Author Archives: Arab America

The history of Saudi Arabia and its ruling dynasty are one. The two are inseparable. In fact, the country’s name, Saudi Arabia, means “Saud’s Arabia.”

The House of Saud can trace its history to the founding of a town named Diriyah (now part of the capital city, Riyadh), by a Bedouin chieftain named Mani al Muraidi in the 15th century.

Muraidi’s descendants remained undistinguished rulers of the small town and its surroundings for centuries. Then, in the mid-18th century, his great-great-great-grandson, Sheikh Muhammad bin Saud made an alliance with a pious Muslim Sunni revivalist named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The two families formally bound their fates together through the marriage in 1744 of Bin Saud’s son, Abdul Aziz, with al-Wahhab’s daughter.

At that point, the two families, now united in strength, began a holy way to purify Arabia of the various Muslim sects that had splintered off from orthodox Sunni Islam over the years since the death of Muhammad (in the year 632).

Blood and brotherhood

By sword and alliances, Abdul Aziz managed to gain loose control over most of the Arabian peninsula and even beyond, founding what is known as the First Saudi State. The state, centered in Diriyah, was ruled by his male line, which from then on called themselves Al Saud – (the House of Saud), after Abdul Aziz’s father. (Saud is simply a Quranic given name, meaning “happy” or “blessed”.)

The First Saudi State reached its zenith under the grandson of its founder, Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad. He was assassinated in 1803, then shortly after his accession to the throne, his son and successor Abdullah bin Saud found himself facing a joint Egyptian-Ottoman invasion. In 1818 his armies were defeated, his capital of Diriyah was sacked, and he was taken to Istanbul, where he was beheaded. Thus ended the First Saudi State.

However, a Second Saudi State would soon follow, though it would prove less illustrious. In 1821, Abdullah bin Saud’s son Turki managed to stage a successful revolt. He formed a small kingdom centered on Diriyah, and established the city of Riyadh by it as his new capital.

But Turki was to be assassinated in 1834 and the kingdom, beset by civil war, assassinations and and attacks by the Al Rashid clan, a rival to the Sauds, barely stayed together.

In 1887 Turki’s grandson Abdul Rahman bin Faisal managed to wrest control of the kingdom and its capital Riyadh from his bickering kinfolk – only to be defeated in the Battle of Mulayda by the Rashids in 1891.

Source: www.haaretz.com

It’s always worth dipping into the vast archive of Zinn scholarship, but at a moment of increasing social activism and global tension, now is an especially good time to remember some of Howard Zinn’s wisdom….

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

By Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, trans. Maged Zaher
————————–
I am not sure
Truly, she was nothing more than just a purse
But when lost, there was a problem
How to face the world without her
Especially
Because the streets remember us together
The shops know her more than me
Because she is the one who pays
She knows the smell of my sweat and she loves it
She knows the different buses
And has her own relationship with their drivers
She memorizes the ticket price
And always has the exact change
Once I bought a perfume she didn’t like
She spilled all of it and refused to let me use it
By the way
She also loves my family
And she always carried a picture
Of each one she loves

What might she be feeling right now
Maybe scared?
Or disgusted from the sweat of someone she doesn’t know
Annoyed by the new streets?
If she stopped by one of the stores we visited together
Would she like the same items?
Anyway, she has the house keys
And I am waiting for her

Source: arablit.org

Israeli jets struck several targets in Syria in response to Hezbollah rocket fire into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the IDF said. The exchange came as Iran warned Tel Aviv of crossing a “red line” with the murder of an Iranian general in Syria.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) announced striking Syrian army artillery targets late on Tuesday night in response to an earlier rocket attack on Golan Heights and Mount Hermon.

“The IDF views the Syrian regime as responsible for what occurs in its territory, and will act at any time and any way it sees fit to protect the citizens of Israel,” the IDF said.

Israel’s retaliation followed two rocket attacks believed to be perpetrated by Hezbollah in the northern Golan Heights on Tuesday afternoon. While the projectiles exploded in open territory and caused no damage or casualties, some 1,000 visitors to the Mount Hermon ski resort still fled for cover.

Source: rt.com

In case you hadn’t heard, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins has joined the chorus of conservatives claiming that my hometown, Dearborn, Michigan, is under “Sharia Law.” Since this is absolutely ridiculous it deserves a ridiculous response.

That’s why my friend Adam Joliff (an Army veteran) and I decided to go around showing all the conspiracy theorists the evidence (or lack thereof) of Sharia Law in Dearborn. We stopped by Catholic schools, veterans memorials, bars, strip clubs, and yes – even a Honeybaked Ham store. Warning: photographs contain bacon.

You might ask yourself, “Brian, why’d you stop at 7 photos for your slideshow?” Because, dear reader, after 30 minutes my friend and I decided to stop by Buffalo Wild Wings and drink beer. It was Friday. Contrary to the whacky Republicans out there, none of the Sharia police were around to beat us up for it. Because, you know – they don’t exist.

So please, enjoy the photographs. And for the last time: Dearborn is not under Islamic “Sharia Law.” Muslims are really wonderful people. They’re honest, kind, great neighbors, tolerant, multicultural, and if you can’t find any other reason to like them – they do wonders for property value. Having a bunch of Muslims move in is the next best thing to a gayborhood.

And with that, there is nothing more to say.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

A historic event in the struggle of male and female workers in Lebanon happened on January 25. The founding conference aimed at establishing a “new” type of union, the domestic workers union, was held. In the past few days, the Ministry of Labor tried to prevent the holding of the conference. It threatened to use the Internal Security Forces to break it up, and called on supporters to back down or face consequences. The ministry announced that it will not grant such a union a license on the grounds that it violates Lebanese laws that deny male and female foreign workers the right to form their own unions, leaving domestic workers without any legal protection.

It was a moving scene. The color red dominated the room, including the slogans and banners that demanded the abolition of the sponsorship system as a main objective. Red also dominated the unified clothing worn by the participants, which reflects the steadfastness of this movement and the commitment of its female members to the cause: resisting the worst forms of exploitation in the labor market.

On Sunday, more than 200 women, from the persecuted of different nationalities, flocked to a wedding hall facing the headquarters of the Federation of Workers and Employees Unions in Lebanon (FENASOL) in the area of Wata Msaytbeh in Beirut.

Source: english.al-akhbar.com

First lady Michelle Obama seems to have pulled off the potentially touchy feat of dressing appropriately as a western woman meeting a roomful of Saudi royals Tuesday.

She wore loose clothing that covered her fully, but no head scarf, as is the custom for any woman appearing in public in the conservative Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

When she and President Obama arrived in Riyadh from their visit to India, they stepped off Air Force One to be greeted by King Salman and an all-male Saudi delegation.

Some of the men shook hands with Mrs. Obama while others gave her a nod as they passed by.

Later, at the king’s Erga Palace, Mrs. Obama was one of the few women in the room (House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was there, too, also without a head scarf) filled with Saudi officials in full desert robes and headdresses.

Their presence and attire did not go unnoticed:

Source: www.usatoday.com

By Richard Cohen 

It would not surprise me if, at the next Republican National Convention, Benjamin Netanyahu took a seat in the delegates-from-abroad section. The Israeli leader has both allied and associated himself with congressional Republicans who differ with President Obama over whether to impose additional sanctions on Iran and who also — let’s not beat around the bush — hate his guts. Their foreign policy is actually a domestic one: to destroy the president.

Whether this is political or personal — or a combination of the two — is beside the point. Whatever the case, when Netanyahu accepted John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress in March, he did so without informing the White House. Boehner, too, bypassed the White House. As a result, Netanyahu will come and go and not meet with the president.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Jewish Voice for Peace echoes the concerns of our Muslim partners who reject the efforts of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative to use interfaith relations as an excuse to justify the Israeli occupation.  

The MLI’s stated objectives are “to forge deeper and more nuanced relationships between the Muslim and Jewish communities in North America, through an understanding of how Jews relate to religion, peoplehood, and Israel, [and] to advance the personal growth of participants by increasing their knowledge about Judaism, the Jewish people, and the complex realities of the region.”  

We underscore that being Jewish and Judaism are not synonymous with Zionism or support for Israeli government policies. These false assumptions limit the scope of Jewish-Muslim relations and distort their nature. They also ignore the voices of countless numbers of Jews who are critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

At the same time, MLI’s juxtaposition of Judaism with Zionism runs the risk of portraying the Israeli occupation and Palestinian dispossession as a religious conflict rather than as political conflict over land, natural resources, power, and respect for human rights.  An analysis that minimizes the political core of this conflict takes pressure off Israel to take concrete steps toward a just solution.

The fact that the Shalom Hartman Institute is behind this enterprise is reason enough for concern. The chair of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America is president of a family foundation that has provided significant funding to Islamophobic projects in the United States. The institute has been an ardent advocate against the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.

Source: jewishvoiceforpeace.org

An Australian press organization has judged that a cartoon published in The Sydney Morning Herald violated press Standards of Practice by the way it linked symbols of the Jewish faith to criticism of Israel.

The adjudication, issued by the Australian Press Council, concerned a cartoon drawn by Glen Le Lievre and published by the Morning Herald on July 26, in the midst of the most recent Gaza conflict. The cartoon depicted an elderly man with a sizable nose wearing glasses and a yarmulke, reclining in a chair emblazoned with a Star of David, and holding a remote control while watching from hilltop as a city, which by implication is Gaza, explodes.

Le Lievre is an internationally published cartoonist whose work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Reader’s Digest, and Mad Magazine.

In the adjudication issued January 17, the Press Council states, “A linkage with Israeli nationality might have been justifiable in the public interest, despite being likely to cause offense. But the same cannot be said of the implied linkage with the Jewish faith that arose from inclusion of the kippah and the Star of David.”

Source: normanfinkelstein.com

HATAY, Turkey—It didn’t take long for rebel commanders in Syria who lined up to join a Central Intelligence Agency weapons and training program to start scratching their heads.

After the program was launched in mid-2013, CIA officers secretly analyzed cellphone calls and email messages of commanders to make sure they were really in charge of the men they claimed to lead. Commanders were then interviewed, sometimes for days.

Those who made the cut, earning the label “trusted commanders,” signed written agreements, submitted payroll information about their fighters and detailed their battlefield strategy. Only then did they get help, and it was far less than they were counting on.

Source: www.wsj.com

KHANKE, Iraq — I HAVE visited Iraq five times since 2007, and I have seen nothing like the suffering I’m witnessing now.

I came to visit the camps and informal settlements where displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees are desperately seeking shelter from the fighting that has convulsed their region.

In almost four years of war, nearly half of Syria’s population of 23 million people has been uprooted. Within Iraq itself, more than two million people have fled conflict and the terror unleashed by extremist groups. These refugees and displaced people have witnessed unspeakable brutality. Their children are out of school, they are struggling to survive, and they are surrounded on all sides by violence.

For many years I have visited camps, and every time, I sit in a tent and hear stories. I try my best to give support. To say something that will show solidarity and give some kind of thoughtful guidance. On this trip I was speechless.

Source: mobile.nytimes.com