The Arab American News
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Community news briefs: Dearborn police officers charged with bribery, tax evasion
March 21st, 20090 DEARBORN — A police officer and an Arab American resident were charged March 13 in connection with bribery allegations involving traffic tickets. Dearborn resident Hassan H. Hojaije, L, and police officer Alex Brian Ramirez were charged March 13. Dearborn Police Officer Alex Brian Ramirez, 42 was arraigned in 19th District...
Job seekers flock to employment fair
March 21st, 20090 DEARBORN — The official start time for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services' job fair was 9 a.m., but that didn't stop eager job-seekers from lining up as early as 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Job seekers engage employers and fill out forms at an ACCESS job fair in Dearborn on Wednesday. ACCESS Operations...
Iraq: Pulling out or digging in?
March 14th, 20090 A lot of Americans who voted for candidate Barack Obama because of his promises to end George Bush's war in Iraq are feeling dismayed, or even betrayed. Iraqi policemen frisk tribal sheikhs before entering a reconciliation meeting in Baghdad March 8, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen During the election campaign, Obama vowed to...
In ruins for 18 months, a Palestinian enclave languishes in disrepair
March 14th, 20090 NAHR ALBARED REFUGEE CAMP, LEBANON — Rebuilding Gaza isn't the only effort under way to improve the Palestinians' plight. Eighteen months after it was wrecked in fighting between the Lebanese Army and Islamist militants, this impoverished refugee camp is just beginning to be put back together again in a project hampered by a...
Obama pick quits over Israel lobby
March 14th, 20090 The candidate for a leading U.S. intelligence post has withdrawn his nomination after accusing the country's Israel lobby of plumbing "the depths of dishonor and indecency" to assassinate his character. Charles "Chas" Freeman Charles "Chas" Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador who is now president of the Middle East Policy...Profiling still plagues Muslim communities
NEW YORK — On the heels of a recent poll that found that American Muslims experience emotional turbulence due to the stereotypes and suspicion of Islam since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, two major Muslim-American organizations issued scathing indictments of the tactics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department...Islamist governments not the enemy, say Mideast experts
WASHINGTON — Scores of Middle East and democracy experts released an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday asking him to focus more of his foreign policy efforts at making reforms in the region, including boosting human rights. Signed by over 120 academics, scholars, experts and others, the letter said that previous...Mini-summit pledges Arab unity
The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and Kuwait have pledged to work together to advance the causes of their region. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (L-R), Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah walk together at Riyadh airport March 11, 2009....Hot air brings no winds of change
JERUSALEM — Last November, on the day marking the assassination of Israel's peace-making leader Yitzhak Rabin, the now outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis something which, for decades, not even Rabin had dared say — we must end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and return to the 1967 borders....
World briefs: Iraq shoe thrower sentenced to three years in jail
March 14th, 20090 BAGHDAD — An Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush was convicted of attempting to assault a foreign leader on Thursday and jailed for three years, dismaying many Iraqis who regard him as a hero. Muntazer al-Zaidi: "What I did was a natural reaction for the crimes committed against the Iraqi...The United Nations is a useless, toothless organization
I used to think the U.N., both in principle and in practice, was the closest thing we'd have to a world government, coming together to tackle the challenges faced by all humanity. Now I feel that the U.N. is an utterly useless organization when it comes to protecting human rights and enforcing security. U.S. President Barack...Israeli policy gives Jews a bad name
Most Jews I know get little pleasure from the existence of Israel; just the opposite. They feel disgusted by the behavior of their tribal kin toward Palestinians. This antipathy doesn't concern Israel's right to exist, a phony argument still maintained by hard line Zionists. Israel exists, period. Most of the world recognizes that....Video: Creative expression in the Arab World
Arabesque, is a current, very popular Kennedy Center showcase of theater and dance, sounds and tastes from over 20 Arab countries. With events taking place over the course of weeks, it is widely seen as a landmark for the representation of Arab culture in the United States. The festival has spawned a flurry of related events. With so...One more farcical tour of the Middle East
It was almost dreamlike, watching Secretary of State Hillary Clinton make her visit to Israel, one that can be called the first of many trips pretending to encourage peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. It's a dream I've had several times over; one needs only to simply fill in the names of the various U.S. secretaries of...
Community briefs: Three locals charged with mortgage fraud
March 14th, 20090 Belly dance show at DSO Miles Copeland, former manager of the groundbreaking '80s rock trio The Police, began putting together a troupe of American bellydancers in 2002 with the intention of doing for the Middle East what "Riverdance" did for Ireland. The Bellydance......
Finkelstein to keynote ASU banquet
March 14th, 20090 DEARBORN — An energetic group of college students hopes to add an extra spark to their efforts as Arab American youth activists when they bring Norman Finkelstein — a well-known scholar on Israeli-Palestinian conflict who causes a stir every time he speaks in the Detroit area — to keynote their annual "Empowering the Youth" dinner...
Oakland International Academy garners award
March 14th, 20090 When it comes to handing out funds to local schools, scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests are an important factor. Oakland Superintendent Ahmed Saber (left), and faculty members Conrad Koch, Adnan Aabed, and Eraqi Eraqi. Photo courtesy of Conrad Koch But doesn't mean that they are always fair....
Group celebrates Saadeh birthday, legacy
March 14th, 20090 SOUTHFIELD — Syria's ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustapha spoke at the Silver Garden Theater on March 7 during a commemoration of the birthday of Antun Saadeh, founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Syria's ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustapha speaks at the Silver Garden Theater in Southfield on March 7 during a...
CAAO delegation to visit Qatar, meet emir
March 14th, 20090 A delegation of local Arab Americans organized by the Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) is to depart Saturday for Doha, Qatar, where the group is scheduled to meet with the Gulf nation's leader Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani on Sunday. A plaque to be presented to the emir of Qatar by a delegation of Arab Americans......
Attorney relates horror of Gaza
March 14th, 20090 A member of a delegation of lawyers that traveled to Gaza in February spoke to a group of Palestinian rights activists in Dearborn on Tuesday about the fact-finding mission. Linda Mansour, one of nine National Lawyers Guild delegates who traveled to Gaza in February on a fact-finding mission, speaks to representatives of the...
GM warns it may not survive
March 7th, 20090 DETROIT — General Motors Corp on Thursday said its auditors had raised "substantial doubt" about its ability to survive outside bankruptcy if it fails to stem its losses and stop burning cash. A flock of birds sits on a covered General Motors sign at an abandoned auto dealership in Warren, Michigan, in this December 18, 2008......
Video: Arab culture celebrated in nation’s capital
March 7th, 20090 Last Friday, the "Weekend" section of the Washington Post featured a cover story on "Arabesque: Art of the Arab World," the Kennedy Center's three-week-long festival of Arab arts and culture. There is no better way to begin a reflection on the program, than to quote the opening lines of the marvelous "Weekend" review by Ellen McCarthy....Did Clinton sabotage a Palestinian reconciliation?
An end to the schism between the resistance and the elected but internationally-boycotted Hamas government on the one hand, and the Western-backed Fatah faction on the other, seemed within reach. But the good feeling came to a sudden end after what looked like a coordinated assault by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,......
