08-20-09 American Arabs should reject paid activists messages on U.S. Census fight

Fighting the Census exclusion of Arabs on form is about empowerment
By Ray Hanania – The U.S. Government has done a great job hiring Arabs in our community to shill for their cause, to continue to oppress our community. The focus on the effort is the U.S. Census.I want you to notice something. Everyone one pimping and pushing for the American Arab community to “participate” in the U.S. Census are all PAID by the U.S. Government to tell us to fill out the census form.They lie that filling out the census form and “writing in our race” Arab in the little line at the bottom of the form is a way for us to be empowered. And when someone questions their lies, they slam and slander Arabs who argue that we have been misled by lazy, do-nothing Arab activists who have taken the short and easy route to money instead of fighting the long term challenge.

08-08-09 Arab grocer charges racism in arrest over allegations of code violations

Arab grocer and family arrested in Chicago suburb
Store owners cries racism; neighbors say he is an “unsanitary” grocer
By Ray Hanania — (Oak Lawn, Illinois) While the nation is still reeling from a racial confrontation between a Black professor, a White Cambridge cop and President Obama, a food-store owner in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn alleges village inspectors and police shut him down over the past two years because he is a Muslim and an Arab. Naim Massad thought he had a perfect location to open his Middle Eastern grocery store in June 2007 in huge strip mall at 10333 S. Central Avenue in Oak Lawn, Illinois. The strip mall also includes a music store, a beef store, laundromat, liquor store, and a restaurant with a comedy club and bar. Officials in Oak Lawn confirmed they were shocked at what has transpired over the course of two years which on July 16, 2009 resulted in Massad, his wife, and one of their three under-aged children being arrested, handcuffed and jailed. The arrest was ordered by a health inspector who charged Massad’s store violated several village health codes.

08-05-09 Holy Days in Holy Land turning into fury

Holy Days Turning into Fury
Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D. — It is such a special month in the Holy Land especially for the Orthodox Church, although we start the fast thirteen days later, we turn our eyes and heart onto honoring the Most Holy Mother of God in this special 14 day Dormition Fast.

HANANIA: American East: Movie review — a powerful portrayal of Arab Americans after Sept. 11, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, JAN. 26, 2009

American East: Movie review — a powerful portrayal of Arab Americans after Sept. 11

By Ray Hanania — All Mustafa an Egyptian American Muslim widower ever wanted to do was live the “American Dream.” And, maybe pay off some family debts, turn his small New Jersey falafel shop into a fancy restaurant, raise his two motherless children as good Muslims and Americans, insure his sister married in a proper and arranged Muslim marriage to his first cousin, and possibly, if there is time, even find a wife himself.But Mustafa’s American Dreams, like the American Dreams of many Arabs living in America after Sept. 11, 2001, don’t come easy, and his story, really the story of the Arab American experience today, makes for a compelling drama and one of the best movies about Arab American life I have seen.

HANANIA: Racism lingers in presidential election, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 10-11-08

Racism lingers large in presidential election
By Ray Hanania – When one of his supporters went to the microphone at a Republican presidential rally and called Democrat Barack Obama an “Arab,” John McCain immediately took the microphone away and said “No ma’am.” And then McCain added the line that really hurt more than the woman’s outburst of racist hatred, when he probably unintentionally wanted to remind people that Obama is not an Arab, but he is a “decent family man.” What happened at this event in Philadelphia this week was not an effort to temper racism, but rather a depiction of the two kinds of racism that exist in America today that is coming out in the presidential election campaign and is directed at Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, people who “look” like they are Middle Eastern, and anyone who doesn’t fit into the profile of who is an “accepted” minority.

HANANIA: Profiling only helps when there is evidence, not before, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 18, 2008

Profiling only helps when there is evidence of a crime, not before
By Ray Hanania – Ever since America realized on Sept. 11, 2001 that we really didn’t know enough about the Middle East or the Islamic world, our response has been driven more by fear than reason. Americans are the most educated people in the world, yet many act, in the face of a terrorist threat by a small handful of groups that embrace a distorted spin on Islam, like they know nothing. As a result, innocent people who “looked” Middle Eastern were arrested. Hundreds were arrested and falsely charged facing years of imprisonment until the charges were dropped or overturned.

HANANIA: Imus Factor exposues flaws in American media principles, For Immediate Release, 11-17-07

The “Don Imus” factors exposes flaws in American media principles

By Ray Hanania – When syndicated radio and MSNBC talk show host Don Imus expressed racist comments about African American members of the Rutgers Woman’s basketball team, he was immediately censored and forced to apologize. Imus, now more sensitive to racist rhetoric against Blacks, returns to WABC Radio soon, reportedly a “changed man.” But Don Imus’ past racist remarks were not an exception, but they often characterized similar racist comments about other minorities, including Arabs and Muslims that go unaddressed or challenged by the mainstream media and public leaders.

ALARABI: Islamophobia and self-hating Arabs, For Immediate Release, 10-28-07

Islamophobia and self-hating Arabs

By Ali Alarabi – A recent weeklong campaign undertaken by anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racist David Horowitz in university campuses across the US designed to intimidate and terrorize students and professors who do not share Mr. Horowitz views when it comes to Israel. Horowitz created an organization called Campus Watch group against what he calls Islamo-facisim. Islamofacists are anyone, student or a professor, Muslim or Christian, Arab or not whom does not share Mr. Horowitz nationalist support for Israel or dare to criticize its aggressive policies.

HANANIA: Gesture of tolerance in Oklahoma turns to hate, For Immediate Release, 10-26-07

Religious gesture of understanding turns into usual debate on hate
By Ray Hanania – An ethnic advisory commission set up by the Governor of Oklahoma printed copies of the Quran, the Islamic “bible,” had them embossed with the State Seal and offered to distribute them to the 149 members of that state’s legislature. After all, earlier in the year, Oklahoma lawmakers also were given free copies of the Bible by a non-government and religious organization called “The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.”  The organizers paid for the Quran’s using private, not government money. So why is there a controversy?

CARTOON: The Politics of Free Speech, Ahmadinejad at Columbia, For Immediate Release, 9-24-07

(Click to view full size) War on Errorism: The Politics of Free Speech, 9-24-07. By Ray Hanania. For more political cartoons, visit www.hanania.com/cartoons/cartoons.htm.