April 16th, 20200Americans generously donate more than $427 billion annually to charities—a powerful driver of positive impact as communities across the country, including in Michigan, respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Charitable giving plays a vital role in supporting high-need communities, both at home and abroad. Religious faith often plays a role...
March 4th, 20200RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has extended its suspension of travel to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from foreigners to Saudi citizens and residents, after it reported its first case of the novel coronavirus in an individual who failed to disclose he had travelled to Iran before entering the country.
“Based on the recommendations of...
June 4th, 20190KABUL - Muslims around the world celebrated the Eid-al-Fitr religious holiday on Tuesday, marking the end of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.
Like the start of Ramadan, during which believers abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours, Eid-al-Fitr depends on the sighting of the moon and its celebration varies in different...
May 31st, 20190Dearborn – Fifteen community organizations and restaurants came together to host The People's Iftar dinner in the Annex of the Arab American National Museum on Wednesday.
Attendees included council members from various Metro Detroit cities and other elected officials, local political activists, religious leaders and former...
May 31st, 20190DEARBORN— The Michigan Muslim Community Council launched its annual Ramadan Fight Against Hunger campaign on May 26. The organization is planning volunteer events and food drives at several locations across southeast Michigan through the end of Ramadan.
Dr. Muzammil Ahmad, a Beaumont-affiliated urologist and MMCC board member, told...
May 6th, 20190GAZA - After two sleepless days and nights of Israeli shelling and Palestinian rocket fire, Gazans on Monday faced a first day of Ramadan overshadowed by funerals and the grim task of pulling bodies from collapsed buildings.
As dawn brought a ceasefire of uncertain duration, few Palestinians in the impoverished coastal enclave were...
May 3rd, 20190DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The second annual Ramadan Suhour Festival in Dearborn Heights makes its debut at the Hype Center on West Warren Ave.
Hassan Chami, who organized the first event last year, said it’s common for people and vendors to congregate outdoors during Ramadan.
“I thought, ‘Since this is going on and everyone’s...
June 20th, 20180Most of the time, iftars are family gatherings, held in homes or mosques during the holy month of Ramadan as people sit down to break the daily fast.
But for the second year in a row, an online Muslim organization, MPower Change, is taking iftar out of the home and into the streets.
So far this year, it has staged protests on 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 15th, 20181The author of the Declaration of Independence had sought to protect not just Christians, but Americans of all faiths.
After last year’s deliberate break with tradition, President Trump has resumed the iftar dinner—the sundown meal during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. An estimated 3.3 million American Muslims celebrate...
June 14th, 20180GAZA ― Israel’s killing of at least 125 Palestinians during protests at the Gaza border is casting a shadow in the enclave on its celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Economic hardship arising from years of blockades, conflict and internal political rivalries has also...
June 10th, 20180
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — The run-up to Amazon Prime Day, the e-commerce giant’s big July sales promotion, overlaps with Ramadan, 30 sacred days during which many observant Muslims fast and seek time off.
That’s creating tension in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region, where activists say Amazon.com Inc. employs more than...
June 9th, 20180DEARBORN – Local officials in Wayne County hosted several iftars for area Muslims.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans hosted his annual iftar for county Muslim leaders at the Grapevine Restaurant in Canton.
Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly held two iftar dinners at Habib’s Cuisine, one for heads of local Arab and Muslim...
June 9th, 20180FLINT, Michigan — U.S Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint), along with his congressional staff in Washington, D.C., fasted Wednesday June 6 in solidarity with Muslims in Michigan and around the world in observance of Ramadan. Ramadan is a holy month of fasting during which Muslims may not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset.
This will be the...
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 5th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Dan Kildee (D-Flint), along with his congressional staff in Washington, D.C., will fast in solidarity Wednesday with Muslims in Michigan and around the world in observance of Ramadan. Ramadan is a holy month of fasting during which Muslims may not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset.
This will be the...
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, 20182The United States’ first iftar took place at the home of the third president.
In 1805, the month of Ramadan fell in December. Far from his friends, family and home, one Tunisian man was attempting to observe it in Washington, D.C. This was the statesman Sidi Soliman Mellimelli, who was spending six months in the United States, on...
May 25th, 20180By Sarah Kominek
DEARBORN— During the holy month of Ramadan, merchants and community organizations in Dearborn are motivated to be charitable, but they also help the less fortunate throughout the year.
Local merchants deal with the infrequent occurrence of begging, which happens year round, not just during Ramadan.
Danya Saed,...
May 18th, 20180By Farah Harb
The Arab American News
KUWAIT — With Islam being the country’s official religion, Kuwait’s traditions and religious affairs are intertwined, and that especially shows during the month of Ramadan.
Because Kuwait’s weather in the summer can go as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 Celsius), the...
May 18th, 20180DEARBORN — Celebrating Ramadan in the U.S. doesn’t come as naturally as it does in Muslim-majority countries. From fasting during long summer days to lackluster holiday cheer and enduring anti-Muslim sentiments, Muslim Americans have to try just a little harder throughout Islam’s holiest month.
Samar Baydoun Bazzi, a 29-year-old...
May 11th, 20180DETROIT — On Thursday, May 10, the Wayne County Commission approved a resolution introduced by Commission Chairman Gary Woronchak (D-Dearborn) recognizing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins May 16.
Woronchak continued a tradition he established several years ago of commemorating the start of Ramadan each year with a...
October 27th, 20170DEARBORN – In the Southend of Dearborn, across the street from the first mosque constructed in Michigan, a restaurant hangs a United States flag above a red, white and green flag. Although it may surprise some, the flag is not Lebanese, Jordanian or Palestinian.
It’s Italian.
“Our cultures aren’t very different,” Robert...
July 7th, 20170By Afaf Humayun
DETROIT — Since 2013, the Detroit-based company LaunchGood has been providing the international Muslim community with a unique way to reclaim its narrative through charitable online giving.
"There is so much misinformation about Muslims and Arabs out there that it's a way for us to take things into our own hands,"...
June 30th, 20170LANSING — On election night last November, Dearbornites celebrated a triumph. Abdullah Hammoud, 27, became the first Arab Muslim male to represent the city in the state legislature.
He told The AANews he felt relieved to win the race, but knew that struggle still lay ahead because "Trump might win Michigan."
Donald Trump not only...
June 19th, 20170
LONDON ― A van plowed into worshipers near a London mosque in the early hours of Monday, injuring 10 people, two of them seriously, in what Prime Minister Theresa May said was a sickening, terrorist attack on Muslims.
The vehicle swerved into a group of mainly North and West African people shortly after midnight as they left...
