Arab Writers Group Syndicate

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Orthodox Easter comes amid persecution of MidEast Christians
By Ray Hanania – The only time anyone really thinks about Arab Christians is when they are needed as political pawns in a larger battle. Israel and its extremist supporters often assert that Arab Christians are persecuted by Muslims, but make no mention of the fact that Israel itself is the primary cause of anti-Christian Arab persecution. Muslims assert that “Christians and Muslims are equal” in the Middle East, but discourage any open discussion of strains that exist for Christians in the Islamic World. And the mainstream American news media often ignores or glosses over Arab Christian issues, feeding American ignorance and stereotypes of Arab Christians. Few address the reality. Read more »

Muslim-Catholic rivalry mixes Apples and Oranges
By Ray Hanania – When it comes to Muslims and Catholics, you might wonder which is the Apple and which is the Orange. No matter how you address the issue of the number of Catholics versus the number of Muslims in the world, someone will always complain. But the reality is the debate is really a hot-potato, a distraction from the reality and intended to feed to growing animosity between Islam and the West. Read more »

Networking to promote our many great Arab American authors
By Ray Hanania – While everyone argues about whether or not America is consumed with racism in the debate over comments made by Barack Obama’s pastor Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., few have paid attention to the discrimination that constantly challenges Arab Americans.  Everyday on television, in the mainstream news media, on radio, in Hollywood movies and in the powerful publishing industry in New York — a network that represents the most formidable communications system in the world, Arab Americans are discriminated. Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have the ability to confront that racism on their own. Read more »

Don’t let violence prevent push for peace
Ray Hanania – If there is one certainty in the Middle East, it is violence. When the Arabs and Israelis have been at war, and when they have been at the peace table, violence takes place. The goal of the violence is to prevent a peaceful compromise because the extremists believe that if they can prevent compromise, they have protected their extremist belief that they can have it all to themselves. Read more »

Hillary Clinton and anti-Muslim racism
By Ali Alarabi — I must say that when I heard the national media repeatedly playing out the words of Ohio talk show host, Bill Cunningham — emphasizing the name of Hussein in Obama’s name — not only was Cunningham coming across as an anti Muslim, bigoted racist, but the national media seemed to be applauding him by playing over and over again like a broken record. It is not a good feeling, to say the least, to think the media had become complicit in spreading hatred and racial discrimination simply because someone has a “Muslim” middle name. I also  take it that  Muslims with an obvious Muslim first or last names are viewed as suspects. Read more »

And What if Obama is?
By Mohamed Mughal – It seems that e-mail has become a negative campaigning tool in the 2008 Democratic primaries.  Voters from Iowa on have received messages suggesting Barack Obama is a Muslim.  And poor Senator Obama - he’s forced into a corner, having to publicly profess his reverence for Jesus Christ before hoards of supporters.

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Arab Americans should expand focus in presidential elections
By Ray Hanania – Once again, Arab American voters are in an election dilemma, stuck between a rock and a hard place as they contemplate whom to support in the presidential elections. Should they follow the lead of other American voters and support the candidates most likely to win the presidential nominations, Democrats Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, or Republicans Mike Huckabee or John McCain? Or, should they follow their conscience, confused by candidates’ doubletalk on the Middle East, and vote for candidates who reflect their views but can’t win? In reality, it doesn’t matter. The Arab American vote is not a vote that will change national elections. But it can be a vote that changes Arab American politics and community dynamics. Read more »

Americans howl about injustice of others, but not their own
By Ray Hanania — The way Americans have been howling about the outrageous punishment of a Saudi Arabian woman who was gang raped and sentenced to 200 lashes, you would think that they care about how Arabs and Muslims are treated. Even President Bush expressed his anger when asked about the case. But the reality is that neither President Bush nor most Americans really care about the Saudi woman, nor do they care about her lawyer who is also being punished for defending her In reality, Americans do not really care about the fate of the young girl. The fact is the punishment is outrageous by American standards, although her rapists were all convicted and sentenced to jail time, too. For Americans, the girl only symbolizes an opportunity to bash Arabs and Muslims. They could care less about justice. How do I know that? Because right here in America are injustices that tower above the case of the Saudi girl, and they don’t care. Read more »

Hamas violence in Gaza justifies harsh PNA response

By Ray Hanania – Too many apologists for the Hamas terrorist organization have tried to assert that the Islamicist organization is a product of Democracy that is seeking to democratically represent the Palestinian people and salvage them from years of Israeli oppression. They argue that because the group won one election, it therefore is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. But the truth is Hamas is not a Democracy at all, but a religious dictatorship. It used the last elections to destroy secular Palestinian society and replace it with a fundamentalist bastardization of Islam. Read more »