April 23rd, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, the immensely popular children's television show SpongeBob SquarePants brought a smile and message of love and peace to Muslims across the globe with a social media post depicting the show's main characters wishing audiences "Ramadan Mubarak." Muslims everywhere, including high-profile Muslim figures,...
April 16th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — Emgage PAC, the first and largest Muslim American federal policial action committee, announced Thursday that it is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for president. The PAC is the support and endorsement arm of Emgage, a well known organization working to promote Muslim American civil engagement, that has...
January 16th, 20200BROOMFIELD HILLS - This weekend, Emgage, an influential Muslim advocacy organization with national headquarters in Washington, D.C, and five state chapters (Florida, Michigan, Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania), will present "The Impacts of the Muslim Vote."
The event will feature as special guest speaker U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib...
February 1st, 20191
WASHINGTON, DC — In 1807, a wealthy 37-year-old scholar was captured in West Africa, in what is now Senegal, and transported to the United States to be sold into slavery.
That man, Omar Ibn Said, lived the remainder of his life enslaved in the American South, and his story might have been forgotten if not for the handwritten...
January 27th, 20190BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota - Two men have pleaded guilty in federal court to bombing a Minnesota mosque and attempting to bomb a women's health clinic in Illinois. Prosecutors say the two men and another man accused in the case were part of an Illinois militia group that called itself "White Rabbits."
The U.S. Justice Department last year...
December 14th, 20180FARMINGTON HILLS — CAIR-MI filed a discrimination complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights against Greyhound on behalf of a Muslim man who was kicked off of a bus for speaking on his phone in Arabic.
Earlier this year, Abrahaim Mohamed, an American Muslim, traveled from Michigan to Ohio by Greyhound bus.
A press...
November 30th, 20180DEARBORN – Yemen is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history, with more than 22 million people, 60 percent of the population, in urgent need of food, drink, clothing and shelter, according to the United Nations.
With the ongoing escalation of the armed conflict, the number of victims and displaced persons who find...
September 24th, 20180By Marrim Akashi
PHILADELPHIA — Rana Fayez’s inaugural YallaPunk festival hit Philadelphia this past month and it has been revolutionary, to say the least.
Self-described as “A direct response to negative depictions of populations of Middle Eastern and North African descent in mainstream media”, this is not another effort...
September 8th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed by unanimous vote an anti-hate crime bill (S. 994), protecting religiously affiliated institutions.
This legislation amends the federal criminal code and increases the penalty — a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both— for intentionally threatening or destroying...
August 10th, 20180DEARBORN/DETROIT – Abdul El-Sayed might have fallen short of the votes needed to win the Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, Aug. 7, and the possibility of going on to become the nation's first Muslim governor, but his platform’s momentum continues in full thrust among many progressives across the state. The 33-year-old...
August 10th, 20180DEARBORN— About 2.1 million people out of 7.4 million registered cast their votes in Michigan in the Aug. 7 primaries, with a nearly 28.6 percent voter turnout breaking records going as far back as 1978, according to state election officials.
The results of Michigan's gubernatorial race mirrored most polls that had former State...
July 22nd, 20181LANSING — State Reps. Abdullah Hammoud (D-Dearborn) and Robert Wittenberg (D-Huntington Woods) have introduced House Bills 6119 and 6120, which would revise kosher and halal food service laws in Michigan to increase transparency and address fraud.
“The goal of my bill is to increase transparency and promote truth in...
July 21st, 20183DEARBORN – After a successful ousting of ISIS insurgents and a democratically-held election, Iraq’s situation seemed to be on an uptick. But in the midst of a transition in government, ongoing political corruption, a worsening economy, few jobs and scarce electricity have sparked massive protests across the oil-rich county’s south,...
July 17th, 20180DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The Islamic Institute of America (IIA) Summer Camp offers an engaging summer program with fun recreational and educational activities/lessons that are embedded with Islamic studies. The camp, which runs through August 3, is for children from the ages of 5 to 12 and takes place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and...
July 6th, 20180Progressive and unorthodox candidates for Congress have been racking up major victories in the past few months, sending shockwaves and turning heads in a political arena long-dominated by White Republican men with deep pockets.
On June 26, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated a 10-term Democratic incumbent in the primaries...
June 30th, 20180DEARBORN – The Arab American National Museum will hold a book signing and story time event to celebrate the release of Michigan author Shayma Mustafa’s book, “Excuse me Ma'am, Excuse Me Sir: I'm Amina, an All-American Girl”, on July 1.
Mustafa is a teacher, mother of five children and a self-declared bibliophile. She said the...
June 19th, 20180As the Arab and Muslim worlds were ending a month of blessed fasting, observing the most holy month in Islam and getting ready to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, there isn’t much to celebrate there— a region engulfed in bloodshed and complicated conflicts among brothers and neighbors.
In Gaza, a real massacre engulfing the besieged Strip...
June 11th, 20180LANSING — Gov. Snyder has proclaimed June as Immigrant Heritage Month. Michigan celebrates its past, present and future by welcoming those from across the globe who contribute to the state's cultural diversity and economic growth.
"Michigan is a national leader in welcoming New Americans and that is something to be proud of," Snyder...
June 8th, 20181WASHINGTON, D.C. — After declining to mark Ramadan last year with a traditional iftar dinner, which breaks the daily fast during the Islamic holy month, the White House held one Wednesday night with a few dozen guests, many of them ambassadors from Muslim nations.
Meanwhile, some Islamic groups that were not invited, led by the...
June 4th, 20180WASHINGTON - The National Security Council announced last week that Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and a senior vice president at the Center for Security Policy, is the Council's new Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary and also Deputy Assistant to President Donald Trump.
The Center for Security Policy, which the Southern...
June 3rd, 20180David Gagner was having seizures.
But he did not have nor can afford health insurance, so he sought care at a Baptist Health emergency room. There he was told he had another option in the future, the volunteer-run Muslim American Social Services, or MASS, clinic that provides free health care to uninsured, low-income adults of all...
June 2nd, 20180The Pew Research Center has found that 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say they observe Ramadan by fasting during daylight hours. More of the U.S.’s 2.15 million Muslim adults say they do this than say that they pray five times a day (42 percent) or attend mosque weekly (43 percent). More Muslim women say they observe Ramadan in this way...
June 1st, 20180DEARBORN — Farah, a 9-year-old girl flaunting a colorful dress, proudly hands a drawing she made to a woman who’d just gifted her a toy doll.
Farah, whose name translates to “joy” in Arabic, said she loves drawing and would someday day like to teach art. Mohammed, her 6-year-old brother, sports a black bandana. He’s...
May 25th, 20180Party City said it's become the first national retailer to offer a dedicated line of decorations for Ramadan, after numerous requests from customers.
Ramadan began on May 16 and ends at on June 14, kicking off the start of the day-long Eid al-Fitr celebration.
The chain, which has more than 900 stores in the United States and...
May 25th, 20180"When our trust and connections to one another break down, we are all the poorer for it. One of the most tested and reliable ways in which we can ignite cross-community understanding and dissipate fear is through storytelling." - Zeyba Rahman, senior program officer for Building Bridges
DEARBORN – Muslims have a storied...
May 25th, 20180WARREN — A Warren city official has turned in her resignation papers after making anti-Muslim posts on social media.
Diane Toni Deliso Kozlowski, a member of the Elected Officials Compensation Commission, said she wasn’t talking about Muslims, but terrorists, and sparked a nerve with a local Muslim civil liberties...
May 18th, 20180The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art selected 15 grantees from a pool of 200 applicants, double from the previous year, when 98 organizations applied. Among the recipients is the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Center for Arab American Studies, which was awarded $216,677.
NEW YORK — Fifteen U.S. organizations will receive a...
May 18th, 20180By Keith A. Owens
Special to the Arab American News
DEARBORN - Since the latter part of 2010, Country Restaurant, located at 5131 Schaefer Road in Dearborn, has contracted with Wayne County Senior Services to provide halal meals for Wayne County seniors who qualify for the Meals On Wheels program. More than 60 seniors...
