Taking care of hunger in the D
TROY — In the current Michigan economy, it may not startle you to learn that 45% of the population in Detroit is classified as what the international community now calls "food insecure." According to Monica Luoma of Forgotten Harvest, that means people who are hungry now, or who may be one paycheck away from hunger or who don't know...
Ahmed named to head DHS for Michigan
August 18th, 20070 DEARBORN — Governor Jennifer M. Granholm this week announced the appointment of Ismael Ahmed to director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. Ahmed is a 1975 graduate of the University of Michigan with a bachelor of arts degree in secondary education and a minor in sociology. Ahmed, co-founder of the Arab Community Center for...
Fear of Arabs and Muslims on the rise in America
August 14th, 20070 Anti-Muslim and anti-Arab acts in the streets, schools and homes of America have shocked many in recent weeks. In the span of a few short days, a fire devastated a mosque in California and a political controversy set back an Arabic school set to open this fall in New York. The mosque fire, if intentional, was violent and illegal. Such...
ACC continues upgrade of Detroit neighborhood
July 29th, 20070 The Seven Mile Project - Phase III DETROIT – The neighborhood of 7 Mile and Woodward is one filled with a deep, prideful history. It is a place with great diversity, where black and white residents have lived side by side for decades. It is also the original settlement for the largest population of Iraqi Chaldeans outside of the...Workplace discrimination subject of annual EEOC meet
DETROIT — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a candid panel discussion on workplace discrimination during its Annual Detroit Seminar on Thursday, July 19, at the Wayne State University School of Law. The panel, entitled "Diversity in the Workplace," focused on issues of race discrimination, stereotyping and...ADC hosts DHS officials at reception
Washington — This week the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) hosted a dinner reception for speakers and participants in the "Roundtable on Security and Liberty: Perspectives of Young Leaders Post 9-11." The two-day roundtable was hosted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil...All thing Lebanese at Birmingham festival
Birmingham - The first annual Lebanese Festival – dubbed Leb Fest - took place Wednesday in downtown Birmingham, attracting hundreds of Arabs and non-Arabs alike. The event had specialty food booths that offered visitors a taste of genuine Lebanese cuisine, as well as a variety of musical and dance shows that included Detroit...Arab ambassadors attend Michigan conference
WASHINGTON - A delegation of Arab ambassadors attended the annual meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA) last week in Traverse City, Michigan. The trip was organized by the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC), whose President & CEO, David Hamod, described the visit as a "unique opportunity for Arab...
Poll shows most Muslims reject extremism
July 29th, 20070 WASHINGTON (IPS) — Growing numbers of Muslims in the Middle East and in predominantly Muslim countries in Asia and Africa are rejecting "Islamic extremism" and the use of suicide bombing, according to a new 47-nation global attitudes survey released by the Pew Research Center on Tuesday. The percentage of Muslims who say that suicide...Refugees cause worry about state economy
DETROIT — The area in southeast Michigan where 2,000 Iraqi refugees are expected to resettle already has 169,000 people out of work. Some fear the influx will push the state's unemployment rate even higher. Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, is concerned that the area cannot support...Raids on charities made all look guilty
Dearborn’s Arab American and American Muslim communities were shocked by the serious allegations made by federal authorities this week against two Dearborn-based charities. The FBI raided the offices of Al-Mabbarat Charitable Organization, U.S.A and Goodwill Charitable Organization. The U.S. Treasury Department also froze the assets and...Report details Israeli war crimes in Lebanon
One year after the month-long bombardment and invasion of Lebanon, a new report highlights Israel’s many violations of international law. For 34 days from July to August, 2006, Israel carried “out a massive military offensive against Hizbullah military targets, Lebanon’s public infrastructure, and Lebanese civilians and their...Arab American trailblazer from Southend
DEARBORN - Some people need just one story to describe their life. Others need more than one life to recount all their thoughts and accomplishments. Michael Berry was not just a successful attorney, bright politician, or even public figure; rather he encompassed all of these things with skilled dignity. He is a community leader who...James Abourezk: Father of the Arab American civil rights movement
When James Abourezk moved to Washington more than three decades ago — serving first as a congressman and then as the first Arab American to be elected to the United States Senate — his knowledge of what was going on in he Middle East was modest. "It wasn't an issue that anyone talked about very much back home in South Dakota," he...Helen Thomas: Media watchdog 57 years in the front seat at White House press briefings
Helen Thomas has been the epitome of journalistic integrity for over 57 years, serving as a correspondent and White House bureau chief for United Press International. She has covered every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy, and continues to be a dynamic leader in the Washington press. Her leadership among women in the press is......
Michael Husseini is an exceptional graduate!
DEARBORN — When Michael Husseini was one year old, his father wondered why he was rolling over rather than crawling like other children. Michael was not a small child, his father Samy Husseini recalls, "but he was incapable even of riding a tricycle. I thought he was lazy, he needed someone to push him." At two, Michael was walking...Amer family’s efforts pay off in foster care bill passed by house
LANSING — In an effort to improve Michigan's foster care system, the Michigan House of Representatives this week passed reforms that bolster the rights of relatives who want to care for children entering foster care, give the state new tools to help locate relatives when children need to be placed in foster care, and help ensure that......
Dearborn teacher arrested for internet sex
DEARBORN — Deputies of the Wayne County Sheriff's Internet Crimes Unit arrested a local schoolteacher who they say showed up for a meeting with whom he expected to be a 14-year-old boy for the purpose of having sex with him, Sheriff Warren C. Evans announced on Thursday, June 20. Officers arrested the 37-year-old Dearborn resident,...Dr. Yahya Basha builds,and believes in the American dream
Radiologist Dr. Yahya Basha is a busy man. Visit his office and you'll find Hhim surrounded by assistants and swimming in phone calls, people constantly clamoring for his opinions on medicine and community affairs. The founder and president of Basha Diagnostics, a multi-site diagnostic imaging company that competes with major...Groups welcome Pelosi trip to Mideast
Nancy Pelosi meeting with Syrian foriegn minister Walid Al Moualim Washington — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) this week welcomed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's efforts on her recent trip to the Middle East. Specifically, the nation's largest Arab-American grassroots organization said it viewed Speaker...
Jack Shaheen: A life dedicated to fighting racism
April 8th, 20070 Offensive, inaccurate, demonizing depictions of Arabs in American media is one of the most frequently lamented, painful aspects of the Arab American experience. Most have only complained in helpless frustration. But for the past 30 years, one green-eyed, soft-spoken, animated man from a polluted, working-class Pittsburgh-area steel......
Shaheen scholarship to be awarded at ADC Convention
Washington - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is currently accepting applications for the 2007 Jack G. Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarship. Dr. Shaheen is the world's foremost authority on media images of Arabs and the author of "Reel Bad Arabs," "Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture,"...
Raji Rammuny: Internationally renowned Arabic language professor
April 4th, 20070 Professor Raji Rammuny has been teaching Arabic for nearly 50 years, and now, at 74, he is seeing what he calls the "Golden Age of Arabic and Islamic studies." As coordinator of the Arabic program at the Department of Near Eastern Studies of the University of Michigan, Rammuny is watching his programs expand and his class rosters......
Ed Deeb: A mover, a shaker and a peacemaker
April 4th, 20070 Ed Deeb goes to where there's trouble, and fixes things. For decades Deeb has brought together groups in conflict, whether unions and businesses, businesses and government entities, business-owners and residents, or clashing ethnic communities. "I'm a peacemaker. I make peace… The only way to make peace is to talk," said...
Syrian ambassador keynotes ASU dinner
April 4th, 20070 The Syrian ambassador to the United States spoke in his usual candid style to attendees at a fundraising dinner for an active local student group in Dearborn on Friday, March 23. Ambassador Imad Moustapha was asked to keynote the second annual dinner of the Arab Student Union at University of Michigan-Dearborn because students......
