Gauging outrage: Media and the aftermath of the Paris attacks
Relatives of journalist Halid Ahmed who died during the attack of Israel, mourn near his funeral on July 20, 2014.Appropriately, thousands of comics have been published in response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this month. One of the most striking ones I’ve seen so far depicts the gunmen as they fire at the magazine’s office;...Benjamin Netanyahu: The anti-American obstructionist
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of an invitation to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in March is an unacceptable interference in our domestic political arena and must be challenged. It is simply not enough for the White House to indicate that there will be no meeting between President Obama...Lessons that Hollande failed to learn from Bush’s blunders
Francois Hollande.Francois Hollande is not a popular president. No matter how hard the "socialist" leader tries to impress, there never seems to be a solid constituency that backs him. He attempted to mask his initial lack of experience in foreign affairs with a war in Mali, after his country enthusiastically took on Libya. While he...The Israeli strike against Hezbollah an act of aggression
When Israel killed five Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights on Sunday, Jan. 18, the Zionist state violated several international treaties, beating the drums of war in a region already suffering from violence and chaos. The Israeli attack, which also claimed the life of an Iranian general, was a deliberate,...On Black-Palestinian solidarity: Can we dream together?
Activist Steven Pargett and rapper Tef Poe in Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem.This week, a delegation of African-American activists returned from a 10-day trip to Palestine. Black organizers, artists, and journalists from organizations including the Florida-based Dream Defenders, Chicago’s Black Youth Project, and Ferguson’s...Are All Terrorists Muslims? It’s Not Even Close
What percentage of terror attacks in the United States and Europe are committed by Muslims? Guess. Nope. Guess again. And again...“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” How many times have you heard that one? Sure, we heard Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade say it, but to me, that was simply part of the Fox...The U.S. veto: A bad end to a bad year
The closing weeks of 2014 spelled disaster for U.S. leadership and the rule of law. During the last two weeks of December, the U.S. countered three different efforts designed to affirm Palestinian rights. It was unfortunate since in doing so the U.S. undercut its stated commitments to uphold the rule of law in international relations...Congress: Looking forward by looking back
With the 114th Congress just underway, the political world is focused intently on the road ahead. Taxes, trade, immigration, climate change, job creation, the Affordable Care Act, there’s a long list of issues and one burning question: whether a Republican Congress and a Democratic president can find common ground. Yet, before...Five reasons why 2014 was a game changer in Palestine
In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, surpassing the horrors of both 2008 and 2009, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority (PA), and the criminality of...Fighting terror with terror is futile
The 528-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture may come as a shock to many, but would not have surprised the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). In 1991 and again in 1995, fed up with his dealings with this agency, he introduced a bill for its abolition. Too much secrecy that amounted to a blanket...Is torture an American value?
The most recent chapter in America's sordid history with torture, the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA torture during the Bush Administration, reinforces what human rights organizations and frankly many people around the world already know about the U.S. government. Ours is a government that views...The Mockingjay of Palestine: “If we burn, you burn with us”
Raed Mu’anis was my best friend. The small scar on top of his left eyebrow was my doing at the age of five. I urged him to quit hanging on a rope where my mother was drying our laundry. He wouldn’t listen, so I threw a rock at him.I didn’t mean for the rock hit him, but it did. My father dragged to me to his house kicking and...Police should be on, not behind, cameras
Police body cameras are all the rage lately. Al Sharpton wants them used to monitor the activities of cops. Ann Coulter wants them used to “shut down” Al Sharpton. The White House wants them because, well, they’re a way to look both “tough on police violence” and “tough on crime” by spending $263 million on new law...What lies ahead in Congress
Given all the words and images devoted to the midterm elections over the past few weeks, you’d think the results had told us something vital about the future of the country. In reality, they were just a curtain-raiser. It’s the next few weeks and months that really matter.The big question, as the old Congress reconvenes and prepares...American justice failed Michael Brown
More than three months after Darren Wilson executed Michael Brown in broad daylight in Ferguson, the grand jury’s decision is in. No state prosecution, no justice from the state’s court system, for his crime. Wilson will never be tried, let alone convicted. But in the real justice system, this is not the end for Wilson — it’s......
Talk of a third intifada: Only Palestinians can decide
When a journalist tries to do a historian’s job, the outcome can be quite interesting. Using history as a side note in a brief news report or political analysis often does more harm than good. Now imagine if that journalist was not dependable to begin with, even more than it being “interesting”, the outcome runs the risk of...Changing how Michigan votes for president might render your vote meaningless
Voters beware—your vote for the president and the vice president – may become meaningless if the Legislature adopts a proposed bill that would change how Electoral College votes are allocated.The League of Women Voters of Dearborn – Dearborn Heights urges you to contact your legislator, opposing HB 5974, which would change the way...The age of TV clowns: Arab media on the brink
Tawfiq Okasha.As I was finalizing my research for this article, I found myself browsing through a heap of hilarious videos by mostly Egyptian TV show hosts Tawfiq Okasha and Amr Adeeb.In one of his numerous videos on YouTube, Okasha, the star and host of the Cairo-based privately funded al-Faraeen channel, tries to explain the...The new Fourth Estate
Because of its power to influence public affairs, the press has long been known as “the Fourth Estate.” But I think the media may have been displaced. These days, it’s lobbyists who seem to carry the most clout in Washington.Here’s a case in point. When Congress closed at the beginning of August for its end-of-summer recess, it......
Gitmo force-feeding manual reveals gruesome practices
Last week the U.S. government submitted to the District Court in Washington, D.C., the most recent standard operating procedures (SOPs) for force-feeding in the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. What remains of the documents, after redactions, is a shameful exercise in doublespeak that attempts to disguise what is really happening in...Some Chaldeans’ misconceptions about Muslims cannot be ignored
October 17th, 20140 Imam Sayyad Hassan Al Qazwini of Dearborn's Islamic Center of America shakes hands with Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim as Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako stands in the center.Being Chaldean and working as a reporter in Dearborn covering metro Detroit’s Arab and Muslim communities is not easy. It never has been. Over the years I......
Attention next attorney general: More justice wanted
Secret laws, secret courts, secret evidence, secret dragnet snooping, too big to fail, too big to jail… the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not been fully living up to its name.As Attorney General Eric Holder prepares to step down, it is time to look forward and ask what his replacement must bring to the table for our country. The...What if ‘Islamic State’ Didn’t Exist?
What if the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) didn’t exist? In order to answer this question, one has to liberate the argument from its geopolitical and ideological confines. Flexible language Many in the media (Western, Arab, etc) use the reference “Islamist” to brand any movement at all whether it be political,......