West needs to better assess Islam
BOSTON The United States is a confused and frustrated country when it comes to dealing with the wide variety of voices and actions coming out of Muslim societies. Everywhere in the public sphere, discussions of foreign policy issues inevitably touch on how to deal with "Islamic extremism," often revolving around the "terrorism" and...Standing in the shoes of the foe
My life in the West Bank during the summer of 2006 was a lot less dramatic than some might imagine. I wasn't kidnapped and I didn't see any gunbattles in the street. I went to university every day, ate delicious food, and traveled throughout various cities in the area. This is not to say that life is normal in this part of the...The power of the ink of the scholar
WASHINGTON (IPS) In an age when suicide bombings and religious and ethnic riots comprise the bulk of the evening news, it seems as though compassion and compromise are more elusive than ever. Buddha said that there are three poisons in this world: greed, anger, and ignorance. These poisons have the capacity to destroy individuals ...Film designed to anger Muslims divides the West
The timing could not be more truthful. Just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a peacekeeping mission to Israel-Palestine and declared her opposition to Israeli settlement expansion, Israel announced plans to build 1,400 new settler homes in the West Bank. Last week Secretary Rice gave a press...A responsible response to Geert Wilders
NEW YORK ? As soon as I heard that right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders' anti-Islam film had been uploaded onto an internet site, I did what any self-respecting Muslim would do: I clicked on the link and prepared to be offended. Talk about anti-climax! What happened, Geert? Like a magpie stringing cheap trinkets together,...Let our people go!
Arab American political activist Muthanna al-Hanooti was arrested and jailed this week by federal officials upon arrival at Detroit Metropolitan Airport returning from a trip to the Middle East. The following day he was charged with two counts of conspiracy and three counts of lying to the FBI about working for agents with the Iraqi...When a ‘custodian of freedom’ is the perpetrator of ethnic cleansing
A few weeks after newly elected Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, apologized to the Aborigines, the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, Rudd was party to a motion in Parliament describing Israel as a "robust democracy" and a "custodian of freedom" in a region abounding in autocracies and theocracies. Opposition Liberal...Granholm did not deserve the coverage
To the Editor: How much did Granholm pay you to write this untrue letter about her and the state of Michigan? (Michigan ranked one of best-managed states, Issue 1153, March 8-14, 2008). Granholm is an anti-American who hates herself and everyone else! She's trying to close all the schools here, the jails and the mental...End the shame of NSEERS
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced a plan that would reduce the Naturalization Background backlog, as well as the green card backlog. Officials hope to move nearly 900,000 applicants by the end of September. This is great news for...State Department got it all wrong with report on “new anti-Semitism”
The U.S. State Department released a report on March 13 from the Office of the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism. It follows up on a 2005 document and was dedicated to the memory of U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor to have served in Congress. The Hungarian-born Lantos died last month...Something bad is happening to us
We have become accustomed to treating the Palestinians as inferior people. Generations come and go, and new soldiers abuse the residents of occupied Hebron in almost the same manner. This time, it was regular soldiers in the Kfir Brigade. They exposed their backsides and sexual organs to Palestinians, pressed an electric heater to the...Kudos to ABC and Primetime
Show alerts audience to Islamophobia live This past week, the ABC newsmagazine Primetime ran a limited series entitled "What Would You Do?" The hidden camera show set up everyday scenarios that happen in America and then captured people's reactions to them. The leading scenario pitted a Waco, Texas bakery clerk (played by a male...‘Where are you from?’
JENIN I live in an apartment building adjoining the Arab American University - Jenin (AAUJ) on a hill surrounded by farmland and quiet villages. As I write, the wind outside my leaky windows has been howling for hours, adding to the desolation of the campus. The protracted semester, beset by student and faculty unrest, has finally...Lobbying our way to the Promised Land
As Arab Americans across the country eulogize Senator Barak Obama's enlightened foreign policy positions and vociferously campaign for his nomination, we should understand that a president can only do so much. This is largely due to the fact that a monarchy-wary nation imposed formidable checks on the presidential powers of the executive...Dissolve the Palestinian Authority
AMMAN The Annapolis peace process seems to be moving in slow gear, and on the ground Israelis and Palestinians are back to the routine of daily clashes, rockets, assassinations and threats of more to come. Few people seem to have any idea about how to get out of this stalemate and move towards a permanent, comprehensive, fair......
Kilpatrick must resign
There's simply no question that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should resign his post as mayor of the city of Detroit. Kilpatrick's public philandering, as bad as it is, is no surprise. But public officials are expected, are elected, to uphold the law and to set high moral standards. We expect our public officials to be...A hole in the wall
As the massacres against unarmed Palestinians continued under the policy of ethnic cleansing which has been utilized by the global Zionist movement since the beginning of its occupation of Palestine, two important studies concerning the preparations for the war on Iraq were released in the West. The first study, "Flimsy......
Where’s the American Jewish condemnation?
For years now, I have heard demands that we Americans of Palestinian descent condemn various military actions taken by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. And we do so, because innocents should never pay for the sins of their military forces and government. But I'd like to know if the American Jewish community will ever...The sad, unfortunate State of the Union
The State of the Union address is officially a big deal. And it is always accorded an appropriate measure of attention by the television networks, members of Congress and the American people. But some State of the Union addresses are more equal than others. When George Bush addressed Congress in 2005, he did so as the most powerful man...Mike Gravel is right choice for Arabs, Muslims
As the Michigan Co-Director of the Mike Gravel for President campaign, I am writing to take issue with William Fisher's article, "American Muslim voters left out in the cold," and his statement, "Among candidates, the single exception appears to be Democrat Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio congressman and former mayor of Cleveland. He has...Power to the Palestinians!
The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own "moderate" political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by......
The Islamophobic movement what it is and what needs to be done about it
As we bid farewell to 2007, it's important to look back on three separate events that, taken together are significant, but went largely unreported. A video surfaced on the Internet, showing two masked Russian neo-Nazis with two hostages, one from Tajikistan and the other from Dagestan. With a swastika flag waving in the background,...How children learn religion can make or break their lives, their societies
Is it possible to critique systems of religious education without shocking sensibilities or touching sacred cultural symbols? The way children learn about their religion can lay the foundation of their abilities in critical thinking. When children are made to think that their religion is the only perfect faith, their biased......
What’s wrong with the Arab World?
The quick deterioration of political, social, and economic order in most countries in the Arab world reflects a range of underlying tensions, problems and failures that have manifested themselves for almost a century, and most of them are self-made Arab failures. Every regime of the Arab world has proved a failure. Not one has been able...How to win the GWOT
BEIRUT I do not spend much time mingling with officers in the United States armed forces, but when I do, usually at a conference or international gathering, or reading texts on the web, I always come away from the experience more heartened than threatened. Presumably, so does President George W. Bush, who spends much of his time......