We have a loosely organized National Arab American Journalists Association (NAAJA) that stumbled after Sept. 11 because of the intense amount of bigotry and discrimination our members faced. We continue to struggle however with a chapter in Austin, one in Chicago and one forming in Detroit
I am wondering if there is a possibility of
1) Including us in the Unity Coalition
2) Working with us to organize a stronger Arab American professional journalism voice
3) Allowing us to participate in some programs to represent Arab American challenges when UNITY comes to Chicago
We are probably in the most destitute situation as Arab American journalists. Our views are excluded, we are singled out for racial and religious attacks, our members fear identifying as journalists at their newspapers and our writing is constantly being censored.
Our community also has many problems, including the fact that many of our organizations are extremist in views and engage in discrimination against their own members, especially moderate voices who seek to speak out against violence, suicide bombings and who support compromise.
I am writing to you on behalf of the NAAJA acting board ... our temporary web page is www.hanania.com/naaja.htm ... but we hope to have our own web page up and running by the end of this summer
I appreciate your attention to this request
Thank you
Ray Hanania
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