What should Palestinians expect – can Trump be any worse?
November 24th, 20160 Fear and trepidation are slowly building up, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is fortifying his transitional team with people capable of bringing about a nightmare scenario, not only for Americans but for the rest of the world as well. For Palestinians, however, the signs are even more ominous. From former New York Mayor,...
Praying for Freedom: Why is Israel silencing the call for prayer in Jerusalem?
November 18th, 20160 As I was growing up, I was always reassured by the sound of the "Muadhin" making the call for prayer in our refugee camp's main mosque in Gaza. Whenever I heard the call very early in the morning, announcing in a melodic voice that the time for the "Fajr" (dawn) prayer was upon us, I knew it was safe to go to sleep. Of course, the...
America’s liberals unleashed the Trump monster
November 11th, 20160 The Earth has been shifting under our feet for a while, but all liberals want to do is desperately cling to the status quo like a life-raft. Middle-class Britons are still hyperventilating about Brexit, and now middle-class America is trembling at the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House. And, of course, middle-class Americans...Looking past identity politics: Dearborn Court’s Judge-elect Gene Hunt
Vote for Susan Dabaja, because she's an Arab." This is what my mother repeatedly exclaimed to me throughout the 2016 election cycle, where Gene Hunt, a longtime resident and lawyer from Dearborn, squeezed a victory over a young attorney and city council president, Susan Dabaja to secure his new role as 19th District Court Judge. I...
Public servants or corporate security? An open letter to law enforcement in North Dakota
November 3rd, 20160 A protester against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, Nov. 2So you joined law enforcement or the National Guard because you wanted to uphold the law, protect innocent civilians against the bad guys, and help your community in times of need. Instead, they're having you...
Muslims have a critical role in this election
October 28th, 20160 We are just days away from one of the most important presidential elections in American history – a contest that is important for all the wrong reasons. On Nov. 8, we are faced with two simple choices; a candidate who offers us all inclusion, and a candidate who offers us isolation. How we vote on Election Day will have wide...
The battle for Mosul: Relocating terrorists to Raqqa is a dangerous game
October 21st, 20160 American calculations surround the battle for Mosul and its ramifications on the Middle East — the first aim is geopolitical and the second is electoral. Mosul, considered the Iraqi capital of ISIS, is Iraq's second largest city. The first goal is connected to the war in Syria and the international showdown between Moscow and...
How Israel convinces the world it is under constant ‘existentialist threat’
October 14th, 20160 The Israeli official narrative regarding its conflict with the Palestinians is deliberately confounded because a muddled up discourse is a convenient one. It allows the narrator to pick and choose half-truths at will, in order to create a falsified version of reality. For instance, this is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
A sobering look beyond the election
October 7th, 20160 This campaign year has been full of twists and turns. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone on November 8. So talking about what comes afterward seems premature. But it’s been on my mind a lot, because I’m worried. This is not about who wins the presidency. I’m concerned about the aftermath of this...
Cliché and banality at the debates: Trump and Clinton on the Middle East
September 30th, 20160 Watching them both yacking on about the Middle East as a pink dawn glowed from behind the Lebanese mountains above Beirut, I found the Trump-Clinton show a grimly instructive experience. In the few hundred miles east and north of Lebanon, hundreds are dying every week – in Syria, in Yemen, in Iraq – and yet there were the...
Honoring Aylan Kurdi by ending the war in Syria
September 23rd, 20160 "A photograph, no matter how emotionally wrenching, can only do so much," wrote Paul Slovic and Nicole Smith Dahmen in QZ.com. The photograph referenced in their comment was that of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body was washed ashore on some Turkish beach in September 2015. It has been over a year since that tragic photograph of...
African Americans are not Democrats’ ‘captured group’
September 16th, 20160 Are black voters so loyal to Democrats that their issues are ignored? Donald Trump suggests as much, arguing that blacks had "nothing to lose" by voting for him. Now a column by Farai Chideya at FiveThirtyEight cites academics who make a similar argument. In recent elections, about 90 percent of the black vote has gone to Democrats....
The Native American, the Palestinian: A spirited fight for justice
September 16th, 20160 Protesters stand on heavy machinery near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation - Photo by ReutersThousands of Native Americans resurrected the fighting spirit of their forefathers as they stood in unprecedented unity to contest an oil company's desecration of their sacred land in North Dakota. Considering its burdened historical context,...
Raqqa for Aleppo: The U.S.-Russian agreement hinges on the details
September 9th, 20160 Internal affairs in Russia and the United States are changing the balance of power and the shape of a future solution in Syria. In the United States, the presidential campaign is witnessing vicious attacks between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, with ISIS (and by extension the Syrian crisis) as one of the most important issues to...
Syrian refugees are not subjects for a social media gallery
September 2nd, 20160 The Italian "activist" was keen on that photo, as if her social media activism career was dependent on it. As if the misery of the poor Syrian child was not palpable enough in his dejected face and his rash-infested skin, she wanted to define a point of absolute misery for a perfect Instagram photo. So she handed him a bucket filled......
Social media’s challenge to democracy
I've been involved in politics for the better part of a lifetime, and have spoken at a lot of public meetings over the years. There's one question, I think, that I've heard more than any other: "If I want to be an informed citizen, which sources of information should I consult?" For many years, I had a set answer for this. Read one or...Has Turkey overplayed its hand in Syria?
Turkey is back in the game in Syria. Turkish tanks and special forces last week joined anti-Assad rebels to capture the border town of Jarabulus from ISIS. It was the first significant Turkish ground operation in Syria since the beginning of the war in 2011. The immediate target was ISIS, but a more important Turkish objective is to......
Does Muslim Always Mean Islamic?
What is Muslim versus what is Islamic concerns the question of normative Islam. Due to the difficulty of discerning Islam from its political developments, some have thrown in the towel and declared, "Islam is as Islam does." It is easy to see why some observers draw that conclusion: Islam – through its twin sources of Quran...Israel’s War on NGOs takes a worrying turn
You deserve to see your loved ones suffer and die. But, maybe, you would be hurt before them," was part of a threatening message received by a staff member at Al-Mezan, a Gaza-based human rights group. The photo attached to the email was of the exterior of the activist's home. The gist of the message: "We are coming for...The Obama Doctrine is ravaging the Middle East
Everyone seems to have a theory on how to obliterate ISIS. However, two points are rarely raised: one, concerning the origins of the group and the second, on whether there are genuine intentions to defeat it, in the first place. We must boldly address the first to unravel the enigma behind the rise and growth of Daesh – otherwise,...How factionalism in Palestine is killing prospects for freedom
Palestinian demonstrators in Ramallah calling for political unity, 2015 - Photo by AFP.As Palestinians in the Occupied Territories begin preparations for local elections, which are scheduled for October, division and factionalism are rearing their ugly heads. Palestinian political platforms and social media are abuzz with......
How soon we forget
Aimee Schoelles, former Dearborn School Board presidentWatching from a distance, it’s quite disheartening the things that have been said over the past few months in Dearborn. An organization and a man are being viciously attacked for asking legitimate questions during a highly contested election. Instead of answering these...Courts reaffirm the right to vote against Jim Crow approach
Last week, a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rebuked the North Carolina legislature for acting with "discriminatory intent" in passing restrictions on the right to vote that "target African Americans with almost surgical precision." The decision came as we approach the 51st anniversary of the Voting......
By attacking Captain Khan’s family, Trump sinks to new low
In 2004, Army Captain Humayun Khan was in the middle of a tour of duty in Iraq. While his unit was guarding the gates of their base, Captain Khan noticed a suspicious vehicle approaching their checkpoint. He immediately took control of the situation and ordered his fellow servicemembers to stay back. Captain Khan, however, moved...Next steps for Arab – Black solidarity
A mural featuring Trayvon Martin in Detroit.Since the tragic and senseless death of Trayvon Martin, we've participated in many events designed to bring together the Detroit area's Arab American and African American communities for the common goal of understanding and coalition building. These meetings occur on the backdrop of......
