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An occasional column by Nigel Parry for Middle East International magazine.
An excellent list of links to Arab-American organisations and websites can be found at Leb.Net at http://www.leb.net/, and the remainder of this column focuses on just a small, representative sample of these resources.
From the not inconsiderable list of websites focused on international issues of Arab-American concern, The American Committee on Jerusalem (ACJ) at http://www.acj.org/ is the Internet base of a coalition of all the major Arab American organisations, formed to present a consensus and unified voice on the issue of Jerusalem in the United States. The ACJ is "working to present the American public and policy makers with a vision for the future of Jerusalem based on addressing the attachments of the three monotheistic faiths... to Jerusalem, as well as the political aspirations of the two peoples who regard the city as their capital, Palestinians and Israelis." The ACJ website is divided into sections offering fact sheets in the "educational kit" section, as well as information on settlements, breaking news, an archive about "ACJ in the press", and abstracts from publications by notable Arab-American academics and others, including Walid Khalidi and Faisel Husseini. Existing material is informative, including links to relevant articles from a variety of sources.
The national Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee offers a well-maintained website at http://www.adc.org/, presenting a variety of current news links with a domestic focus of interest to Arab Americans. With action alerts covering issues ranging from the continuing political threat of the US moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem to the portrayal of Arabs in the recent Universal Pictures release, "The Mummy", the fifty plus ADC chapters spread across America are clearly busy fulfilling their mission of "defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage".
With 243 attourneys on its referral list, the ADC is no small force to be reckoned with in cases of racial discrimination. On May 11, a jury found in favour of former United Airlines employee Ahmad Abu-Aziz, whose manager "knowingly used false accusations of misconduct to terminate him". Abu Aziz experienced racial harassment during four weeks spent cleaning airplane interiors at Oakland International Airport for United, including from one flight attendant who told him in front of his co-workers that he "looked like a terrorist."
After complaining to his supervisors of harassment the ridicule abated but six weeks later Abu Aziz was fired in retaliation . During the trial Abu Aziz testified that his supervisor had ridiculed his name upon their first meeting and ordered him to clean airplane lavatories with his hands rather than a brush. The jury awarded Abu Aziz damages of just under $3 million.
The locally-based Arab American Action Network at http://www.aaan.org/ is a good example of a Arab American community self help group, "committed to empowerment through advocacy, action and education, while expanding the resources and services available to our community." Focused on social service with work for social change and justice in the United States and Middle East, the AAAN offers a variety of statements related to this goal and, most interestingly, a 1998 report and first ever needs assessment of the Arab American community concentrated in the southwest side of Chicago.
The report shows that of the estimated 150,000 Arabs in the Chicago Metropolitan area, 57 percent are Palestinian, 20 percent are Jordanian, as well as Egyptians [7%], Iraqis [4%, excluding Assyrians], Syrians [3%], Lebanese [2.6%] and Yemenis [2%]. Some 65,000 Assyrians also live in the Chicago area. Half of the Arab population of Chicago were born in the US and around half are under 19 years of age. The AAAN's needs assessment survey found that sixty percent of the Arabs resident in the southwest side of Chicago were found to be "economically vulnerable".
Cafe Arabica, the "Online Arab American Community Center" can be found at http://www.cafearabica.com/ and offers a central hub for a diverse assortment of information about jobs, news, opinion articles, politics, cultural activities, and other affairs of interest to Arab Americans. A very lively selection of discussion boards is themed into art, music, social issues, domestic US politics, international politics, travel, sports, computers and humour. This section is very much a free-for-all, so don't expect it to be any more civilised or informative than anywhere else on the Internet. Having said that, the boards are worth a read to get a sense of the community, as most of those posting appear to be Arab Americans.
Finally, if you want to meet Arab-Americans in a more direct way on the Internet, many can be found chatting away on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers - #palestine and #lebanon are two busy channels - often with friends and relatives 'back home' in the Arab World. One of the most popular used IRC software programmes used worldwide is called mIRC, interestingly the creation of Khaled Mardam-Bey, a Londoner of Syrian/Palestinian descent. The 1999 Windows version of mIRC 5.51 is available at http://www.mirc.co.uk/
by Nigel Parry
4 June 1999
MEI 601