Wednesday September 26, 2012
By Jennine Vari
Yesterday was National Voter Registration Day and AAI was out and about in Farragut Square and Georgetown as part of its Yalla Vote campaign to mobilize and educate voters. The Arab American Institute, in coordination with NNAAC and almost 250 other organizations around the country, spent the day registering new voters and helping people update their registration information. Read More »
Wednesday September 26, 2012
Tomorrow, Thursday, September 27, AAI will release the findings of a poll conducted in September of 2012 on how Arab Americans will vote in November. The results will be made public at a briefing tomorrow in our offices in Washington. AAI is releasing the results of the poll in addition to the results of similar surveys conducted over the past decade on Arab American voting tendencies. Read More »
Wednesday September 26, 2012
By Jennine Vari
This week is the second annual DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival. While most of the films are serious and political, Saturday ends on a different note with FouseyTube. Read More »
Monday September 24, 2012
By Vieshnavi Rattehalli
The second annual DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival (DC-PFAF) begins tonight, Monday, September 24, 2012 and will run until Saturday, September 29th at various locations in the DC metropolitan area. This year’s festival includes both full feature-length films and shorts from several genres including comedies, dramas and documentaries. Several of the films will be followed by panel discussions with the filmmakers (directors or actors) and other events include live music performances, poetry, and visual arts exhibits. Read More »
Monday September 24, 2012
By Vieshnavi Rattehalli
Staff Sgt. Nur recognizes that a lack of education fuels the anger and misperceptions on both sides of the rift: Even among her rather well-educated colleagues in the military where she feels discrimination is less pervasive than in the civilian world, she hears the occasional less-than-sensitive comments. Nur feels that these comments are fueled by anger at the terrorists, rather than at a blanket hatred of all Arabs or Muslims. Read More »
Monday September 24, 2012
By Emily Jabareen
As the Syrian revolution continues to break with and shatter social and political norms, artistic expressions that do not follow the trend are slowly being washed away. Read More »
Monday September 24, 2012
The most creative responses to this ad campaign, however, have emerged through Twitter, where opponents of bigotry and advocates of tolerance are using the hashtag #MySubwayAd to promote their alternative texts for what they would like to see posted in the subway system. Follow the hashtag for some funny commentary and some inspiring pronouncements. Also, if you want to do your own versions of "In any war between X and X, support X. Support X. Defeat X" (fill in the blanks), be sure to tweet them at us! We'll be retweeting the most creative lines. Read More »
Friday September 21, 2012
By Emily Jabareen
The recent attack on the Islamic Center (mosque) of the Shenandoah Valley, VA, garnered little media attention. The Associated Press reported on the incident the day of its occurrence, September 15th, just a few days after the bewildering and sudden outburst of violence that unfolded in Benghazi, Libya. Read More »
Friday September 21, 2012
In his original 70-page ruling upholding Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, Simpson cited a legal precedent from 1869 that actually advocated implementing a discriminatory registration process— in order to avoid placing “the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar hordes of our large cities, on a level with the virtuous and good man.” Read More »
Thursday September 20, 2012
By Jennine Vari
During a discussion following the film, activist Moriel Rothman was asked about the success of the Solidarity movement. He responded that even though the movement has not been able to return Palestinians to their homes, the outcome in Sheikh Jarrah has not been a failure. He calls it an “invisible success” because they have at least been able to temporarily stop the forced evictions. Wingert-Jabi and the whole production team inject a personal element into this aspect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but there is a still a long way to go. “We just want our country back,” said Mohammad, “We just want to live our lives.” Read More »
Thursday September 20, 2012
This week, some civil rights activists have organized rallies and protests around the state, while others are manning hotlines to advise people of their rights if they’re questioned. A Department of Justice hotline, established in June 2012, continues to operate in the state. Civil liberties advocates like Leticia Ramirez are suggesting that legal immigrants provide only their name and date of birth — but no documents showing their place of birth — in protest of the law. Read More »
Thursday September 20, 2012
Yesterday, The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing entitled “Hate Crimes and the Threat of Domestic Extremism.” Attendance at the hearing and the number of organizations submitting written testimony for the record were quite large, displaying a heartening level of solidarity with communities affected by hate crimes. AAI took an active role in the effort to urge for this hearing in the wake of recent attacks on places of worship across the country. Read More »
Thursday September 20, 2012
By Jennine Vari
Pennsylvania is not only a key state in November’s elections; it also has the 10th largest Arab American population in the country, with 60,870 people. If the Commonwealth Court reaches the decision next month that the state is doing enough to implement the law, there could be thousands of registered voters left out in the cold this November. Read More »
Thursday September 20, 2012
But this is not just about Romney being out-of-step with his own country and party on this issue, it's also about him having gotten things backwards. This attitude of unthinkingly going along with Israel’s objections to Palestinian self-determination is not the outcome of this conflict being unsolvable; it is precisely what will keep this conflict from being solved. Read More »
Tuesday September 18, 2012
AAI president James Zogby appeared on Andrea Mitchell Reports today to discuss anti-U.S. protests unfolding in several Arab and Muslim countries throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Now in their second week, the inability and perceived unwillingness to deal with protestors and calm public sentiment in several countries have cast doubt about the future relationships of the U.S. and many of its key allies like Egypt. Read More »
Tuesday September 18, 2012
The Arab American Institute (AAI) and the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) have adopted a logo for National Voter Registration Day on September 25. The Logo, designed by Nabil Ahmed Khatri, a high school student from Queens, New York with his own graphic design business, will be worn by thousands of Arab American volunteers across a number of states participating in efforts to register voters for the upcoming November elections. Read More »
Monday September 17, 2012
As for the anti-American sentiment that does exist in the Middle East, it has just as much to do with “their culture” and “our freedom” as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim views here in the U.S. have to do with “our religion” and “their falafel and hummus.” Just as hate here builds when the bigots exploit tragedies like 9/11 to foment the anti-Arab/Muslim sentiments, hate there builds when fanatics exploit a wide range of terrible American policies to promote anti-Americanism. Read More »
Monday September 17, 2012
On September 19, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to convene a hearing on hate crimes and domestic extremism. While the hearing has been spurred, in part, by the recent tragedy in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, it will seek to elevate the concerns surrounding hate crimes and domestic extremism that all communities and Americans face in this country. Read More »
Monday September 17, 2012
By Vieshnavi Rattehalli
Flying Paper is a documentary film following the story of Palestinian youth in Gaza who embark on a quest to break the Guinness World Record for the most kites ever flown at once. Read More »
Friday September 14, 2012
The good news: U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest dealt a severe blow to the practice of indefinite detention by deciding to make her injunction permanent. The bad news: the House has voted to reauthorize warrantless wiretapping for another five years. Read More »
#NC lawmaker equates Islamic prayer w/ terror http://t.co/G9sp1NeLC1 @mostrolenk @aaiusa h/t @ozzyformayor
about 7 hours, 50 minutes ago.
Latest poll to be released Friday finds Americans are divided on continuing aid to #Egypt: http://t.co/1spZM1m9d2
about 10 hours, 31 minutes ago.
RT @MaiE_89: In the 1990’s, #Egypt had a 60% favorable rating among Americans, while today only 36% of US views the country positively via @AAIUSA
about 10 hours, 34 minutes ago.
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013President Obama got it just about perfect in his Jerusalem speech when he urged Israelis to see the world through the eyes of Palestinians. That portion of his remarks was so compelling it deserves to be quoted in full: Read More »
Air Date: 5/31/2012
Fellows from Syracuse University’s “Leaders for Democracy Fellowship Program (LDF); Bill Press, Host of the “Bill Press Show” and author of the new book, The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President---and Who Is Behind Them. Read More »
The story of Arab Americans coming of age as an organized community is a classic American tale of immigrants seeking opportunity, benefiting from America’s freedoms, but also experiencing, at times, the dark side of exclusion and discrimination that has so often been a part of our nation’s history. Read More »
Apr 16 2013
Apr 27 2013
Jul 19 2013
