Our excuses outnumber our votes
August 7th, 20090 It's hard times for Arab American candidates for public office in Dearborn. From the incumbents to the first-timers, they have found it next to impossible to break through the stigma and hesitation that many of the city's majority-white electorate have displayed in historical voting patterns. Thus, they greatly underperform amongst the...
Get out and vote!
July 31st, 20090 Voters go to the polls next Tuesday, August 4, for the city of Dearborn's primary election. Twenty five candidates will vie for 14 spots on the ballot in the November 3 general election, when seven of them will be voted in to seats on the city council. An unprecedented eight candidates are of Arab descent in the city council primary....
Palestinians are on their own
July 25th, 20090 I will never forget the image of the elderly woman whose son was dying in a hospital in Egypt. She only wanted to be with him. Crying, her hand touching the glass window of the office of the Egyptian intelligence services, she pleaded, "Please, please. I beg you, show mercy, let me go in." Another woman sat by the State Security office,...
Take your census form and shove it
July 18th, 20090 The first question I always get from "Americans" is 'Why do you keep calling yourself Arab American? You are American!'" It represents the rock and the hard place Arab Americans have been pushed in to by a lack of education among most non-ethnic Americans. It's aggravated by what I call the U.S. government's split personality when...
Can America succeed in Afghanistan?
July 10th, 20090 After more than seven and a half years in Afghanistan, the United States is mired in a seemingly impossible war. The country has only seen more violence, the political will of American allies is weak, and the Afghan government has failed to gain widespread legitimacy. As disastrous as the outcome is so far, the government thinks staying...
The uprising in Iran will live
July 4th, 20090 The struggle will continue in Iran. This great country is on a political fault line, and its people know it. A woman supporter demonstrator shows stones used for throwing during clashes with police in Tehran June 13, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadalla The wise words of Khaled Mohammad Khaled, an Islamist scholar, are relevant to the...Subsidies for Israel, sanctions for Iran
President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel is proceeding smoothly through the Congress. On June 17 the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a markup session on the budget. The subcommittee came under pressure from an antiwar...
Democratic principles selectively applied
June 27th, 20090 Knowing things with metaphysical certainty when most of the world is operating under carefully constructed myths is painful. Why? Knowing things that others do not fosters a sense of existential loneliness and makes polite conversation about many important things all but impossible. Supporters of Iranian protesters hold a...Netanyahu offers a state and a half
Could Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu become the Richard Nixon of the Middle East, as Barack Obama invited him to do? Could he break with his hard-line past and reach out to the Palestinians the way Nixon did with the Chinese? Or will he pay lip service to peace even as he does everything he can to keep the Palestinians from...AIPAC wall beginning to crack
For years, AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has helped to stonewall the Middle East peace process by building a solid wall around the Israeli government, protecting it from criticism in the U.S. Senators and representatives have feared the wrath of AIPAC come Election Day, even in states and districts where the...ACLU seeks reports of electronic device searches at borders, airports
In an effort to gather information about possible civil liberties abuses at U.S. borders, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is looking to speak with individuals who have had a laptop, PDA, BlackBerry, iPod or other electronic device holding large amounts of data taken or searched by agents at any of the state's borders...The lesson of the housekeeper
It is well known that for the past several months, ADC Michigan has been coping with tremendous financial challenges. Similar to other non-profit organizations serving the community, ADC Michigan continues to struggle to survive amidst a frail economy. ADC Michigan is one of the few organizations that does not receive government...The day of the dead
Cindy Sheehan I was on an airplane flying to Orange County from Sacramento to attend the al-Awda Conference, which is a Palestinian Right's Conference (al-Awda translates to "The Returning"), when the pilot's voice filled the cabin to make an announcement that I think went unnoticed by most of my fellow passengers, but I...
Obama defends Guantanamo closure, Cheney defends torture
May 23rd, 20090 NEW YORK — President Barack Obama cautiously minced his way Thursday through a political minefield filled with imminent explosions from human rights advocates, national security hawks, and a Congress terrified by the potential political backlash of any move to bring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the U.S. for trial or...Yemen on the brink of war?
On May 3, the US Embassy in Sana'a issued a statement on the political violence in South Yemen that claimed eight lives last week. The United States stressed that "Yemen's unity depends on its ability to guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law." What the Yemeni government calls unity, the protesters call......
The question of our time
May 9th, 20090 Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn't? A Palestinian protester runs from incoming tear gas fired by Israeli security forces during a protest against the construction of the controversial Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah May 8, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside This is...Obama faces Israel’s angst
"Could the Taliban get the bomb before Iran does?" read the headline in my favorite Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. The columnist, Bradley Burston, was joining Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in thinking the unthinkable, that the Taliban in Pakistan might soon have their hands on what the country's former President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto......
Court should not ban niqab
May 2nd, 20090 The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, with the support of a diverse group of religious, ethnic and domestic violence organizations, submitted a comment this week to the Michigan Supreme Court asking the court to change a proposed court rule that would effectively close the courthouse doors to Muslim women who wear a niqab, a...
Time to end U.S.-Israel free trade agreement
May 2nd, 20090 A legal filing to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) calls for suspension of the US-Israel Free Trade Area. We agree it's high time this drain on U.S. jobs and income is stopped. The "Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974" filing includes previously unreleased...Israel is more a liability than an asset to the U.S.
The Zionist Lobby (AIPAC), which is a tiny segment of the U.S. population, has gained an outrageously disproportionate and dangerous influence over our political machinery and as a result our country is on a foreign policy path that is counter to its best interests. The power of the Israeli lobby has brought about a situation in...
Do you have your organ donor sticker?
April 18th, 20090 There are approximately 3,000 of our family members, friends and neighbors in Michigan currently awaiting an organ transplant—and the miracle of a second chance at life. For some, the wait for a donor organ may take years. For others, the phone call announcing that one has been found may never come. The difference a lifesaving......
Obama’s trip a success
U.S. President Barack Obama participates in a town hall meeting with university students at the Tophane Cultural Center in Istanbul April 7, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed The Obamas' European Odyssey was a success — despite the predictable complaints of some U.S. critics. The president and first lady took the continent by storm,...ADC addresses immigration reform on the Hill
Each week, ADC receives numerous inquiries about how and when comprehensive immigration reform will be passed. The Obama administration has indicated that the president will publicly address the issue in May, with hopes of having reform a reality before 2010. ADC has been addressing the issue of reform with Congressional members and......
Israeli nuclear arsenal prohibits U.S. aid
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) are heavily lobbying Congress for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel. However credible reports from the U.S. Army and a former president confirm the existence of an Israeli nuclear weapons arsenal. This could prohibit U.S. taxpayer funded...Changing the rules of war
The extent of Israel's brutality against Palestinian civilians in its 22-day pounding of the Gaza Strip is gradually surfacing. Israeli soldiers are testifying to lax rules of engagement tantamount to a license to kill. One soldier commented: "That's what is so nice, supposedly, about Gaza: You see a person on a road, walking along a......
