Author Archives: Arab America

Palestinian flags waved at a rally at the corner of Orchard Lake and Maple roads in West Bloomfield today as a crowd of more than 200 gathered to protest the Israeli military strikes in Gaza. West Bloomfield Police Sgt. Tom Ellis said there were no incidents during the nearly two-hour event. He estimated the crowd … Continued

Amira Khairy is mobbed by housewives kissing her cheeks in greeting as she arrives to give a lesson on reciting the Quran to women at the Al-Sedeeq mosque in a Cairo suburb. Students set up chairs for the class, and soon the hum of chanting female voices fills one of the building’s larger chambers. Up … Continued

Tens of thousands of protesters showed their anger at the Israeli bombing of Gaza today in a series of rallies across the UK that included throwing shoes at the gates of Downing Street. More than a thousands pairs of footwear were thrown by protesters marching down Whitehall. A firework was also set off metres from … Continued

Georges Mokbel, a chef in Bloomfield Hills, says his childhood in Beirut — as Lebanon’s civil war raged — is what led him to a career in the culinary arts. The war, between about 1975 and 1990, kept Mokbel’s extended family of uncles, aunts and grandparents inside for extended periods of time. “The only thing … Continued

“I write to you out of despair. Nothing and no one has been able to silence your just cries for a humane society, not even the bullet with which you were murdered …” Advertisement — A 2008 letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from then 16-year-old Abbas Alawieh of Dearborn The way Abbas Alawieh … Continued

It’s a tragedy that the Israelis – a people who must understand better than almost anybody the horrors of oppression – are now acting as oppressors. As the great Jewish writer Primo Levi once remarked “Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it’s the Palestinians”. By creating a middle Eastern version of the Warsaw … Continued

  Dear George W. Bush, Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama’s declaration that “there is only one president at a time” over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being … Continued

  A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) following an incident Thursday in which nine Muslim passengers were removed from an AirTran Airways flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the Muslim passengers were … Continued

A large group of people gathered in front of the federal building in downtown Ann Arbor Friday afternoon to protest action by the Israeli military in Gaza. Carrying signs that read, “Smash Israel Apartheid,” “Reject Zionism” and “Stop the Massacre in Gaza,” about 150 chanted and walked up Liberty Street towards campus before swinging back … Continued

The question seemed harmless, a nervous habit that Atif Irfan always had when flying. Mr. Irfan turned to his wife, Sobia Ijaz, as they boarded AirTran Flight 175 at Reagan National Airport near Washington Thursday afternoon, and wondered aloud where the safest place to sit on the airplane would be — the front? The rear? … Continued

Life for Relief and Development (LIFE), a U.S.-based charity, has begun providing emergency humanitarian relief to the civilian victims of the recent conflict in Gaza. As one of only a handful of international non-governmental organizations operating in the area, LIFE has obtained permission from the Israeli authorities to deliver urgently needed relief items to Gaza … Continued

While some had predicted Barack Obama would be “tested” early in his administration by America’s enemy Osama, Obama’s first major foreign policy “test” has instead come from America’s ally, Israel. Israel’s war in Gaza has been calculated and deliberately planned to occur at this time. The Israeli government has taken advantage of a world in … Continued