Arabs and Muslims in the West

Although the law in the United States prevents discrimination and outlaws bias between people concerning factors of color, race, sex, age and religion, practical application departs from the legal code in many cases connected to Arabs (Christians and Muslims of American nationality). Often, the bias is hidden behind the pretext of prosecution, which is difficult to demonstrate legally. Here are some examples:

This past December, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) put out a call to all its members informing them that a Yemeni group was able to put pressure on a building materials company to withdrawatheir advertisements on a television program about Muslim life in the city of Dearborn, Michigan, where the largest Arab immigrant community in the United States resides. This withdrawal of advertisements meant the end of the program, which represented the everyday life of Muslim citizens with truthfulness and honesty. The truth is that Arab and non-Arab citizens engaged in a wide campaign of condemnation and protest, and many protested in front of the company’s offices, which pulled its advertisements in response to a few individuals motivated by malice and hatred.

There are many cases of bias and antagonism against Arab and Islamic individuals and institutions fertilized and grown by the proclamations of politicians and their fundraisers in both the Republican and Democratic Parties; those who exploit the 9/11 assault on New York in order to create suspicions surrounding every Arab or Muslim. Furthermore, the current political climate, prior to the presidential elections, gives an opportunity to some of these politicians to appear ignorant and foolish about the Arab people, their history, culture and fundamental issues.

Stupidity has descended upon one of them in particular: a Republican candidate for the presidency and former member of Congress named Newt Gingrich. He said: “The Palestinians are a new ‘innovation’ without historical truth,” and “the Palestinians are nothing but ‘terrorists.'”* Indeed, we were stunned by these kinds of opinions coming from a man seeking to become a Republican president. Since the beginning, we believed that he was ignorant and obtuse, without an understanding of history and in need of education. Yet afterward, it is clear that there is more to the matter than ignorance and stupidity. For the newspaper the New York Times published (on January 10) long articles under the headline “the Giant Check,” which showed that an intimate and deep friendship ties Gingrich with two other individuals, both of whom are famous for their extremist opinions. The first is a rich American financier and Jewish billionaire with investment interests in Israel named Sheldon Adelson. The second is Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. The value of the last check donated by Adelson to the Gingrich election campaign was only $5 million! Therefore, the foolish sayings from Gingrich are nothing more than a debt of gratitude to those who drive and give direction to his foreign policy.

Examples are manifold of the antagonistic works and proclamations toward Muslim and Christian Arabs in the United States. The question is: Is it possible to change this climate? What can one possibly do to affect the desired change?

Without a doubt, the weakness of the Arab media and the lack of a competent source to respond add “insult to injury,” as the saying goes. It is true that there are various Arab and Islamic organizations, especially the ADC and the Committee of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as well as others.

Nevertheless, the activities, style and competency vary among these organizations. Likewise, the official Arab media — that is, what is represented by the Arab embassies — is very limited, and their effectiveness is limited to the narrow interests pertaining to each country. The inability to therefore set things straight, in addition to the scarcity of materials and support, weaken the influence of the Arab media in the United States.

And finally, it is not possible to underestimate the power of the influence of the extremist Israeli right, supported by the most powerful “lobby” in the American arena.

This lobby constantly seeks to feed animosity, distort the truth and transmit historical slander against Arabs and Muslims, a project appreciated by similar elements in American society. Therefore, neutrality is lost, and the fallacies are never-ending. That is, until the Arab nation is able to decisively and competently respond to the fallacies and slander that, in the West, distort everything Arab and Islamic.

*Editor’s note: These renditions of Gingrich’s remarks, although accurately translated, are imprecise. What Gingrich in fact said was 1) “I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community,” and 2) “Hamas does not admit the right of Israel to exist and says publicly not a single Jew will remain. The ambassador to India said last month there is no difference between Fatah and Hamas. Both agree Israel has no right to exist… These people are terrorists.”