Author Archives: Arab America

The struggles and tribulations Palestinian women face during the occupation of the Palestinian territories were at the forefront of the discussion as a panel of four women shared personal narratives at an event called “Existing and Resisting: Palestinian Women Tell Their Stories.”
Hosted by Columbia’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on May 6 at Collins Hall in the 624 S. Michigan Ave. Building, the panel consisted of Rasmea Odeh, an associate director of the American-Arab action network, Faten Dabis, an attorney passionate about civil rights and human justice, Rania Salem, a sophomore at Loyola University and Sahar Halabi, a physician who works with various Palestinian organizations.
“We put together this event because there are a lot of great speakers that talk on behalf of Palestine and the occupation, but we don’t usually have a platform for just all women,” said Dania Mukahhal, president of SJP and senior graphic design major. “This is a great opportunity to hear from amazing, successful women.”
Dabis is a member of the coordinating committee of the Arab-Jewish partnership for peace and justice in the Middle East and a University of Phoenix instructor in business, law, philosophy and humanities. She said when she worked in corporate America, her heritage made people uncomfortable. She added that she sees this same idea of dehumanization everywhere, for people of all colors.
“It is the same system,” Dabis said. “[The American Government is] seeking to dehumanize us all in the name of profit.”
She recalls crossing over from Jordan to visit her grandfather’s village in Palestine when she was little. She said a normally two-hour trip would take 10 hours because of the harassment and strip searches her family received from Israeli soldiers at the broader.
“When we defend the right of people to advocate for Palestine, it’s just not a win for Palestine, it’s a win for American civil liberties for equality everywhere,” Dabis said. 
Salem, who was recently elected secretary of Loyola’s SJP, read a poem recounting the violence and hardships she battled in Palestine. She remembers bombings, feeling trapped and a gun against her skull, but also remembers hope, strength and “breaking open those chains.”
She said an English professor once told her Palestinian issues were not important and recalls her father being held in Israeli prison for 48 days and being tortured into a confession. 
This motivated Salem to start Loyola’s Divestment campaign, which calls for removing investment funds from corporations “that are complicit in and which profit from the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people,” she said. More than 20 student and corporate organizations signed on and the movement has become successful, she added.
“All my life I was alone in this,” Salem said. “I had to deal with this because my friends didn’t understand. No one understood. To be a Palestinian means you are brave, you are strong and nothing could tear you down.”
Halabi, who currently volunteers with a Chicago-based organization to support victims of torture, went back to Palestine in 2009 to learn about her heritage. She wanted to find the grounds of her mother’s old house, which was later turned into a city hall when Israelis took over, and then demolished. 
“Like trees that have their [roots] in the Earth, so do houses,” Halabi said. “You can demolish a house, you are not going to demolish the foundation. The foundations, just like a society, will remain hidden under the surface of the Earth.”
She said she was brought to tears when she discovered the red and blue tile of her mother’s house lying in the dirt. She then held the little fragments of the tiles in her hands recounting what it must have been like for her mother to leave everything behind.
“The saying ‘the old will die and the young will forget,’ well nonetheless it is true, the old did die, but the young did not forget,” Halabi said. 
Odeh, who holds a master’s degree in criminal justice and who has been a community organizer for the past 10 years, said she came to support the Palestinian women who constantly stand up for their rights and for justice. She grew up in the war zone and said this is something her people have been struggling with for close to 70 years.
“It’s my experience. It’s my blood. It’s our blood,” Odeh said. “Yes, I am an American citizen, but also I am a Palestinian. I can’t close my eyes about my roots, about my pain that all my people go through. It’s part of my life. It’s part of my personality.”
Odeh is currently fighting deportation to Jordan amidst a legal battle stemming from allegations that she omitted her conviction in a fatal bombing in Israel in 1969 on immigration papers. Odeh claims that she confessed to the crimes after being tortured by Israeli soldiers. 
Iymen Chehade, SJP’s faculty advisor and an adjunct professor in the Humanities, History & Social Sciences Department, said the panel helped humanize the Palestinian issue of what happened 67 years ago in Palestine and the same struggle that continues today. 

Source: www.columbiachronicle.com

Born in Syria, I have always felt a kinship towards the Middle East, and thus, over a career of 15 years, I have specialised in Arabic gastronomy specifically the Lebanese and Syrian cuisines. Lebanese gastronomy is based on fresh ingredients like vegetables, pulses and olive oil, and lentils, which is mainly used for salads and soups. Some specialties from Lebanese cuisine include hummus Beiruti, fish tajine and baba ghanouj. The main course is variations of meat, while the desserts are rich in nuts, rose water and orange blossoms. Being a very healthy cuisine with distinct flavours, it appeals to a wide audience. Spices play a key role in the dishes, as opposed to the piquancy, which is why Lebanese food is relished as an appetiser, as much as a main course in different parts of the world.
Lebanese cuisine is fascinating as it draws its roots from the ancient Levantine cuisine and therefore sees influences from Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian delights. It also imbibes the Turkish and Mediterranean ingredients and cooking techniques, making it a favourite. While the use of olive oil in cooking a full course meal, as well as salad dressings, can be seen as a trait of Mediterranean cuisine, Lebanese food has always adhered to the authenticity through the ages. In this cuisine, the essence and individuality of dishes has always been retained, and constantly evolved. For instance, chickpeas and olives have been experimented with to cater to personal tastes.
In my experience, I have seen that the Indian palate is well accustomed to few of the Arabic appetisers such as Mezze or Shawarma. Mezze is a selection of small dishes that is normally served with alcoholic beverages, prior to the entrée course of a dining affair, while the Shawarma is the traditional wrap. The Mezze platter and shawarma maybe seen in almost every Lebanese restaurant in India, they are variations and fusion dishes with flavour variations and Indian twists. The original dishes of the cuisine generally contain authentic ingredients like, sumac or zaatar, a thyme-based spice mix. My intention is to incorporate new hot Mezzes, cooking styles and presenting things as close to Lebanon as possible.
The culture and cuisine does have a lot of similarities to India for example bread and herbs, spices are used in abundance moreover the way we sit together and share food is also alike. The foreign markets including India have taken to the cuisine well and enjoy as well as relish the taste. However, finding true flavours without fusions is difficult as restaurants would like to tweak the cuisine to suite the palate they cater to. The recipes I’ve shared are experimented to cater to Indians while retaining the original flavours.
Arabic specialty chef Maher Omran was part of the Lebanese food festival at Sofitel, Bandra-Kurla Complex
Hummus
Ingredients
500 gm dried chickpeas
2 crushed garlic cloves
100 gm tahini paste (pureed sesame)
20 ml fresh lemon juice
10g Baking soda
Pinch of paprika
Olive oil to taste
Salt to taste
Ice water
Parsley for garnish
Method:
Rinse the dry chickpeas to get rid of any debris, and then soak for 10 hours.
Once ready, empty the soaked chickpeas in a colander/filter to get rid of the soaking water, and then rinse it with fresh cold water really well.
Add the chickpeas to a cooking pot with baking soda and then add water until covers the chickpeas by about ½ inch.
Bring it to a boil on high heat, and then let it simmer on low heat for about one hour while the pot is covered.
Check up on the chickpeas 45 minutes into simmering to see if it’s done. The test is simple, tries to crush a chickpea with your fingers, if it crushes easily and feels smooth then it’s done.
Once the chickpeas are cooked, cool it down.
In a processor, add the ice water and grind for three-five minutes at low speed.
Add the salt and garlic, and then slowly start to add the Tahini paste as the food processor grinds away.
Once done, slowly add the lemon juice at the end and let the food processor run for a couple minutes more afterwards. Taste the puree and see if it needs an adjustment of salt or lemon juice.
Top it with paprika boiled chickpeas olive oil and parsley.
Your hummus is ready.
Couscous Seafood Tajine
Ingredients
For the couscous
100 gm couscous
10 ml corn oil
200 ml water
4 gm salt
10 gm butter
For the seafood
5ml corn oil
20 gm onion
5 gm garlic
4 gm spicy paprika
4 gm cumin powder
4 gm salt
2 gm crushed pepper
10 ml lemon juice
100 gm peeled tomato sauce
1 litre fish stock
200 gm white cabbage
400 gm scampi shrimps
150 gm mussels
200 gm calamari
150 gm tiger prawns
200 gm sword fish
80 gm green olives
5 gm fresh coriander
Method
Open the couscous packet into large container, add corn oil and salt and mix with your hands until all the grains are nicely seasoned. Add boiling water, cover the container and let soak for 10 minutes
In the meanwhile prepare the seafood sauce. Heat the corn oil in a saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic until golden color. Add spicy paprika, cumin powder, salt, crushed pepper and lemon juice. Let reduce for three minutes.
Add pealed tomato, seafood stock and the cabbages previously cut into quarters, chopped coriander and bring to boil for six minutes.
Place the seafood and the sauce into a tajine pot, cover it and let cook for six minutes allowing all the flavours to come together
Place the couscous on a platter and arrange the seafood around it. Garnish with olives and chopped coriander.
Serve hot, with tomato sauce on the side.
Beets and sweet potato salad
Ingredients:
150 gm beetroot
200 gm sweet potato
80 gm feta cheese
30 gm pine nuts
40 ml olive oil
70 gm pomegranate
10 gm parsley
40 ml pomegranate sauce
50 gm local rocca
30 gm chopped white onion
20 ml yogurt
Salt to taste
Method:
Boil beetroot and sweet potato separately.
Let it cool. Later, peel it and cut to cube same as well the feta cheese.
In a salad bowl, mix the beetroot, sweet potato, feta cheese, roasted pine nuts, pomegranate, parsley and olive oil.
Make a sauce of olive oil, pomegranate sauce and yogurt. Add to the bowl.
Your salad is ready.

Source: www.asianage.com

In 2011, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel (VTJP) began a discussion with Ben & Jerry’s in South Burlington, Vermont, concerning their long-standing contractual relationship with an Israeli franchise that manufactures ice cream in Israel proper and sells it in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

These settlements – fortified colonies for Jews only – contravene international law. Ben & Jerry’s knows this. It knows too that the company’s Social Mission and history of supporting progressive causes cannot be reconciled with its franchise’s commercial ties to the settlements.

Despite what it knows and the values that define its corporate identity, Ben & Jerry’s refuses to stop its Israeli franchise from making money in the settlements.

The decision to call for a boycott
VTJP’s thinking reached a tipping point during Israel’s massive military assault against Gaza in the summer of 2014, the third in less than six years. Nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed and more than 11,000 wounded. The casualties were overwhelmingly civilians.

Because Gaza’s morgues could not handle the horrific carnage, bodies of dead children and babies had to be stacked temporarily in ice cream freezers prior to burial.

While this massacre of innocents was being carried out, Ben & Jerry’s “peace & love” ice cream was passing through Israeli checkpoints, being transported on Jewish-only roads, and being sold to supermarkets and at catered events in Jewish-only settlements.

It cannot be progressive and remain silent on Palestine
It’s now clear that appealing to Ben & Jerry’s socially responsible “conscience” alone will not achieve our objectives.

Since 2013, the year our campaign went public, thousands of individuals and 239 organisations in 20 countries, including Israel, and from the District of Columbia and the occupied Palestinian territories, have called on Ben & Jerry’s to honor its Social Mission by severing its franchise’s business with Israeli settlements.

Jeff Furman, chairperson of Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, travelled to Occupied Palestine in 2012 with a group of American civil rights’ leaders. He described what he saw there as “apartheid”.

A Ben & Jerry’s delegation traveled to Israel/Palestine in 2014, as VTJP had urged. Participants met with anti-occupation activists, and some toured the West Bank. They learned from credible sources and saw with their own eyes the brutal measures and humiliations that afflict Palestinian life.

VTJP also informed the company in 2014 that its franchise may be purchasing equipment from an illegal Israeli enterprise in the occupied [Syrian] Golan Heights.

In spite of all this, the company has refused not only to stop its practices, but to even issue a statement calling for an end to Israel’s occupation and settlements.

Therefore, boycott.

Moving forward
The company and its US shop owners received a letter shortly before VTJP’s third-annual, Free Cone Day protests on April 14 informing them of our boycott action.

VTJP also announced its boycott call with an original “cantastoria” and video called “No Justice, No Sweets”. The Apartheid Adventures media collective, on its own initiative, produced a brilliant satirical video called “Licking Apartheid”.

Our boycott call is being disseminated through the social media and organisational networks of Palestine solidarity and peace groups around the world.

Ben & Jerry’s has responded with a brief posting on its webpage. It’s a classic example of “redirection through misdirection,” as we pointed out in a rebuttal.

Much organising work remains to be done, of course. VTJP calls on people of conscience around the world to endorse and contribute to this boycott.

Mark Hage is a member of Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel.

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com

Two years since his solo show at Tate Modern, Ibrahim El-Salahi—one of Sudan’s foremost living artists—and his elegant, visionary paintings and drawings are back. The pioneering artist was the first from his continent to be represented in a retrospective at Tate Modern, and this spring, thanks to Vigo Gallery, his works will be on view in New York, London, Hastings, and Istanbul.

Though his approach to his work is decidedly personal, El-Salahi’s compositions beautifully reflect the internationalism of our times. He merges European abstraction, the traditions of Arabic calligraphy and ornamentation, the colors and crafts of his native Sudan, and his own life experiences to develop striking works that range in scope from celebrations of culture to statements on social injustice.
El-Salahi is the focus of Vigo Gallery’s booth at Frieze New York this year. On show will be works drawn from the artist’s own archives, including rare paintings and drawings from the 1960s, and monumental, multi-part compositions from the 1980s and 90s. Among these is the edgy Visual Diary of a Time-Waste Palace (1996), whose genesis is as intriguing as its semi-abstract, ink-on-paper images. The artist made this work while serving as an advisor to the Qatari government and a translator and cultural advisor to the Emir. These roles gave him access to the Emir’s palace, where he found square-shaped, blank books. For nearly a year, he worked to fill each page of these books with drawings. Upon completion (and at the age of 66), he decided to devote the rest of his life to art making full-time.
Later this month, at Vigo’s Mayfair space, a suite of paintings that were featured prominently in the Tate retrospective receive a renewed exhibition. As the title, “Flamenco” may suggest, the series is the result of the artist’s travels through southern Spain in 2009, during a trip with the collector AbdulMagid Breish. During that summer, El-Salahi experienced Marbella, Toledo, C?rdoba, Granada, and M?laga, exploring the cities’ Moorish architecture by day, and enjoying traditional food and dance at night. He was particularly inspired by the Alhambra in Granada, where he found motifs that were the same as ones he encountered while studying the Quran during his youth. The resulting paintings are spirited, rhythmic compositions in black and white or rich umber and sepia tones, filled with stylized dancers that range from curvaceous abstract forms to robust, defined figures in traditional costume.

The artist’s spirit of independence and individuality finds its reflection in a tree native to his country, which has inspired him for decades: the Haraza. This tree is the focus of a series of subtle, modernist drawings, which are now on view in a concentrated exhibition at the Jerwood Gallery, presented in partnership with Vigo Gallery. Bucking all expectations, the Haraza flourishes in the dry season and sheds its leaves during the wet season, when everything else is in bloom. “This is a definitive statement,” El-Salahi once declared about his beloved Haraza. “Like saying, ‘I am me! I am an individual! I do not follow what everyone is doing! When everyone is going to be green, let them be green. I am not! It’s individuality. I love that very much.”

Source: news.sudanvisiondaily.com

I have written before of some of my Palestinian American heroes, including men like Ibrahim Abu-Lughod and Zahi Khouri. I want to add to that list, my friend, Sam Bahour. Two and a half decades ago, Ibrahim was a respected tenured professor at Northwestern University and Zahi was Chairman of the Board of a major Park Avenue-based investment group.  Sam, the youngest of the group, was a successful small businessman in Youngstown, Ohio.

When the Oslo Agreements were signed 22 years ago, these three made tough and courageous choices. Realising that the struggle to build a new Palestinian reality was beckoning them, they pulled up stakes and moved to the parts of Palestine that were newly assigned to the fledging Palestinian Authority to become a part of the building process.

Ibrahim, who had been an important mentor to me in my formative years, relocated to Birzeit University dedicating himself to mentoring a new generation of Palestinian youth. Ibrahim passed away in 2001.

Zahi moved to Jerusalem where he waged a difficult but ultimately victorious struggle to win the right to operate a franchise in the Palestinian territories. To do this he had to wrest control of the franchise from an Israeli owner who wanted to maintain control over both Israel and the occupied Palestinian lands.

For his part, Sam made a seamless transition using both his business and political acumen to contribute to setting up the first Palestinian telecommunications company, PALTEL, and the first modern Palestinian shopping centre, PLAZA.

Sam focuses his organising around key issues of importance to the Palestinian American community. For many years now, Sam has been the central resource for information on the difficulties Israel has created for Palestinian Americans traveling to and working in the Palestinian Authority areas.

When then Senator Barack Obama made his first visit to the West Bank in 2006, Sam joined the Palestinian business community to brief the Senator about the burdens imposed on them by the Israeli authorities. On his return to the US, Obama thanked me for the introduction and told me how much he had learned from the group.

Now Sam Bahour has launched a new and vitally important venture. Working with a number of other Palestinian American business leaders and an impressive group of American business executives, they have launched Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (AVPE).

I met with the group a short while back and recognised that driving their efforts were the same convictions that motivated Vice President Gore’s Builders for Peace (BfP) project, with which I had been associated two decades ago.

First and foremost, there is the recognition that building the private sector, especially through the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises, is the key to job creation and economic growth and is also central to democracy.

Another important consideration is the fact that while business development and job creation are no substitute for political progress in establishing an independent Palestinian state, it is wrong to insist that efforts to grow the economy and create jobs take a back seat to political developments.

They also realise that the Israeli occupation has placed crippling impediments on the Palestinian business community leading to distortions in the Palestinian economy. Palestinians can’t freely import raw materials or export their products.

Because their access to external and even internal markets is limited by the Israeli occupation, businesses can’t easily grow or benefit from economies of scale. As a result, the Palestinian Authority has become the single largest employer and has, itself, become dependent on foreign financial support.

And finally, they understand that despite these difficulties, the enterprising Palestinian private sector has not only survived, but has continued to play a central role in the economic life of their country. While the private sector accounts for slightly less than the Palestinian Gross Domestic Product, it accounts for almost two-thirds of all employment in the territories.

The bottom line is that the private sector is essential, resilient, and dynamic. And because it is surviving against amazing odds, it deserves support.

This important truth, though recognised by Vice President Gore, was never understood by the Clinton Administration’s “peace team”. Instead of seeing business development as an essential parallel track to the “peace process”, they deemed it unworthy of their attention.

As a result, the Palestinian private sector was left to fend for itself—until now. AVPE is determined to change this negative dynamic by “linking American businesses to Palestinian partners in an effort to bolster the Palestinian economy’s ability to withstand continued Israeli constraints on growth”.  

The AVPE effort is not a substitute for Palestinian independence — since it recognises that only with independence can the full potential of the Palestinian economy be realized. At the same time, however,  AVPE knows that creating jobs, finding markets, and growing the private sector can’t be set aside for another 20 years because Palestinians need to feed their families and provide for their essential needs today.

Sam and his pioneering team recognize that they are inviting businesses to take a risk, but they believe that these are risks that promise high rewards for peace and prosperity. The AVPE is an initiative worth supporting.

The author is the President of Arab American Institute. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman.

Source: www.timesofoman.com

LEBANESE not-for-profit group Proud Lebanon has released an online video featuring some of the country’s prominent names coming together to deliver a powerful anti-homophobia message ahead of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on Sunday.

The promotional video urges the country to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to not discriminate against “those who are different”.

Along side activists, the video features people well-known in Lebanon and across the Arab world, including director Zeina Daccache and TV host Fouad Yammine (scroll down to watch the video, accompanied by an English translation).
While it is not yet known if the promotional video will also be aired on mainstream Lebanese TV, it has already been shared widely on social media.

According to its website, Proud Lebanon is a “is a non-profit, non-religious, non-political, non-partisan civil society” that works to “achieve protection, empowerment and equality to marginalised groups”. It lists Canada, The Netherlands and the European Endowment for Democracy as donors.

Lebanon does not have a law explicitly banning homosexual relationships or activity, but homophobia, transphobia and a lack of legal protections for LGBT Lebanese people are rife.

Article 534 is a legal foundation in the country which forbids sexual acts that “contradict the laws of nature”, but this has been dismissed and declared invalid by at least two judges in the past six years.

In January 2014, during the trial of an unnamed trans woman accused of having sex with a man, Judge Naji El Dahdah of Jdeide Court rejected the case.

“Gender identity is not only defined by the legal papers, the evolution of the person and his/her perception of his/her gender should be taken into consideration,” he said in his verdict.

“Homosexuality is an exception to the norms but not unnatural therefore Article 534 (which prohibits sexual relations that ‘contradict the laws of nature’) cannot be used against homosexuals, and therefore, technically, homosexuality is not illegal.”

El Dahdah’s verdict was based on a similar court ruling made by another judge in 2009.

Although Article 534 has not yet been completely repealed by the Lebanese government, in 2013 the Lebanese Psychiatric Society stated that homosexuality was not a mental disorder and did not need to be treated.

The organisation also ruled that “therapy” that sought to “convert” gay people into straight people had no scientific support.

Despite being largely unenforced by authorities — especially with a thriving gay bar scene in capital city Beirut — those who are convicted faced up to a year in prison, and violence fuelled by homophobia still occurs.

According to Beirut-based Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality, Lebanese trans* people also still need a court order to legally change their gender, but only after the long process of gaining a report from three psychologists and a psychiatrist.

Source: www.starobserver.com.au

We jumped into the Virginia This Morning Kitchen with Lebanese Food Festival Representative Sandra Joseph Brown. She put together “Lubia,” just one of the many featured dishes you can enjoy at the 31st Annual Lebanese Food Festival. The event is Friday, May 15th and Saturday, May 16th from 10am to 10pm, and Sunday, May 17th from 10am to 8pm at St. Anthony’s Maronite Catholic Church, located at 4611 Sadler Road in Glen Allen. For more information visit online atwww.stanthonymaronitechurch.org/festival.

Source: wtvr.com

The Middle East is the home of Christianity. It is where Jesus was born and where many sites scared to Christians are located. Today, Christians are in minority in the Middle East and face daily persecution. The plight of Christians in the Middle East is of particular concern to American Christians and they are petitioning the government to act now before it is too late.

Here are 12 quotes from American Christians on Christians in the Middle East:

1. The Rev. Franklin Graham of Samaritans Purse visited the Middle East and told Megyn Kelly on Fox News about the plight of Christians: “Christians are not only being targeted, but they are being butchered. The women are usually raped by the soldiers. The men are shot or beheaded in front of their families. This takes place every day.”

2. Steve Strang, founder of Charisma News, wrote in a recent article on the website about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East: “We must address the mass genocide of Christians in the Middle East.”

3. Dr. Richard Land, executive editor of the Christian Post, wrote in a recent article about the slow motion genocide the Middle East: “Taken together with the targeting and killing of Christians by Islamist militants in countries such as Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria, the world is witnessing a slow- motion genocide of Christians in the Middle East.”

4. Author and producer Johnnie Moore wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News about how Christians in the West need to help those in the Middle East: “Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years, if for no other reason.”

5. Paul de Vries, author and president of the New York Divinity school, asked in the Christian Post for Christians to pray for those in the Middle East: “Lets us pray particularly for the many brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ in the Middle East-men, women and children- who are being persecuted brutally at this time.”

6. Maronite James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, told the National Catholic Reporter about the history of Christians in the Middle East: “The richness and diversity of these groups and their rites is something to marvel at; it’s quite awesome to think that the language spoke is often the language of Christ.”

7. The Washington Post covered a news conference about the fate of Middle East Christians, and quoted Leith Anderson on the cleansing of the region: “It’s an ecumenical cleansing that is forcing people who are Christians, by whatever label, out of the countries where their roots are from the beginning.”

8. Ross Doutat wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times about how the West ignores the Christians of the Middle East: “For decades, the Middle East’s increasingly beleaguered Christian communities have suffered from a fatal invisibility in the Western world.”

9. Daniel K Norris wrote in Charisma Magazine about churches in trouble in the Middle East: “Churches in the Middle East are in distress. They need our prayers and they need our financial support.”

10. Dr. Foley Beach, of the Anglican Church of North America, wrote on the church’s website about helping Christians in the Middle East: “As Christians in the West, it is appalling how most of our government leaders and the secular press have been silent. It is a genocide and humanitarian crisis of the likes we have not seen since WWII. We must not be silent!”

11. California Democrat and member of the House of Representatives Anna Eshoo was quoted in the Washington Examineras saying, “There is an effort in the Middle East to obliterate all the Christians, period, because they are Christians.”

12: In a press conference aired on cnenews.com, Tony Perkins of the FRC attacks the inaction of the U.S. in helping the Christians of the Middle East: “Our administration has been reluctant to call this what it is and it is genocide, and there’s a reason. Because if we recognize what is happening in Syria and Iraq, we then have a moral and legal obligation to do something.”

Source: www.newsmax.com

It was a chilly afternoon in January at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. In a makeshift city, thousands of Syrian families had reluctantly made their homes in tents and caravans, fleeing their country for safety. Under a cloudy and dark blue sky, I stood in front of a group of 50 kids who had gathered between several tents to attend an art and conflict-resolution workshop.

As the founder and director of Project Amal ou Salam, a project that aims to empower the future of Syria, I had run similar workshops all over Turkey and Lebanon. Now, here I was standing in front of kids who were dressed in worn-out clothes. Some wore shoes that didn’t match.

I introduced an activity I call “Rebuilding your town,” which helps kids envision a future free from conflict. I asked where they would go when the conflict is over.

“To Syria!” they called out together.

“What will we need in our new Syria?” I asked. They began to shout their answers with enthusiasm.

“Schools and houses!” said a girl cradling her younger sister in her lap, both wearing muddy pink dresses.

“Parks!” And then, “Hospitals!”

I wanted the kids to understand that they were the most important players in a peaceful and prosperous Syria.

I then asked if there were room for Christians in this rebuilt Syria.

The answer was swift and unequivocal.

No, there was no room in the Syria of their dreams for Christians.

I felt crushed. I am a Christian. The idea that children, who didn’t even understand my faith, felt this way at such a young age made me not only sad, but a little bit scared.

At first, I hesitated revealing to the group that I in fact was a Christian. And then I said it. “You know, I am a Christian.” The room went silent.

Since 2013, I had traveled to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan as part of my Project Amal ou Salam, which translates from Arabic to mean Project Hope and Peace. I had led workshops like this one to over 5,000 kids, teaching them about diversity, tolerance and nonviolence. Having grown up in Syria, leaving at the age of 17 to attend university in Canada, this was my way of giving back to the future of my country.

But I have also learned as well. The more Syrian children I work with, the more I understand the dynamics of Syrian society that I hadn’t noticed before. I saw in a new light that growing up in Damascus, in our tight-knit society, religion was never an issue. As a child, I was able to be best friends with both Muslims and Christians. My friends and I were taught that Syria was known to be a hub for all three major world monotheistic religions. The harmony that existed in Syria between the different religions, we understood, should be an example to communities worldwide.

When the Syrian revolution began in March 2011, dreams of a free and democratic country took over the hearts of many Syrians. But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare of destruction and unimaginable violence. The country quickly began to divide itself between pro- and anti-Assad regime factions, the dictatorial family that had run the country for over 40 years.

Source: newsok.com

Steven Crowder and Digitas Daily have found this gem from a My Fox Detroit segment over the weekend, where Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani insinuated that Pamela Geller, who organized the Muhammad cartoon-drawing contest in Texas, was worse than ISIS. During the event last week, two would-be killers opened fire as they tried to get inside in the venue. Luckily, no one was killed, except for the two gunmen. Nevertheless, Pamela Geller is still the problem.

 “Let me talk a little bit about ISIS,” said Siblani. “ISIS is a hate group, exactly like Pamela Geller. She draws killers. She makes killers. She is inviting killers to come in and disturb peace.” Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center immediately chimed in to point out that Siblani’s comparison is ludicrous.

Source: townhall.com

Sometimes it seems like the Lebanese Festival should be called the Salem/St. Elias Lebanese Festival because of the many Salem residents involved in creating this popular annual event.
Renee Turk, co-chair of the festival, lives in Salem with her husband, David. She’s been active in the festival since its beginning 17 years ago, and David and their three children, Michael, Daniel and Rachel, have been right there working alongside them all those years. Renee has previously served as co-chair of the kitchen and chairperson of marketing, among other responsibilities.
She’s not alone. Renee is quick to give credit to many other Salem residents, such as Sam and Dawn Silek, who chaired the festival for 10 years and whose two sons have long been actively involved. Mandy Tolano, the St. Elias office manager, and her husband, Joe Moses, have helped keep things running since the festival began. Ed and Judy Aesy have been involved in price shopping, ordering food and supplies and preparing their family recipe for the 1,280 lbs. of lamb and green beans, a staple on the festival menu. Others from Salem include Roger and Antionette Chahine, whose four children have performed for years as dancers with the youth dance troupe.
This year’s Lebanese Festival at St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church, 4730 Cove Road, runs from May 29 to 31, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.
It features Lebanese food, like grilled lamb and beef kabobs, hummus and baklaweh, plus traditional folk dancing in full costume, live Lebanese music, tours of the church and children’s games. Admission and parking are free; there’s a moderate charge for food and children’s activities. Takeout is available for food orders and some food items are available frozen in bulk to take home. It’s great family fun, so all Salemites should mark their calendars for the festival.
For more information, contact Renee Turk at 293-4011 or go to www.steliaschurch.org.

Source: www.roanoke.com

Seventy-four years ago, Henry Luce published “The American Century,” an essay that argued that American culture would play a starring role in creating a global environment in which the United States could thrive. Chief among his examples was American language itself; not just English, but an American-inflected argot that would be carried around the world via music, movies, comics, and popular culture. This was for Luce the sign of an internationalism that Americans themselves hadn’t yet acknowledged.

Today few would doubt that the reach and power of American culture is global, nor that the country is an international power. Colleges take a significantly different approach to teaching about the world than they did in 1941, and American studies has sought to be more global in its outlook. More foreign languages are taught than in Luce’s time, and study abroad has become a rite of passage for many students.

Yet a creeping monolingualism is overtaking higher education, despite the efforts of so many in the trenches. The signs are everywhere: Major universities are closing German departments and cutting Russian and French programs; general foreign-language requirements are easing up. Over all, college language enrollments tumbled 6.7 percent between 2009 and 2013, according to the Modern Language Association. Despite the growth of study abroad, it is increasingly easy for college students to take their courses in English in such countries as Jordan, the Czech Republic, France, and Turkey. The widespread sense that English has become a global lingua franca contributes to an unfortunate sense that learning other languages doesn’t matter.

Arabic is one of the languages that suffers in this climate, both because of its difficulty and the resistance of many language programs to embrace its spoken colloquial forms. Although it has been the fastest-growing language of study since 2001, enrollments fell 7.5 percent between 2009 and 2013. Given the enormous military and political focus on the Middle East, it is urgent that Americans learn Arabic. If the United States is going to try to understand, rather than bomb, invade, and occupy part of the world that has been our government’s central obsession for almost a decade and a half, then more colleges need to teach Arabic and do so in a vibrant way. Higher education has never had a more crucial role to play in achieving peace.

Arabic is the fifth most common native language in the world, with at least 295 million native speakers. And it is spoken in 60 countries, a number second only to English. That means there are jobs out there for those fluent in Arabic, a multitude of opportunities in both the private and public sector, including prospects we have not imagined. But this is not the only reason — or even the primary one — to support the study of Arabic.

Studying Arabic is a moral good and a matter of our national interest. Training a new generation to understand and converse in Arabic may help to reverse the previous generation’s misapprehension of the Arab world, especially as hate crimes against Muslims continue and anxieties about the Arab world fuel misunderstanding.

I support the teaching and learning of all world languages, and I direct a program that requires our majors to study at least three years of any of four languages of the Middle East: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. But I focus on the importance of Arabic here because it is the most spoken in the region — the official or co-official language of 24 nations — and U.S. college enrollments are vastly out of sync with its popularity and importance in the world.

It is also one of most difficult languages, with many national dialects as well as a formal level that is complex and grammatically rich. Part of what’s holding back Arabic study in the United States is a resistance to embracing the relationship between these various forms.

Arabic is classified as a Category IV language by the State Department (up there with Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean), the highest level of difficulty. This refers mostly to the complexity of the grammar of modern standard Arabic. So Arabic is a four-year language, in college terms, in the sense that it takes years longer to get somewhere with modern standard Arabic than it does with French or Spanish. It takes persistence and dedication for American students to make progress.

What’s more, learning the formal modern standard Arabic does little to help American college students speak the national dialects, each of them relatively distinct colloquial forms. Think of the difference between Portuguese and Italian, or Spanish and French, and you have an approximation of the difference between Moroccan and Lebanese Arabic or Egyptian and Iraqi. No one in the Arab world goes around speaking modern standard Arabic, even though that formal level is used in print, literature, scholarship, and, in modified form, on broadcast media.

One way to overcome the challenge is to give more classroom time to the dialects, which are notably easier to learn than modern standard Arabic, and to put them at the heart of college training. At colleges where Arabic is offered, dialects are generally taught as ancillary courses, or as incidental to the formal language. Few programs in the United States do more than offer an occasional class, or more than a single dialect (usually Egyptian, sometimes Levantine).

This should change, and there are signs that it can.

The flagship Arabic program at the University of Texas at Austin recently rethought the separation of formal and colloquial Arabic, and now mingles the two more integrally. And the new third edition of Georgetown University Press’s widely used textbook Al-Kitaab puts a variety of dialects at the center.

When American educators embrace fully the understanding that Arabic is a living language and one we need to learn to converse in, we may start to move beyond the American-century logic of one-way conversation embedded in Henry Luce’s essay. After the American century, the next generation of college students — and the citizens they will become — can help us listen to and engage a major portion of the world crucial to the future.

Brian T. Edwards is an associate professor of English and comparative literary studies and founding director of the program in Middle East and North African studies at Northwestern University. His newest book,  After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East,  is forthcoming from Columbia University Press in the fall.

Source: chronicle.com