Watch out for card skimming at the gas pump
August 13th, 20180 With the summer travel season in high gear, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning drivers about skimming scams at the pump. Skimmers are illegal card readers attached to payment terminals. These card readers grab data off a credit or debit card’s magnetic stripe without your knowledge. Criminals sell the stolen data or use...
A more perfect union
August 5th, 20181 You know these words, but how often do you stop to think about them? “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” They...
Common enemy: Why Israel is embracing fascism in Europe
August 5th, 20181 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on July 19, where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks. So why is Orban wining and dining with...
Israel’s false, Apartheid “democracy”
August 3rd, 20181 By Mohamed Mohamed Since its inception, Israel has been a discriminatory state, posing as a (false) democracy. This is not a matter of opinion; it is a fact and there is plenty of evidence to back it up. On Thursday, July 19, the Israeli Knesset passed the “Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People” bill into...
Civil rights leaders, Census policy experts urge public comments on citizenship question
July 29th, 20182 Civil rights leaders joined Census policy experts on July 17 in an urgent plea, particularly to communities of color, for a show of public activism and force to derail a fast-moving Trump administration effort to officially ignore them. The fight begins by taking full advantage of a narrow window of opportunity in which to speak out...
Jewish nation-state Law: Why Israel was never a democracy
July 27th, 20181 The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the passing of the racist Jewish nation-state law as "the death of our democracy." Did Odeh truly believe that, prior to this law, he had lived in a true democracy? Seventy years of Israeli Jewish supremacy, genocide, ethnic cleansing,...
Thank you, Ireland
July 22nd, 20180 In Ireland on Wednesday morning, I watched an amazing debate unfolding in the Irish Seanad (Senate), as members spoke for and against a bill to prohibit the importation of Israeli goods produced in settlements in occupied Palestinian lands. The legislation in question is the Control of Economic Activity (occupied territory) Bill 2018,...
The massacre of Inn Din: How Rohingya are lynched and held responsible
July 22nd, 20180 “In my four years as high commissioner, I have heard many preposterous claims. That claim is almost in its own category of absurdity. Have you no shame, sir, have you no shame? We are not fools.” These were some of the remarks made by the outgoing United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, in his...
Donate with honor, not to a sham charity
July 22nd, 20180 Would you donate to a charity called Help the Vets? What about if you get a robocall that asks you to donate your car to “Veterans of America?” Unfortunately, just because the word “veterans” is in the name, it doesn’t mean that an organization actually helps veterans. For example, Help the Vets didn’t help disabled and...
Get involved, be a true American citizen
July 22nd, 20181 Back in 1883, Teddy Roosevelt wrote an essay on what it takes to be a true American citizen. He did not mince words. “The people who say that they have not time to attend to politics are simply saying that they are unfit to live in a free community,” he wrote. “The first duty of an American citizen, then, is that he shall work in...
Anti-Semitism Awareness Act doesn’t protect Jews – it protects Israel
July 6th, 20180 After trying and failing to pass the so-called “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” in the last legislative session, supporters have once again submitted a bill that, if passed by Congress, will dramatically curb free speech and academic inquiry on college campuses. As I argued in my testimony to the House Judiciary Committee last...
Once the fireworks of Independence Day fade, how independent are we?
July 6th, 20181 Guest editorial By the Muslim Public Affairs Council Every July 4th holiday, most Americans spend time with their families, indulge in grilled foods and watch awestruck as dazzling explosions light up the night sky. For many of us, it’s a time to reflect on the complex juxtapositions that define our nation; from the...
Did Israel inspire Trump’s family separation policy?
June 30th, 20182 This past May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the government's “zero tolerance” policy at U.S. border crossings. It was a matter of weeks before the new policy began yielding tragic outcomes. Those attempting to unlawfully cross into the U.S. were subject to federal criminal prosecution, while their children were taken...
The anti-Semitism Awareness Act is back: Free speech is at risk
June 18th, 20181 Back in 2016, without debate or an actual vote, the U.S. Senate stealthily passed a disturbing and dangerous piece of legislation called “The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2016” (AAA). The bill would have required the Department of Education (ED) to apply a State Department (DOS) working definition of anti-Semitism in evaluating...
Beating the U.S. ‘veto’: Palestinians need urgent protection from Israel
June 15th, 20181 What is taking place in Palestine is not a "conflict." We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word "conflict" is misleading. It equates between oppressed Palestinians and Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions. It is these ambiguous terminologies that allow the likes of United......
Why Jefferson’s vision of Islam in America matters today
June 15th, 20181 The author of the Declaration of Independence had sought to protect not just Christians, but Americans of all faiths. After last year’s deliberate break with tradition, President Trump has resumed the iftar dinner—the sundown meal during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. An estimated 3.3 million American Muslims celebrate...
Eight things I learned about Palestine while touring eight Western nations
June 6th, 20181 On February 20, I embarked on a global book tour that has, thus far, taken me to eight nations. The main theme of all my talks in various cultural, academic and media platforms was the pressing need to refocus the discussion on Palestine on the struggle, aspirations and history of the Palestinian people. But, interacting with hundreds......
Media burdens run two ways
May 25th, 20180 I was chatting with a group of students the other day when one of them looked me in the eye and commented, “You’re very tough on journalists.” I had to plead guilty. Of course I’m tough on journalists. Maybe even as tough on them as they are on politicians. Our representative democracy depends on journalists doing their...
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...
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...
My home is Beit Daras: Our lingering Nakba
May 18th, 20180 When Google Earth was initially released in 2001, I immediately rushed to locate a village that no longer exists on a map, which now delineates a whole different reality. Although I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp and then moved to and lived in the United States, finding a village that was erased from the map decades......
Eclipsing factionalism: The missing story from the Gaza protests
May 11th, 20180 The Gaza border protests must be understood in the context of the Israeli occupation, the siege and the long-delayed “Right of Return” for Palestinian refugees. However, they should also be appreciated in a parallel context: Palestine’s own factionalism and infighting. Factionalism in Palestinian society is a deep-rooted ailment...
While Israel and Iran claim no desire for armed conflict, Trump might stumble into war against Tehran
May 11th, 20180 Israel has launched its biggest attack ever on Iranian forces in Syria. This is a serious development, but reports of the entire Middle East being on the verge of all out war fail to fully appreciate the motives and intentions of the various players. Looked at from the Israeli point of view, it is an excellent moment to act against......
