After the election: Bullying, sectarianism must be addressed for us to move forward
November 10th, 20170 With all the effort our officials, campaigners, volunteers and local organizations have expanded every year to raise awareness on the importance of voting, it appeared that people were slightly more engaged as they voted in the general elections last Tuesday, November 7. Thankfully, Arab American voters came out and made a strong...
Our endorsements for the Nov. 7 general elections
November 3rd, 20171 The November 7 general election is only a few days away and our endorsements have only marginally changed since the primary. When we released our primary endorsements, we said we’d revisit the candidates during the general elections. We chose to rescind our endorsement for Dearborn City Council candidate Sean Green due to his...
Lessons learned from the Fordson Incident
October 27th, 20170 The Fordson High School football team caused an uproar after making headlines two weeks ago when a few of its junior varsity players were busted in an alleged hazing scandal that some students argue was a sexual assault. The administration called it a “rogue hazing” incident and Superintendent Dr. Glenn Maleyko confirmed that it...
There are more reasons to stay in Dearborn than to leave
October 13th, 20171 Arab Americans have been moving out of Dearborn in droves in recent years to nearby cities like Dearborn Heights, Northville, Bloomfield Hills, Livonia or townships like Canton. Dearborn is the eighth largest city in the state. They may have their reasons for leaving, but we believe Dearborn offers more reasons for them to stay and build...
Terrorism apparently foreign to White America’s lone wolves
October 6th, 20170 On Sunday night, Oct. 1, a White terrorist named Stephen Paddock, sadly not branded as such by the president, police or media outlets, shot more than 500 people and killed 59 at a country music concert from his 32nd floor suite of the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. According to police, Paddock, 64, had 23 guns in his hotel...
Not my Wonder Woman: The Zionist agenda in U.S. mainstream feminism
September 22nd, 20172 By Zarefah Baroud Most women will agree that female representation in the media is incredibly important for a plethora of reasons— not only in media but also politics and other platforms lacking opportunity for female participants. Providing women of all ages a strong and positive role model could break a toxic habit and pattern...
35 years after Sabra and Shatila: An indictment of the international community
September 22nd, 20170 By Nabil Mohamad On September 16, 1982, following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the right-wing Christian Phalange militia stormed the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut and began a massacre which ended in the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands, of mostly Palestinian civilians. I was 19-years-old at the time. By chance...
At 33, we are growing stronger
September 15th, 20170 On September 7, 1984, The Arab American News was established to purely tell Arab Americans' and the Arab world's untold stories, but instantly developed into something more— an unexpected educational center for thousands to learn what they'd been denied access to elsewhere. Our mission has been and will continue to be to provide a...
Hussein Berry’s lies and destructive behavior could ruin the school district
September 14th, 20171 Last Monday’s meeting of the Dearborn Board of Education necessitated careful attention and study as the issue of overcrowding is still at the forefront and the future of our kids and two important institutions— Fordson and Dearborn High Schools— is at stake. After much evaluation and dialogue on the issue as well as other...
Three years after the war: Gaza youth speak out
September 8th, 20170 "At bedtime, I am afraid to turn the lights off. I am not a coward, it is just that I worry that this bulb hanging from the ceiling is the last light that remains (shining) in my life." Soon after he penned these words, Moath Alhaj, a young artist from a Gaza refugee camp, passed away in his sleep. After he'd disappeared for two days,...
Keeping DACA is the right thing to do
September 8th, 20170 The American Dream: Work hard, play by the rules, provide a better life for your family. The dream that has attracted immigrants to our shores for more than a century must be reformed and modernized to accommodate our modern-day realities. Republicans and Democrats both agree. However, the recent actions of our president to end the...
The genocide of Rohingya Muslims must mobilize and unite humanity
September 8th, 20170 The genocide of the Rohingya Muslims became a major global focus this week and yet no official outcry against their massacre or for immediate aid was made. Making headlines should raise awareness about the crisis— immediately outraging humanity as a call for action— not silencing and immobilizing it. According to an op-ed...
The terror next time: The ISIS story is not ending
September 3rd, 20177 Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, has been reduced to rubble. It has been finally conquered, snatched back from the notorious group, Daesh, after months of merciless bombardment by the U.S.-led war coalition, and a massive ground war. But "victory" can hardly be the term assigned to this moment. Mosul, once Iraq's cultural jewel and...
Who needs to step up?
September 3rd, 20170 An interesting thing keeps happening to me. Every few days, someone — an acquaintance, a colleague, even a stranger on the street — approaches me. They ask some version of the same question: What can we do to pull ourselves out of this dark period? For Americans who respect representative democracy, the Constitution and the rule...
Trump steers the wheel to the country’s downfall
September 3rd, 20170 Since his presidential campaign last year, President Trump stirred controversy with his racist and hateful rhetoric towards minorities. Then, his election pulled the trigger on an abysmal spike in racism and hate crimes— making the country’s years of shameful discrimination and bigotry acceptable again. On Wednesday, Aug. 30, Fox......
Winning a battle against opioid abuse doesn’t mean the war is over
August 25th, 20170 The community’s collective awareness and complaints that prompted police to investigate and eventually raid a Dearborn Medical Clinic— which turned out to be a white coat dealer’s opioid prescription hub, as many suspected— should not be a reason to let our guard down, but rather to keep up our unified activism against our...
Senate Bill 720: Making it a crime to support Palestinian human rights
August 20th, 20170 By James J. Zogby It is fascinating to watch some U.S. senators tripping over themselves as they attempt to defend their support for or opposition to proposed legislation that would make it a federal crime to support the international campaign to Boycott, Divest or Sanction (BDS) Israel for its continued occupation of Palestinian...
Charlottesville tragedy can be lesson to community
August 20th, 20171 By Abed Hammoud The recent tragic events in Charlottesville, VA should be a lesson to our Arab and Muslim community here in Metro Detroit, specially in the Dearborn-Dearborn Heights area. These events show that personal attacks, character assassination and the spread of false information on social media and elsewhere can have...
Clashes among Arab Americans get us nowhere
August 20th, 20170 On any Election Day, be it primary or general, it’s the norm for residents to differ in opinions on particular candidates and their qualifications. That’s why voters have the right to choose their representatives at the ballot box after much debate and discussion. However, that healthy democratic process should not turn into......
Power to the people: Why Palestinian victory in Jerusalem is a pivotal moment
August 4th, 20170 Neither Fatah nor Hamas have been of much relevance to the mass protests staged around the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, half-hearted European "concern about the situation" or cliché Arab declarations made one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of the grim scenarios of escalation,...
Our endorsements for Dearborn, Hamtramck and Detroit municipal elections
August 4th, 20170 One might think that Dearborn prospers businesswise— mainly as home to Ford Motor Company's world headquarters—yet it doesn't, due to the lack of change in the system and in the administration. Many businesses have moved out after Dearborn established restrictive ordinances. Business owners began setting up shops in nearby cities......
The Dearborn Heights 2017 primary elections: Our endorsements
July 28th, 20171 As Dearborn Heights' community and economic landscape transforms to reflect its neighboring city of Dearborn, so must the city's government transform to reflect its constituents. Over the years, many Arab Americans have steadily moved from Dearborn to Dearborn Heights, a bedroom community whose obstacle to tremendous ambitions has...
Fear and trepidation in Tel Aviv: Is Israel losing the Syria war?
July 28th, 20170 Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking. The six-year-old Syria war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian regime is consolidating its control over most of the populated centers, while ISIS is losing ground fast......
