Press Room

AAI in the News

Presidential Candidates Court Arab-Americans

By Mike Martindale
The Detroit News
Posted on Sunday October 19, 2003

Dearborn event shapes agenda for ‘04 election

DEARBORN—Arab-Americans attending a three-day conference want to exert their influence in picking the next U.S. president and educate Arab-Americans and others about their post-911 concerns, such as being unfairly targeted as terrorists.

More than 400 participants, half from outside Michigan, registered for the second day of the “Vote 2004: An Agenda for Peace and Justice” conference at the Holiday Inn Fairlane. For many attendees, like Maya Berry of Dearborn, the conference was a success for the Arab-American community before it even began.

“There was a time when these candidates wouldn’t even return a questionnaire,” said Berry, a consultant and lobbyist who works on Capitol Hill. “Now we have nine of 10 presidential candidates taking time to talk to us. We don’t have to elbow our way to the table anymore. We’re there.”

Berry and others said issues being raised by Arab-Americans like the Israel-Palestine conflict, the reduction of civil liberties of Arab-Americans in the United States, immigration and U.S.-Arab relations are of importance to all Americans.

The conference concludes today.

Those at Saturday’s events attended workshops and panels on civil liberties and other issues and heard two presidential candidates, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Carol Moseley Braun, a former U.S. senator from Illinois. Six other Democratic presidential hopefuls visited in person or by satellite transmission on Friday.

Dean spoke for about 40 minutes Saturday, saying he supported a two-state solution in the Middle East, with Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side. He also touched on jobs, health care, the economy and Arab-American issues and received three standing ovations.

“He (Dean) did his homework,” said Nasser Beydoun, 40, of Dearborn, who voted for President Bush in 2000. “I expect he won some votes here today.”

Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, who spoke Saturday evening, called for a rollback of all tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration.

Earlier in the day, other conference speakers, such as Georgetown professor and author David Cole, criticized the Patriot Act for undercutting rights of all citizens, especially Arab-Americans. Cole told attendees the U.S. war on terrorism has a double standard—one for American citizens and another for Arab-Americans, who unfairly have been targeted by government agencies.

“Over 5,000 foreign nationals have been detained, with only four being criminally charged with anything and two of them eventually acquitted,” said Cole, noting the detention was the largest of a foreign-born U.S. population since Japanese-Americans were detained in camps during World War II.

“Targeting foreign nationals is always a precursor to what a government will do to its other citizens,” he said.

The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, noted that other Americans have similar concerns.

“We may have come over here in different boats, but we’re all in the same boat now,” said Anthony, on a civil liberties panel. “African-Americans have felt like foreign nationals since 1619.”

Candidates who appeared did not focus solely on civil liberties, but some seemed more sensitive and informed than others, said Manal Broeckelmann of Sugar Land, Texas, a Houston suburb.

“I’m here because I want to learn how to educate other Arab-Americans and our own government about what we and Islam are all about,” Broeckelmann said. “There’s a lot of ignorance, such as in law enforcement, that because you are Muslim, then you must be a terrorist, or that all Arab-Americans are also Muslim.

“The stereotyping gets worse each day,” she said. “It’s as crazy as saying that some people who were once in the KKK used to read the Bible so they must have read something in the Bible which made them act the way they did. Well, I’ve never read anything in the Koran about killing yourself or other people, but some people think that’s what it teaches.”

Beydoun said that Democratic candidates would try to woo the Arab-American vote is only natural.

“It’s hard to be a Republican these days in the Arab-American community,” he said. “These candidates are paying attention and listening to the community and coming here because Michigan is also a critical stop for them.”

Beydoun noted how the Michigan primary falls in March right after primaries in New Hampshire and Iowa, and the Democratic candidate likely will have been identified by then.

“This is a very important juncture in American history,” Beydoun said. “We have a lot of work to do in making America a beacon of hope for the world and not a symbol of arrogance.”

Neal Abed, a 45-year-old landscape company owner from Orlando, Fla., said he has concerns about the future of the United States. His father immigrated in 1920 and served during World War II. Abed was moved back to the Palestinian territories in 1966 when he was 8 years old and then returned to the United States 13 years later.

“What makes a country so great is its values,” Abed said. “People come here because of our values. If you lose them, then what do you have?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.