BY: Yara Jouzy/Contributing Writer A Palestinian identity isn’t complete without the political cartoon of a refugee child, Handala. In 1975, the famous Naji Al-Ali created this 10-year-old boy, who will remain at this age until the occupation of Palestine ends. He is an exceptional child, where the laws of nature and age are forbidden. Handala … Continued
BY: Meshal Abusalem/Contributing Writer The presidential elections offered one final bombshell Wednesday morning, although Donald Trump may not agree. Hillary Clinton not only lost the race, she did not come close to the projections provided by the media. Donald Trump shocked the world and defeated Clinton. The media, people, and foreign countries were all in … Continued
Faiza Patel The Guardian Terrorism has strained traditional American notions of individual responsibility. While such attacks fortunately remain rare in our country (data shows that out of 14,000 murders in the United States, a few dozen per year are motivated by religious or political ideologies of any persuasion), violence by a Muslim is often attributed … Continued
By ERIC LICHTBLAU The New York Times Hate crimes against American Muslims have soared to their highest levels since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to data compiled by researchers, an increase apparently fueled by terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad and by divisive language on the campaign trail. The … Continued
In the lead-up to the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Muslim-Americans say they are once again under intense scrutiny. The U.S. presidential campaign has further stoked Islamophobia, and an important Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha falls too close to the anniversary for comfort. CCTV America’s Liling Tan reported on how New York’s American-Muslim community … Continued
BY: Zane Ziebell/Contributing Writer Almost every American can remember what they were doing on the morning of September 11th, 2001. People were in school, at work, or just waking up to a new day as planes hijacked by al-Qaeda members crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Shortly after, a third plane descended into the Pentagon … Continued
BY: Haya Bacharouch/Ambassador Blogger For more than a decade, the Middle East and North Africa have endured constant unrest. Countries including Iraq, Syria, and Tunisia have been intoxicated by constant bombings and exploited due to the lack of proper health care. Besides the ongoing psychological trauma and humanitarian offenses that the citizens of these countries have … Continued
By Allie Conti
VICE
Stanley Vernon Majors was obsessed with the Lebanese American family next door. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, man stalked the Jabaras, called them “dirty Arabs,” and purposefully ran over the family matriarch with his car last year. And on August 12––a mere eight months after that initial felony assault––cops say he succeeded in killing one of them.
On Tuesday, 61-year-old Majors was charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in the death of 37-year-old Khalid Jabara. The story became national news due to the apparent Islamophobic motive, but for many, the most disturbing part was that the authorities didn’t keep Majors locked up as he waited to go to trial for vehicular assault. Instead, they let him out on bail and sent him straight back to the woman he allegedly tried to murder.
“My family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years,” the family said in a statement posted to Facebook on August 15. “Yet in May, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our repeated protests, he was released from jail with no conditions on his bond––no ankle monitor, no drug/alcohol testing, nothing.”
Haifa Jabara, Khalid’s mother, echoed those sentiments in a statement on Thursday, saying, “We never imagined that a man who had exhibited such cruelty and violence towards us over a five-year period would be released from prison on bond. I felt unprotected and helpless. We did everything we could to keep our family safe and our tormentor was set free. Today my son is gone, and I feel betrayed by a system that I believed in.”
Majors has pleaded not guilty to the murder; a preliminary hearing has been set for October 5.
Major’s ugly grudge against his neighbors had reportedly been simmering for years. By 2013, Majors’s campaign of harassment against the Jabaras was so severe that the mother, Haifa, filed a restraining order, the Tulsa World reported. She told authorities Majors knocked on her windows late at night, sexually harassed her, and made racist remarks. Khalid Jabara, her now-deceased son, also issued a protective order against Majors in early 2015, saying he had left notes on the Jabara house and even vandalized its interior.
Majors violated his protective order against Haifa in early 2015 by screaming, “Fuck you, and I want to kill you.” He finished chugging a beer just before officers cuffed him.
“He repeatedly attacked our ethnicity and perceived religion, making racist comments,” Khalid Jabara’s sister wrote on Facebook. “He often called us ‘dirty Arabs,’ ‘filthy Lebanese,’ ‘Aye-rabs,’ and ‘Mooslems.'”
Majors was apparently unaware the Jabaras are in fact Orthodox Christians who came to the United States in the 1980s, as the New York Times noted.
In September, he ran over Haifa with his car, giving her a bevy of injuries including a broken shoulder, a collapsed lung, and fractured ribs. When police found him, he was so drunk that he was urinating through his pants. Although he said that Haifa had jumped in front of his car, and that he fled because he was scared, he offered up a motive that might have something to do with the the fact that he had married a man in December 2014.
“Majors remarked that Mrs. Jabara and her family were filthy Lebanese and they throw gay people off roof tops,” an officer wrote in a report, according to the Washington Post.
The notion that Muslims are inherently homophobic and immigration from majority-Muslim countries should be limited has been advanced by Donald Trump in speeches. “Ever since the Orlando massacre, the far right has been going on and on about how Muslims hate gay people and how liberals wont accept that,” said Mark Potok at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I think there’s been an attempt to stir up animosity toward Muslims on the part of American gay people.”
No one makes that attempt more explicit than Milo Yiannopoulos, a gay Trump supporter and provocateur who has become infamous for supporting a grab bag of far-right causes. “It’s a significant portion of Muslims who simply find our way of life completely unacceptable,” Yiannopoulos recently told VICE. “It’s become dangerous to be gay in America for one simple reason, and that reason is Islam.”
But if it’s dangerous to be gay in America, it’s also dangerous to be a Muslim, or even hail from a Middle Eastern country, as the Jabaras did. According to the Counsel on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in the aftermath of November’s Bataclan massacre in Paris, Islamophobic violence was the highest it had been since 9/11. Specifically, it called out the rhetoric of Trump and then candidate Ben Carson. The advocacy group pointed to six incidents of violence against American Muslims in the days immediately following Paris attacks. Violence against Muslims remains a constant threat: Earlier this month, an imam and his assistant were shot execution-style, allegedly by a 35-year-old janitor from Brooklyn.
“I definitely believe that tragic incident was symptomatic of the overall rise of Islamophobia in our country,” says Ibrahim Hooper, the national communications director at CAIR. “It’s all part of the same package of hate promoted by Trump and Gingrich and Ben Carson.”
A case with eerie similarities to the Tulsa killing is the shooting in February 2015 of three young Muslims by a neighbor who reportedly picked fights with them over their faith. Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of two of the victims, told Talking Points Memo, “We felt it’s a copycat case… It’s the same story in detail: the angry neighbor, who is racist, bigoted, mad, picking fights for nothing, and then planning his murder on a day when there was no issue or problem or conflict with the family.”
In Major’s case, after he ran over Haifa, prosecutors argued that he was a danger to society. Despite this, he was allowed to post a $60,000 bail and was released. America’s criminal justice system has been increasingly criticized for trapping nonviolent offenders behind bars just because they’re too poor to afford bail, but here is the mirror image of that problem: A violent and clearly disturbed man was allowed to go right back to living next to the family he was fixated on because he was able to buy his way out of jail.
On August 12, Majors knocked on the Jabaras’s window. Khalid, who was home with his father, called 911 and said he had heard his neighbor had obtained a gun, which violated the terms of his release. About 30 minutes later, according to police, Major fired four bullets and killed Jabara. This time, the cops found Majors hiding behind a tree with a six-pack of beer.
“Today, in our pain, we are also keenly aware that this is not just another murder to be added to crime statistics,” Jabara’s sister wrote in her Facebook statement. “Our brother’s death could have been prevented. This is troubling at any time, but profoundly disturbing given the current climate of our country and the increase nationally in cases of hate crimes.”
Source: www.vice.com
PHOTO: A rooftop CrossFit gym in Cairo. “The young people can’t go out demonstrating, but they can go out to run,” said Ramy A. Saleh, who pioneered CrossFit in Egypt. Credit Sima Diab for The New York Times By ROD NORDLAND The New York Times Egypt’s young people have once again taken to the streets. This time, … Continued
By ELIYAHU KAMISHER
Jerusalem Post
Inside the bedroom, Palestinian artist explores sexual taboos
The artist explained that she is not trying to offend anyone by exploring sexuality so publicly, but rather looking to fracture social taboos on issues rarely discussed in Palestinian society.
The “Intimate Spaces” exhibition held at the Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah is pushing the boundaries of Palestinian society by bringing intimate relations into the public sphere.
The exhibit begins with a black-and-white video of the artist’s daughter sitting on a concrete wall and playfully opening and closing her legs.
“She was wondering why her grandmother kept on telling her to close her legs,” explained Rana Samara, 30, a graduate of the Ramallah International Academy of Art. Samara’s first solo exhibition, discussing Palestinian sexuality, opened at the Zawyeh Gallery last week and runs until September 10.
“This was the most controversial piece,” stated Samara, “because it brought my daughter into the exhibit… but I remember having the same questions as my daughter. Why do we have to close our legs? Is something going to fall out if they are left open?” she asked.
Samara’s solo exhibition features depictions of spaces where intimacy takes place – bedrooms, balconies, even a taxi cab – are presented in large colorful acrylic portraits, combined with mixed media installations.
There are no people in the paintings and to the untrained eye the underlying context may not reveal itself. But upon closer inspection there are hints; an earring scattered on the floor, an ashtray lying on the bed, and an unfurled role of toilet paper betray the paintings’ innocence.
According to Samara, in Palestinian society talk of intimate relations, even between partners, rarely leaves the bedroom, and thus this exhibit has unsettled some viewers, not accustomed to a public airing of unspoken customs.
The concept for the project began when Samara took a stroll through the densely populated Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah; she wondered how intimacy played out in such cramped spaces. “I started questioning, how did they sleep together?” she told The Jerusalem Post.
Samara spent a year visiting women in Al-Amari camp and in other villages throughout the West Bank. She was able to enter their bedrooms and in these “intimate spaces” Samara would ask the women about their sexual life. “Building trust was not easy,” stated Samara, as issues of intimacy are not usually discussed so openly.
It was through these discussions that Samara learned of special words used in Palestinian relationships. Like the Arabic word for Thursday, Khamees, which according to Samara holds a different meaning for married couples as Thursday is the day before the weekend and an established night for intimacy.
“It’s a bit of a shock to some,” Ziad Anani the owner and curator of the Zawyeh Gallery told the Post, “She depicts spaces that we don’t usually see.”
That is why Anani decided to feature Samara in her first solo exhibition. “It is a beautiful and strong concept,” said Anani.
According to Anani, a number of the works presented in the exhibition, which range from $6,000 to $12,000, have already been scooped up by eager Palestinian and international collectors.
Anani told the Post that Samara’s work differs from many other Palestinian artists because she not only delves into taboos but developed her work through research and dialogue with community members. “[She] has the courage to explore issues that are considered taboos in the Palestinian society,” he stated, “she bases her body of work on extensive research on the ground and makes sure to have the contribution of members of the community.”
For Samara, her art is tangential to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “It is related in an indirect way. Many of the women come from the refugee camps,” however, “women’s issues are a separate conflict, which is present everywhere in different ways,” she remarked.
Samara seeks to bring sexuality, and women’s role in intimate relationships to the forefront of her work. In one installation Samara deals with the tradition of “virginity handkerchiefs” that is still practiced by some Palestinians. According to the custom, a bloodstained handkerchief is given to the mother of the groom, which proves that the bride was a virgin.
Fifty such handkerchiefs are placed on the wall of the exhibit.
Samara gave them to 50 men and women and asked them to express their opinion and understanding of the practice by drawing on the white fabric.
Samara explained that she is not trying to offend anyone by exploring sexuality so publicly, but rather looking to fracture social taboos on central issues rarely discussed in Palestinian society. “I explain that this is the reality, this is the truth,” she said.
Source: www.jpost.com
Catholic News Agency
Khalid Jabara, a Lebanese-American Christian man, was killed in Tulsa, Okla. last week. His alleged assailant was a man who repeatedly harassed his family with anti-Muslim, anti-Arab language.
The killing has caused concern about attitudes in the U.S.
“Here, in the United States, Mr. Jabara and his family became targets of violence and hatred not because of their faith, but because of their Middle Eastern identity and culture,” In Defense of Christians executive director Kirsten Evans said Aug. 17.
“Sadly, Middle Eastern Christians caught in the crossfire of the sectarian conflict plaguing the Middle East have also become vulnerable scapegoats for hatred and violence born of political and cultural tensions here in the United States.”
On Aug. 12, Jabara called police to report that his neighbor, Stanley Vernon Majors, had a gun in his hand and that he was scared about what might happen, his sister Victoria Jabara Williams said in a statement. The police said there was nothing they could do because the man had returned to his home.
Soon after police left, Jabara stepped out of his house. Police say his 61-year-old neighbor was waiting for him, CNN and the Washington Post report.
Majors fatally shot Jabara, 37. The assailant was arrested and will be charged with first-degree murder.
Jabara’s sister said the man’s history was well-known.
“This suspect had a history of bigotry against our family. He repeatedly attacked our ethnicity and perceived religion, making racist comments. He often called us ‘dirty Arabs,’ ‘filthy Lebanese,’ ‘Aye-rabs,’ and ‘Mooslems’,” said Williams.
The man also commented against Mexicans and blacks, she said.
“Our brother’s death could have been prevented,” she added. “This man was a known danger.”
Neighbors had lodged several complaints against Majors, who had a history of making threats.
In 2013, the Jabara family filed a protective order against him, and Majors then filed a restraining order against Jabara. In 2015 Jabara’s mother, Haifa, was taking a walk in the neighborhood when the man allegedly ran her over with his car. She spent weeks in the hospital with major injuries.
The police report indicated Majors was intoxicated at the time and accused the Lebanese of crimes committed by Islamic extremists.
“Majors remarked that Mrs. Jabara and her family were filthy Lebanese and they throw gay people off roof tops,” an officer wrote in the report.
Majors was charged with felony assault and initially held in custody without bond. Against the district attorney’s wishes, a judge allowed his release until his March 2017 trial date.
“My family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years,” Williams objected. “Yet in May, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our repeated protests, he was released from jail with no conditions on his bond – no ankle monitor, no drug/alcohol testing, nothing.”
The Jabara family had settled in Tulsa in the 1980s, and Jabara was an active member of St. Antony Orthodox Church.
His parish has said the community “will always remember the young man who grew up in our parish. Khalid had a huge heart and loved his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. He was kind, funny, bright and caring; everyone who knew him was truly the better for it.”
“The entire St. Antony family mourns with the Jabara family and feels the loss of Khalid. May the love and compassion of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ along with the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints bring their family peace and comfort and may the memory of Khalid truly be eternal.”
In Defense of Christians, which focuses on Christians in the Middle East, lamented the apparent motives of the killer.
“That anyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, could be targeted for violence, persecution and even death simply because of their ethnic or religious identity, is unconscionable,” said Evans, the organization’s executive director. “Our deepest sympathy goes out to Mr. Jabara’s family and community.”
Source: www.patheos.com
Nancy Yousef
The Daily Beast
As Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson looked out to the crowd of police officers before him, there sat women in hijab and officers with origins from Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Some welcomed each other in Arabic with a common greeting that translates to “peace be upon you.”
Collectively, they were an outward display of an increasingly vilified community that’s challenging conventional thinking on what it means to be Arab or Muslim American.
“This is our ground force. You are ground forces,” Johnson told the 200 people in the room, many of them police officers here, a largely Arab-American city.
Johnson spoke before members of the first conference of the Middle East Law Enforcement Officers Association. The group is only a year old, founded by a Palestinian Muslim female watch commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and a male Chaldean who also works as a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
The group says it is committed to doing community outreach, showing both Arab Americans and non-Arabs alike that to be Arab or Muslim and in law enforcement is not a contradiction.
Fadia Odeh was working at the Ford Motor Company’s credit department and a new mother when the September 11 terrorist attacks happened, inspiring her to join U.S. Customs and Protection.
“I never saw myself going into law enforcement. After 9/11, I was holding my baby, terrified for his future,” Odeh explained to The Daily Beast.
As a Palestinian, Muslim woman, Odeh said often the reaction she gets most is surprise at the sight of an Arab-Muslim woman in uniform.
She now serves as MELOA’s vice president. Steve Francis, the group’s president, grew up in a home where his family didn’t speak English.
“Because of the current climate, it was necessary for us to come out of the shadows,” Odeh said. “We wanted to show [Arab Americans] there is so many of us. …When we are going out there and telling our story, it is so personal because we sometimes we throw in Arabic or talk about a certain food we make at home.”
These officers are largely Arab and Muslim Americans who wear a police uniform for federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement Removal Operations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations and the U.S. Border Patrol. But also among them are Jews, Christian and non-Arabs committed to the effort. Indeed, of the group’s 10 board members, only two are Muslim.
“You live in the very communities we are trying to build bridges to,” Johnson told them.
And yet, as Johnson spoke, there was an elephant in the room: Donald Trump. To listen to the efforts here was to be exposed to two Americas. At this meeting, Arab-American police officers spoke about ways to educate local police departments about the Arab-American community and about giving scholarships to Arab and Muslim students interested in law enforcement. Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, there is talk of banning Muslims from even entering the United States. Alternatively, Trump recently proposed asking Arabs and Muslims to join a commission to identify the traits that make someone an extremist. Arab and Muslims should expect immigration to be met with “extreme vetting” if Trump is elected, he said Monday.
The juxtaposition of both isolating and embracing Arabs and Muslims has left some unsure about whether Johnson’s effort to reach out to the Arab and Muslim community will endure in the months ahead. Johnson referred to it in his speech before MELOA last week.
“In my judgment, this must continue. This must continue beyond this administration,” Johnson said. “I urge you: keep expanding, keep growing.”
During his tenure as Homeland Security secretary, Johnson has led an outreach program toward Arabs and Muslims, often meeting with community leaders. He has often referred to his American story as an African-American grandson of a college professor who was targeted in 1949 by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which alleged he was disloyal. Johnson believes his grandfather was targeted because he, too, was challenging conventional thinking of what it meant to be black in America, having earned a Ph.D. The committee eventually dismissed the charges against his grandfather, and the family did not speak of the incident afterward. It was only when Johnson was researching a speech as Homeland Security secretary that he found out about the charge.
Leading Johnson’s campaign internally is George Selim, an Egyptian-American of Lebanese origin, tasked with building partnerships with Arabs and Muslim communities.
So often, the focus of reaching out to Arab and Muslims centers around terrorism even one recent study concluded global terrorism attacks are lower now than they were in the 1980s. But security often is as much about perception as statistics and the attacks in Orlando, San Bernardino as well as Nice and Paris, France has made groups like MELOA feel all the more urgent.
And yet only here, in a city of 100,000 with six mosques nearby, has Johnson met so many who are part of law enforcement. In the past year, MELEOA has expanded to Chicago and Los Angeles and eventually Newark, all home to large Arab American populations.
But for all the outreach, the group’s leaders can’t say what percentage of its members are Muslims, Christians, Arabs or non-Arabs.
“Honestly, religion never comes up. We look at each as Americans,” Francis said.
Source: www.thedailybeast.com
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