If you don’t like it, call your representative
After the Dearborn City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance to ban smoking at parks, hundreds of social media users expressed outrage at the decision, saying that it targets Arab Americans hookah smokers. But how many of those Facebook activists have called a council member to convey their feelings? Not many.Lack of...Is Dearborn shunning its Arabs?
Who is hurt by some Arabs sitting in their garages, passing the time? Some White residents of Dearborn might not understand that our mothers and wives turn our houses into museums, prohibiting us from bring our friends inside. It doesn’t matter whether or not we men own the house. See, you don’t have to believe Fox...
Ramadan an opportunity to unite and celebrate
June 29th, 20150 Ramadan arrives this year at a critical time for Arabs and Muslims, both around the world and in the United States. Muslims are suffering from divisions and violence in the Middle East, while Muslim Americans are facing a frightening wave of hatred and bigotry. The holy month is a festive occasion. We can use Ramadan to rise above our...Our schools are essential to the future
The future of our country and community is in the schools. Children in classrooms across the nation will be the next generation of leaders, workers and artists. The quality of education at Dearborn Public Schools, which host more than 13,000 Arab American students, is critical to the wellbeing of our community. A new...
From Chapel Hill to Charleston, it is the same terror
June 19th, 20150 A White man murdered nine people at a historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday night. The 21-year-old suspect had clear hate motives. Dylann Roof made racially charged statements during his shooting spree and is seen in a photo with a jacket featuring the flag of apartheid South Africa. The...We all have a role to play in fighting Islamophobia industry’s influence
A small group of foundations and wealthy donors are funding the multi-million dollar network that fuels Islamophobia in the United States. The network is led by anti-Muslim activists who receive lucrative profit from turning the American public against Muslims and Islam. According to a report from the Center for...Rejecting Obama’s action on immigration is racism
"One cannot praise immigration while working to disenfranchise immigrant families."The last time the Congress declared war on another country was during Word War II. Since then, our government has engage militarily in Korea, Vietnam, several conflicts in Central America, Bosnia, Libya and twice in the Gulf, mostly on presidential...
Saudi sectarianism is turning into terror
May 27th, 20150 People examine the debris after a suicide bomb attack in the village of al-Qadeeh, May 22Saudi King Salman has vowed to punish the perpetrators of the suicide attack that targeted a Shi'a mosque, killing 21 civilians in the eastern part of the kingdom on May 22. The monarch called the bombing, which was claimed by ISIS, a "heinous...Terror against Muslim Americans gets ignored
Robert Doggart "Our small group will soon be faced with the fight of our lives. We will offer those lives as collateral to prove our commitment to our God." These are not the words of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi or one of the 9/11 hijackers. They are the words of a Christian American terrorist, who admitted planning attacks...
We will not yield to threats
May 15th, 20150 Last weekend, family members of the man who killed his wife before committing suicide in Dearborn called the home of one of our reporters, making death threats and harassing his family. The threats were crimes in both the legal and ethical senses. Responding to words with threats is cowardly and uncivilized. We will not tolerate it. We...Nakba Day: Palestine will not be forgotten
May 15 marks the 67th anniversary of al-Nakba, the catastrophe of Palestine that still haunts the conscience of every Arab on the globe. More than 700,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homeland to make space for the creation of the state of Israel. And while Palestinians commemorate their loss that continues to grow by the day,...We condemn terror and bigotry in Texas
Two gunmen were shot dead Sunday while trying to attack a gathering in Garland, Texas that showcased cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad. These men did not represent the Muslim community. Muslim Americans, like all Americans, reject violence and terrorism. But there is another side to the incident. The woman behind the cartoon...
We all have a duty to combat domestic violence
May 6th, 20150 A Dearborn man murdered his wife and committed suicide on Sunday. The ordeal unfolded in front of the couple's children. According to police, the husband was "estranged", but sources who knew the victim said he was abusive during the days of their marriage. Domestic violence is wrong, inexcusable and can turn deadly. We all have a...ACCESS should be commended for this year’s honorees
At its annual banquet in 2014, ACCESS (The Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services) honored former congressman and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as its "Arab American of the Year." The Arab American News, along with many others, criticized this selection. But this year the social services organization made amends...We endorse proposal 1
After years of the Legislature's incompetence and failure to fix our roads, our lawmakers passed the burden of making a major decision on taxes and infrastructure directly to the voters. Proposal 1, which will be on the ballot in a special election Tuesday, May 5, promises to secure funds to fix our roads after a hike in the sales and......
Thank you for your support
April 24th, 20150 The Arab American News' 30th anniversary dinner was not only a testament to its influence, but to the growing success of Arab Americans. About a dozen prominent mainstream journalists and elected officials took the podium to praise the newspaper and pay tribute to its quality journalism. "Looking at recent copies of the...America’s moral failure: Abandoning U.S. citizens in Yemen
A C-17 aircraft evacuating Indians stranded in Yemen.Thousands of Americans are trapped in war-torn Yemen. But the U.S. government, which is legally mandated to protect and evacuate its citizens from dangerous situations anywhere in the world, is doing nothing to help them. Instead, the Obama administration is delivering weapons to...Rosa Parks should be the face of the $20 bill
An organization committed to gender equality is demanding that President Obama put a woman on the $20 bill, which currently features Andrew Jackson. Wilma Mankiller, the first elected female chief of the Cherokee nation; civil rights leader Rosa Parks; former first lady and human rights activist Eleanor Roosevelt and African American...Saudi opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal is irrational
From the streets of Tehran to the White House, everybody was celebrating the initial nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers on April 5—except Israel, Saudi Arabia and Republicans. However, the Saudi opposition to the deal is irrational. Republicans have rejected the deal because of domestic political concerns. It is......
Yemeni Americans should manage their disagreements
April 10th, 20150 The crisis in Yemen has further divided our already divided Arab American community. The violent outcomes of the "Arab Spring", especially the Syrian war, have pitted many community members against each other and fueled the sectarian rhetoric in the Arab world as well as Arab America. And now comes the war in Yemen, which is turning...
Canceling the Arab International Festival was an admission of defeat
April 3rd, 20150 They defeated us. In 2010, bigots came to our city to flaunt their racism at the Arab International Festival and ended up taking $300,000 of our tax money after suing the city for wrongful arrest. Hateful protesters kept coming back in the following two years, which proved to be the last for the festival. The American Arab......
The Arab League should cease to exist
We have lived through decades of Arab divisions and infighting. But now Arab League nations have announced forming a joint military force and increasing security coordination, mainly to bomb a fellow Arab country. We prefer division to unity about the wrong cause. The historically incompetent Arab League has become a tool for the...Saudi intervention in Yemen will lead to more chaos
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, joined by Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan, have started a military campaign against Houthi forces in Yemen. The wrath of Arab armies is manifesting itself, not against their enemies, but in an internal conflict in an Arab country. All of these countries sat idly......
