships for Muslims
September 3rd, 20171 BERKELEY, CA — The Islamic Scholarship Fund (ISF) was founded in 2009 in response to the low number of Muslims in media and policy fields. ISF provides funding and mentorship to its awardees. Before ISF was launched, Dr. Hamid Rezapour, the founder and president, was frustrated by the negative depictions of Islam and Muslims in the...
Construction in Dearborn displaces rats, concerns residents
September 2nd, 20170 DEARBORN – Construction from commercial development around town is displacing rats and exacerbating a rat issue in Dearborn, Mary Laundroche, Dearborn’s public information director, told The AANews. Laundroche added that the construction is beneficial, overall, to the community. “We just find it can displace rats in the...
Divine Child Church arsonist arraigned
August 31st, 20171 DEARBORN – David Allen Cerne, the arsonist who threw an explosive into a Dearborn church, was arraigned on August 31 by Judge Mark Somers in the 19th District Court, according to police. While prayer was taking place at Divine Child Church on Wednesday morning, Cerne threw a commercial grade firework into the chapel. A Bible was...
Divine Child Church arsonist to be arraigned
August 30th, 20170 Dearborn — Shortly after news spread of a man who threw commercial-grade fireworks into the chapel of a Dearborn Church, a 43-year-old Inkster resident was identified as the suspect. Dearborn Police said in a press release that had been arrested in Inkster on a similar charge and was currently in custody at the Inkster Police...
Wayne County Commission denounces racism, bigotry with post-Charlottesville resolution
August 30th, 20170 DETROIT ― Following the events of the Charlotesville, VA. attacks, the Wayne County Commissioners took a unanimous stand against racism and bigotry and called for investigations of domestic hate groups. On Thursday, the commission denounced all forms of bigotry in a resolution introduced jointly by Commission Vice Chairman Alisha...
Farmington Hills teen accused of murdering mother to be tried as adult
August 28th, 20170 FARMINGTON HILLS ― A 16-year-old boy accused of killing his mother by pushing her out a window of their mansion, will be tried as an adult, police announced Monday. Nada Huranieh, 35, was found dead on the patio outside the family's home at around 6:40 a.m. on Monday. Officers originally believed Huranieh's fall from the...
FBI terror unit detains Ypsilanti man
August 28th, 20170 YPSILANTI ― An Ypsilanti man is facing federal charges after weapons without serial numbers were found in a storage unit in Ann Arbor. He was detained before he was due to fly to the Middle East with his family. Yousef Mohammad Ramadan, 28, is charged with possession of a firearm with an wiped out serial number, which had moved in...
Police looking for White man who threw explosive in Dearborn church
August 25th, 20170 Dearborn — While prayer was taking place at Divine Child Church on Wednesday morning, an identified man threw into the chapel what an investigation revealed to be a commercial grade firework. A Bible was burnt, but no one was harmed. Witnesses told officers the man was about a 30 to 40 year old White man with short dark hair. The...
Muslim allies demand Gov. Snyder take a position on Kalkaska
August 25th, 20170 DETROIT— In mid-July, Steve Spreitzer, president of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, began forming a coalition to counteract hate speech directed at Muslims which came from Kalkaska Village President Jeff Sieting. Sieting called for death to all Muslims in a Facebook post. He has came out and said he’s......
Locals give hope to refugee widows and orphans
August 25th, 20170 WARREN — “Should I even bring this little girl into the world? How will my child be raised? In a refugee camp?” These are the distressed thoughts— told by an Arab American teen— of Hanana Asaad, a young mother ready to give birth at a Jordanian refugee camp. She reportedly walked three miles, malnourished and weak, to the...
Fouad Ashkar retires after a distinguished career of service
August 25th, 20170 DEARBORN – Fouad Ashkar, community outreach manager for DTE Energy, is retiring on Aug 31. Ashkar’s position may not be known to many, but its influence is felt by every DTE customer. For the last 18 years, Ashkar has been given the tools by DTE to build a relationship with city councils, mayors and many more organizations across......
Garden City Hospital dedicates new ER for seniors
August 25th, 20170 GARDEN CITY — As the times change, so does the health needs of its residents — and the best quality care happen when facilities form partnerships with communities. Tailoring its efforts to a growing aging local population, Garden City Hospital opened a new Senior Emergency Room, a separate department tailored for patients with...Teen accused of pushing mother from window to her death
August 24th, 20170 FARMINGTON HILLS ― A 16-year-old boy is facing murder charges for allegedly pushing his mother out the window of their home. The teen is accused of the first-degree murder of his mother, 35-year-old Nada Houranieh, a personal trainer at Franklin Athletic Club. Prosecutors say the teen threw her out of a third-floor window of...
Police use pepper spray to disperse protesters at Trump’s Phoenix rally
August 23rd, 20170 PHOENIX ― Police fired pepper spray to disperse protesters outside a rally by President Trump in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday after being pelted with rocks and bottles, police said. Police have not given an estimate of the number of protesters, but Arizona media said there were several thousand. Police did not say whether the pepper...
Los Angeles seeks to join lawsuit over federal sanctuary policies
August 22nd, 20170 SAN FRANCISCO ― The city of Los Angeles on Tuesday sought to join a lawsuit against the Department of Justice over federal restrictions on some law enforcement grants to so-called sanctuary cities, according to a court filing. The state of California and city of San Francisco earlier this month filed legal challenges that accused the......
You will need a new Michigan driver’s license to fly in 2020
August 22nd, 20170 LANSING ― Michigan residents will need to get a new driver's license or state ID card by 2020 if they want to fly or enter federal buildings. The Secretary of State will begin taking applications next Monday, Aug. 28 for the new driver's licenses. Beginning Oct. 1, 2020, the government will not allow Michigan residents carrying a...
Two men who entered Dearborn police station armed sentenced
August 19th, 20170 DEARBORN- Two men who entered the Dearborn Police Station armed with firearms and dressed in tactical vests and masks earlier this year were sentenced to time in prison by Judge Mariam Bazzi of the Wayne County Circuit Court. Police first arrested Brandon Vreeland, 40, of Jackson and James Craig Baker, 24, of Leonard on Feb. 5 after......
State Police raids Dearborn Medical Clinic for overprescribing opioids
August 18th, 20172 DEARBORN — About 8 a.m. on Thursday, Michigan State Police raided the Dearborn Medical Clinic, where a doctor is accused of over prescribing opiates. Lt. Mike Shaw of the State Police described the clinic, located at Warren and Yinger Avenues, as a "pill mill" and said oxycodone is the drug most prescribed. It was attracting...
Muslims in foster care need exposure
August 18th, 20171 BLOOMFIELD HILLS — The Muslim Foster Care Association (MFCA) is a nonprofit founded in 2015 by Ranya Shbeib and Sameena Zahoor that assists Muslims in the foster care system, and also facilitates licensure for parents wanting to foster children. Two years ago, Shbeib, a former teacher and administrator, received her foster care......
