Emanuel Calls ADC to Repudiate Negative Comments About Arabs

From the ADC webpage:


Washington, DC | November 13, 2008 | www.adc.org | Today, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, recently appointed White House Chief of Staff to President-Elect Barack Obama, called American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) President Mary Rose Oakar to repudiate negative comments about Arabs made by his father Benjamin Emanuel .

In the phone call, Congressman Emanuel said, “From the fullness of my heart, I personally apologize on behalf of my family and me. These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family.” During the phone call, Emanuel added, it is unacceptable to make remarks such as these against any ethnic or religious group.

ADC President Mary Rose Oakar said, “We cannot allow Arabs and Muslims to be portrayed in these unacceptable terms. I welcome Rahm’s apology and his pledge to meet with our Community. I also thank our members and friends who responded who expressed concern about this matter. ”
MEDIA COVERAGE:

NEW YORK TIMES: Emanuel Apologizes for Father’s ‘Arab’ Comments

TIME: RAHM EMANUEL’S FATHER PROBLEM

ABC NEWS: AMERICAN-ARAB ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE ASKS RAHM TO REPUDIATE HIS DAD’S COMMENTS

JEWISH TELEGRAPH AGENCY: ARAB-AMERICAN GROUP BLASTS EMANUEL’S DAD

TEXT OF NOV. 11 ADC LETTER TO CONGRESSMAN EMANUEL
View letter online at: www.adc.org/PDF/rahm.pdf
Dear Congressman Emanuel:

I am writing to you on behalf of the largest American‐Arab Civil Rights group in the United States, with members in every State of the Union, founded in 1980. We work in coalition with all civil rights organizations.

This has been an historic election, one which energized our Country and gave many people the reason to vote for change. I know the Arab‐American community was very involved in this presidential election, and voter turnout in the community was exceptionally high. We wish to congratulate you on being named, by President‐Elect Obama, White House Chief of Staff. We were, however, deeply disappointed by comments made by your father, Mr. Benjamin Emanuel, on the momentous occasion of your announcement as Chief of Staff. According to numerous news stories in the U.S. and in Israel, he made the following comments in an interview with Ma’ariv, “Obviously he’ll influence the President to be pro‐Israel. Why wouldn’t he? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House.”

The American‐Arab Anti‐Discrimination Committee (ADC) views this characterization of an Arab as an unacceptable smear. One can readily imagine the justifiable outcry if someone made a similar remark about African‐Americans, Jews, or Hispanics, concerning cleaning the floors of the White House. Do the normal standards of decency and civility not apply when talking about Arabs? ADC asks you to disavow and repudiate these remarks publicly. We sincerely hope you will distance yourself from any demeaning characterization of any ethnic, religious, or racial group. President‐Elect Obama pledged a respect for the diversity of this Nation, and Arab Americans certainly add, in a positive way, to our Country’s diversity.

Sincerely,
Hon. Mary Rose Oakar, ADC President
Kareem Shora, JD. LLM., National Executive Director

Cc: President‐Elect Barack Obama
# # #
NOTE TO EDITORS: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is non sectarian and non partisan, is the largest Arab-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980, by former Senator James Abourezk to protect the civil rights of people of Arab descent in the United States and to promote the cultural heritage of the Arabs. ADC has 38 chapters nationwide, including chapters in every major city in the country, and members in all 50 states.

The ADC Research Institute (ADC-RI), which was founded in 1981, is a Section 501(c)(3) educational organization that sponsors a wide range of programs on behalf of Arab Americans and of importance to all Americans. ADC-RI programs include research studies, seminars, conferences and publications that document and analyze the discrimination faced by Arab Americans in the workplace, schools, media, and governmental agencies and institutions. ADC-RI also celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arabs.
____________________________________________________________
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee | www.adc.org
1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW | Washington, DC | 20007
Tel: 202-244-2990 | Fax: 202-244-7968 | E-mail: media@adc.org

Islam from the other side

Izzy Mo, an American Muslim sister who has recently begun her life anew in the Middle East, had an interesting encounter with an Iraqi woman who led her to some interesting conclusions.

Whether we realize it or not, America enjoys the love and mercy of many people around the world.  While I have met people who will go on and on about America’s jacked-up foreign policy, I have yet to hear anyone condemn the American people.  I haven’t encountered any seething hatred or raging Moozlimz.

I find this very interesting because the American sentiment toward the people of the Middle East is definitely not reciprocated.

Izzy Mo draws tells a tale worth reading, and from it draws some interesting conclusions. Please review her most recent blog post to see what else she has to say on the perceptions of American people in the Middle East.

When it comes to Islam, is America anti-education?

A new effort by American Muslims to combat Islamophobia is being broadly criticized. ICNA, the Islamic Society of North America, has undertaken a campaign to post educational advertisements regarding Islam in the NYC subways. The involvement of a prominent US Muslim figure, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, has resulted in claims by outside groups that these ads are meant to promote terror and encourage jihad (in it’s Western, non-literal sense).

 As you may have heard, the Islamic Circle of North America through its 877-WHY-ISLAM project has planned to sponsor 1000 ads in NYC subways during Ramadan. These ads serve to clear away common Islamic misconceptions and encourage them to learn about Islam from a direct and more reliable source. Imam Siraj has been of the most enthusiastic supporters of this project with the hope to benefit the larger community. Never would he imagine that his simple involvement in this project would be used to stir up such an uproar. Dramatic headlines such as “Jihad Train” and “Train-ing Day for Jihadists” of the NYPost, as well as others by Fox News have dominated the media limelight. YouTube bloggers such as mosquewatch have posted videos urging listeners to tear down the ads when they see them.

For more information on this project, its reception and numerous links to stories on this issue, see the full/original post on Muslim Matters.

Breaking the Veils

I came across this article on Yahoo today. I was very interested to see Muslim women combating the stereotypes associated with Islam (especially post-9/11) by creating a demonstration of intelligence through art.

After September 11th, there was a lot of talk about women in Islam and how repressed they are. We assembled this collection for tour in the United States and Europe with the hope of breaking the stereotypes of women in Islam, and to show the output of gifted women artists – Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Hindu – who live within Islamic civilization and contribute to that cultural heritage of this region.

Please go here for some looks at artwork and more on this display.

NUMB3RS tackles government Islamophobia

After watching last week’s episode of NUMB3RS, “When Worlds Collide,” I was certain I wanted to write a post on it for this blog. The problem was, I couldn’t quite figure out how to approach it. The episode featured Pakistani Muslims targeted by the U.S. government for believed terror associations. The thing was [spoiler alert], the Muslims weren’t the terrorists. In fact, it was ultimately decided that there were no terrorists at work at all, a conclusion I’ll wrangle with later.

My responses to the episode ranged greatly. As the scene for conflict was set, a Pakistani mother, daughter and son get ready for dinner and their husband/father’s arrival home. They aren’t dressed in any way that marks them as particularly “ethnic” or even Muslim. I’m so used to seeing Muslim women scarved and exoticized by cultural clothing that I wrongly assumed the characters weren’t Muslim. I believe what ran through my head, and this is really telling of post 9/11 culture on my mindset even though I am Muslim, was, “Oh. Normal people who are also brown. Awesome!” Forgive the color label please. This is how my Desi friends refer to themselves. It’s not meant to be offensive.

Then it turned out that they were Muslim. And the mother does show up in a head scarf, but it’s a black scarf draped gently over her hair and revealing a good portion of it in a way that both suggests culture and mourning rather than religion. It turned out that her husband, whose kidnapping she witnessed, had been tortured and murdered. The FBIs assumption? He was in collusion with a terrorist cell based on his involvement with the Pakistani Relief Fund (he visited Pakistan and helped build a school and roomed with a man who shared a name with a terrorist). The PRF was suspected for funding terror. No proof was given, but for the terror specialists in the FBI, no proof was needed.

Charles Eppes, the mathmetician and FBI collaborator around which this show is built, took strong issue with this case. One of his professor friends was arrested in front of him for sending scientific files to Pakistan. This friend also contributed to the PRF. Sharing those files was illegal, it turned out, but there was no way the professor could have known that because the information on what can and can’t be shared is classified. It turned out the files were research on how to better crop yields in an area suffering from food shortages. But the man, ultimately, was still jailed and had to await trial. In an act of solidarity and rebellion, Charlie sent the remainder of his friend’s files to a scientist in Pakistan. His punishment? He lost his FBI privileges, but he was not detained. Actually, he went home and had a beer and thought about how his life would be different now that he wouldn’t be working with the FBI. Presumably, his friend was still in detention awaiting a trial for doing the same thing.

I realize this synopsis is a bit detailed, but bear with me. There were several threads happening here. There were Pakistanis whose ethnicity, religion and charitable donations warranted their arrest. A Pakistani whose actions, though identical to those of Charlie’s, landed him in detention. There was also a point where Charlie connected the case leader to a terrorist in three points, and pointed out that no one was throwing him in jail. And there was an incredibly curious twist.

Remember I said that no terrorists were at work here? Well, the assumption that it was terrorism stemmed from the fact that Pakistani Muslims involved in the PRF were kidnapped, tortured and killed. The idea of a terror cell was discarded when it turned out that the mind behind the crime was a member of the IRA who was, I kid you not, disguised as a Pakistani complete with accent. Think blackface. The man had made a place for himself in the PRF and was redistributing funds for his personal use running guns. In the meantime, he had planted some blueprints of schools to throw officials offtrack. It was really simple for him to make his escape (they caught him eventually under one of his known aliases). All he had to do was throw the suspicion onto Muslims. And some FBI members were ready to route through PRF files, bring in all the Muslims and, as they conceded, ruin their lives by implying accusations of terrorism on them.

I have to say that as a Muslim I was thrilled that is wasn’t the Muslims at fault here. And I was thrilled that Charlie took an anti-FBI stance. NUMB3RS is a liberal show and it often questions the Patriot Acts, but they took it to a new level with “When Worlds Collide.” I thought of this all when I read the following quote on Racialicious regarding “The Visitor”:

Overall, the characters’ Muslim background and immigrant status seem to outweigh their racial differences. And, in a post-9/11 world, a world in which the fact that Barack Obama’s estranged father was born into a Muslim family is a liability, it’s definitely refreshing to see Muslims shown as three-dimensional, loving people.

The opening scenes of NUMB3RS do what Miss Kareem is talking about here. The family is, as I noted, normal. There’s nothing to say they’re anything other than ordinary. Just people in their home living their lives. It’s only after their lives are upset that we learn they are Muslim, and then the complications of being Muslim and involved in a crime–even when you are a victim of it–begin to be revealed. First with racial/religious profiling. Then prejudice based on professional experience. Then through a refreshing twist: it wasn’t the Muslims after all. It was a greedy former member of the IRF (who btw was not a terrorist because he was working alone and was only distributing automatic weapons . . . or was it because he was White?).

I’ve been a big fan of NUMB3RS since it’s inception. I like the way the characters reflect on the choices they are asked to make in the name of protecting the innocent. The show constantly redefines innocence and guilt among both the accused and the accusers. I recommend watching the episode. You can find it here, on the CBS website.

My feeling on this condemnation of Islamophobic impulses on primetime TV is that a large number of Americans have reached a point of consensus that the selective persecution of Muslims based on faith and minority status is no longer acceptable. I would love to know what viewers and readers thought of this episode.

Looking at Language and the War on Terror

An article by Ali Eteraz at Jewcy takes a look at inflammatory language, the war on terror, and a new government policy.

It seems absurd on its face that for so long our government, which ostensibly seeks to advance a more secular worldview in the middle East, would have purposefully advanced terms that were chosen by and utilized by extreme religious fanatics. Ownership of language — what lawyers and PR people call “framing the issue” — is very important in adversarial confrontations about information (which the war on terrorism certainly is). With this decision the Bush administration is opening up the possibility of the US government devising a lexicon that allows it to evaluate terrorism, religious fanaticism, and Muslim violence on its own terms.

Believe it Or Not, We Are Just Human

This post was originally published on Unique Muslimah. Unique Muslimah writes from the wild West with frequent trips around the world. Her blog exposes the delights, flashbacks and somber experiences that adds a little spice to who she is today: 100% unique, no added salt. Thank you, Unique for reprinting permissions.

It’s expected that some Muslim faith schools are to add an extra subject to the academic syllabus to tackle extremism, an action that some governments have recommended. With groans from students having to study for yet another class, Citizenship lessons might actually prove useful. Topics tackled are issues that wouldn’t necessarily be discussed in a teacher-student environment.

Already some Muslim schools have taken on this challenge, introducing subjects of extremism, loyalty to one’s country, respecting people from different religions and cultures, and so forth. Hopefully not only will this subject help students to understand more about peace and mercy in the Islamic religion towards others, it could also improve social cohesion.

But- I wondered as I stepped into a famous Museum where millions congregate to marvel at statues and items locked safely behind glass cabinets- But- shouldn’t non-Muslim schools around the world be requested to take on Citizenship lessons too, teaching students that the majority of Muslims are against extremism and terrorism, that Muslims are not a freak show to be stared at, or a circus show to be laughed at, that we have not just escaped from a high-security mental institution, that no, we do not have bad breath and we are certainly not contagious from any diseases. Surely it would be a good place to start to learn how both sides of the coin can live together. I could teach my students all about respecting others, but these “others” should also be taught to respect us in return- it takes two to tango.

Evidently there is no tango-ing yet. Walking around the Museum with a large group of Muslim veiled girls, I was shocked, no- mortified and emotionally violated. People everywhere looked at us, individually and as a group, with rude, disgusted stares. A few were ready to physically attack us. Isn’t that extremism on their part?

That’s not forgetting the flash photography aimed at the girls without their will- how do famous people deal with the paparazzi? Every time I saw a flash I went hysterical. In a sly fashion, random men would stroll next to the girls and take a shot, for what purpose is beyond my imagination. Some were too cowardly to come close up, but were spotted afar hiding behind statues while taking their shot. With the new age of digital cameras, every single person had one and we all felt vulnerable and exposed. Asking for help from security staff we were told there was nothing they could do and suggested that we write to the Museum to complain. How helpful.

For a second I honestly believed that these people thought the Museum was running a special exhibition dubbed Mad Muslim Women! Perhaps, in a more positive thought, they were astonished to find a bunch of “intellectual” Muslim women interested in visiting a Museum instead of the local market or as its traditionally known, the souq! We should have held a banner stating “Believe it or not, we are just innocent Citizens here- just human!” if we had known of the reception we were going to have.

Surely these people need to be taught one or two (or perhaps a few hundred) Citizenship lessons, or something, to avoid such ignorance and as a result, social unrest. In order for all humans to live peacefully, each side has to take the step to understand one another. It’s pointless to have one side do all the leg work. Who said ignorance is a bliss? I pity the people I met at the Museum, because they have no idea that we are decent human beings that do not deserve to be treated with such contempt.

Being in that situation felt like a reconstruction scene of the hardships the Prophet Muhammad and his early followers faced from non-believers. But what we went through at the Museum is nothing compared to what the earliest Muslims went through, at least I hope it never gets that bad. I hope and pray that one day we can all accept that we are sharing the same planet and we have to live together in harmony and respect our differences.

I hope and pray- what else is a girl to do when she’s exposed at the Museum.

A Land Called Paradise

Muslims in America show their thoughts. This video is wonderful, but I wish there were Muslimahs that looked like me (sans hijab) and white Muslims as well. In other words, those of us who share the identity but not necessarily in a visual way.

Digging into the past

It’s not an easy thing, what I’m asking people to write about. The events surrounding 9/11, and, more specifically, how they affected us personally, aren’t events we often like to dwell on , though our country’s current external and internal endeavors are founded on 9/11. We entered war in Iraq under the guise of battling al Qaeda, of defeating ties Saddam supposedly had with the al Qaeda network and saving humans around the world from oppression and cruelty executed in the name of Islam. If 9/11 hadn’t been a convenient reason for war in Iraq, I’m sure our policy-makers would have concocted another, but there it was, a terrifying event that struck fear into the patriotic hearts of Americans; a fear that could and has been easily exploited for the last several years. A fear whose name is Islamophobia.

While statements and overtures were made to separate the majority of Muslims from al Qaeda’s brand of Islam, more action was taken to show that Islam = bad while Christianity and America = good. Commercials, biased news coverage, arrests, etc. were made to illustrate these points. Non-Muslims died for looking like Muslims. Muslims died for looking like Muslims. Many of the rest of us have changed the way we live in both large and small ways. And our current presidential election is only serving to demonstrate how heavily administrators have come to depend on the fear of Islam. It’s being used now as an attempt to defeat Obama. But the U.S. is entering a new era, and these scare tactics aren’t working.

Since 9/11, Islam has become something the layman can educate himself on. While many sources of “Islamic knowledge” are bogus (some websites come to mind), there are Muslims living in the U.S. day to day. We are the neighbors of those who were eager to hate us until they realized we’d been their friends for years. We are the brothers and sisters of those who still hate us, or those who never did because they were able to recognize the difference between a terrorist and your average Joe. Many a Muslim is an average Joe. Some are not.

What I’m asking you is, who and what are you? Think about who you were before 9/11. Think of who you are now. And try to discover what brought you to this place you’re in.

My hope is this brief post will offer you some insights into yourselves as you struggle to get your stories down. As time passes, I will be posting some guest blogs (contact me if you have something to say submissions@islamonmyside.com) as well as snippets of 9/11 history, like this video, to help you locate your own story. Please feel free to use this blog as an open forum for discussion. Happy writing!

My Dream for America: An End to Crusade Culture

This morning I read this article on Yahoo News describing how Obama has had to fight claims that he is a Muslim on every turn. This time for wearing Kenyan garb. This, in my mind, is especially ridiculous because what person visiting another country hasn’t wanted to try out the native dress? And how does wearing clothes that look different from traditional American dress make him a Muslim, even if he is of Kenyan descent? What if it were a picture of Hillary in a polka dress? Would she be criticized and innacurately labeled a Nazi, or would she be hailed for her cultural sensitivity and ability to have fun? Muslims know that Obama is not Muslim, but unlike other serious contenders for the U.S. presidential bid today and in the past, Obama has lived outside the U.S. and has a minority parent. Still, why should that matter?

This has been a hot blog topic lately among Muslims, and for good reason. What non-supporters of Obama are doing is tapping into the culture of fear that now surrounds Islam. We live in a country that is afraid of Muslims and any power they might possess. It’s been drilled into the heads of Americans both Muslim and non-Muslim alike that Muslims have a higher propensity toward terrorism than any other ethnic or religious group. I don’t believe this is true.

Here’s another issue hot on blogs right now: mistreatment of women. In the U.S., white men of a certain age are the most likely to become abusers, not Arabs or Muslims. And those men most often become abusers because they are abused when they were younger by women. In fact, women are twice as likely as men to commit acts of domestic violence, according to a recent study by the University of Washington. But, shows the media, (surprise!) in countries filled with Arabs and Muslims, Arab and Muslim men are the abusers. The big difference? When it’s reported, it’s reported that they’ve abused in the name of Islam. What about white abusers? Do they abuse in the name of any faith? I’m sure they do. Some cults come to mind, people have claimed God spoke to them, etc., but that doesn’t get the coverage a Muslim man abusing his wife or sister does, because for some reason, if a Muslim did it, the reasons must be much more perverted. Nevermind that most abuse is a result of fear and perceived loss of control.

Interestingly enough, I can think of a man in a high position who claimed that he spoke to God, and the result of the conversation was a war of epic proportions in which many innocent men, women and children have been harmed. But since he’s not hurting anyone in his own home that we know about, and since the people under attack aren’t Christian, that’s okay. I mean, if God told Bush to start this war, doesn’t that make it a holy war? Only it’s covered as an attempt to spread the wonder of democracy, and the divine reasons of a born-again president are buckled safely into the backseat of his Democracy Mobile. We can all see them there, chatting happily with one another, content with the loss of valuable American and (gasp!) non-American lives, but they’re strapped in, so what’s the harm, right?

Please excuse my sarcasm. It’s just when I see a man like Barack Obama, who I truly believe has the potential to begin the correction of the “Muslims = terrorists” sentiment that has so affected my life and the lives of hundreds of other Muslims I know or have read about, I want non-Muslim America to look at him and say, “Hey! This guy has actually lived among the ‘other.’ There’s a chance he knows how to deal with people who don’t look or think like us. Wouldn’t it be great if someone could give us a reason not to be afraid all the time instead of telling us not to go to the mall for fear of a terror attack each time it seems like he’s done something wrong?”

But can that even happen? If Obama can’t make it through the election process without humming the Islam-is-not-my-religion-and-it-never-has-been tune at every turn, how will he be able to attain my greatest hope for him? How will he reduce the fear in non-Muslim Americans’ (most Americans!) hearts so that I have the freedom to practice my faith the way it says I can in our great Constitution?

There are plenty of other minority groups in the U.S. suffering similar frustrations. I think that as a minority himself, at least visually, Obama can work to address these frustrations. He clearly has some understanding of what it means to be labeled as “other” and placed under suspicion because of it. My dream is one day to have a White House as culturally aware and tolerant as Sesame Street, but barring that, I hope to be able to stop cringing when the doorbell rings and I find a package on my step. To be able to open the package without holding my breath, picturing what could happen if it were a bomb that touched me, the baby inside me, my toddler, my husband, or anyone else nearby. Of course I know it’s unlikely that someone would want to kill me because I’m visually on the Arab side or they know I’m Muslim. That doesn’t really lessen the fear that post 9/11 culture has instilled in me. The truth is, there are plenty of people out there who would be just as happy is all Muslims were dead. And I’ve often wondered if our president is one of them.

I’m ready for the day when life is no longer split between pre and post 9/11. Maybe a day when life is split between the lapse in American democracy (you know, when we became a theocratic dictatorship) and the glorious return to it: a time when our leader doesn’t regularly hide his goings-on by destroying files and hard drives; we aren’t constantly distracted by threats of terror perpetrated by that nasty Other, to which a good many of us belong; when all the people are allowed to speak their minds without fear of being thrown in Gitmo; and a time when every voice counts.