In The Press

Press Release: USPCN In April of 2015, a few weeks after Freddie Gray was tragically murdered by Baltimore police, USPCN released a statement that addressed our own communities, in part: “In this moment, Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims in the U.S. have no choice but to be on the right side of history. No vacillating, no questioning, no criticizing, … Continued

By Roqayah Chamseddine 

Paste Magazine

The Aug. 12 killing of 37-year-old Khalid Jabara, a Lebanese-American and Oklahoma resident, by 61-year-old Stanley Vernon Majors, in front of the family’s porch, underscores the impact of both anti-Arab sentiment and a national climate entrenched in racialized Islamophobia. According to a special report by Georgetown University, When Islamophobia Turns Violent, during the course of 2015 alone there were at least 174 reported incidents of anti-Muslim violence, including 12 murders. Khalid Jabara, an Arab Christian, was targeted by a man who, according to the Jabara family, “was a hateful person” who had made anti-Muslim remarks and had called them “dirty Lebanese.” The language employed by Majors echoes mainstream rhetoric employed by lawmakers and laypersons alike, rhetoric which has a direct effect on non-Muslim communities perceived as Muslims.

In Racializing Islam Before and After 9/11, Hilal Elver writes that the majority of Arabs in the United States are Christians:

“Unlike other groups, the category of Muslim in the United States covers not only immigrant communities but also includes a significant number of native born African-American citizens. This complexity is one of the markers of the racialization of Islam in the United States, as “Muslim looking people” are subject to hate crimes and social discrimination.”

Immigrants to the United States from Muslim-majority countries have come in waves. The first wave included those who arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. According to Helver, between the 1870s and World War II these immigrants were in varying degrees already integrated and assimilated, and came predominantly “from the Arabic speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire, a geographic area of the Eastern Mediterranean shores that includes the current states of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.” Khalid Jabara’s parents had immigrated in the early 1980s to the United States from Lebanon.

Just weeks after 9/11, a public opinion survey conducted by Gallup revealed that most respondents believed Arab and Muslim Americans should be profiled and targeted for surveillance and interrogation in the name of national security. Some of the survey’s findings included “a substantial proportion of Americans [claiming to have] become less trusting of Arabs living in this country.” According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken between September 13, 2001, 43% of Americans said “they think the attacks will make them more suspicious of people whom they think are of Arab descent.”

In the 2005 documentary by filmmaker Jaqueline Salloum, Planet Of The Arabs, a compilation of clips taken from major films are edited to show a relentless cascade of stereotypes against Arabs—from hijackers and patriarchal barbarians to submissive, veil-clad women. In the film Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People, based on the book by Jack Shaheen, director Sut Jhally shows how Arabs are portrayed as subhuman, their surroundings based on orientalist fantasies—vast desert land accompanied by a mish-mash of cliché bellydancing music. Viewers are introduced to the ominous Arab caricature which appears in almost every mainstream film. This passage, from an interview with Shaheen, is representative:

JACK SHAHEEN: Disney’s Aladdin was seen by millions of children worldwide. It was hailed as one of Disney’s finest accomplishments, but the film recycled every old degrading stereotype from Hollywood’s silent black-and-white past.

ALADDIN OPENING MUSIC: Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels grow, where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but, hey, it’s home.

JACK SHAHEEN: “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but, hey, it’s home.” Now, how could a producer with a modicum of intelligence, just a modicum of sensitivity, let a song such as that open the film? 300 movies, nearly 25 percent of all Hollywoodmovies that, in one way or another, demean Arabs, contain gratuitous slurs, or they portray Arabs as being the butt of a cheap joke. claims that “in more than 300 movies, nearly 25% of all  Hollywood movies that in one way or another demean Arabs, contain gratuitous slurs or they portray Arabs as being the butt of a cheap joke.”

These documentaries show, in a very in-your-face manner, just how the public’s perception of Arabs has been shaped by the media, as it has many other marginalized groups.

The demonization of Arabs has far-reaching implications that allow for targeted killings, as we’ve seen in the case of Khalid Jabara, and also aid in justifying the expansion of surveillance measures. The intrusive monitoring program conducted by the NYPD, which led to local businesses, community centers, mosque, and student organizations associated with Arabs or Muslims being surveilled, is only one recent example. Unsurprisingly, the understandable paranoia that this type of monitoring caused remains. The image of Arabs, many of whom have become victims of the racialization of Islam and Muslims, has led to the curtailing of civil rights being justified by lawmakers and the public for the sake of national security.

In an official statement released by the Jabara family, they convey their anguish at a hate crime that could have been prevented, had the authorities taken diligent action. “Despite the overwhelming evidence we marshalled of a palpable threat of danger and hate facing us on a daily basis, the existing legal mechanisms proved insufficient to protect our beloved Khalid and our mother,” the statement reads. The racial profiling of Arabs, and the association of all Arabs with Muslims, has created an environment that threatens to cause more irreversible damage to both communities, unless these abuses are acknowledged and genuinely addressed. Until then, social pressure based on subjection remains focused tightly on Arabs, and Muslims, intimidating even those who cling to their nationalism. The Jabara family have routinely referred to themselves as “proud Americans,” and still they were not safe.

Source: www.pastemagazine.com

Antonia Blumberg
 The Huffington Post

Khalid Jabara, 37, was shot and killed last week outside his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Thursday to memorialize Khalid Jabara, a 37-year-old who was shot and killed on Aug. 12 in an apparent hate crime.

During the ceremony, Rev. George Eber, parish priest of St. Antony Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, urged mourners “to never forget God — no matter what. Even in this horrible time.”

Eber recalled Jabara’s character saying, “He was funny, a person people liked, friendly, gregarious, someone who brought a joy when there was darkness.”

The Jabara family are Orthodox Christian, and Khalid’s parents immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1980s from Lebanon. They settled in Tulsa to raise their three children where they started a family catering business, but there was trouble in the community.

According to a statement released on Facebook by Jabara’s sister, Victoria Jabara Williams, the family had experienced years of verbal and physical assaults by their neighbor, Stanley Vernon Majors.

Williams said Majors frequently harassed them, calling them “dirty Arabs,” “filthy Lebanese,” “Aye-rabs,” and “Mooslems.” She also said Majors had run over her mother with his car last year, leaving her with a broken shoulder, collapsed lung, broken ankle, broken nose, head trauma and fractured ribs.

Police arrested Majors for the attack and charged him with felony assault. But despite warning signs of Majors’ antagonism toward the family, police released him from custody several months ago so he could await trial in March 2017. 

On Aug. 12, Jabara called the police, “stating this man had a gun and that he was scared for what might happen,” Williams said in her statement. Police showed up but left the neighborhood without questioning Majors. Less than ten minutes later Jabara was shot and killed outside his home.

Majors is now in police custody, again, on suspicion of first-degree murder.

“We can learn to love our enemy, but not on our own,” Eber said during the memorial. “I have been asked by the news media to label this. I look to history. We haven’t stopped these wars, these atrocious murders.”

Jabara’s killing has received national attention as yet another tragic and dangerous incident of xenophobia. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton released a statement on Thursday, responding to Williams’ Facebook post:

Victoria, my heart breaks for you and your family over the loss of your brother Khalid. An attack like this is an attack on all of us, and we must come together to ensure that no other family loses a beloved son or daughter because of prejudice and bigotry.
Muslim American activist Linda Sarsour set up a LaunchGood campaign on Monday to raise money for the Jabara family. So far, more than 300 people have made contributions, totaling nearly $20,000. The funds will go toward providing home health care for Jabara’s father, who relied on his son as caretaker.

“We will not be silent. Let’s stand against hate and show our support for Khalid and his family,” Sarsour wrote on the fundraiser page.

The shooting comes at a time when the U.S. is facing rising xenophobia, often aimed at Muslims, Arabs and those perceived to be such.

“My family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years,” Williams said in reference to Majors.

“Our brother Khalid was just 37 years old and had his whole life ahead of him. He was a kind spirit, loving brother, uncle and son. Khalid’s heart was big,” she wrote. “All of that has been taken away from us by this hateful man and a system that failed to protect our community.”

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com