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"Issues in Arab America" was the well-chosen theme of the convention and the goal was to begin a serious dialogue on the multifarous challenges facing our community in order to develop workable solutions. Based on the good attendance at the panels, interaction, interest level and discussions with participants, we think the goal was met.
The twelve panels covered a broad range of topics: American media and the Arabs, political involvement, challenges to the Arab American community, Arab American youth, demographic and socioeconomic conditions of Arab Americans, cultural sources of prejudice and discrimination, the history of Arabs in America, issues of identity, health issues, power-taking and selfhood among Arab-American women writers, and assimilation and integration. All of the panels elicited lively and constructive discussion, with the pressing issue of the new anti-terrorism law ranking very high with audiences. In the discussion following the "Cultural Sources of Prejudice and Discrimination" panel, Abdeen Jabara, former president of both ADC and AAUG and one of their founders, noted from the audience that "interest group politics is a deadend street for Arab Americans." What Arab Americans need to do is get involved working with non-Arabs, he argued, "sensitizing the courts and media to Arab culture and its idiosyncracies." Other members of the audience and panelists agreed. Another issue raised from the floor soon after was that of division. A young woman pointed out that some "Arab Christians distinguish themselves as pro-America and see Muslim Arabs as people 'from over there'." While some Muslims are disdainful of Arab Christians as being perhaps too assimilated. What needs to be done, she said is: "all of them must recognize themselves as Arabs" not Arab Christians or Muslim Arabs, just Arabs.
The roster of panelists was excellent, a veritable who's who from a good cross section of Arab America. In addition, there was an open forum chaired and moderated by Hala Salaam Maksoud, president of ADC and AAUG board member, for Arab Americans to discuss any and all issues of concern. During a luncheon, an examination of Arab Americans' trail from vulnerability to empowerment was undertaken by lawyer, journalist, diplomat and professor Clovis Maksoud, who has served as senior editor of Egypt's major daily newspaper Al-Ahram, chief editor of Al-Nahar Weekly and the League of Arab States chief representative to the U.S. and UN. The convention's breakfast session, chaired by AAUG president Albert Mokhiber, dealt with the challenges of being an Arab in America, while James Abourezk, former South Dakota senator, delivered the keynote address "Arab Americans: Seeking an Identity in America" at the convention banquet. Four videos and a slide presentation of contemporary Arab-American art, both done with a forum, were also shown. A new video-documentary, Checkpoint examined the effects of the recent peace agreements on Palestinian lives. Benaat Chicago (Daughters of Chicago) explicitly addressed the stereotypes and racism toward Arabs and Arab women while showing what makes Arab Americans proud of their heritage via the documentation of Arab American girls age 12-18 growing up on Chicago's southwest side. Tales from Arab Detroit, winner of the American Anthropological Association's top film prize, visited the Arab American community there, employing mesmerizing imagery, humor and warmth to blend voices, poetry, song and dance into the everyday stories. Jerusalem: An Occupation Set in Stone showed the crucial importance of Jerusalem to Palestinians by looking at the issues of housing and residency rights in that city The convention was further enriched by a splendid evening concert of Arab music by virtuoso performer and composer Ali Jihad Racy, singer Ahmad El-Asmar and percussionist Souhael Kaspar. The group's mellifluous repertoire ranged from Sufi music, taqasims (instrumental improvisations) and muwashshah (a traditional vocal genre originating in al-Andalus) to mawwal (a vocal improv using love poetry in colloquial Arabic), Egyptian folk music and the 'ud classics of the great Farid al-Atrash. Racy was brilliant on all the instruments from buzuq (long-necked lute), 'ud and rababah (two-stringed spiked fiddle) to the mijwiz (double pipe reed played with circular breathing) and the salamiyyah (folk reed flute), while the crowd greatly enjoyed Asmar's wordplay and humor in the muwashshahs and mawwals and the masterful performance of Kaspar. |
Beneficiaries of our publisher's frequent flyer points,
Cafe Arabica ventured out October 18 from the Big Apple to Lala land
and on to the domain of Micky, Anaheim, where we attended AAUG's 29th annual
national convention. Given Disney's malign depiction of Arabs on the big
screen, it seemed fitting that the convention took place scant blocks from
Disney's doorstep.