The ADC and Arab-Americans

Arab-Americans have used organisations such as the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee to defend their civil liberties in the US and bring government attention to matters overseas [GALLO/GETTY]


Racism and Hostility Toward The Arab-American Community Cannot Be Addressed By Organisations With Dwindling Credibility.

By Hoda Mitwally and Yaman Salahi
Last Modified: 27 Jun 2011 13:41
Courtesy Of "Al-Jazeera"

Malek Jandali's "dis-invitation" from the annual convention of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) earlier this month raises questions about the organisation's ability to accurately claim that it represents the Arab-American community. It also highlights the dire need for the ADC to re-examine its longstanding ties to authoritarian Arab regimes, US law enforcement, and the Washington political elite.

Jandali is a renowned Syrian musician who had been set to perform his song, Watani Ana, ["I am my homeland"], at the group's annual convention. In the days leading up to the performance, ADC Chair Safa Rifka wrote Mr Jandali an email, warning him: "I just want to make sure that your stand on the issue of Syria will not be carried over to the convention."

Jandali rejected the condition, and Rifka personally ordered ADC staff to disinvite him.

Incensed by the incident, more than 700 Arab-Americans and allies signed a petition calling on Rifka to resign, citing his willingness to defend the Syrian regime - even as the death toll in that country rises above 1,300. The petition also called for the resignation of Ray Hanania, a Palestinian American ADC board member appointed by Rifka, who is notorious for his vile and obnoxious attacks on Palestine solidarity activists.

To date, the ADC has refused to take action and has offensively characterised the petition's authors and supporters as people who wish to undermine the organisation's work. To the contrary, we care deeply about Arab-American issues. We are concerned that the organisation has opted to dig in its heels, refusing to take the steps outlined in the petition - and instead possibly saving face by allowing Hanania's term to expire quietly, while leaving the issue of the organisation's dependency on Rifka's donations and leadership unaddressed.

Angering Arab-Americans

The ADC, however, can't dodge its critics by hoping that the storm will pass. If the uprisings in the Arab world are a lesson, once out in the open, dissent has a tendency to gain traction. The problem today, really, is not the singular egregiousness of the Syrian regime, but rather, the ADC's longstanding financial and political ties to many Arab regimes that do not tolerate human rights, let alone feminist, labour, or dissident organisations in the countries they govern. Such relationships have often disillusioned people who believe it is inconsistent to stand up for the rights of Arabs in the United States while simultaneously taking money from Arab governments and apologetically ignoring their violation of those rights.

To make matters worse, the ADC has also angered Arab-Americans because of its decision to cozy up with officials in the Bush administration - even as that government launched a full-fledged assault on our communities at home and our relatives abroad. In some cases, this discontent has led to the secession of local chapters that became independent regional groups; and in others, potential members were deterred from joining.

It is becoming increasingly the case that the ADC cannot claim to legitimately represent the Arab-American community. As an organisation, it can take a number of steps to remedy this problem.

First, it should immediately suspend all ties to Arab regimes and develop a plan to seek alternative sources of funding. If it wants to connect to Arab countries, it should connect to them through independent rights groups that are fighting for social justice, not illegitimate governments.

Second, it should commit to greater financial transparency. Many suspect that the organisation is dependent on the largess of a handful of individuals as well as foreign regimes, making it less accountable to the Arab-American community as a whole. We believe that the "need" for such a dependency is over-stated. The ADC should agree to an independent third-party audit and should publish details about its finances on its website.

Third, the ADC should adopt more democratic governance procedures. The election process for its directors is unclear because the by-laws are not accessible on the webpage and are otherwise difficult to procure. Few members know, for example, that they have the legal right to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the organisation's directors. The organisation should disclose its corporate governance documents so that the community can be more informed about how the organisation works and how they can effect change within it.

Unfair Policing and Harassment

Finally, and most importantly, the ADC should review its relationship with government agencies that have targeted and caused great harm to members of our community. ADC's job is to defend the rights of our community against government incursion, rather than cast itself as the government's ally in the pursuit of misguided policies. The infiltration of mosques, civic organisations, and community centres with informants and spies by federal law enforcement creates a climate of fear and divisiveness. In many cases, these federal agencies concoct terror plots and entrap otherwise innocent individuals in the process. The ADC's collaboration with such agencies only further promotes unfair policing and harassment of Arab-Americans while undermining our civil rights. The ADC should not give organisations like the FBI the benefit of association with the Arab-American community while such policies continue.

Overall, the ADC has failed to demonstrate that it knows how to design and execute effective political campaigns on behalf of our community in Washington. Despite the positive work by many ADC staff on a local and national level, including the publication of reports and the pursuit of impact litigation, the ADC has a poor record of political advocacy. It should know that its power in Washington can only rest on a healthy, thriving, and organised grassroots to bolster its work. While strong local organisations are the most important aspect of political advocacy, it is undeniable that some issues can be effectively addressed only on a national scale. Yet the ADC has not shown that it knows how to coordinate strong national campaigns, or even that it is capable of impacting the national political agenda and conversation in any way. The fact that, despite a considerable lack of resources, campus organisations have been better at impacting public discourse than the ADC over the past decade highlights the issue.

A Much Larger Problem

Many of the problems above arise out of the fact that the ADC's presence in Washington appears to be geared at schmoozing with the Washington political elite, not at developing strategic contacts and allies in government agencies that can later be utilised to pursue an affirmative agenda. For example, the ADC should be utilising its resources to pressure the Department of Justice to stop the grand jury investigation of 23 Arab-American and solidarity activists in the Midwest that threatens our First Amendment rights.

It should be reaching out to and filing Title VI complaints with the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education on behalf of student activists who have been harassed, silenced, and otherwise marginalised on campus due in part to their background and their Palestine solidarity and anti-war organising. It should be confronting the State Department about its failure to protect Americans who are planning a flotilla headed towards Gaza.

A group headquartered in Washington is better positioned to navigate such institutions than regional groups, though their support is essential. Surely such work would be more effective political advocacy that actually benefits the Arab-American community than political donations or the bestowal of useless honours and awards to officials at expensive galas.

It should be clear that the Malek Jandali episode was one symptom of a much larger problem that requires a change of direction at the ADC. We repeat our call to the Arab-American community to continue pressuring the ADC to better represent its interests; to date, the organisation has been dismissive of such calls. So long as the ADC continues to claim to speak on behalf of the Arab American community at large, despite the growing divide between the two, we call on community members and allies alike to recognise the difference. Racism and violent hostility toward the Arab-American community cannot be alleviated by organisations with dwindling credibility, moral and political. Now more than ever, Arab-Americans must reclaim the institutions that ought to safeguard our human and civil rights and liberties, and steer them in a direction that truly upholds our principles.

Hoda Mitwally is an Egyptian-American and a recent graduate of Rutgers University, where she was involved with Middle East solidarity organising.

Yaman Salahi is a third-year Syrian-American student at Yale Law School and a member of Students for Justice in Palestine.

For more details about the effort to reform the ADC, visit: http://reformadc.wordpress.com

A 'Teaching Moment' For Arab Americans?

Rather than marginalising one another even abroad, Arab Americans should take a page out of the revolutions sweeping the Arab world [CC - Matthew Dailey]


Arab Americans Should Look Beyond Their Differences and Come Together As Revolutionaries Of The Mideast Came Together.

By Khaled A. Beydoun
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2011 17:44
Courtesy Of "Al-Jazeera"

The revolutions sweeping through the Arab world and North Africa captured the world's attention.

Will the Arab and national Diasporas in the West mobilise to help their countries of origin through processes of reform?

Those of us who care about the futures of our homelands should work together, in solidarity with the young leaders spearheading progressive change in the region.

As an Egyptian American with family who marched into Tahrir Square and faced the force of police batons and gunfire, the revolution that commenced on January 25, 2011 had as much a personal slant as it did a political one.

This is true for many Americans, whose ancestral homelands are currently experiencing the sort of democratic awakening, or dawn, they believed impossible just several months ago.

Blaming The 'Other'

The United States is home to an eclectic and diverse population of Americans who are originally from the Arab world and North Africa – from as far east as Bahrain, and as westward as Mauritania.

Like the region they hail from, Americans from the Arab world are diverse and eclectic, but also disconnected and divided.

Those of us in the Americas, Europe and elsewhere share common narratives of displacement and struggles against the forces that drove us and our parents from the region.

The success of organic and popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the unfolding movements in Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya, and the call for reform in Sudan, Algeria, Saud Arabia, Palestine and other nations, represents a burgeoning spirit of cross-national affinity built upon a common call for reform.

Dictators holding on to a precarious brand of control have perpetuated regional disunity by blaming domestic uprisings on others, such as "meddling" Tunisians or Egyptians in the words of Libya's head, Muammar Gaddafi.

A Different Tale

The people on the ground are telling a different tale, one of solidarity and inter-regional linkages. A frequent symbol of this is the conjoining of different national flags – Tunisia or Egypt's usually – in protests and online forums.

The names of other countries' leaders, deposed or soon-to-be deposed, are used in chants and slogans to drive home the same point – the need for reform.

This new-found unity in purpose – the fight for peoples' rights – should not turn us blind to the diversity of the region.

The rich array of ethnic and religious communities makes calling these uprisings "Arab" or "Muslim" very difficult.

North African states boast indigenous Berber nations, who faced considerable persecution (particularly in Algeria), while Egypt is home to a vibrant Coptic community that has also endured considerable discrimination and violence before Mubarak was unseated, and after, sadly.

The Egyptian Muslims who rose up to protect their Coptic brothers and sisters in the face of attacks represent the type of solidarity we should all strive for.

Arab identity is also particularly contentious in Sudan and Lower Egypt, home to Nubian and African populations that preceded the incursion of Arabs.

Ethnic, religious and sectarianism is most pronounced in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, where an amalgam of peoples were consolidated after the introduction of the nation state into the region by western powers.

The remaining Arab nations cannot be classified as ethnically or religiously homogeneous, whether because of indigenous populations or the presence of large numbers of non-Arab guest workers.

Americans who hail from the Arab world and North Africa embody the region's heterogeneity. We have important differences in racial and ethnic ancestry, complexion, dialect, religion, and with regards to the latter, sectarian and confessional affiliation.

To speak of Americans from the Arab world and North African in singular terms may expedite social or political convenience, but it establishes a distorted image of these Diasporas as homogeneous and currently politically united. This representation is inaccurate.

Political Integration Undermined

A range of factors undermined the political integration, and unity, of these Diasporas.

First, the platform has been dominated by Arab Americans, specifically from the Levant countries and Egypt, who have prioritised their national concerns and marginalised the others. For example, while Palestine is a central cause, these revolutions expose the problems of Arab repression as well.

Second, one cannot overlook the latent role of racism, or a pigmentocracy that privileges those with lighter skin, as a dividing line. In the Middle East and North Africa, as with some other regions, a premium is put on those of lighter skin colour. This is retrograde and destructive, and has no place in modern thinking.

Third, religion is a critical factor: Christians from the region generally have an easier time assimilating, while their Muslim counterparts – particularly amid today's rising tide of Islamophobia – are being pushed toward America's societal fringes. At the same time, some Muslim political movements have unfairly treated the region's Christians as the enemy and the region as monolithically Muslim.

We have to move from this politics of difference to a unity of purpose. Today's movements for change should lead us.

If the diverse peoples of Tunisia and Egypt can organise across ethnic and religious lines to topple their repressive governments, then Americans who originate from the region can also come together politically to promote a more promising future in their adopted country.

Furthermore, the peoples' victories in Tunisia and Egypt have surely inspired the swelling movements throughout the region. There is a proliferating spirit of oneness among nations in the Arab World. Yet, some resist it.

Indeed, Lebanese-Americans should champion the cause of democratic reform in Sudan, and Egyptian Americans must be not turn a blind eye to the calls for change in Bahrain, and so forth.

A New DAWN

Americans from the Arab world should not only emulate that spirit of unity, but also actively work in order to further the interests of their brethren at home.

Those living in America can support the people back home by pushing for sustainable democracies and reform throughout their region of origin. Our organisation offers a venue for solidarity action.

The organisation I co-founded, Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN), will embrace our differences in identity for the sake of a higher goal – building better societies.

Our platform avoids the divisions that have held back the countries and the region's people from working together. It embraces the spirit of the reformers on the region's streets.

DAWN aims to bring together leaders from the various Diaspora communities in the United States, and provide them with a broader audience to address their respective nation's crisis or domestic concerns. In addition, we hope to translate experiential parallels into lasting bonds, where Lebanese, Sudanese, and Tunisian Americans, for instance, can speak to the media, Congress, and other venues of influence with a common chorus, instead of disjointed and less organised solo positions.

We are not Arabist, nor religionist, nor do we prioritise the need for reform in one country against the other. We could be said to be proceduralist.

Our main goal is supporting the processes of reforms in the region so that governments better represent all the peoples' in their borders, from the country's natives, to refugees and guest workers.

Governments that rule by repression and demagoguery have no right to rule – and our objective is to galvanise our Diasporas under this common banner.

Those in the Diasporas of all stripes, hues and political positions who trace their ancestry back to the region, should follow the lead of the reformers back home.

By working together, we can overcome the divisions and the top-down political structures and ideologies that have kept us all down, and promote a new dawn for the region – and our communities in the United States.

Khaled Beydoun is an attorney and co-founder of Democracy in the Arab World Now.