Gauging outrage: Media and the aftermath of the Paris attacks
Relatives of journalist Halid Ahmed who died during the attack of Israel, mourn near his funeral on July 20, 2014.Appropriately, thousands of comics have been published in response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this month. One of the most striking ones I’ve seen so far depicts the gunmen as they fire at the magazine’s office;...
Sayed Qazwini went too far
January 30th, 20150 Sayed Hassan Qazwini's resignation from the Islamic Center of America shocked the community. But those who are familiar with the state of the relationship between the imam and some members of the ICA Board of trustees were not surprised by the news. Qazwini had blasted the board with strong statements made to The Arab American News in...Benjamin Netanyahu: The anti-American obstructionist
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of an invitation to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in March is an unacceptable interference in our domestic political arena and must be challenged. It is simply not enough for the White House to indicate that there will be no meeting between President Obama...Lessons that Hollande failed to learn from Bush’s blunders
Francois Hollande.Francois Hollande is not a popular president. No matter how hard the "socialist" leader tries to impress, there never seems to be a solid constituency that backs him. He attempted to mask his initial lack of experience in foreign affairs with a war in Mali, after his country enthusiastically took on Libya. While he...The Israeli strike against Hezbollah an act of aggression
When Israel killed five Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights on Sunday, Jan. 18, the Zionist state violated several international treaties, beating the drums of war in a region already suffering from violence and chaos. The Israeli attack, which also claimed the life of an Iranian general, was a deliberate,...
Freedom of speech stutters when it comes to Israel
January 23rd, 20150 Freedom of speech is a prerequisite to all political rights in a democracy. Without it, "we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter," as George Washington once said. The terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris on Jan. 5 sparked countless statements in defense of freedom of speech, no matter how controversial or offensive...On Black-Palestinian solidarity: Can we dream together?
Activist Steven Pargett and rapper Tef Poe in Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem.This week, a delegation of African-American activists returned from a 10-day trip to Palestine. Black organizers, artists, and journalists from organizations including the Florida-based Dream Defenders, Chicago’s Black Youth Project, and Ferguson’s...The Saudi hypocrisy
Then President George W. Bush and then Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud walk amid the blue bonnets of Crawford, TX in 2005.On Wednesday, Jan. 7, Saudi Arabia denounced the attacks on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo as a "cowardly terrorist act." Two days later, the kingdom flogged liberal blogger...Are All Terrorists Muslims? It’s Not Even Close
What percentage of terror attacks in the United States and Europe are committed by Muslims? Guess. Nope. Guess again. And again...“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” How many times have you heard that one? Sure, we heard Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade say it, but to me, that was simply part of the Fox...The U.S. veto: A bad end to a bad year
The closing weeks of 2014 spelled disaster for U.S. leadership and the rule of law. During the last two weeks of December, the U.S. countered three different efforts designed to affirm Palestinian rights. It was unfortunate since in doing so the U.S. undercut its stated commitments to uphold the rule of law in international relations...Congress: Looking forward by looking back
With the 114th Congress just underway, the political world is focused intently on the road ahead. Taxes, trade, immigration, climate change, job creation, the Affordable Care Act, there’s a long list of issues and one burning question: whether a Republican Congress and a Democratic president can find common ground. Yet, before...
The Paris attacks are an insult to the Prophet Mohamad
January 7th, 20150 Terrorism struck in the heart of Paris on Wednesday, Jan. 7, when three masked gunmen killed 12 people at the office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Media reports rushed to describe the crime as "an apparent militant Islamist attack" because the paper had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohamad, even though the suspects,...Five reasons why 2014 was a game changer in Palestine
In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, surpassing the horrors of both 2008 and 2009, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority (PA), and the criminality of...
We will stick by our principles and keep our promises
December 25th, 20140 Thinking is never wrong. Questioning is never offensive. Last week, our editorial "Questioning the wisdom behind Ashura procession" unfairly sparked outrageous, offended and offensive comments. Unlike what an attention-seeking gossip Facebook page claimed, our editorial did not call for an end to Ashura processions. The article...Fighting terror with terror is futile
The 528-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture may come as a shock to many, but would not have surprised the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). In 1991 and again in 1995, fed up with his dealings with this agency, he introduced a bill for its abolition. Too much secrecy that amounted to a blanket......
Questioning the wisdom behind Ashura processions
December 19th, 20140 The Arbaeen march at Ford Woods park in Dearborn.The local Shi'a have been commemorating Ashura increasingly and more visibly each year. Last weekend about 6,000 people marched from the Karbala center in Warrendale to Ford Woods Park in Dearborn to mark the Arbaeen, the 40th day after the death of Imam Hussain. Ashura is a grand...
Officials who authorized torture should be prosecuted
December 12th, 20140 The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report on the CIA's enhanced interrogation methods (euphemism for torture) that revealed gruesome torture, cover-ups, mismanagement, lies and deliberate misleading of the public by the agency. The report released on Tuesday is the result of a five-year Senate investigation into the......
Is torture an American value?
The most recent chapter in America's sordid history with torture, the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA torture during the Bush Administration, reinforces what human rights organizations and frankly many people around the world already know about the U.S. government. Ours is a government that views...
Path forward needed for stronger Arab-Black solidarity
December 12th, 20140 As protests erupt across the U.S. in reaction to the non-indictments of two White male police officers who killed two unarmed Black men, a discussion on the state of race relations in this country has also taken hold – particularly between the Arab American and African American communities. Parts of this conversation have been...
Mubarak’s acquittal a continuation of the counter-revolution
December 5th, 20140 On Jan. 25, 2011, Egypt revolted against tyranny. Egyptian security forces gunned down more than 800 peaceful protesters during the 17-day uprising that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the dictator who has been ruling the country for 30 years.Last week, Mubarak and seven of his security commanders, including ex-interior minister...The Mockingjay of Palestine: “If we burn, you burn with us”
Raed Mu’anis was my best friend. The small scar on top of his left eyebrow was my doing at the age of five. I urged him to quit hanging on a rope where my mother was drying our laundry. He wouldn’t listen, so I threw a rock at him.I didn’t mean for the rock hit him, but it did. My father dragged to me to his house kicking and......
Police should be on, not behind, cameras
Police body cameras are all the rage lately. Al Sharpton wants them used to monitor the activities of cops. Ann Coulter wants them used to “shut down” Al Sharpton. The White House wants them because, well, they’re a way to look both “tough on police violence” and “tough on crime” by spending $263 million on new law...UAE designation of U.S. Muslim groups as terrorist is absurd
Last week, the United Arab Emirates announced a list of 82 terrorist organizations. Besides violent extremist groups, the UAE government listed peaceful Western Muslim advocacy organizations, including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society (MAS). Designating Muslim American groups as......
What lies ahead in Congress
Given all the words and images devoted to the midterm elections over the past few weeks, you’d think the results had told us something vital about the future of the country. In reality, they were just a curtain-raiser. It’s the next few weeks and months that really matter.The big question, as the old Congress reconvenes and prepares...American justice failed Michael Brown
More than three months after Darren Wilson executed Michael Brown in broad daylight in Ferguson, the grand jury’s decision is in. No state prosecution, no justice from the state’s court system, for his crime. Wilson will never be tried, let alone convicted. But in the real justice system, this is not the end for Wilson — it’s......