The Arab American News
Author's Posts
Hamdan case to test military tribunals
NEW YORK (IPS) As the long-awaited trial of Guantanamo detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan opened this week at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, human rights groups filed suit demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) produce documents related to the U.S. government's ghost detention, torture and extraordinary rendition program....
Arab and Chaldean festival celebrates 37th year
July 26th, 20080 DETROIT While rain on Saturday caused the attendance to drop a little bit, the spirit of the 2008 Arab and Chaldean Festival was not compromised at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit this past Saturday and Sunday. From food to the gallery of art and artifacts to concerts and other performances, crowds of many different nationalities...Obama in Iraq
Baghdad Government officials in Baghdad make two contradictory points about the state of Iraq. On one hand, they say the government is much stronger, having largely crushed the Sunni insurgents last year and severely weakened the Mahdi Army Shi'a militia in the past six months. They claim journalists like myself do not give them...Bodies swap is uneasy triumph
BEIRUT (IPS) The image of 199 coffins covered with Lebanese, Palestinian and Hizbullah flags neatly aligned in a southern Beirut compound was broadcast last week on all national Lebanese TV stations. On Tuesday this week, 144 of these remains were transferred to Syria, their final place of rest. Such images have stirred varying...
Bush, U.S. military pressure Iraqis on withdrawal
July 26th, 20080 WASHINGTON (IPS) Instead of moving toward accommodating the demand of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a timetable for U.S. military withdrawal, the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. military leadership are continuing to pressure their erstwhile client regime to bow to the U.S. demand for a long-term military...
Roadblocks cripple West Bank economy
July 26th, 20080 HEBRON (IPS) The Israeli military has erected three additional roadblocks, further blocking vehicular access on the road between the south Hebron village of At-Tuwani and the commercial hub of Yatta in the southern West Bank. The West Bank is the Palestinian area west of the Jordan river, much of it under Israeli control....
$10 million suit against McDonald’s
July 26th, 20080 DEARBORN Two Muslim women from Detroit are jointly suing fast-food giant McDonald's for $10 million for alleged acts of discrimination against them in the hiring process involving their rights to wear a hijab at work. The suit, filed on their behalf by Dearborn lawyer and chairman of the Michigan Advisory Board for the...Cancer on the rise in Lebanon
BEIRUT (IPS) Reports of a rising incidence of cancer now worry many families across Lebanon. Over the past 40 years, reported cases of cancer have risen from 3,000 to about 8,000 a year. "Cancer has certainly increased in terms of real figures. Statistics in the 1960s show 100 incidents per 100,000 individuals. The most recent...
Al-Arian’s win at bond hearing moves him closer to end
July 26th, 20080 Professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian has spent more than five years in prison as the government pursued and lost a case against him. They claim he supported terrorism but could not convict him during a lengthy trial. A later plea agreement gave the government an admission of Al-Arian's guilt on one charge, in exchange for his...
Wojtowicz seeks ninth term, touts experience
July 18th, 20080 Wayne County Treasurer Raymond WojtowiczIn his eighth term and fighting for a ninth, Wayne County Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz is touting his 32 years of experience on the job as the Aug. 5 Democratic primary approaches. The 79 year-old former mayor of Hamtramck spoke with The Arab American News this week about his...
New profiling guidelines may cause concern
July 18th, 20080 DEARBORN With the prospect of the U.S. Department of Justice passing new guidelines for targeting suspects based partly on ethnicity looming, Arab community leaders are concerned about the possibility of unfair treatment. The possible guidelines would allegedly give the FBI the ability to "investigate Americans without any...
Local picnic hosted by Muslim students served up unity and cooperation
July 18th, 20080 DEARBORN On Saturday, July 12, three student organizations hosted a picnic to demonstrate Muslim unity and cooperation. Hosted by the Thaqalayn Muslim Association of the University of Michigan - Dearborn, the Muslim Student Association of University of Michigan - Dearborn and the Muslim Student Association of Wayne State...Concert of Colors rocks Motown
DETROIT With a beat-driven lineup propelling its 16th year, the 2008 Concert of Colors promotes peace and respect through the universal language of music with four days of free performances at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Avenue, in Detroit. Designed to celebrate the many ethnic and cultural groups that comprise...
Greenfield Manor offers lap of luxury
July 18th, 20080 DEARBORN When it comes to different kinds of weddings at Greenfield Manor, Nina Bazzy has seen them all. Bazzy, the director of operations for the banquet hall on Greenfield Road in Dearborn, helps plan a different one for just about every day of the week. "We see so many different types of weddings here," said Bazzy. "I think...
AAPAC conducts interviews for primary election, will issue endorsements July 22
July 18th, 20080 Abdul Algazali (R), a Hamtramck city councilman and candidate for state congress, being interviewed by endorsement committee members of the Arab American Political Action Committee Nabih Ayad, Samir Olabi, Abed Hammoud (Inset, R), Don Unis and Hoda Berry on Tuesday. The committee interviewed several local political candidates and......
Arab and Chaldean festival this weekend at Hart Plaza
July 18th, 20080 One of the largest Arab and Chaldean American cultural event in North America will celebrate its 37th year at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit on Saturday and Sunday. Featuring a variety of Arab and Chaldean foods, an ethnic cultural gallery, an entertainment program featuring well-known dancers and singers, and a children's fair on...A new moderate voice on U.S./Israeli relations
For too long now, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other issues of war and peace in the Middle East, the mainstream media and too many politicians in the United States have deferred to the most extreme right-wing positions represented by organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)...Linking Obama with Islam and terror is a double offense
The cartoon cover page of the July 21st issue of The New Yorker depicts Obama the "Muslim," and his wife the "terrorist." While the Obama campaign finds the cartoon unfair, Muslims find it pejorative and profane. Muslims wonder: "Is Islam considered a plague in America?" The New Yorker has taken an aggressive editorial step...The coming of the third Palestinian exodus
Israel has once again sealed off the Gaza Strip from all but limited humanitarian aid, spawning widespread food, water and fuel shortages and crippling the local economy in the overcrowded territory of 1.5 million people. By depriving Palestinians of the basic conditions of a normal life, it is assumed that they will eventually......
DeBakey dead at 99
July 18th, 20080 Dr. Michael DeBakey, a pioneering heart surgeon acknowledged as the father of modern cardiovascular surgery, died at age 99 on July 11 of natural causes at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. DeBakey performed more than 60,000 heart surgeries and authored more than 1,000 medical reports, papers, chapters and books on medicine and...Imperialism, Islamophobia and the “war on terror”
The events of Sept. 11 have to be seen in two ways as the predictable and inevitable consequence of our unchecked imperial policies and as the growth of Islamism as the only popular alternative to the status quo. The irony is that these aren't mutually exclusive forces; in fact, more than anything, they reinforce each other.......
Flawed argument on Muslim condition
In this book, Razack argues that Muslims are being "evicted" from Western law and politics. We are given the myth, she says, of the dangerous Muslim man, the imperiled Muslim woman, and the civilized European. The myth includes the idea that the Muslim is benighted and pre-civilized and the European enlightened and...Guantαnamo video, deserter case draw Canadian criticism of U.S. ties
Toronto At a glance, they look like unrelated events unfolding thousands of miles apart and yet, they're both windows into Canada's passive partnership with the U.S. in the war on terror. On Tuesday, the release of a previously classified video shows a Canadian teenager accused of killing a U..S soldier in Afghanistan sobbing......
