Arab American among state’s top high school wrestlers
March 28th, 20090 DEARBORN — The journey to the State Finals is so difficult that many wrestlers only make it there once in their entire high school careers. Khodor Hoballah, third from right, of Dearborn High School, took third place in the 160-pound division of the state wrestling championship finals. Photos courtesy of Radwan Hoballah On top...
Community briefs: Asian American group reports voting rights violations
March 28th, 20090 A report released by the Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund found that Asian Americans face many barriers preventing them from exercising their right to vote. AALDEF volunteers monitored polling stations in Detroit-area precincts with Arab American populations during the November election as part of the study. The report,...U.S. Muslim coalition considers suspending relations with FBI
WASHINGTON — A coalition of major national Muslim organizations this week announced that it is considering suspending outreach relations with the FBI, citing recent incidents in which American mosques and Muslim groups have been targeted. In a statement, the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT),...
HOPE banquet to feature outspoken advocate Galloway
March 21st, 20090 DEARBORN — Two weeks after a month-long journey leading a 100-vehicle aid convoy into Gaza, George Galloway is to speak to an eager crowd in Dearborn on March 27 at a major student-led fundraiser for the battered Palestinian territory. British politician George Galloway (C) sits with Palestinian students near their school, the...
Chaldean sports reporter loves Detroit
March 21st, 20090 Thousands of people across the country dream about the prestige and excitement that comes with being a television reporter. But when the bright lights come on for the first time, many simply can't handle it. Heather Zara of WDIV-Local 4 feels a sense of teamwork with her sports colleagues. WDIV-Local 4 reporter Heather Zara is...
Community news briefs: Dearborn police officers charged with bribery, tax evasion
March 21st, 20090 DEARBORN — A police officer and an Arab American resident were charged March 13 in connection with bribery allegations involving traffic tickets. Dearborn resident Hassan H. Hojaije, L, and police officer Alex Brian Ramirez were charged March 13. Dearborn Police Officer Alex Brian Ramirez, 42 was arraigned in 19th District...
Job seekers flock to employment fair
March 21st, 20090 DEARBORN — The official start time for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services' job fair was 9 a.m., but that didn't stop eager job-seekers from lining up as early as 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Job seekers engage employers and fill out forms at an ACCESS job fair in Dearborn on Wednesday. ACCESS Operations...Hot air brings no winds of change
JERUSALEM — Last November, on the day marking the assassination of Israel's peace-making leader Yitzhak Rabin, the now outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis something which, for decades, not even Rabin had dared say — we must end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and return to the 1967 borders....Israeli policy gives Jews a bad name
Most Jews I know get little pleasure from the existence of Israel; just the opposite. They feel disgusted by the behavior of their tribal kin toward Palestinians. This antipathy doesn't concern Israel's right to exist, a phony argument still maintained by hard line Zionists. Israel exists, period. Most of the world recognizes that....One more farcical tour of the Middle East
It was almost dreamlike, watching Secretary of State Hillary Clinton make her visit to Israel, one that can be called the first of many trips pretending to encourage peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. It's a dream I've had several times over; one needs only to simply fill in the names of the various U.S. secretaries of...
Community briefs: Three locals charged with mortgage fraud
March 14th, 20090 Belly dance show at DSO Miles Copeland, former manager of the groundbreaking '80s rock trio The Police, began putting together a troupe of American bellydancers in 2002 with the intention of doing for the Middle East what "Riverdance" did for Ireland. The Bellydance...
Finkelstein to keynote ASU banquet
March 14th, 20090 DEARBORN — An energetic group of college students hopes to add an extra spark to their efforts as Arab American youth activists when they bring Norman Finkelstein — a well-known scholar on Israeli-Palestinian conflict who causes a stir every time he speaks in the Detroit area — to keynote their annual "Empowering the Youth" dinner...
Oakland International Academy garners award
March 14th, 20090 When it comes to handing out funds to local schools, scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests are an important factor. Oakland Superintendent Ahmed Saber (left), and faculty members Conrad Koch, Adnan Aabed, and Eraqi Eraqi. Photo courtesy of Conrad Koch But doesn't mean that they are always fair....
Group celebrates Saadeh birthday, legacy
March 14th, 20090 SOUTHFIELD — Syria's ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustapha spoke at the Silver Garden Theater on March 7 during a commemoration of the birthday of Antun Saadeh, founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Syria's ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustapha speaks at the Silver Garden Theater in Southfield on March 7 during a...
CAAO delegation to visit Qatar, meet emir
March 14th, 20090 A delegation of local Arab Americans organized by the Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) is to depart Saturday for Doha, Qatar, where the group is scheduled to meet with the Gulf nation's leader Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani on Sunday. A plaque to be presented to the emir of Qatar by a delegation of Arab Americans......
Attorney relates horror of Gaza
March 14th, 20090 A member of a delegation of lawyers that traveled to Gaza in February spoke to a group of Palestinian rights activists in Dearborn on Tuesday about the fact-finding mission. Linda Mansour, one of nine National Lawyers Guild delegates who traveled to Gaza in February on a fact-finding mission, speaks to representatives of the...
GM warns it may not survive
March 7th, 20090 DETROIT — General Motors Corp on Thursday said its auditors had raised "substantial doubt" about its ability to survive outside bankruptcy if it fails to stem its losses and stop burning cash. A flock of birds sits on a covered General Motors sign at an abandoned auto dealership in Warren, Michigan, in this December 18, 2008......
Video: Arab culture celebrated in nation’s capital
March 7th, 20090 Last Friday, the "Weekend" section of the Washington Post featured a cover story on "Arabesque: Art of the Arab World," the Kennedy Center's three-week-long festival of Arab arts and culture. There is no better way to begin a reflection on the program, than to quote the opening lines of the marvelous "Weekend" review by Ellen McCarthy....Divestment from the Israeli occupation of Palestine
A coalition of Columbia University students released a series of demands this week that clearly and forcefully lay the groundwork for the divestment of the University's endowment funds from those corporations currently profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestine. This step is long overdue. The recent assault on the...
Sadr Foundation: Raising hope from despair
March 7th, 20090 DEARBORN — Hiam and Ibtisam Bazzi were seven and four years old when their mother died in 1977. Their father, unable to care for them alone in impoverished south Lebanon, placed them under the care of the Sadr Foundation, a network of orphanages, schools and clinics based in Tyre that has served tens of thousands of Lebanese over the...
“The Big Read” to encourage literacy and celebrate late Egyptian Nobel winner
March 7th, 20090 DEARBORN — The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn is hosting a month-long celebration of the life and works of Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, with free books available all month. Called "The Big Read" and made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts......
ACC program tackles mental health
March 7th, 20090 Severe mental health issues are almost never at the forefront of conversation, but discussion in the Arab community is even more rare according to ACT Team Leader Amy Rahhall. Amy Rahhall The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, which is run through the Arab American and Chaldean Council through funding from the...
CIA holds appreciation dinner
March 7th, 20090 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) held an appreciation dinner for leaders of the Arab American and Chaldean community on Wednesday at the Westin Hotel in Southfield. CIA Associate Deputy Director Scott White Members of the Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee......
Community news briefs: Huge crowd expected for ACCESS job fair
DEARBORN — With the job market as tough as it's been in decades, the first ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services) job fair of 2009 is expected to be as packed and competitive as ever. The spring job fair, one of three held during the year at ACCESS, will take place on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at the Dearborn...Muslims reject terror tactics, back some goals
WASHINGTON – Strong majorities of people in predominantly Muslim countries reject terrorism but support key goals of Al Qaeda, notably expelling U.S. military forces from the Islamic world, according to a major new study of public opinion in seven nations and the Palestinian territories released here Wednesday. Nearly 90 percent......