Press Release: Arab American National Museum Music, theater, multimedia performances enhanced by artist workshops Southeast Michigan’s only world music and performance series – Global Fridays at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) – offers cultural experiences this fall that creatively transport audiences to Cuba, Egypt, India and beyond. The 2016 Fall Season opens Friday, Sept. … Continued
By Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press
The leaders of an Islamic center filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Sterling Heights after the city last year rejected their plans to build a mosque that was strongly opposed by many residents.
And the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan announced that her office and the Department of Justice are investigating whether the mosque was treated fairly.
In the federal lawsuit, the American Islamic Community Center accuses the city of being biased against Muslims, citing e-mails from city officials that talked about getting investigated the possibility of the mosque’s leaders being terrorists. In one e-mail, a police official asks whether the FBI can be contacted to see whether the mosque leaders are “on their radar.”
Last year, the planning commission of Sterling Heights voted 9-0 to reject building a mosque on 15 Mile between Ryan and Mound roads. City officials and residents have said their rejection was not based on bigotry, noting that the city already has a mosque, but over concerns that the location was not suitable for such a large building and could cause traffic problems.
The case is one of several that have come up in recent years across metro Detroit involving mosques facing stiff opposition from nearby residents. The Department of Justice last year filed a lawsuit against Pittsfield Township after it denied an Islamic school permission to be built.
Reached by the Free Press on Wednesday, Sterling Heights Mayor Michael Taylor would not comment. Sterling Heights’ Police Chief John Berg and City Planner Chris McLeod did not return messages seeking comment. Former Sterling Heights Police Chief Michael Reese did not comment.
Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Wednesday: “The Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office have been conducting an independent investigation, and that investigation is ongoing.”
The lawsuit alleges that the constitutional rights of the mosque members were violated in denying the mosque. Residents who opposed the Shi’ite mosque have said the building would be in a residential area that would cause congestion and wasn’t suitable to the area around 15 Mile.
But the lawsuit said that some of the residential opposition was rooted in anti-Islam prejudice. At public meetings, some in Sterling Heights expressed concern about Islamic extremism; the tensions exposed strained relations between some in the Chaldean (Iraqi Catholic) community in Sterling Heights and metro Detroit Muslims.
“With a vociferous and racist member of the Planning Commission leading the charge, the Planning Commission voted to reject the site plan,” said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. “With no other choice, the American Islamic Community Center has filed this suit seeking equitable relief to build the Mosque and seeks damages as the City of Sterling Heights’ conduct violates, among other things, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act … and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”
The lead attorney filing the case on behalf of the mosque, currently based in Madison Heights, is Azzam Elder, once the deputy to former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.
“We all know of a time in our history when sentiment in America were anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-German, anti-Japanese, or anti-Black, and those times have forever stained on our history,” Elder said in a statement. “As defenders of the U.S. Constitution, we are confident that there will come a day when it will also be inconceivable to be anti-Muslim. This is why we filed this lawsuit, in order to continue the struggle of protecting the rights of all minority groups in America.”
Mayor Taylor has said previously that Sterling Heights respects diversity. About 23% of the residents of the city are immigrants, one of the highest percentages among cities in southeastern Michigan. It has a sizable Iraqi-American Christian community, some of whom escaped Islamic extremism in Iraq and had voiced worries about the mosque.
On Sept. 2 last year, Taylor wrote on Facebook: “I completely and unequivocally denounce any anti-Muslim bigotry.”
He added: “I will work with the AICC (American Islamic Community Center) to ensure they have a place to worship in our city.”
Taylor told the Free Press last year: “I urge all residents to be respectful and tolerant of each other. Regardless of the outcome, Sterling Heights must remain a place that is open and welcoming for people of all races, faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds.”
Elder, though, said that “the City of Sterling Heights and its political leadership has had nearly one year to make good on its wrong. They’ve failed to uphold the constitutional rights of its Muslim residents.”
Mohammed Abdrabboh, an attorney helping with the lawsuit, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that “Islamophobia (is) alive and well in Sterling Heights.”
The lawsuit says that some mosque members have lived in Sterling Heights for decades and others have served in the U.S. military.
“I am proud to have served in Desert Storm as a Senior Airman for the United States Air Force,” said Khalil Abbas, who is a member of the Muslim Center. “My grandfather served in WWI and other family members served in other wars to protect the rights of all Americans. All I want is for the City of Sterling Heights to follow the U.S. Constitution, and protect my rights as a veteran and citizen.”
The lawsuit cites an e-mail sent Aug. 19 from a resident to city officials asking that the mosque leaders be vetted for possible extremism and terrorism.
City Planner Donald Mende then forwarded that e-mail, along with the names of mosque leaders, including its imam, to the police chief at the time, Reese. Reese then forwarded it to John Berg, then a captain and now Sterling Heights police chief, asking him to ask a contact at the FBI whether the mosque leaders are “on their radar.”
A spokesman for the Detroit FBI could not be reached late Wednesday for comment.
Source: www.freep.com
BBC “No one can tell you that we are a nation without hope.” Words from a viral Facebook post in praise of Egyptian animal lovers who acted to save a puppy that was trapped under large stone boulders for more than three weeks. The puppy had reportedly been abandoned to a slow lingering death by … Continued
Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press
Two Yemeni-American immigrants with an ice cream truck have filed a civil rights complaint alleging that Hamtramck Police arrested them without cause after falsely accusing them of insurance fraud, jailing them for two days without food, water and medicine.
“They put me (in) jail, but I didn’t do anything wrong,” Mohamed Wassel, 24, of Hamtramck, told the Free Press on Monday. “They don’t like Arabs, that’s why.”
A city leader, however, called it a misunderstanding.
The complaint was filed last week with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights by attorneys with the Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn. It says that in March, brothers Omar and Mohamed Wassel were arrested and put in jail for two days after police falsely accused them of having fake insurance for their ice cream truck, which had an expired license plate. After police verified the insurance was legitimate, they were released and not charged with any crime.
“I feel scared,” Mohamed Wassel said of his time in jail. “It was shocking.”
Nabih Ayad, founder of the group, said what happened to the brothers is part of a pattern of Arab Americans and Bangladeshi Americans being harassed by police in Hamtramck because of their background.
“We’ve had numerous complaints about Hamtramck Police and the way they treat the Yemeni and Bangladeshi communities,” Ayad said. “He’s just trying to make a living and to lock him up for two days while they’re alleging the insurance documents was fake is absolutely absurd.”
Hamtramck Police Chief Anne Moise did not return a message left Monday afternoon. Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski said she couldn’t comment on the specific case because their city attorney hadn’t received the complaint and it’s pending litigation.
But she added that “the city is committed to serving everyone with respect and professionalism. When problems arise, we always invite residents to bring any complaints to the City Manager or the Police Chief. Those issues can usually be resolved with discussion, and it gives us a chance to review our records and conduct an investigation, if need be. We all want the same thing, and we also want to know when we’re not living up to our obligations to our residents.”
Hamtramck City Council President Saad Almasmari, who is of Yemeni descent, said he was aware of the dispute, which he said “was a misunderstanding between the police and the persons.”
Almasmari said he understands why the brothers are upset, given that they were jailed for two days even though they had legitimate insurance, but he added that relations in Hamtramck are generally good between police and the Yemeni-American community.
Hamtrack’s population is diverse, with Yemeni-Americans the biggest ethnic group, at 24% of the population, and Bangladeshis making up 15-19% of the population, according to U.S. census figures. Overall, Muslims make up about half of the population, say community leaders. In January, Hamtramck’s City Council became Muslim-majority.
But there are no Yemeni Americans, Bangladeshi Americans or Muslim Americans on the police department.
“A city’s police department should reflect the diversity of the people of the city,” Ayad said. “That’s one of the major problems.”
Mayor Majewksi said in response: “We’ve…tried to reach out to the various ethnic groups in the city and invite them to apply for positions in all our city departments as they become available. Within the police department, there are clear requirements for the position of police officer, and it’s been especially hard for us to attract and keep qualified candidates from our Muslim communities, especially when other metro departments can offer higher pay and benefits.”
Almasmari of the City Council said: “There’s good relations between the police and the Arab community and all the Hamtramck communities.” He said police are treating people “equally…no problems because of their religion or ethnicity. They’re cool with everyone.”
According to the complaint, the incident started on or about March 16, when Omar Wassel received a letter from the city saying he could not park the truck near his house. The license plate had expired. Wassel said they were unaware of the expiration because they had not received a renewal notice, said the complaint.
The truck was then towed, impounded and the license plate removed.
“That same day, my brother Mohamed and I went to get new license plate to present at the police station to retrieve the vehicle,” said the complaint. “The truck had been insured since it was purchased and the insurance was still valid. After getting the plate, my brother and I went to the Hamtramck Police Station and showed the license plate and proof of insurance. At the time, the police chief was present, and she told me to come back the next day with additional proof and documentation.”
But the next day, they said, they encountered hostile officers. One officer at the window “threatened that if we presented fake insurance, he would arrest us,” said the complaint. When it was their turn, they were accused of having fake insurance.
“He immediately arrested me while my brother was on the phone with my father, who attempting to convince the officer that it was valid insurance,” said the complaint. “As a result, my brother Mohamed was arrested, too. This officer arrested us and accused of insurance fraud … My father was aware of our arrest and came himself to the police station and brought with him the two insurance agents, named Eric and Richard, who sold us the insurance. They tried to convince the officer that the insurance was valid and showed proof.
“The officers refused to believe the agents” and then jailed the brothers at about 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. the next day, said the complaint.
Mohamed Wassel said he was denied his asthma inhaler while he was jail. They said that police also confiscated their phones, preventing Mohamed from calling his employer to tell him he wouldn’t be able to work that day.
The complaint said “the officers were unnecessarily aggressive with us and continued to accuse me of having fake documents and laughed at me and humiliated me. We were not even offered anything to drink for two days. We were later released after the officers verified the insurance was not fraudulent. We were given no release paperwork or documentation of the incident upon our release.”
Omar Wassel said Monday he and his brother filed the complaints because “I want them to stop doing this to Arab people. We are Americans, we pay taxes.”
Rula Aoun, director at the Arab American Civil Rights League, said “it was an unnecessary detainment. There was no reason to treat these gentleman in the way they were … the humiliation is unnecessary. … It was an abuse of power.”
Source: www.freep.com
Are you engaged in the presidential campaign? Are you looking to sound-off your support or frustration for a particular candidate? This is your chance! Arab America wants to know who you support for president. Just click the link below and VOTE! CLICK HERE TO VOTE!
By Ghada Al-Haddad We Are Not Numbers Ibrahim Faraj As the notable American photographer Aaron Siskind once said, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.” And indeed it is, especially in the war-torn, blockaded, misunderstood Gaza Strip. Outside of Gaza, impressions of the Strip are limited to images of ruined buildings, poverty-stricken villages and … Continued
Traditional fabrics from Africa and the Middle East enliven the August cover. (Photo by Lauren Jeziorski)
By Alan Stamm
Deadline Detroit
The editor of BLAC Detroit magazine, just nine months into the job, tackles an urgent, touchy topic in August’s cover story.
Aaron Foley explores “Detroit’s most divided, yet most similar, communities” — blacks and Arabs — and gathers suggestions about bridging the gap.
“It’s a little unorthodox for us to discuss Arab-Americans in a magazine for black readers,” he acknowledges up front in a monthly editor’s “letter” about the magazine’s content. “I ask that you read this issue with an open mind.”
For his part, he addresses the topic with an open notebook, eight interviews and the homegrown context of someone who “only saw Arabs in gas stations, certain grocery stores and in Dearborn.” The result is a richly informed, sensitively nuanced and bluntly direct presentation that fills five pages.
Foley also devotes a page to frank observations by Isra El-Beshir, a curator at Dearborn’s Arab American National Museum. As a Sudanese-American, she describes personal knowledge of “anti-blackness” among some local Arab-Americans.
The topic has a personal tug for Foley, his introductory note shows:
A deep divide between African-Americans and Arab-Americans in metro Detroit [is] something I’ve thought about a lot, as I get older and my circle of friends grows and evolves.
He gets right to it with a basic heads-up: “The correct way of pronouncing it is ‘air-ub.’ But when you hear someone pronounce it as ‘aye-rabb,’ not only is it incorrect, it’s often derogatory.”
Yes, this is real, not a Benetton ad or 1971 Coke commercial.
The 3,560-word article quotes an Arab Muslim law school instructor, a black educator, a Somali-American who’s Muslim, the first Muslim-American woman in Michigan’s Legislature, a black teacher who converted to Islam, a Wayne State board member, a black former Deadline columnist and others.
“Both communities have more in common than we realize,” Foley writes.
There is so much that we can relate to and empathize about within our communities, and yet here in Detroit, where our numbers are plentiful, there exists a great divide and misunderstanding.
How can we bridge the gap? It starts with understanding our similarities to overcome our differences.
The magazine sketches the paths that originally brought Southern blacks, Arab Christians and Arab Muslims to Detroit; the challenges both groups faced and face; the misconceptions and racism that arise; the dietary and religious nuances that can cause unintended missteps.
Kim Trent, an education policy associate for Michigan Future and an elected WSU Board of Governors member, talks about shared experiences:
“Arab-Americans had been dealing with profiling. And black folks have been dealing with profiling forever. We found some common ground that we didn’t have in 2001. You know, as mothers – we all worry for our children.”
Her chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority has co-hosted discussions between blacks and Arabs for 15 years.
The article also quotes from a 2013 column at this site by Darrell Dawsey, headlined “African Americans Need to Stop Shopping Where They’re Disrespected.” The Detroit writer, now communications director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, tells Foley:
“There’s a willingness by a lot of immigrant groups to assert your proximity to whiteness by doing what Americans do, which is disrespect black people. That is American as apple pie.”
In her separate commentary, El-beshir — who has a 2008 business degree from Grand Valley State University and a 2013 master’s in cultural anthropology from WSU — writes:
I am the daughter of many narratives: Black, but not African-American; Arab, but not Middle Eastern; the daughter of two Muslim immigrants, and born an American. . . .
In addressing the relationship between African-Americans and Arab-Americans in metro Detroit, it is necessary to understand the relationship is not one, but one of many. It is built around social, political and economic institutions.
I still get a few surprised gasps when I speak in Arabic or identify as an Arab from Arab-Americans in Dearborn, who are predominantly Middle Eastern and ignorant of the diversity in the Arab world.
El-beshir offers advice for bridging gaps, one interaction at a time:
Source: www.deadlinedetroit.com
By NADYA FAULX
KMUW RADIO
(PHOTO: “Untitled (Lime)” by Iraqi artist Waseem Ahmad is among the 80 pieces on display at four galleries in the “Building Bridges” exhibition)
A new art exhibition opens today in Wichita that will showcase the work of Middle Eastern artists displaced by war.
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The Building Bridges exhibit includes 80 paintings, most of them from Iraqi refugee artists. The work was brought here by the nonprofit Wichita Common Humanity, a collaboration of different religious and interfaith groups.
Coordinator Jan Swartzendruber says the goal of the project is to challenge stereotypes about the Muslim and Arab worlds and help the Wichita community better understand its Muslim neighbors.
“It’s really effective to look at a piece of artwork that comes from a person in another culture and the visual part of that, the beauty of it, speaks for itself,” she says. “You just see the art, you appreciate the humanity of the painter.”
Swartzendruber says many people aren’t familiar with Iraqi modern art, but that the openness of Wichita’s strong art community makes it a welcoming city for the exhibition.
“I think this is a ripe time to bring this kind of art to Wichita and it’s going to meet with a lot of enthusiasm,” she says.
The exhibition will also include a sale, with 80 percent of the profits going back to the artists. The show runs through Aug. 26 at The Looking Glass at Cadman Art Gallery at Wichita State University. It will be at various Wichita State and Bethel College galleries through Sept. 30.
Source: kmuw.org
BY: Clara Ana Ruplinger/Contributing Writer Women’s dress in the Arab World is stylish and diverse, with cultural heritage that is long and unique. Some outfits, like the Abaya and Thawb, are quite common, but have many different regional expressions. Other outfits are highly unique, depending on the country they come from. Embroidery and craftsmanship is … Continued
Journalist Sandra Ali from Detroit’s Local 4 station shares a story about a local Lebanese immigrant family who set up shop and established a tradition that’s still going strong after more than four decades.
Elias Lammam plays his accordion at Desert Dream Dance Company in Santa Cruz on Sunday morning where he directed the third annual Santa Cruz Arabic Music Week. (Kevin Johnson — Santa Cruz Sentinel) By Ryan Masters Santa Cruz Sentinel SANTA CRUZ: In a studio above Water Street in Santa Cruz, a musician frequently referred to … Continued
By LOUISE BROWN THE TORONTO STAR At first glance, it’s just a recipe for Arab tabbouleh salad, scribbled on a classroom blackboard. “Six tomatoes. Three cucumbers. Ten parsley. Two lemons. Olive oil. Salt. Bulgur.” But Mississauga teacher Kristen McGinn does so much more with it at this intense summer day camp for Syrian refugee children … Continued
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