Burning more than the Qur’an
Saturday is International Burn a Qur'an Day. Perhaps you hadn’t heard. The day is the brainchild of one Terry Jones, pastor of the tiny Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. You will not be surprised to hear that his plan to build a bonfire of Qur'ans has stirred passions around the world. The New York Times reports Jones...Fatah and Hamas: Two heads, no brain
The photos have been taken in Washington and the waiting game begins once again on the Palestine-Israel front. How many more settlements will be built or expanded? Will the violence continue? What will happen to East Jerusalem? But the more pressing issues on the minds of most Palestinians right now are personal...Muslims were here before 9/11
New York — I live in Harlem on a street that is home to three churches and a mosque. The mosque is next door to one of those churches and when male congregants mingle on the sidewalk, it's impossible to tell who had just been in church and who in the mosque. It's only some of the women's headscarves that tell you. Muslim Americans...
On our 26th anniversary, we renew our commitments
September 4th, 20100 Last year The Arab American News quietly celebrated its 25th anniversary. We felt the usual hoopla would be inappropriate given the dire economic circumstances most of the country's citizens found themselves in. But the issues of our publication during that period were still filled with heartfelt congratulatory messages. This showed us...
“Bullied” but not surrendering
September 4th, 20100 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speak during an event about the Middle East peace talks in the East Room at the White House in Washington September 1, 2010. REUTERS/Jim YoungThe resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) will allow Barack Obama...Will fear of failure rescue Mideast negotiations?
Is the Obama administration able today to mediate conflict resolution between Arabs and Israelis? The White House is hosting this week the launch of a new round of direct Mideast peace talks. Without hesitation, the administration conveys new signs of hope and assumes the presence of regional readiness for peace making. The honored...Israel and the anti-Muslim blow-up
I don't know why I am at all surprised that the American Right – including the Republican Party – has decided that scapegoating Muslims is the ticket to success. After all, it's nothing new. I remember right after 9/11 when the columnist Charles Krauthammer, now one of the most vocal anti-Muslim demagogues, almost literally flipped...The credibility of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has been compromised and politicized
I have been in Lebanon for the past five weeks and not a day passes without hearing people talk about the implications of the indictment, which is scheduled for September 2010, on the basis on which the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will convene. The intensity of the anticipatory speculation rises in all directions along the length...The human element
EAST MEREDITH, NY — During a historical visit to Jerusalem in 1979, the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt proclaimed that the Arab-Israeli conflict is largely psychological. Inherited notions about history and deeply felt convictions about the injustices are so strong that when an Arab American meets a Jewish American socially they...Islamophobia: A threat to American values?
There is no lack of hate speech in the media and in print to empower Islamophobia. The primary focus is often not balanced reporting, or even coverage of positive news about Muslims but on highlighting acts and statements of political and religious extremists. And hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise across the United...GOP drift to the neoconservatives
Republicans have dug a deep hole for themselves on matters related to the Middle East and Islam reflecting the extent to which the Party has become captive of the neo-conservative "clash of civilization" crowd and their partners on the evangelical Christian right. This drift becomes clear listening to statements by Republican leaders and...Dangerous illusions and foreign policy
After a century in which tragedy has been heaped upon tragedy across the Middle East, it is distressing to see how many dangerous illusions still shape the behavior of so many of the region's principal players. This truth was brought home by a recent report, "A Third Lebanon War," issued by the influential Council on Foreign...Helen Thomas, supporters, not anti-Semitic
Arab museum should be supported in efforts to memorialize her life I am disappointed, but certainly not surprised, that the Jewish leadership and community find fault that the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn plans a sculpture in honor of the venerable journalist, Helen Thomas, a native Detroiter. As if that were not...Mike Bouchard is best choice for Governor
Since taking office in January 2003, I have worked hard as your Secretary of State to focus my department squarely on the mission of providing efficient and convenient service to the people of Michigan. Regardless of budget constraints, we have continued to do more with less. Early on in my term I set an agenda to reform...U.S. voters can demand Palestine’s freedom
In response to Israel's deadly attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla, more than 800 labor and community activists picketed America's sixth largest port in Oakland last month. The result was a historic blockade of a large Israeli cargo ship for 24 hours. Across the world, dockworkers and activists engaged in similar actions. In......
Ethnic nationalism and the fears of minorities
As a Jew with sympathies for Israel and the Palestinians, I did not expect to agree with much in Jamal Bittar's commentary, "Israel will not last for more than 30 years," (July 3-9, p. 10). But as I read past the title, I found myself in agreement with several of his points: that the 19th century equation of ethnic identities with...Israeli right embracing one-state?
There has been a strong revival in recent years of support among Palestinians for a one-state solution guaranteeing equal rights to Palestinians and Israeli Jews throughout historic Palestine. One might expect that any support for a single state among Israeli Jews would come from the far left, and in fact this is where the most......
CNN has lost the right to demand “free speech”
The firing of Octavia Nasr last week was truly a sad day for democracy, free speech and America. It was alarming and absolutely nauseating, and it spoke to the power of the pro-Israeli lobby in the U.S. It's reprehensible that CNN would fire a 20-year employee for expressing some respect for Grand Ayatollah Sayed Mohamed Hussein...BDS campaign wants Israel to abide by international law
There is a considerable amount of misunderstanding about Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. BDS is not a principle but a strategy; it is not against Israel but against Israeli policy; when the policy changes BDS will end. BDS is not about a particular solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the demand that Israel abide by...Two failed efforts at Muslim-bashing
Two separate incidents of Muslim-bashing occurred last week. Because they involved comments by prominent individuals and were so brazen, they caused some concern. But because neither resulted in any benefit to the offenders, only embarrassed silence or scorn, there is some hope that we may be turning a corner. The first of these came...Israel will not last for more than 30 years
In the last couple of years I have come to realize that the two-state solution is not likely to happen, at least anytime in the next 100 years. I'm not a political scientist, and indeed no expert on the conflict, but I do think that demographic realities dictate that unless the Palestinian people are given a homeland, a democratic Jewish......
Israeli war crimes and piracy
On June 8, 1967, two squadrons of Israeli warplanes bombed, napalmed and machine-gunned the U.S. intelligence-gathering ship, USS Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 U.S. sailors and wounding another 172. The assault took place on a sunny afternoon, with the U.S. flag and identifying markers clearly visible. The...The Madness of Arrogance
Israel’s attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on America’s Memorial Day was all too predictable, although the form it took surprised even me. And it confirms the old proverb that “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,” for the attack was the kind of madness only unbridled arrogance can assume.It wasn’t just......
Funny or not, South Park writers have rights
May 2nd, 20100 When the network Comedy Central altered an episode of South Park without consulting the writers because the previous night's show had elicited warnings from an alleged Muslim extremist group, we think they made a mistake. We also think it's time for all Muslims to recognize this: The restrictions and prohibitions in Islam are for...Why Iran won’t attack Israel
Palestinians are in Israel today because they managed to survive the depopulation of 1948, the year the Jewish state was founded (Arabs constitute about 20% of Israel's population). Ironically, while Benny Morris' scholarship suggests that the mere existence of these Palestinians in Israel — and millions more in the Occupied......