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Arab American museum steps into second decade

Michael Hodges 

The Detroit News 

When Dearborn’s Arab American National Museum opened in May 2005, it didn’t exactly look like a sure bet.

Start with the difficulties inherent in launching such a museum four years after 9/11, in an era of unprecedented hostility.

Add to that a minuscule budget, limited staff, and the challenge in representing people from 22 separate, and sometimes contentious, Arab states, and a skeptic might reasonably doubt the institution’s odds for long-term survival.

But the tiny museum, with a 2015 budget of $1.9 million — mostly raised from earned income, grants and donations — just wrapped up its 10th-anniversary year, and steps into the next decade punching way above its weight class.

“They’ve done incredible work,” said Juanita Moore, president and CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. “I’m not sure the Detroit community understands what a significant presence they have not just in this area, but nationally as well.”

AANM has become a key cultural player in Metro Detroit, won coveted recognition from the Smithsonian Institution, and — perhaps most significant, given its mission — succeeded in attracting half its 2015 attendance of 52,189 from outside the Arab community.

Founding director Anan Ameri, who retired in 2013, counts that as the institution’s biggest win.

“Our success comes when a non-Arab walks in and says, ‘Oh, this is just like my story.’ ”

The museum, which grew out of a cultural arts program at ACCESS, the Arab-American social services agency in Dearborn, was one year into fundraising for its handsome Michigan Avenue building when the jets pierced the World Trade Center towers in 2001.

“Of course 9/11 made things worse,” Ameri said, “but there’s a silver lining in any disaster.

“In this case, it created more interest, I think, in Arab-Americans. There’s more curiosity now among people who are not biased — and there are a lot of them.”

Ironically, said Matthew Jaber Stiffler, AANM research and content manager, “Instead of being a setback, 9/11 galvanized the community.

“They realized there’s so much misinformation out there, we need a place that can serve as a beacon of knowledge.”

And while Arab-Americans often feel like targets, said museum Director Devon Akmon, “We’re not alone. Latinos also face pressures, sometimes worse than ours.”

Still, noted Ismael Ahmed, who helped found ACCESS, “The museum cannot win the battle for fairness and equality and an end to stereotyping by itself.”

 

Bridging communities

So the museum has consistently reached for programming that bridges communities.

Exhibitions like the current “What We Carried,” a photography show on what Iraqi and Syrian refugees chose to take with them when they fled, emphasize poignant family experience nearly everyone can understand.

Locally, the museum’s culinary walking tours of Dearborn restaurants and groceries are always fully booked, while its Concert of Colors, which kicks off July 14, is a longstanding summer high point attended last year by 50,000 at venues all across town.

That same multi-ethnic musical spirit continues once a month with the museum’s Global Fridays performances.

“Locally they’ve been great bridge builders,” said Moore, whose museum will host the kickoff performance of this year’s Concert of Colors.

“They’ve reached out to all sorts of different communities,” Moore added, “and have been unconventional and groundbreaking in the way they’ve looked at their mission.

“It’s served them and their community very well.”

The museum has garnered unusual national attention. AANM won accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in record time and was chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to be an affiliate museum, a much-coveted honor.

Just how selective is that program?

“Let me put it this way,” said Harold Closter, who directs the affiliate program.

“There are over 18,000 museums in the United States. Only 210 are Smithsonian affiliates,” with whom the institution shares artifacts, exhibits and educational programming.

“From our perspective,” said Brett Egan, president of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland, which advises museums on best practices, “it’s the leading institution in the country representing the voice, traditions and aspirations of the Arab-American community.”

Egan ranks their community engagement programs in “the top tier of similar projects nationally. They’re a leading force not only in their field, but in putting artistic practice at center of the movement to create more vibrant communities.”

Touring nationally

Two AANM-curated shows, “Patriots & Peacemakers: Arab Americans in Service to Our Country” and the more recent “Little Syria,” are on national tours.

The latter, about a one-time Syrian community in Lower Manhattan near the site of the Twin Towers, will open at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration on Oct. 1.

The museum is in talks to take “Patriots & Peacemakers” to the Pentagon next year.

“By taking these stories and placing them in venues that are predominantly non-Arab,” said Akmon, “they get a whole new audience. And at the end of the day, that’s why we exist — to bring people together, and find those points of intersection that make us American.”

Source: www.detroitnews.com

Breaking Bread: Residents Celebrate Interfaith Dinner

By Sue Ellen 

Revere Journal 

Saturday night more than 100 people broke bread with each other at a special Interfaith Iftar dinner held at the Beachmont School, sponsored by the local Moroccan American of Revere community. Attendees took the time to learn about each other’s faith and culture.

Greeted with the sounds of The Noor Ensemble, a mixture of cultures and sounds, guests, including local city councillors, clergy, school committee members, enjoyed the group before dinner.

The night started with the recitation of verses from the holy Quran by Imam Soufyan. This was followed by a call to prayer and dinner.

Currently, Muslims are in the middle of Ramadan, when they do not eat or drink during the day for a month. After the sun sets the faithful have an Iftar meal, which breaks the days fast. The meal consists of a soup, hard-boiled egg, marinated chicken, rice, vegetables and salad. There is also a plate of sweets consisting of shabakiya, Moroccan pancakes, Msamen and dates.

Moroccan-born Omar Boukili, the mayor’s aide, spoke about what it has meant for him to become an American. He came to the United States 14 years ago.

“Fear has been used to stir and stoke people to hate,” Boukili said. “This city has been built by people from around the world.”

In the past he worked as a dishwasher and busser while going to school.

“It warms my heart to see everyone say hello to each other,” Boukili said. “Get out and embrace those who don’t know us.”

He added that the attack in Orlando by a Muslim man couldn’t be something the community is held responsible for.

“Our entire community should not be held responsible for the actions of ISIS or any other terrorist group,” he said.

Mayor Brian Arrigo, whose wife wore a traditional Moroccan Kaftan dress, said we, as a community did not come here by accident. First it was the Pilgrims coming to flee religious persecution, then the Irish, Germans, Italians, Dominicans, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Brazilians, El Salvador and now Moroccans.

“The will to succeed is woven into our DNA,” Arrigo said. “We choose to be part of the story of Revere.”

He added that there is no room for willful ignorance.

“It’s fantastic to be invited to this,” said Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem, of Temple B’Nai Israel in Beachmont. “It’s a great way to introduce the community and break bread together.”

Revere resident and community organizer, Rachid Mouhabir, who helped organize the dinner, was pleased with the turnout. Also contributing were some local Arab and Moroccan businesses: Casablanca House of Pastry, the Good Diner, Tibari Travels, Omar Financial Services, Abeer & Associates Investment Group, and HHH Financial Solution.

Source: www.reverejournal.com

Connecting Cultures: Speaking With Luby Ismail

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Photos: Hundreds Of NYers Celebrated Ramadan Outdoors At One Long Table

By Scott Heins Gothamist Hundreds of Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, and non-believing New Yorkers gathered at a single long table in the East Village last night for Iftar in the City, an enormous outdoor celebration of the Muslim fast-breaking dinner that takes place each night during Ramadan. “Look at this long table that you’re sitting … Continued

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Tambourine In Hand, A Christian Wakes Up Acre’s Muslims For Ramadan

Hue Wire

 

Michel Ayoub’s holy racket begins each day at 2:00 am, when he steps into the cobbled streets of Acre’s old city with tambourine in hand, awakening Muslims for Ramadan.
His role as the city’s “mesaharati” is a traditional one during the sacred fasting month, but Ayoub is by no means a traditional holder of the position: He is Christian.

The 39-year-old Arab Israeli sees no contradiction in that, and neither do the Muslim residents of this ancient city in northwestern Israel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

“We are the same family,” says Ayoub, who wears traditional Levantine dress as he meanders the alleyways, a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders, baggy sirwal pants held around his waist with an embroidered belt, a black-and-white turban tied around his head.

“There is only one God and there is no difference between Christians and Muslims.”

His voice rings out as he chants, piercing the silence of the empty streets decorated with traditional colourful lamps for Ramadan.

“You, sleeping ones, there is one eternal God,” he chants.

Houses begin to light up one by one. Some stick their heads out of their windows to greet him and tell him they have heard the call, awakening them for the “suhur,” the traditional Ramadan pre-dawn meal.

During the holy month, which began on June 5, Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sundown, making the suhur an important meal before the long day ahead.

– ‘We Would Be Lost’ –

Acre’s population of more than 50,000 includes Jews, Muslims, Christians and Baha’is.

It has been continuously inhabited since the Phoenician period, which began around 1500 BC.

It was the main port of the medieval Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and a major Ottoman walled city.

Napoleon tried to conquer the heavily fortified town in 1799 but was repelled by the Ottomans and a small British Royal Navy force.

The walled old city, complete with a well-preserved citadel, mosques and baths, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

Today it is part of Israel, which captured it in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war surrounding the state’s creation.

About 28 percent of its population are Arab Israelis, who are Palestinians and their descendants who remained after the 1948 creation of Israel.

Most of the city’s Arabs are Muslims, but a minority, like Ayoub, are Christians.

The mesaharati tradition had disappeared from Acre until Ayoub, who usually works in construction, revived it 13 years ago. He says it was his way to preserve his grandfather’s heritage.

He says his grandfather, a fervent Catholic, listened to readings of the Quran every Friday during the main weekly Muslim prayers.

Partly for that reason, Ayoub says he grew up with the idea of coexistence, respect and knowledge of other religions.

By carrying on the mesaharati tradition, he says he was “only doing my duty by helping our Muslim brothers who endure hunger and thirst” during the fasting month.

Sabra Aker, 19, says she “grew up with Michel Ayoub’s wake-up calls during Ramadan.”

“If he didn’t come one day, we would be lost,” she says through the window of her home.

Safia Sawaid, 36, exits her home to ask if she can take a photo with Ayoub and her children.

“It’s great to see someone so attached to our culture and our traditions,” she says. “I hope that he will continue every year.”

Ayoub may even be grooming a successor to ensure the tradition does not end with him.

Ahmed al-Rihawi, 12, accompanies him on his nighttime mission, wearing sirwal pants, a black vest and a turban.

“He is a promising mesaharati,” Ayoub says. “He is very talented.”

Source: www.huewire.com

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