Restoring faith in representative democracy
July 27th, 20170 There's no shortage of threats to our democracy. Russian meddling in elections, the vulnerability of state voting systems to hacking, politicians' assaults on the media and political leaders' growing fondness for policy-making in secret — all of these pose a real challenge to our system's viability. As worrisome as these are,...
How Trump and Netanyahu pushed Palestinians into a corner
July 27th, 20170 Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of four months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of "trying to hit an Israeli...
Hamtramck’s Muslim majority Council proves media wrong
July 21st, 20170 HAMTRAMCK — When the voters of Hamtramck elected four Muslims to the City Council in 2015, it made headlines nationally and internationally on media outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, CNN, Fox News and more as a seemingly oxymoronic move in an "American city"— as if those public officials' Islamic faith...
The story behind the Jerusalem attack: How Trump and Netanyahu pushed Palestinians into a corner
July 21st, 20170 By Ramzy Baroud Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of four months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of "trying to hit...
Intra-cultural conflicts among Dearborn’s Arab Americans are a concern
July 14th, 20170 It is a known fact that Dearborn has the highest concentration of Americans of Arab descent, some thriving more than others, in part due to their long history in this nation. For many reasons, internal segregation, which tends to stem from religious separation, politics and tribalism, has truly become a community concern. Last week,...
Excessive fireworks put Dearborn residents in a war zone
July 7th, 20170 The Fourth of July has passed, but the community's celebratory faults haven't, as "war zone" sounds persistently reappear over the years. Dearborn's patriotism shines bright on Independence Day. However, community members launch dangerous fireworks in between houses and throughout neighborhoods— disregarding the potential dangers,...
The call to shut down Al Jazeera must be condemned
July 7th, 20170 It has been more than a month since four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia decided to cut off ties with their neighbor, Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE imposed severe diplomatic and economic sanctions on the tiny Gulf state that heavily depends on imports for its daily consumption of necessary goods. The...
Hussein Berry is to blame for the tension on the school board and in the community
July 1st, 20172 These past few weeks have been filled with political rants, social media gossips and legal threats. It has become hard to find the truth amid the sea of accusations. This is the new age of politics, it is the Trump era. Truth has no place in his White House and it seems that it has no place in Dearborn, either. At the Dearborn Board...
Israel vs. the United Nations: The Nikki Haley doctrine
June 28th, 20170 The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, seems to be championing a single cause: Israel. When Haley speaks about Israel, her language is not merely emotive nor tailored to fit the need of a specific occasion. Rather, her words are resolute, consistent and are matched by a clear plan of action. Along with...
The conspiracy theory and the Dearborn Board of Education appointment process
June 23rd, 20171 Much has been said and written about the Dearborn Board of Education candidates and the process to appoint a successor to now Judge Mariam Bazzi. Most of the rants on social media centered around a couple of themes: Adel Mozip should get Bazzi's former seat because he received 11,000 votes during the last election, which he lost anyway;...
Too much at stake for Dearborn Board of Education to remain divided
June 16th, 20170 The inability of the Dearborn Board of Education to reach an agreement and appoint a new trustee to fill the seat vacated by former trustee and now Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Mariam Bazzi disappointed many in the city. Three Board members, Fadwa Hammoud, Mary Lane and Michael Meade, selected local businesswoman Celia Nasser....
Ahmad Jibril doesn’t belong to Dearborn
June 10th, 20171 Local and national articles are alarming readers with tales of an insidious "Dearborn cleric" who is apparently "popular" and "inspirational" to ISIS members. The headlines, however, have it all wrong. He is neither a cleric nor has he ever really been visible in Dearborn. Furthermore, his obscurity can hardly award him with any...
Not only Muslims: Last week, allies became casualties, too
June 2nd, 20170 Rick Best, 53, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, took a brave stand against bigotry and assault last Friday when they stepped in to defend two teenage girls from the verbal assault and abuse of a bigot whose best defense was that they "looked Muslim." Both 16-year-old Destinee Magnum and her...Donald Trump and the politics of whine
By Thomas L. Knapp "No politician in history, and I say this with great surety," President Trump told Coast Guard Academy graduates on May 17, "has been treated worse or more unfairly" than himself. A day later, in the wake of the Justice Department's appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to...
Trump’s visit to Israel: How Palestine disappeared from US media coverage
June 2nd, 20170 As if he has, overnight, been transformed into a master politician, Donald Trump's 27-hour trip to Israel has left many analysts mystified. Quoting former Israeli political adviser Mitchell Barack, the New York Times referred to Trump as the "Liberace of world leaders", in reference to flamboyant piano player Wladziu Valantino......
Trump must be more firm against White supremacy
June 2nd, 20170 By Dawud Walid Donald Trump's first visit abroad as president was marked by several statements which explicitly and implicitly stated that he wished to put America first. In the first leg of his trip in Saudi Arabia, he stated, "Our first priority is always the safety and security of our own citizens." As there definitely are...
Talking to the other side
May 26th, 20170 I've had a number of conversations recently that convince me our country is divided into two political camps separated by a deep and uncomfortably wide gap. No, I'm not talking about liberals and conservatives or pro- and anti-Trump voters. I'm talking about people who believe in politics and our political system and people who......
Fear as an obstacle to peace: Why are Israelis afraid?
May 26th, 20170 Bat-Hen Epstein Elias's long article on Iranian Jews is interesting. Parts of it, in fact, are heartwarming. Yet, despite the lack of any serious evidence, the story is entirely framed in the language of fear. Entitled, "All the Jews there live in fear that their telephones are tapped", the story in "Israel Hayom" peddles the idea...
Trump in Saudi Arabia: King of hypocrisy
May 26th, 20172 Trump's affinity for all things "yuge" and slathered in gold was manifest in his choice of visits. Instead of taking the opportunity to make a diplomatic stride through his first foreign visit since taking office, Trump rather reinforced the commitment to power and money shared between the two warmongering governments through a...
Nakba was 69 years ago, but Arab complacency keeps it going
May 19th, 20170 May 15 marked the 69th year of systematic expulsion and pillaging of Palestinian communities, in addition to the centennial of the Balfour declaration that began the travesty. In May of 1948 alone, after the Israeli militiamen of the Haganah, Irgun and Palmach liquidated entire villages via massacres, forcing the spared from their...
Firing Comey will haunt Trump’s presidency
May 12th, 20171 In another display of power overreach, Trump played Nixon when he fired FBI director James Comey. Or perhaps he thought he was still on the Apprentice, with "You're fired" as his only misguided attempt at wielding power. Here, in firing Comey, the ends do not justify the means; the Americans are paying attention to the cause of......
Trump’s 100 days: A reign of error
May 5th, 20170 President Trump's first 100 days were characterized by attempts to reject every act of President Obama's in his eight years in office. In other words, this is also known as "Whitelash"; a rejection of everything passed by the first Black president by a reactionary reputed bigot. In fact, the entirety of Trump's 100 days in office...
The real reasons behind the Palestinian hunger strike
May 5th, 20170 Gaza is the world's largest open air prison. The West Bank is a prison, too, segmented into various wards, known as areas A, B and C. In fact, all Palestinians are subjected to varied degrees of military restrictions. At some level, they are all prisoners. East Jerusalem is cut off from the West Bank, and those in the West Bank are......
Palestinian, Jewish voices must jointly challenge Israel’s past
April 29th, 20170 Israel has resorted to three main strategies to suppress Palestinian calls for justice and human rights, including the Right of Return for refugees. One is dedicated to rewriting history; another attempts to distract from present realities altogether and a third aims at reclaiming the Palestinian narrative as essentially an Israeli...
Stand up for justice, support the Palestinian prisoners
April 29th, 20170 Since mid-April, more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners have been conducting a hunger strike led by Palestinian leader and notable prisoner Marwan Barghouti. After Barghouti's well-publicized April 16 New York Times op-ed calling for humane conditions, regular family visits and due process, this hunger strike has reinvigorated the debate......
