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Blog — Posted by Omar Tewfik
Tuesday June 12, 2012
AAI Board Member and pollster John Zogby delivered an important message on the role of young voters in the American political process. Zogby is starting to make the media rounds ahead of the election, highlighting the important constituencies that will define the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The race is already shaping up to be highly contentious, and if national attitudes toward Romney and Obama remain the same throughout the race, the two will battle it out neck-and-neck in a near-dead heat. With numbers so tight, every vote will count. Read More »
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Wednesday June 06, 2012
Arab Americans came out in large numbers for yesterday’s Democratic primary between veteran Congressmen Bill Pascrell and Steve Rothman. The newly redrawn 9th District of New Jersey pitted the two candidates against each other, with Arab Americans rallying in support of Bill Pascrell. For years Pascrell has courted and made friends of the Arab American community, and in this highly contentious election was paid back in the form of high Arab American voter turnout in his favor. Read More »
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Tuesday June 05, 2012
Sometime between the beginning and end of their busy schedules today, residents of New Jersey's newly-drawn 9th congressional district will cast their ballots for one of two candidates in the Democratic primary. Arab Americans in the district, including residents of Clifton, Paterson and Passaic counties, will do their civic duty as well. Many of them, however, are unaware of an attempt to question the motives for their political participation in the primary. Arab Americans in NJ-9 are mobilizing for this election and are throwing overwhelming support behind Bill Pascrell, a candidate they’ve known and respected for years. Read More »
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Friday June 01, 2012
When President Obama first came into office he promised this country that some fundamental and drastic changes would take place. He also promised the same scope of change in his Cairo speech to Arabs and Muslims across the globe, and because of the unprecedented gesture, people believed him. Today Arabs and Muslims, especially those in the Middle East, are still waiting for that fundamental change to come. Read More »
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Tuesday May 29, 2012
Mitt Romney is proving, once again, to be the political shape-shifter he is often accused of being. Throughout the race for the nomination, which is likely to end today in Texas, Romney positioned himself as the most electable candidate, and the most “presidential.” He refrained from pandering to some of the popular issues other candidates pounced on, playing to the passions of their base constituents. In New Hampshire and Iowa, Romney struck down attempts by supporters to seek validation of their anti-Muslim, bigoted viewpoints. Read More »
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Thursday May 24, 2012
The Israeli army is known for its harsh treatment of Palestinians on a daily basis, and we have countless examples of the crimes committed under occupation. But in many cases, Israeli settler violence, an underreported and increasingly frequent phenomenon, goes unnoticed and unreported. Yesterday in Reuters, an article drew some attention to what human rights and advocacy groups like B'Tselem have been saying for some time: the Israeli Army is losing more and more control over heavily-armed settlers in the occupied territories. Read More »
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Tuesday May 22, 2012
Today the New America Foundation hosted an informative discussion on the use of infiltration and surveillance by law enforcement in preventing homegrown terrorist attacks. The discussion primarily focused on the New York Police Department, and the efficacy of the vast counterterrorism unit which has drawn criticism since the Associated Press revealed that the NYPD was spying on American Muslims and Arab Americans. Read More »
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Monday May 14, 2012
The most effective way to dispel misconceptions, break down barriers and expose injustices facing any community or group of people is to tell individual, real life stories - stories of sacrifice, hardship and triumph. And that is precisely what a young group of filmmakers are trying to do with their new and inspiring film, “Adeela.” Read More »
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Thursday May 10, 2012
by Omar Baddar and Omar Tewfik
Today, Spencer Ackerman and his colleague at Wired Noah Shachtman released the contents of a recently-terminated DoD training course for senior military officers. The course, entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism,” was terminated late last month by General Martin Dempsey, Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. As expected, the outrageous materials released today show exactly why the course was shut down. Read More »
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Thursday May 03, 2012
Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert has yet again displayed his creative ability to completely flip an issue to reflect a viewpoint directly counter to conventional wisdom or reason. Yesterday, an article in The Washington Examiner gave us a glimpse of what Congressman Gohmert is likely to focus on when the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security – Gohmert is Vice Chair –hears testimony from FBI director Robert Mueller. As the article alluded, Gohmert will likely express concern that criticism in the wake of the months-long controversy involving the FBI’s use of bigoted anti-Muslim and anti-Arab training materials may be leading the FBI to overcompensate and appease critics , which Gohmert believes will compromise the FBI’s ability to effectively fight terrorism. Read More »
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Monday April 30, 2012
Despite repeated attempts to incite a media frenzy surrounding their “Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference” in Dearborn, Michigan this Sunday, the Islamophobes did not succeed this weekend in garnering the press attention they wanted, and now they are crying about it. On her website, Pamela Geller, the conference’s main organizer, vents about her event’s lack of media coverage: “There is something fundamentally broken in our culture. Imagine a society that extols the supremacist tyranny of the sharia while smearing and defaming human rights activists fighting for freedom and individual rights over gencdercide [sic] and gender apartheid.” Read More »
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Tuesday April 24, 2012
Last Friday, several New York news outlets reported that John Brennan, President Obama’s top National Security Advisor, praised NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly for striking an appropriate balance “between our security and our freedoms and our rights as citizens.” These comments engendered a storm of criticism from American Muslim and Arab American groups who contend that such remarks put the White House “seal of approval” on the NYPD's controversial policing and surveillance program. Pulitzer Prize-winning AP reports have revealed that the NYPD has been spying on American Muslims and Arab Americans without criminal predicate. Read More »
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Wednesday April 11, 2012
The Arab American Institute Foundation (AAIF) will present the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with the Award for Institutional Excellence at the 2012 Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards Gala in Washington, DC. AAIF is bestowing the award on SPLC for its tireless efforts and accomplishments in building a society where mutual respect and understanding exists across racial, ethnic, political, and religious lines. Read More »
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Monday April 09, 2012
For as long as they have been around, the Muslims are Coming! Comedy Tour has been trying to supplant our traditional Gibran Awards ceremony with a Sharia-compliant program. This year they have finally infiltrated the Gala. But seriously, the comedy tour will receive a Special Recognition Award at this year’s Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards Gala for their use of comedy to break down cultural barriers and for their efforts to dispel misconceptions about Muslims and Arabs throughout the country. Read More »
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Thursday April 05, 2012
This year, the Arab American Institute Foundation’s (AAIF) Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards Gala features a number of exceptional awardees. Receiving the Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service is Ambassador Theodore H. Kattouf, president and CEO of AMIDEAST. Since 1972 Ambassador Kattouf, a former U.S. Ambassador to the UAE and Syria, has led a distinguished Foreign Service career, serving throughout the Middle East, including posts in Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Read More »
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Wednesday April 04, 2012
The FBI and the DOJ have placed themselves in a tough position. Currently they sit isolated somewhere between a disappointed American Muslim and Arab American community and a contingent of powerful Senators who want answers. The FBI's training division and subsequently the DOJ have come under intense scrutiny since September 2011 in the wake of revelations that FBI agents were taught blatantly false and bigoted things about Muslims and Arabs as part of their counter-terrorism training. Read More »
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Wednesday March 14, 2012
AAI has launched a web-based Arab opinion poll section featuring data from the past ten years on a range of issues. Among the polling data released today are numbers showing the Syrian regime is facing increased regional isolation and that Bashar al-Assad's favorable ratings are at an all time low.
Read More »
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Wednesday March 07, 2012
With exception of Ron Paul, the GOP presidential candidates all spoke at the AIPAC policy conference yesterday. All of the three candidates delivered a similar message on Iran, taking the opportunity to hit out at president Obama's policies. Iran's nuclear program was the clear focus of the conference, overshadowing any other issue, including the peace process, by far. Despite similar messaging on Iran, the candidate speeches each have their own unique takeaways. I've outlined the ones I thought were the most important in this post. Read More »
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Monday March 05, 2012
You know there is something wrong when a lawmaker, who is commonly praised for his unwavering commitment to uphold Constitutional values, is also labeled the most “contrarian” member of his political party. Representative Justin Amash, a Republican from Michigan, is a Member of Congress that has a tendency to vote out of sync with his party more than most other Republican Members. Amash is not a secret Democrat or a moderate – far from it. Read More »
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Monday February 27, 2012
DEARBORN, Michigan – February 27, 2012 – Michigan’s Arab American Republican leadership has endorsed Congressman Ron Paul for President today ahead of the State’s Republican Primary election. Congressman Paul will join Arab American community representatives from Southeast Michigan, including Detroit, Dearborn, Southfield, Warren and Ann Arbor to accept the endorsement. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 4:13 pm / / Leave a comment
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
