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...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....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....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....Divestment from the Israeli occupation of Palestine
A coalition of Columbia University students released a series of demands this week that clearly and forcefully lay the groundwork for the divestment of the University's endowment funds from those corporations currently profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestine. This step is long overdue. The recent assault on the...
Sadr Foundation: Raising hope from despair
March 7th, 20090 DEARBORN — Hiam and Ibtisam Bazzi were seven and four years old when their mother died in 1977. Their father, unable to care for them alone in impoverished south Lebanon, placed them under the care of the Sadr Foundation, a network of orphanages, schools and clinics based in Tyre that has served tens of thousands of Lebanese over the......
“The Big Read” to encourage literacy and celebrate late Egyptian Nobel winner
March 7th, 20090 DEARBORN — The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn is hosting a month-long celebration of the life and works of Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, with free books available all month. Called "The Big Read" and made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts...
ACC program tackles mental health
March 7th, 20090 Severe mental health issues are almost never at the forefront of conversation, but discussion in the Arab community is even more rare according to ACT Team Leader Amy Rahhall. Amy Rahhall The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, which is run through the Arab American and Chaldean Council through funding from the...
CIA holds appreciation dinner
March 7th, 20090 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) held an appreciation dinner for leaders of the Arab American and Chaldean community on Wednesday at the Westin Hotel in Southfield. CIA Associate Deputy Director Scott White Members of the Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee...Community news briefs: Huge crowd expected for ACCESS job fair
DEARBORN — With the job market as tough as it's been in decades, the first ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services) job fair of 2009 is expected to be as packed and competitive as ever. The spring job fair, one of three held during the year at ACCESS, will take place on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at the Dearborn......
Muslims reject terror tactics, back some goals
WASHINGTON – Strong majorities of people in predominantly Muslim countries reject terrorism but support key goals of Al Qaeda, notably expelling U.S. military forces from the Islamic world, according to a major new study of public opinion in seven nations and the Palestinian territories released here Wednesday. Nearly 90 percent...Memo to Obama: Urgent action needed in Mideast
We do not know what special envoy George Mitchell told President Barack Obama after his tour of the Middle East. But here is what I hope he is telling the president now. "Mr. President, unfortunately I do not have good news. It is easy to misjudge Israel. It is indeed a country that thrives in certain respects, but politically it has......
The Israeli occupation binds together Syria, Iran and the resistance
Washington is now listening intently to Syria. Last week, the Democratic Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry, met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. And this week, Syria's ambassador to the United States visits a high level official in the State Department. There is an improvement in relations as...
Money, name recognition push Bing, Cockrel past primary
February 28th, 20090 DETROIT — Detroit businessman Dave Bing and incumbent Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. came out on top in Tuesday's special mayoral primary election. The two will face off in a May 5 runoff. Detroit businessman Dave Bing Reuters The winner will serve out the remainder of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term,......
