The mentality imbedded into Arab culture from decades
of decadent dictators ruthlessly ruling is that everyone wants to lead and
nobody wants to follow. Thus we have too
many chiefs and no warriors. It is the same with our American-Arab organizations.
Every organization wants to operate exclusively from the rest of any other
organization to the detriment of the American-Arab advancement.
This past two weeks the American-Arab community
missed a golden opportunity to confront bigotry and racism in the Newt Gingrich
and Lowes Corporation Islamophobia incidences. While
major American-Arab organizations each individually tried to “do something”
their efforts will be unsuccessful because each claps with one hand.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
has failed miserably to live by its mandate to fight discrimination. When Lowes pulled its ads from the TV show “All
American Muslim” because an insignificant organization called Florida Family
Association objected to a positive portrayal of Muslims in the US, ADC should
have taken immediate action. This
weekend, finally, ADC is trying to organize demonstrations in front of Lowes
stores across the country. Too little too late.
ADC should have rallied immediate widespread support across the country
to organize massive telephone calls to Lowes customer care center during this
Christmas gift giving season—effectively shutting down their telephone
operations. ADC needs a rapid response
action alert system whereby it can respond to acts of racism and discrimination
within hours. After 30 years of operation, it is absolutely amazing that ADC
does not have such a system. ADC should
use the electronic media in set up a rapid text messaging system to move the
young people to action.
Each American-Arab organization has a specific
purpose. As I stated, ADC’s mandate is
to fight discrimination. The American-Arab
Institute (AAI) headed by Jim Zogby and George Salem, has distinguished itself
as the leading organization in improving American-Arab participation in the
electoral process by increasing the number of voters (Yalla Vote), getting people to become involved in political
campaigns or assisting candidates to run for political office. The American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine
(AFRP) and other town based Palestinian organizations keep their members
together because of their loyalties to their specific town. Religious
organizations have a specific faith based membership. Political organizations who owe their
allegiance to a particular party or government in the Middle East have their
own agendas. Business organizations, who
can really benefit from a cohesive community, have not attempted to produce an
environment of cooperation.
What is common to all these organizations is a self interest
in promoting the American-Arab image. Everyone wants greater American-Arab
participation in the electoral process; wants to stop the discrimination and
the Islamophobia engulfing America; wants to promote family ties between members
of “hometowns” in the Middle East; wants to promote religious activities within
the community and wants a strong business community. Yet each organization acts so independently
that the greater good does not prevail and ironically, the interest of each
organization is thus marginalized.
ADC should reach out to AAI, AFRP and other cultural,
political and religious organizations to promote the common interest of
fighting discrimination and Islamophobia. AAI should reach out to ADC and these
other organizations and help promote participation in the American electoral
system. The AFRP and other organizations
should encourage its members to participate in ADC, AAI and others to promote
American-Arab causes.
The problem with these leading organizations is that
they operate in a mutually exclusive environment rather than a mutually inclusive environment. Each organization is doing whatever it does
with its own members rather than working together to get beneficial results
which benefit the entire community. In the final analysis, the result of each
organization is a dismal failure.
Thus when Lowes and Newt Gingrich took aim at the
American-Arab community, they did it knowing that the community does not have
the ability to fight back. This is
really sad.
It is time for American-Arabs to start telling its
organizations to start cooperating with each other. They owe it to each other,
they owe it to the American-Arab community.
( © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed. Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)
( © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed. Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)
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