THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
August 29, 2008
Ramadan 2008
I send greetings to Muslims observing Ramadan in America and around the globe.
The holy month of Ramadan is a special time of prayer, fasting, and service. For Muslims, these days commemorate the revelation of God's word to the prophet Muhammad in the form of the Qur'an.
I thank the men and women of the Muslim community for their contributions to America. Your love of family, and gratitude to God have strengthened the moral fabric of our country. Our Nation is stronger and more hopeful because of the generosity, talents, and compassion of our Muslim citizens.
Laura and I send our best wishes. Ramadan Mubarak.
GEORGE W. BUSH
President
END
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The State of Arab American Journalism, presentation to the Community Media Workshop, Chicago June 12, 2008
Community Media Workshop
Co-sponsored by the National Arab American Journalists Association
Thursday June 11, 2008
Ray Hanania …. The Ethnic News Media
I was asked to give you some details about myself first:
I got into journalism in the 1970s wielding a sledge-hammer, determined to break the door down on the mainstream news media’s hypocrisies involving the inadequate and lacking coverage of Arabs in America. We were news when we were bad. We were off the radar screen when we were good.
That’s why people keep asking me, "Why don’t you people denounce Osama Bin Laden?" My people? I’m from Chicago’s "Sout Side," if you didn’t recognize the accent. To many Americans, Arab Americans are just not American enough and there isn’t anything we can do to ever satisfy the growing racism and bigotry that exists in this country.
I covered City Hall 17 years from Daley (75) to Daley (92). And because journalism isn’t controversial enough, I created my own news … moved on a bit to the other side …the dark side … of public relations and media strategy … and learned what it was like to be in the "glass fishbowl." I think every journalist, especially political reporters and columnist, really should experience that. It really does give you a fuller perspective on the "Good Stawwy" as my friend and colleague the late Harry Golden Jr., used to bark in his Brooklyn Accent.
I got into Ethnic Media, up to my nose. I realized that the Arab American community – my community whether some of my editors liked it or not – usually not – was not engaged in the media very successfully.
I got back into journalism after a whirlwind sabbatical in media relations and community activism, right after Sept. 11, 2001, and I’ve since written three books ("I’m Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing Up Arab in America" – a humor book; "Arabs of Chicagoland," now a mandatory FBI manual; and "The Catastrophe: How extremists have hijacked the Palestinian Cause").
I have one book online called "Midnight Flight: Chicago’s Racial Heritage and White Flight" that is available off my web page TheMediaOasis.com.
I manage several news and column web sites: The Arab WritersGroup.com, and The Orland Parker.com. And, I publish the National Arab American Times Newspaper, 64,000 newspapers in 48 states (AATimesNews.com).
I write about politics, and fun, for the Southwest News-Herald Newspaper (SWNewsHerald.com) and for newspapers around the country and the world.
I host a weekly radio show on WCEV "Chicago’s Ethnic Voice," which is on sabatical too, pending a new major advertising sponsor. I’ll talk about later. And, I host a weekly TV show on Comcast Cable Channel 19, where I push what some viewers call "my Arab agenda" but also delve into other regional and national stories.
And, as if I didn’t already have enough on my plate, I perform standup comedy with the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour IPComedyTour.com.
I’ve also won my share of Journalism Awards, including three SPJ Lisagor Awards, and was named "Best Ethnic American Journalist" in Nov. 2006 by the New American Media. Doesn’t get me any work, though. Just a lot of abuse.
You can go to my web site at TheMediaOasis.com to link to any and all of my journalism, comedy and writing endeavors.
Being an ethnic journalist
The first thing you should know about being an "ethnic" is that it is a very undefined phenomena.
Being ethnic is about how you view yourself and how others view you. I didn’t realize how ethnic I really was until I started to look for a job.
Over the years, ethnicity is kind of imposed on you. You think it is fine, some people don’t. You also discover that the label "ethnic" brings along a lot of baggage, too. A lot of people just don’t like you.
Now, most of my freelance work involves the ethnic media, a long way from covering Chicago’s City Hall for 17 years from Daley to Daley, where my ethnicity was acknowledged, often in the pejorative.
Overview of the Arab American Community
We Americans mix up ethnicity and race a lot. And when you are Arab American, add to that mix religion. It’s amazing how few people, including in journalism, distinguish between Arab and Muslim.
There are 7 million Muslims in the United States – we think because the government really doesn’t want to count us – by the way, the census is both a means of empowerment and a means of oppression. If they count you, you can become more powerful. If they refuse to count you or come up with special categories to count you, they can suppress your community’s voice. It’s what I like to cite as the subtle oppression of American Democracy, the unfree part we pretend doesn’t exist.
Of those 7 million Muslims, only 22 percent are Arab. The majority of Muslims are Black Muslims, about 36 percent.
There are 4.5 million Arabs in the United States, the majority are actually Christian, not Muslim at all. But you wouldn’t know that from the American public. A woman came up to me after Sept. 11, 2001 and said, "I can’t believe you abandoned your Christian faith to become an Arab."
Chicago has about 250,000 Arab Americans, the majority from Palestine. Much of which you will recognize is Israel today.
They are divided into two major groups: Those in jail and those not. Actually, there are two large settlements, the largest on the Southwest Side and Suburbs from the 13th Ward all the way southwest to Orland Park, where I live. Everyone thinks we’re Muslim, as I said, but the majority of those Arabs are Christian Palestinian and Lebanese Christians, and a easily identifiable Muslim warren in Bridgeview.
Again, ethnicity isn’t about what you are, but what people think you are. They see someone wearing a Hijab, a head covering that we used to call a Babushka in the 60s, and an entire community is defined.
Most of Arab Americans are wealthy. Most were professionals who could afford to leave their countries to come to this country. Some came as a result of conflict and oppression as refugees.
They’re doctors, lawyers, engineers, and business people. There are only about 250 Arab Americans in journalism. Sounds like a lot but it isn’t. Half are in the mainstream media – Hoda Kotbe, Jim Avila -- and the other half are in the ethnic media.
More about the Arab American ethnic news media.
Arab American media is at the forefront of social justice It is a fact that an ethnic community’s "health" and empowerment is reflected by the health and professionalism of its ethnic media. In that measure, the Arab American community is ailing. The Ethnic American media is at the forefront of the fight for justice, Democracy and free speech in this country. We are the front-line fighting for social change and fairness, and improving the livelihood of all Americans. But we have many challenges.
We have about 83 Arab newspapers and magazines, 12 radio shows including some mainstream like my own that are ethnic by default, and about a dozen cable TV programs. You can go to the web page of the National Arab American Journalists Association (NAAJA-US.com) to get more information on those newspapers and their geographical location around the country.
About 125 people working for the 83 publications and a handful of radio and TV means we don’t have big staffs. In fact, only a few are really media in a professional sense, run by "journalists" as opposed to business people or activists.
Most of our Arab ethnic media reporting focuses on Middle East politics. There is a reason for that. The mainstream news media doesn’t cover the Middle East fairly or objectively. They’re biased and some columnists and reporters will openly boast that they are biased – it improves their careers.
Other mainstream journalists and talk show hosts will show their biased based on the absence of Arab guests on their shows when they address Middle East topics.
Only a few of the Arab American media focus on non-Middle Eastern political issues, like the growing social challenges Arab Americans face like all other Americans.
We have many great ethnic newspapers, besides my own, the National Arab American Times, of course, and the two newspapers in Chicago, The Arab Horizon and the Future News. They include The Arab News in Detroit, the Independent Monitor and the Beirut Times in California, and Aramica News in New Jersey/New York, and al-Nashra in Washington D.C. These are only a few. Some of the leading magazines include Islamica Magazine, Azizah Magazine, the Arab American Business Magazine, and the News Circle Magazine
But, we are American. And still, we are constantly under siege.
Most of the publications are in Arabic but there is a trend to publish more and more in English. We had 7 newspapers in Chicago before Sept. 11. After, only two survived, and one, that I published, closed months later. The survivor was thrown out by her printer who said he didn’t like her English articles about the Middle East, so she found a new printer and published only in Arabic for a while.
Today, we have two major Arab American newspapers in Chicago, the Future News and the Arab Horizon that do both Arabic and English and fill the void intentionally missed by the mainstream news media.
Unlike other Ethnic media in America, we have difficulty in distributing our publications. Many mainstream, non-Arab stores and business refuse to distribute our newspapers, although you will find Hispanic, Asian and African American media, for example, in many retail stores that are of other ethnic origins or are owned by Caucasian business owners.
We have a divide in our media. Many of our newspapers are published and run by political activists with an agenda that is not journalism. Many others are run by business owners in insurance, real estate and law who are seeking to promote their business endeavors or are championing causes. Journalism is a sidelight, rather than a main profession -- although they are dedicated to the cause of journalism.
So, as a result, about 75 percent of the news published in our newspapers is focused on the Middle East conflict. Only 20 percent of the publications, according to a recent survey of newspapers, include features or news that is unrelated to the Middle East conflict. Some newspapers are all driven by opinion columns.
Although Arab Americans are the target of aggressive anti-Arab campaigns by the Bush-Cheney administration, about 35 percent of our advertising – major advertising, comes from government agencies such as the U.S. Military, the FBI and the CIA. About 65 percent of the remaining ads are local businesses. Nearly 25 percent of the purchased advertising goes uncollected, and remains outstanding. The remainder come from service industries targeting Arab and Muslim consumers, such as money wire transfers and cellular and long distance telephone companies.
Only a few Arab American publications actually make a profit.
While other ethnic media can really on a steady stream of community support, most Arab American ethnic publications do not get direct support beyond some advertising. For example, few of the Arab American organizations, with the exception of a handful based in Washington D.C., produce and distribute press releases. Without press releases, the burden on the Arab American ethnic journalists is tripled as a steady flow of press releases is a necessity, indicating a community that engages and recognizes the importance of the Arab American ethnic media.
The absence of a public relations industry in the Arab American community reflects the lack of respect Arab Americans have for their own community press.
WCEV – the show is temporarily off the air because we found that many mainstream advertisers won’t advertise on a radio station that is filled with ethnic voices … it was amazing how many advertisers complained because the shows on the station were ethnic … Polish, Irish, Italian … it isn’t just about being Arab American … many Americans hate the "hyphen" but they are the ones who hyphenate us …
Challenges just being an Arab let alone an ethnic publisher
When people come up to me and call me a terrorist lover, I like to point out I served during the Vietnam War, my brother was a Marine and my dad and uncle served more than four years each in World War II. I ask if they served. They usually say no. And I wonder, what’s stopping them? I offer to walk them to the recruiter so they can channel their hatred in the right direction, against usually innocent prisoners who have been denied their basic human rights held at Guantanamo. You can beat, torture and even kill them, and no one will care.
But we feel we are constantly under attack in this country, including way before Sept. 11, 2001. And it’s justified. When I was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1975, the FBI immediately opened an investigation into my life. Two years. Because I was "Arab."
Yet the Arab American community is both an asset and a resource for this country, and they are a market.
You know, if the mainstream media had done its job in covering our community, they would have been all over the Tony Rezko story long before it broke. They would have had actual video footage of Rezko and Gov. Blagojevich hugging and shaking hands at community award ceremonies. Instead of stealing the picture of Rezko from my book Arabs of Chicagoland and using that without attribution until Rezko finally appeared in court.
Most of the 83 publications are regional papers, which means they are published in one city, saturate that city but try their best to extend beyond their borders. Working with a national food distributor, though, I’ve managed to break that barrier publishing 65,000 copies of my newspaper (80 percent English and 20 percent Arabic language – the National Arab American Times) to Middle Eastern grocery stores in all 48 states. It took me a long time to find an Arab store in Wyoming.
Given the state of the world today and the real threat we face from terrorists and extremists in the Middle East, and the Muslim World, Americans owe it to themselves to learn more about Arab Americans and Muslims. And, to understand there is a difference.
My biggest critics not only are mainstream Americans, but also from extremist groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has attacked me because of my criticism of Islamic extremism, which is a real and genuine threat in this country and in this city that mainstream Muslim groups do not fully denounce – they denounce the vague threat of terrorism and the extremists and the clearly identified leaders of the foreign terrorist organizations, but they fail to denounce the extremists among them that makes that foreign terrorism possible.
But Americans wouldn’t know any of this because Americans can’t tell the difference between Arabs and Muslims. It’s so much easier to cover us as a "stereotype" than as an ethnic community.
And I might conclude by reiterating that we Arab American journalists face real challenges not just from the lack of education in the American public but also the lack of education and professional practices by the mainstream media.
The very people who should be supporting us either ignore us or are so busy fighting their own battles, they can’t see or hear us as "comrades in struggle."
The non-Arab and non-Muslim ethnic media doesn’t support us enough. One community that does support us is the Asian American community because of the large number of Muslims (non-Arab Muslims) in their countries.
Instead of supporting us, they are shutting us out, or ignoring us, or not responding to our obvious needs.
Next month, UNITY: Journalists of Color will be hold their quadrennial Convention right here in Chicago. For the past three years, we’ve been asking, as Arab Americans, to participate, and they have refused us … thanks to the Asian American Journalists Association, we will have one panel on Arab American issues, that includes many non-Arabs on it … but it is a shame when the very ethnic and minority media of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans are so insecure about themselves, they are afraid to open the door to Arab American journalists who are also of color.
Part of the problem is the Arab American professional journalism community itself. Although viewed and stereotyped by outsiders as a monolithic, negative presence in America, the Arab American community sees itself as a coalition of division. We don’t work together. We don’t support each other. We permit the politics of the Middle East interfere in our organizational needs. We don’t come together because Lebanese and Palestinians don’t get along, or Syrians and Egyptians don’t get along, and more often than not, Muslims and Christian Arabs do not work together. In fact, while the Christian Arab community is larger than the Muslim Arab community, the Muslim Arab community empowerment is driven by non-Arab Muslims who have a huge influence in America but that also have priorities that do not match the priorities of the Arab community.
We want to protest UNITY, rather than support it, but when minorities are discriminated against by other minorities, not even a protest can make a difference.
One day UNITY will open its doors and recognize that the path now being taken by Arab Americans is one they took years before in their own fights for equality. You can’t be equal if you find excuses to treat other unequally.
To borrow a malapropism from the great late Mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, and adapt it into our own challenges, "We Arab American journalists are not here to cause dis-UNITY at UNITY this summer … we’re here to preserve dis-UNITY."
That’s my sout-side ethnicity coming out …
Thanks
Ray Hanania
http://www.themediaoasis.com/
Co-sponsored by the National Arab American Journalists Association
Thursday June 11, 2008
Ray Hanania …. The Ethnic News Media
I was asked to give you some details about myself first:
I got into journalism in the 1970s wielding a sledge-hammer, determined to break the door down on the mainstream news media’s hypocrisies involving the inadequate and lacking coverage of Arabs in America. We were news when we were bad. We were off the radar screen when we were good.
That’s why people keep asking me, "Why don’t you people denounce Osama Bin Laden?" My people? I’m from Chicago’s "Sout Side," if you didn’t recognize the accent. To many Americans, Arab Americans are just not American enough and there isn’t anything we can do to ever satisfy the growing racism and bigotry that exists in this country.
I covered City Hall 17 years from Daley (75) to Daley (92). And because journalism isn’t controversial enough, I created my own news … moved on a bit to the other side …the dark side … of public relations and media strategy … and learned what it was like to be in the "glass fishbowl." I think every journalist, especially political reporters and columnist, really should experience that. It really does give you a fuller perspective on the "Good Stawwy" as my friend and colleague the late Harry Golden Jr., used to bark in his Brooklyn Accent.
I got into Ethnic Media, up to my nose. I realized that the Arab American community – my community whether some of my editors liked it or not – usually not – was not engaged in the media very successfully.
I got back into journalism after a whirlwind sabbatical in media relations and community activism, right after Sept. 11, 2001, and I’ve since written three books ("I’m Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing Up Arab in America" – a humor book; "Arabs of Chicagoland," now a mandatory FBI manual; and "The Catastrophe: How extremists have hijacked the Palestinian Cause").
I have one book online called "Midnight Flight: Chicago’s Racial Heritage and White Flight" that is available off my web page TheMediaOasis.com.
I manage several news and column web sites: The Arab WritersGroup.com, and The Orland Parker.com. And, I publish the National Arab American Times Newspaper, 64,000 newspapers in 48 states (AATimesNews.com).
I write about politics, and fun, for the Southwest News-Herald Newspaper (SWNewsHerald.com) and for newspapers around the country and the world.
I host a weekly radio show on WCEV "Chicago’s Ethnic Voice," which is on sabatical too, pending a new major advertising sponsor. I’ll talk about later. And, I host a weekly TV show on Comcast Cable Channel 19, where I push what some viewers call "my Arab agenda" but also delve into other regional and national stories.
And, as if I didn’t already have enough on my plate, I perform standup comedy with the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour IPComedyTour.com.
I’ve also won my share of Journalism Awards, including three SPJ Lisagor Awards, and was named "Best Ethnic American Journalist" in Nov. 2006 by the New American Media. Doesn’t get me any work, though. Just a lot of abuse.
You can go to my web site at TheMediaOasis.com to link to any and all of my journalism, comedy and writing endeavors.
Being an ethnic journalist
The first thing you should know about being an "ethnic" is that it is a very undefined phenomena.
Being ethnic is about how you view yourself and how others view you. I didn’t realize how ethnic I really was until I started to look for a job.
Over the years, ethnicity is kind of imposed on you. You think it is fine, some people don’t. You also discover that the label "ethnic" brings along a lot of baggage, too. A lot of people just don’t like you.
Now, most of my freelance work involves the ethnic media, a long way from covering Chicago’s City Hall for 17 years from Daley to Daley, where my ethnicity was acknowledged, often in the pejorative.
Overview of the Arab American Community
We Americans mix up ethnicity and race a lot. And when you are Arab American, add to that mix religion. It’s amazing how few people, including in journalism, distinguish between Arab and Muslim.
There are 7 million Muslims in the United States – we think because the government really doesn’t want to count us – by the way, the census is both a means of empowerment and a means of oppression. If they count you, you can become more powerful. If they refuse to count you or come up with special categories to count you, they can suppress your community’s voice. It’s what I like to cite as the subtle oppression of American Democracy, the unfree part we pretend doesn’t exist.
Of those 7 million Muslims, only 22 percent are Arab. The majority of Muslims are Black Muslims, about 36 percent.
There are 4.5 million Arabs in the United States, the majority are actually Christian, not Muslim at all. But you wouldn’t know that from the American public. A woman came up to me after Sept. 11, 2001 and said, "I can’t believe you abandoned your Christian faith to become an Arab."
Chicago has about 250,000 Arab Americans, the majority from Palestine. Much of which you will recognize is Israel today.
They are divided into two major groups: Those in jail and those not. Actually, there are two large settlements, the largest on the Southwest Side and Suburbs from the 13th Ward all the way southwest to Orland Park, where I live. Everyone thinks we’re Muslim, as I said, but the majority of those Arabs are Christian Palestinian and Lebanese Christians, and a easily identifiable Muslim warren in Bridgeview.
Again, ethnicity isn’t about what you are, but what people think you are. They see someone wearing a Hijab, a head covering that we used to call a Babushka in the 60s, and an entire community is defined.
Most of Arab Americans are wealthy. Most were professionals who could afford to leave their countries to come to this country. Some came as a result of conflict and oppression as refugees.
They’re doctors, lawyers, engineers, and business people. There are only about 250 Arab Americans in journalism. Sounds like a lot but it isn’t. Half are in the mainstream media – Hoda Kotbe, Jim Avila -- and the other half are in the ethnic media.
More about the Arab American ethnic news media.
Arab American media is at the forefront of social justice It is a fact that an ethnic community’s "health" and empowerment is reflected by the health and professionalism of its ethnic media. In that measure, the Arab American community is ailing. The Ethnic American media is at the forefront of the fight for justice, Democracy and free speech in this country. We are the front-line fighting for social change and fairness, and improving the livelihood of all Americans. But we have many challenges.
We have about 83 Arab newspapers and magazines, 12 radio shows including some mainstream like my own that are ethnic by default, and about a dozen cable TV programs. You can go to the web page of the National Arab American Journalists Association (NAAJA-US.com) to get more information on those newspapers and their geographical location around the country.
About 125 people working for the 83 publications and a handful of radio and TV means we don’t have big staffs. In fact, only a few are really media in a professional sense, run by "journalists" as opposed to business people or activists.
Most of our Arab ethnic media reporting focuses on Middle East politics. There is a reason for that. The mainstream news media doesn’t cover the Middle East fairly or objectively. They’re biased and some columnists and reporters will openly boast that they are biased – it improves their careers.
Other mainstream journalists and talk show hosts will show their biased based on the absence of Arab guests on their shows when they address Middle East topics.
Only a few of the Arab American media focus on non-Middle Eastern political issues, like the growing social challenges Arab Americans face like all other Americans.
We have many great ethnic newspapers, besides my own, the National Arab American Times, of course, and the two newspapers in Chicago, The Arab Horizon and the Future News. They include The Arab News in Detroit, the Independent Monitor and the Beirut Times in California, and Aramica News in New Jersey/New York, and al-Nashra in Washington D.C. These are only a few. Some of the leading magazines include Islamica Magazine, Azizah Magazine, the Arab American Business Magazine, and the News Circle Magazine
But, we are American. And still, we are constantly under siege.
Most of the publications are in Arabic but there is a trend to publish more and more in English. We had 7 newspapers in Chicago before Sept. 11. After, only two survived, and one, that I published, closed months later. The survivor was thrown out by her printer who said he didn’t like her English articles about the Middle East, so she found a new printer and published only in Arabic for a while.
Today, we have two major Arab American newspapers in Chicago, the Future News and the Arab Horizon that do both Arabic and English and fill the void intentionally missed by the mainstream news media.
Unlike other Ethnic media in America, we have difficulty in distributing our publications. Many mainstream, non-Arab stores and business refuse to distribute our newspapers, although you will find Hispanic, Asian and African American media, for example, in many retail stores that are of other ethnic origins or are owned by Caucasian business owners.
We have a divide in our media. Many of our newspapers are published and run by political activists with an agenda that is not journalism. Many others are run by business owners in insurance, real estate and law who are seeking to promote their business endeavors or are championing causes. Journalism is a sidelight, rather than a main profession -- although they are dedicated to the cause of journalism.
So, as a result, about 75 percent of the news published in our newspapers is focused on the Middle East conflict. Only 20 percent of the publications, according to a recent survey of newspapers, include features or news that is unrelated to the Middle East conflict. Some newspapers are all driven by opinion columns.
Although Arab Americans are the target of aggressive anti-Arab campaigns by the Bush-Cheney administration, about 35 percent of our advertising – major advertising, comes from government agencies such as the U.S. Military, the FBI and the CIA. About 65 percent of the remaining ads are local businesses. Nearly 25 percent of the purchased advertising goes uncollected, and remains outstanding. The remainder come from service industries targeting Arab and Muslim consumers, such as money wire transfers and cellular and long distance telephone companies.
Only a few Arab American publications actually make a profit.
While other ethnic media can really on a steady stream of community support, most Arab American ethnic publications do not get direct support beyond some advertising. For example, few of the Arab American organizations, with the exception of a handful based in Washington D.C., produce and distribute press releases. Without press releases, the burden on the Arab American ethnic journalists is tripled as a steady flow of press releases is a necessity, indicating a community that engages and recognizes the importance of the Arab American ethnic media.
The absence of a public relations industry in the Arab American community reflects the lack of respect Arab Americans have for their own community press.
WCEV – the show is temporarily off the air because we found that many mainstream advertisers won’t advertise on a radio station that is filled with ethnic voices … it was amazing how many advertisers complained because the shows on the station were ethnic … Polish, Irish, Italian … it isn’t just about being Arab American … many Americans hate the "hyphen" but they are the ones who hyphenate us …
Challenges just being an Arab let alone an ethnic publisher
When people come up to me and call me a terrorist lover, I like to point out I served during the Vietnam War, my brother was a Marine and my dad and uncle served more than four years each in World War II. I ask if they served. They usually say no. And I wonder, what’s stopping them? I offer to walk them to the recruiter so they can channel their hatred in the right direction, against usually innocent prisoners who have been denied their basic human rights held at Guantanamo. You can beat, torture and even kill them, and no one will care.
But we feel we are constantly under attack in this country, including way before Sept. 11, 2001. And it’s justified. When I was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1975, the FBI immediately opened an investigation into my life. Two years. Because I was "Arab."
Yet the Arab American community is both an asset and a resource for this country, and they are a market.
You know, if the mainstream media had done its job in covering our community, they would have been all over the Tony Rezko story long before it broke. They would have had actual video footage of Rezko and Gov. Blagojevich hugging and shaking hands at community award ceremonies. Instead of stealing the picture of Rezko from my book Arabs of Chicagoland and using that without attribution until Rezko finally appeared in court.
Most of the 83 publications are regional papers, which means they are published in one city, saturate that city but try their best to extend beyond their borders. Working with a national food distributor, though, I’ve managed to break that barrier publishing 65,000 copies of my newspaper (80 percent English and 20 percent Arabic language – the National Arab American Times) to Middle Eastern grocery stores in all 48 states. It took me a long time to find an Arab store in Wyoming.
Given the state of the world today and the real threat we face from terrorists and extremists in the Middle East, and the Muslim World, Americans owe it to themselves to learn more about Arab Americans and Muslims. And, to understand there is a difference.
My biggest critics not only are mainstream Americans, but also from extremist groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has attacked me because of my criticism of Islamic extremism, which is a real and genuine threat in this country and in this city that mainstream Muslim groups do not fully denounce – they denounce the vague threat of terrorism and the extremists and the clearly identified leaders of the foreign terrorist organizations, but they fail to denounce the extremists among them that makes that foreign terrorism possible.
But Americans wouldn’t know any of this because Americans can’t tell the difference between Arabs and Muslims. It’s so much easier to cover us as a "stereotype" than as an ethnic community.
And I might conclude by reiterating that we Arab American journalists face real challenges not just from the lack of education in the American public but also the lack of education and professional practices by the mainstream media.
The very people who should be supporting us either ignore us or are so busy fighting their own battles, they can’t see or hear us as "comrades in struggle."
The non-Arab and non-Muslim ethnic media doesn’t support us enough. One community that does support us is the Asian American community because of the large number of Muslims (non-Arab Muslims) in their countries.
Instead of supporting us, they are shutting us out, or ignoring us, or not responding to our obvious needs.
Next month, UNITY: Journalists of Color will be hold their quadrennial Convention right here in Chicago. For the past three years, we’ve been asking, as Arab Americans, to participate, and they have refused us … thanks to the Asian American Journalists Association, we will have one panel on Arab American issues, that includes many non-Arabs on it … but it is a shame when the very ethnic and minority media of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans are so insecure about themselves, they are afraid to open the door to Arab American journalists who are also of color.
Part of the problem is the Arab American professional journalism community itself. Although viewed and stereotyped by outsiders as a monolithic, negative presence in America, the Arab American community sees itself as a coalition of division. We don’t work together. We don’t support each other. We permit the politics of the Middle East interfere in our organizational needs. We don’t come together because Lebanese and Palestinians don’t get along, or Syrians and Egyptians don’t get along, and more often than not, Muslims and Christian Arabs do not work together. In fact, while the Christian Arab community is larger than the Muslim Arab community, the Muslim Arab community empowerment is driven by non-Arab Muslims who have a huge influence in America but that also have priorities that do not match the priorities of the Arab community.
We want to protest UNITY, rather than support it, but when minorities are discriminated against by other minorities, not even a protest can make a difference.
One day UNITY will open its doors and recognize that the path now being taken by Arab Americans is one they took years before in their own fights for equality. You can’t be equal if you find excuses to treat other unequally.
To borrow a malapropism from the great late Mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, and adapt it into our own challenges, "We Arab American journalists are not here to cause dis-UNITY at UNITY this summer … we’re here to preserve dis-UNITY."
That’s my sout-side ethnicity coming out …
Thanks
Ray Hanania
http://www.themediaoasis.com/
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
CAIR Publishes Guide on Islam and Muslims
Help Improve Coverage of Islam in the U.S. Media
Sponsor 'A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims'
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/13/2007) - CAIR today called on Muslims to support a major new initiative to help improve coverage of Islam in the American news media.
At a press conference in the nation's capital, CAIR said the centerpiece of its "Beyond Stereotypes" campaign will be distribution of the newly-published "American Muslims: A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims" to some 40,000 media professionals nationwide.
Muslims are being asked to sponsor copies of the guide for $20 or to order hard copies for distribution to local media outlets.
SEE: Beyond Stereotypes: A CAIR Initiative to Enhance Understanding of Islam in the Media
CAIR's new guide offers journalists the tools needed to gain a better understanding of Islam and to write accurate and balanced stories about Muslims. The guide also offers background information on issues related to Islam and Muslims, best practices for reporting on the American Muslim community and definitions of terminology often used in news stories or editorials.
In challenging common misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, the guide provides an Islamic perspective on hot-button issues such as Islam and democracy, freedom of religion, women's rights, and interfaith relations.
Media professionals may request a free copy of CAIR's journalist guide through the "Beyond Stereotypes" website. (Sample pages of the guide can be viewed on the website.)
Along with distribution of the guide to editors, reporters, producers, and other journalists, CAIR is offering media relations training to Muslim communities nationwide. The "Beyond Stereotypes" website also offers tips on pro-active educational activities such as hosting media events and meeting with newspaper editorial boards.
"Because we work with media professionals on a daily basis, we know the vast majority of journalists are doing the best job they can with the information resources they have available," said CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed. "It is our duty, and that of the Muslim community, to make sure every journalist who writes about Islam or Muslims has access to accurate information."
In a statement released at today's news conference, CAIR said: "We recognize that much of the negative perception of Islam and Muslims is the result of negative actions by a tiny minority of Muslims. That minority should not be allowed to overshadow the vast majority of Muslims in this country and worldwide who reject terrorism and religious extremism."
IMMEDIATE ACTIONS REQUESTED:
1. SPONSOR A JOURNALIST'S GUIDE. For only $20, you can help improve coverage of Islam and Muslims in the U.S. media. Click here to sponsor a journalist's guide.
2. ORDER HARD COPIES OF THE JOURNALIST'S GUIDE for distribution to local media outlets. Click here to order a guide.
3. REQUEST MEDIA RELATIONS TRAINING for your community. Either contact a local CAIR chapter, or click here to request training or learn about other actions you can take.
end
Sponsor 'A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims'
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/13/2007) - CAIR today called on Muslims to support a major new initiative to help improve coverage of Islam in the American news media.
At a press conference in the nation's capital, CAIR said the centerpiece of its "Beyond Stereotypes" campaign will be distribution of the newly-published "American Muslims: A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims" to some 40,000 media professionals nationwide.
Muslims are being asked to sponsor copies of the guide for $20 or to order hard copies for distribution to local media outlets.
SEE: Beyond Stereotypes: A CAIR Initiative to Enhance Understanding of Islam in the Media
CAIR's new guide offers journalists the tools needed to gain a better understanding of Islam and to write accurate and balanced stories about Muslims. The guide also offers background information on issues related to Islam and Muslims, best practices for reporting on the American Muslim community and definitions of terminology often used in news stories or editorials.
In challenging common misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, the guide provides an Islamic perspective on hot-button issues such as Islam and democracy, freedom of religion, women's rights, and interfaith relations.
Media professionals may request a free copy of CAIR's journalist guide through the "Beyond Stereotypes" website. (Sample pages of the guide can be viewed on the website.)
Along with distribution of the guide to editors, reporters, producers, and other journalists, CAIR is offering media relations training to Muslim communities nationwide. The "Beyond Stereotypes" website also offers tips on pro-active educational activities such as hosting media events and meeting with newspaper editorial boards.
"Because we work with media professionals on a daily basis, we know the vast majority of journalists are doing the best job they can with the information resources they have available," said CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed. "It is our duty, and that of the Muslim community, to make sure every journalist who writes about Islam or Muslims has access to accurate information."
In a statement released at today's news conference, CAIR said: "We recognize that much of the negative perception of Islam and Muslims is the result of negative actions by a tiny minority of Muslims. That minority should not be allowed to overshadow the vast majority of Muslims in this country and worldwide who reject terrorism and religious extremism."
IMMEDIATE ACTIONS REQUESTED:
1. SPONSOR A JOURNALIST'S GUIDE. For only $20, you can help improve coverage of Islam and Muslims in the U.S. media. Click here to sponsor a journalist's guide.
2. ORDER HARD COPIES OF THE JOURNALIST'S GUIDE for distribution to local media outlets. Click here to order a guide.
3. REQUEST MEDIA RELATIONS TRAINING for your community. Either contact a local CAIR chapter, or click here to request training or learn about other actions you can take.
end
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
MPAC host journalism confernece on Muslims Nov. 15 Columbia
MPAC-NY TO HOLD PANEL ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF MUSLIMS POST-9/11 AT COLUMBIA UNIV. ON NOV. 15
(New York - 11/7/07) -- On Thursday, November 15, the Muslim Public Affairs Council's New York City chapter will host a panel discussion on "Media Coverage of Muslims Post-9/11" at Columbia University in Manhattan.
Moderated by Sheheryar Azhar, host of GEO TV's "The Forum", the panel discussion will feature Columbia University Journalism Professor Ari Goldman, award-winning journalist, filmmaker and Professor Anisa Mehdi, and MPAC Communications Director Edina Lekovic.
Co-sponsored by the Columbia University Muslim Students Association, panelists will draw on their decades of experience in the news media to provide a critical examination of news and entertainment media portrayals of Muslim Americans as a community as well as public discourse on the Islamic faith.
WHAT: The Coverage of Islam & Muslims in the American Mass Media Post-9/11
WHEN: Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Columbia University
James Room on the 4th Floor Bernard Hall
2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6902
WHO: Professor Ari Goldman, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Anisa Mehdi, Journalist and Professor at Seton Hall University
Edina Lekovic, MPAC Communications Director
Shaheryar Azhar, host of "The Forum" on ARY
Goldman is the director of the Columbia's Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life. Goldman also co-directs the Universitys Religion-Journalism Dual M.A. Program. Previously, he spent 20 years at The New York Times, most of it as a religion writer. He is the author of three books, including "The Search for God at Harvard".
Mehdi is an Emmy award-winning journalist specializing in religion, the arts, and people. For over 20 years she has reported, written, directed and produced television news and documentary programs for major American media outlets, including National Geographic, PBS, ABC News, and CBS. Her commentaries are heard on NPRs award-winning newscast All Things Considered. She is also Adjunct Professor of Communication at Seton Hall University. She is producer/director of "Inside Mecca," the National Geographic Special that premiered on PBS in 2003. She was also executive producer with Alvin Perlmutter of the two-hour PBS FRONTLINE special "Muslims".
Call 213-383-3443 or email events@mpac.org for more information.
Founded in 1988, the Muslim Public Affairs Council is an American institution which informs and shapes public opinion and policy by serving as a trusted resource to decision makers in government, media and policy institutions. MPAC is also committed to developing leaders with the purpose of enhancing the political and civic participation of Muslim Americans.
end
(New York - 11/7/07) -- On Thursday, November 15, the Muslim Public Affairs Council's New York City chapter will host a panel discussion on "Media Coverage of Muslims Post-9/11" at Columbia University in Manhattan.
Moderated by Sheheryar Azhar, host of GEO TV's "The Forum", the panel discussion will feature Columbia University Journalism Professor Ari Goldman, award-winning journalist, filmmaker and Professor Anisa Mehdi, and MPAC Communications Director Edina Lekovic.
Co-sponsored by the Columbia University Muslim Students Association, panelists will draw on their decades of experience in the news media to provide a critical examination of news and entertainment media portrayals of Muslim Americans as a community as well as public discourse on the Islamic faith.
WHAT: The Coverage of Islam & Muslims in the American Mass Media Post-9/11
WHEN: Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Columbia University
James Room on the 4th Floor Bernard Hall
2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6902
WHO: Professor Ari Goldman, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Anisa Mehdi, Journalist and Professor at Seton Hall University
Edina Lekovic, MPAC Communications Director
Shaheryar Azhar, host of "The Forum" on ARY
Goldman is the director of the Columbia's Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life. Goldman also co-directs the Universitys Religion-Journalism Dual M.A. Program. Previously, he spent 20 years at The New York Times, most of it as a religion writer. He is the author of three books, including "The Search for God at Harvard".
Mehdi is an Emmy award-winning journalist specializing in religion, the arts, and people. For over 20 years she has reported, written, directed and produced television news and documentary programs for major American media outlets, including National Geographic, PBS, ABC News, and CBS. Her commentaries are heard on NPRs award-winning newscast All Things Considered. She is also Adjunct Professor of Communication at Seton Hall University. She is producer/director of "Inside Mecca," the National Geographic Special that premiered on PBS in 2003. She was also executive producer with Alvin Perlmutter of the two-hour PBS FRONTLINE special "Muslims".
Call 213-383-3443 or email events@mpac.org for more information.
Founded in 1988, the Muslim Public Affairs Council is an American institution which informs and shapes public opinion and policy by serving as a trusted resource to decision makers in government, media and policy institutions. MPAC is also committed to developing leaders with the purpose of enhancing the political and civic participation of Muslim Americans.
end
Saturday, October 27, 2007
NAAJA launches Media Watch Committee
NAAJA has launched a media Watch Committee to monitor excesses involving racism, stereotyping and unprofessional conduct by mainstream American media.
This is not a place for political discussion.
NAAJA is forming a Media Watch Committee consisting of professional Arab American Journalists. We will accept complaints involving mainstream American media and consider taking acting.
To join, you must be a professional journalist of Arab American heritage working either in the mainstream American media or the Arab American/Muslim American ethnic media. If you would like to join and help:
1) Review and discuss complaints
2) Issue a formal written letter, when appropriate, to the mainstream media after NAAJA Media Watch committee discuss the transgressions
3) Media that refuse to respond will be put on a MEDIA WATCH DISCRIMINATION LIST posted on the official NAAJA web site (www.NAAJA-US.com) until they respond
4) NAAJA will seek the support of other Arab journalism organizations and mainstream American Arab organizations to publicize this unprofessional behavior
Here is how to join this list if you meet the above criteria:
Post message:
NAAJA-MediaWatch@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe:
NAAJA-MediaWatch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:
NAAJA-MediaWatch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner:
NAAJA-MediaWatch-owner@yahoogroups.com
Thanks
Ray Hanania
This is not a place for political discussion.
NAAJA is forming a Media Watch Committee consisting of professional Arab American Journalists. We will accept complaints involving mainstream American media and consider taking acting.
To join, you must be a professional journalist of Arab American heritage working either in the mainstream American media or the Arab American/Muslim American ethnic media. If you would like to join and help:
1) You must be a member of NAAJANAAJA Media Watch will
2) You must identify yourself fully for members to know who you are
3) This is not a political discussion list
4) Your contributions would be to highlight obvious and glaring
transgressions that really rise to the necessity of addressing formally.
1) Review and discuss complaints
2) Issue a formal written letter, when appropriate, to the mainstream media after NAAJA Media Watch committee discuss the transgressions
3) Media that refuse to respond will be put on a MEDIA WATCH DISCRIMINATION LIST posted on the official NAAJA web site (www.NAAJA-US.com) until they respond
4) NAAJA will seek the support of other Arab journalism organizations and mainstream American Arab organizations to publicize this unprofessional behavior
Here is how to join this list if you meet the above criteria:
Post message:
NAAJA-MediaWatch@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe:
NAAJA-MediaWatch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:
NAAJA-MediaWatch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner:
NAAJA-MediaWatch-owner@yahoogroups.com
Thanks
Ray Hanania
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
NAAJA member's new book now available
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ahmed Soliman
Oct. 24, 2007
732-715-9775
New Voice Emerges in American Media
Arab & Muslim-American Journalists Offer Essential Perspective
(Maple Shade, NJ, Oct. 21st, 2007) — Arab and Muslim-American journalist Ahmed Soliman believes his new book, “Born in the USA: Reflections of an Arab and Muslim-American Journalist,” will give mainstream Americans a fresh perspective into the Islamic and Arab Worlds that is unique and rare.
Soliman argues that despite the events of Sept. 11th, 2001, Americans still do not understand the Arab and Muslim Worlds. By sharing his many interviews with Arab and Muslim leaders in the post-Sept. 11th World he believes he can not only change that but also improve the American journalism profession.
“There have been many post 9/11 books written with the Muslim-American perspective and some written by journalists who have covered such stories as the war on terror, domestic surveillance and the conflict between Israel and Palestinians,” explains Soliman who has been a journalist for more than seven years.
“But I think I bring a special knowledge as a professional journalist who has covered international issues for the past two years and who is both Arab and Muslim. I believe I bring a fresh and more objective perspective to the international discussion on these and other important issues. It’s a freshness that contrasts the sometimes cynical views often reflected in the writings of longtime, veteran journalists, many of whom are neither Arab nor Muslim and who have witnessed the often tragic events of the Middle East repeat themselves over and over again.”
The book features many voices and opinions not often heard, based on firsthand interviews Soliman conducted as a reporter for broadcast and print Arab, Muslim and mainstream American newspapers.
“It's not often that Americans really get to hear the perspective of the Pakistani foreign minister on such issues as the war on terror, and whether or not the US government is correct in saying that they're not doing enough. Understanding the people on the other side of the ocean is crucial to resolving our contemporary challenges,” he says.
And, Soliman believes the book might help initiate “a broader discussion about the role of our own American media, whether that is opening some eyes among editors and news directors about the importance of integrating more diverse voices in their newsrooms, specifically regarding Arab American journalists, or also aspiring Arab American journalists who could benefit from the experiences I share in the book.”
Like many Arab and Muslim Americans, Soliman had planned on entering a professional career in medicine or engineering. But it was when he wrote an essay that received immediate notice and was recognized with a prestigious journalism award that he decided to pursue journalism, instead.
“Prior to the 9/11 attack, the vast majority of Muslim-Americans entered the engineering and medical fields, the result of the influence they received from their immigrant parents,” explains Soliman, who worked for two years as senior anchor and producer for the nationally televised Daily World news on Bridges TV.
“The result was that Muslim-Americans, now numbering over 7 million according to the Zogby poll, never had much influence on public opinion or policy. Now, after the 9/11 attack, the few of us who did enter the journalism field are trying to keep the dialogue and coverage in the media more balanced and insightful.”
Soliman’s story is a poignant, eye-opening portrayal of the challenges facing media coverage of the Arab and Muslims, and on international issues including the war on terror, and racism.
“No reasonably minded person would disagree with anything [Soliman] has said in this book,” said Ambassador Richard Parker, former U.S. representative in the Middle East.
Prior to working at Bridges TV, Soliman produced and directed a post-911 documentary for a PBS affiliate titled Born in the USA: Muslim Americans. The film followed a Muslim American doctor and teacher in the months following the September 11th Attack, and received positive reviews and press from WCBS – TV in New York, The Star Ledger Newspaper in New Jersey, and The Home News Tribune. Soliman started his career as the Managing Editor of the Gazette-Leader, a weekly newspaper for the towns of Elizabeth and Hillside in New Jersey, where he covered crime, education, and government related stories. He also interned for WNBC-TV in New York.
“It’s not always easy being an Arab and Muslim-American journalist. A lot of people in our profession throw obstacles in our way,” Soliman argues.
“But I believe that when your argument is for more objective and balanced coverage, by way of including more diverse voices in the perspectives offered in the media, eventually people will realize that it can only be a good thing. Writing Born in the USA was just the next domino in the set that will be falling on this issue.”
Soliman is a columnist with the Arab Writers Syndicate (www.ArabWritersGroup.com) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists-Arab American Journalists group. He is also a member of the Arab professional journalism associations NAAJA (www.NAAJA-US.com) and AMEJA.
The book is available from most major bookstores, and online from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. It is published by iUniverse Inc., in New York.
ET
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ahmed Soliman
Oct. 24, 2007
732-715-9775
New Voice Emerges in American Media
Arab & Muslim-American Journalists Offer Essential Perspective
(Maple Shade, NJ, Oct. 21st, 2007) — Arab and Muslim-American journalist Ahmed Soliman believes his new book, “Born in the USA: Reflections of an Arab and Muslim-American Journalist,” will give mainstream Americans a fresh perspective into the Islamic and Arab Worlds that is unique and rare.
Soliman argues that despite the events of Sept. 11th, 2001, Americans still do not understand the Arab and Muslim Worlds. By sharing his many interviews with Arab and Muslim leaders in the post-Sept. 11th World he believes he can not only change that but also improve the American journalism profession.
“There have been many post 9/11 books written with the Muslim-American perspective and some written by journalists who have covered such stories as the war on terror, domestic surveillance and the conflict between Israel and Palestinians,” explains Soliman who has been a journalist for more than seven years.
“But I think I bring a special knowledge as a professional journalist who has covered international issues for the past two years and who is both Arab and Muslim. I believe I bring a fresh and more objective perspective to the international discussion on these and other important issues. It’s a freshness that contrasts the sometimes cynical views often reflected in the writings of longtime, veteran journalists, many of whom are neither Arab nor Muslim and who have witnessed the often tragic events of the Middle East repeat themselves over and over again.”
The book features many voices and opinions not often heard, based on firsthand interviews Soliman conducted as a reporter for broadcast and print Arab, Muslim and mainstream American newspapers.
“It's not often that Americans really get to hear the perspective of the Pakistani foreign minister on such issues as the war on terror, and whether or not the US government is correct in saying that they're not doing enough. Understanding the people on the other side of the ocean is crucial to resolving our contemporary challenges,” he says.
And, Soliman believes the book might help initiate “a broader discussion about the role of our own American media, whether that is opening some eyes among editors and news directors about the importance of integrating more diverse voices in their newsrooms, specifically regarding Arab American journalists, or also aspiring Arab American journalists who could benefit from the experiences I share in the book.”
Like many Arab and Muslim Americans, Soliman had planned on entering a professional career in medicine or engineering. But it was when he wrote an essay that received immediate notice and was recognized with a prestigious journalism award that he decided to pursue journalism, instead.
“Prior to the 9/11 attack, the vast majority of Muslim-Americans entered the engineering and medical fields, the result of the influence they received from their immigrant parents,” explains Soliman, who worked for two years as senior anchor and producer for the nationally televised Daily World news on Bridges TV.
“The result was that Muslim-Americans, now numbering over 7 million according to the Zogby poll, never had much influence on public opinion or policy. Now, after the 9/11 attack, the few of us who did enter the journalism field are trying to keep the dialogue and coverage in the media more balanced and insightful.”
Soliman’s story is a poignant, eye-opening portrayal of the challenges facing media coverage of the Arab and Muslims, and on international issues including the war on terror, and racism.
“No reasonably minded person would disagree with anything [Soliman] has said in this book,” said Ambassador Richard Parker, former U.S. representative in the Middle East.
Prior to working at Bridges TV, Soliman produced and directed a post-911 documentary for a PBS affiliate titled Born in the USA: Muslim Americans. The film followed a Muslim American doctor and teacher in the months following the September 11th Attack, and received positive reviews and press from WCBS – TV in New York, The Star Ledger Newspaper in New Jersey, and The Home News Tribune. Soliman started his career as the Managing Editor of the Gazette-Leader, a weekly newspaper for the towns of Elizabeth and Hillside in New Jersey, where he covered crime, education, and government related stories. He also interned for WNBC-TV in New York.
“It’s not always easy being an Arab and Muslim-American journalist. A lot of people in our profession throw obstacles in our way,” Soliman argues.
“But I believe that when your argument is for more objective and balanced coverage, by way of including more diverse voices in the perspectives offered in the media, eventually people will realize that it can only be a good thing. Writing Born in the USA was just the next domino in the set that will be falling on this issue.”
Soliman is a columnist with the Arab Writers Syndicate (www.ArabWritersGroup.com) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists-Arab American Journalists group. He is also a member of the Arab professional journalism associations NAAJA (www.NAAJA-US.com) and AMEJA.
The book is available from most major bookstores, and online from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. It is published by iUniverse Inc., in New York.
ET
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Hate victim in New York Arabic School controversy speaks out
Debbie Almontesar, who was targeted in a hate campaign led by notorious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim Daniel Pipes, issued the following statement that was published in the New York Times Oct. 16, 2007:
Good evening. My name is Debbie Almontaser. I am the founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is known as KGIA. Over a two-year period beginning in 2005, I devoted my life to establishing a school that reflected not only my vision, but the ideas of a design team that included other educators, prospective parents, community members, and the Arab American Family Support Center.
In early August of this year, under pressure from The New York Post, The New York Sun, and right-wing bloggers, representatives of the mayor, the chancellor, and New Visions demanded that I resign as KGIA’s principal. They threatened to close down KGIA if I refused. The next day, I submitted my letter of resignation. Because I believe that I am the person to carry forward the mission of KGIA, I have today submitted my application to become the principal of KGIA. I have also asked my lawyer to begin preparing a lawsuit against the D.O.E. for violation of my constitutional rights.
When I first discussed with New Visions for Public Schools the creation of an Arabic dual-language public school in New York City, controversy was far from my mind. I was thrilled to create a unique school that would provide a rigorous regents-based curriculum with Arabic language and cultural studies, and that would equip students for work in such areas as international affairs diplomacy and cross-cultural understanding. As with the more than 60 other dual language programs in the city, KGIA was created to foster multilingual and multicultural education. It was also joining many New York City public schools that use theme-based approaches to inform and enrich curriculum across subject areas. As an Arab-American Muslim, born in Yemen and raised in the U.S., establishing KGIA was my American dream. It turned into an American nightmare.
On Feb. 12, 2007, the Department of Education announced the establishment of KGIA. In the days following, right-wing blogs began spinning KGIA as an Islamist school with a radical extremist jihad principal. And local New York City papers fanned the flames with headlines like: “Holy war! Slope Parents Protest Arabic School Plan,” “A Madrassa Grows in Brooklyn,” and “Arabic School Idea Is a Monstrosity.” From the day the school was approved to the day I was forced to resign, The New York Sun plastered my picture on its website with a link to negative articles about KGIA.
Leading the attack was the “Stop the Madrassa Coalition” run by Daniel Pipes, who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims. The coalition conducted a smear campaign against me and the school that was ferocious. Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian. To stir up anti-Arab prejudice, they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist.
Then in early August, The New York Post and the Stop the Madrassa Coalition tried to connect me to T-shirts made by a youth organization called Arab Women in the Arts and Media. The T-shirts said, “Intifada NYC.” Post reporters aggressively sought my comment. Because the T-shirts had nothing to do with me or KGIA, I saw no reason to discuss the issue with the media. I agreed to an interview with a reporter from The Post at the D.O.E.’s insistence. During the interview, the reporter asked about the Arabic origin of the word “intifada.” I told him that the root word from which the word intifada originates means “shake off” and that the word intifada has different meanings for different people, but certainly for many, given its association with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, it implied violence. I reiterated that I would never affiliate myself with an individual or organization that would condone violence in any shape, way, or form. In response to a further question, I expressed the belief that the teenage girls of AWAAM did not mean to promote a “Gaza-style uprising” in New York City.
Although The Post story distorted my words, it accurately reflected my view that I do not condone violence. That should have been the end of the matter. D.O.E. officials should simply have said that it was clear that neither I nor KGIA had any connection to the T-shirts. They should have pointed out that I had devoted my entire adult life to the peaceful resolution of conflict and to building bridges between ethnic and religious communities. In other words, they should have said that the attacks upon me were utterly baseless. Instead, they forced me to issue an apology for what I said. And when the storm of hate continued, they forced me to resign.
In closing, permit me to explain why I am speaking out at this time. While I have been the victim of a serious injustice, the far larger offense has been to the Arab and Muslim communities of New York City. In the years since 9/11, our communities have been the object of the most vile and hateful attacks. The attacks on me are part of a larger campaign to intimidate and silence marginalized communities. Among other strategies, the right-wing is trying to get people from other communities to view Arabs and Muslims as threats to their safety and security. As a result, well-meaning people sometimes act out of fear—not just a knee-jerk anti-Arab, anti-Muslim response, but the fear that, if they do not succumb to right-wing pressure, they too will become targets.
Those seeking to harm our communities would like nothing more than for me to remain silent in response to their hate. For the sake of the Arab and Muslim communities and for all marginalized communities, for the sake of the families of KGIA, and for the sake of all of us committed to creating a society that we can be proud to leave to future generations, I stand here today to say that they will not prevail. I will continue to stand against division, intimidation and hatred; I will stand for a society based on mutual respect and understanding and dignity for all our communities. These are values to which I have devoted my entire adult life and career.
I am applying to be the principal of KGIA because, as its founding principal and the person who envisioned the school, I believe I am the person most qualified to be its educational leader. Throughout the planning process, I worked with a wonderful and devoted design team comprised of educators, parents, students, and community members. I would like to continue that work and to build KGIA into a model dual language school that, to quote KGIA’s mission statement, “helps students of all backgrounds learn about the world” and fosters in them “an understanding of different cultures, a love of learning, and desire for excellence in all of its students.”
Good evening. My name is Debbie Almontaser. I am the founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is known as KGIA. Over a two-year period beginning in 2005, I devoted my life to establishing a school that reflected not only my vision, but the ideas of a design team that included other educators, prospective parents, community members, and the Arab American Family Support Center.
In early August of this year, under pressure from The New York Post, The New York Sun, and right-wing bloggers, representatives of the mayor, the chancellor, and New Visions demanded that I resign as KGIA’s principal. They threatened to close down KGIA if I refused. The next day, I submitted my letter of resignation. Because I believe that I am the person to carry forward the mission of KGIA, I have today submitted my application to become the principal of KGIA. I have also asked my lawyer to begin preparing a lawsuit against the D.O.E. for violation of my constitutional rights.
When I first discussed with New Visions for Public Schools the creation of an Arabic dual-language public school in New York City, controversy was far from my mind. I was thrilled to create a unique school that would provide a rigorous regents-based curriculum with Arabic language and cultural studies, and that would equip students for work in such areas as international affairs diplomacy and cross-cultural understanding. As with the more than 60 other dual language programs in the city, KGIA was created to foster multilingual and multicultural education. It was also joining many New York City public schools that use theme-based approaches to inform and enrich curriculum across subject areas. As an Arab-American Muslim, born in Yemen and raised in the U.S., establishing KGIA was my American dream. It turned into an American nightmare.
On Feb. 12, 2007, the Department of Education announced the establishment of KGIA. In the days following, right-wing blogs began spinning KGIA as an Islamist school with a radical extremist jihad principal. And local New York City papers fanned the flames with headlines like: “Holy war! Slope Parents Protest Arabic School Plan,” “A Madrassa Grows in Brooklyn,” and “Arabic School Idea Is a Monstrosity.” From the day the school was approved to the day I was forced to resign, The New York Sun plastered my picture on its website with a link to negative articles about KGIA.
Leading the attack was the “Stop the Madrassa Coalition” run by Daniel Pipes, who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims. The coalition conducted a smear campaign against me and the school that was ferocious. Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian. To stir up anti-Arab prejudice, they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist.
Then in early August, The New York Post and the Stop the Madrassa Coalition tried to connect me to T-shirts made by a youth organization called Arab Women in the Arts and Media. The T-shirts said, “Intifada NYC.” Post reporters aggressively sought my comment. Because the T-shirts had nothing to do with me or KGIA, I saw no reason to discuss the issue with the media. I agreed to an interview with a reporter from The Post at the D.O.E.’s insistence. During the interview, the reporter asked about the Arabic origin of the word “intifada.” I told him that the root word from which the word intifada originates means “shake off” and that the word intifada has different meanings for different people, but certainly for many, given its association with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, it implied violence. I reiterated that I would never affiliate myself with an individual or organization that would condone violence in any shape, way, or form. In response to a further question, I expressed the belief that the teenage girls of AWAAM did not mean to promote a “Gaza-style uprising” in New York City.
Although The Post story distorted my words, it accurately reflected my view that I do not condone violence. That should have been the end of the matter. D.O.E. officials should simply have said that it was clear that neither I nor KGIA had any connection to the T-shirts. They should have pointed out that I had devoted my entire adult life to the peaceful resolution of conflict and to building bridges between ethnic and religious communities. In other words, they should have said that the attacks upon me were utterly baseless. Instead, they forced me to issue an apology for what I said. And when the storm of hate continued, they forced me to resign.
In closing, permit me to explain why I am speaking out at this time. While I have been the victim of a serious injustice, the far larger offense has been to the Arab and Muslim communities of New York City. In the years since 9/11, our communities have been the object of the most vile and hateful attacks. The attacks on me are part of a larger campaign to intimidate and silence marginalized communities. Among other strategies, the right-wing is trying to get people from other communities to view Arabs and Muslims as threats to their safety and security. As a result, well-meaning people sometimes act out of fear—not just a knee-jerk anti-Arab, anti-Muslim response, but the fear that, if they do not succumb to right-wing pressure, they too will become targets.
Those seeking to harm our communities would like nothing more than for me to remain silent in response to their hate. For the sake of the Arab and Muslim communities and for all marginalized communities, for the sake of the families of KGIA, and for the sake of all of us committed to creating a society that we can be proud to leave to future generations, I stand here today to say that they will not prevail. I will continue to stand against division, intimidation and hatred; I will stand for a society based on mutual respect and understanding and dignity for all our communities. These are values to which I have devoted my entire adult life and career.
I am applying to be the principal of KGIA because, as its founding principal and the person who envisioned the school, I believe I am the person most qualified to be its educational leader. Throughout the planning process, I worked with a wonderful and devoted design team comprised of educators, parents, students, and community members. I would like to continue that work and to build KGIA into a model dual language school that, to quote KGIA’s mission statement, “helps students of all backgrounds learn about the world” and fosters in them “an understanding of different cultures, a love of learning, and desire for excellence in all of its students.”
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