Upcoming Events, Announcement & Obituaries

—Compiled by Matt Horton

Upcoming Events

The 38th Annual ACCESS Anniversary Dinner will held May 2 at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call (313) 842-7010 or visit <www.accesscommunity.org>.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s 40th Annual Collins Lecture will feature Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The lecture, entitled “Transformative Power of Reconciliation in Society,” will be held May 4 at the Chiles Center, University of Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR. For more information call (503) 221-1054 ext. 208 or visit <www.emooregon.org>.

Friends of Sabeel–Colorado will lead “Seeking Understanding in Israel/Palestine: A Two-Week Fact-Finding Trip” from May 16 to 30. For more information, call (303) 494-2338 or visit <www.fosna.org>.

“Celebrating Success,” the 4th Annual Arab American Professionals Network Banquet, will be held May 20 at the Greenfield Manor, 4770 Greenfield, Dearborn, MI 48126. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call the American Arab Chamber of Commerce at (313) 945-1700 or visit <www.americanarab.com>.

The Seventh Annual International Al-Awda Convention will be held May 22 to 24 in Anaheim, CA. For more information, or to register, call (760) 918-9441 or visit <http://al-awda.org>.

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Muslim American Society (MAS) 2009 Convention will be held May 23 to 25 at the Hartford Convention Center, 100 Columbus Blvd., Hartford, CT 06106. For more information, or to register, call (718) 658-1199 or visit <www.icna.org>.

“Colors of the Arab World” will be on view at the the Friends Gallery of the Pacific Southwest Regional Office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) at 634 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013, from June 11 to Nov. 13. A public opening and artists’ reception will take place June 11 as part of a monthly Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk. For more information, call (213) 489-1900 or visit <http://www.afsc.org/pacificsw/>.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Annual National Convention will be held June 12 to 14 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001. For more information, or to register, call (202) 244-2990 or visit <www.adc.org>.

The 14th Annual Dearborn Arab International Festival will be held June 19 to 21 on Warren Ave. in East Dearborn, MI. For more information call the American Arab Chamber of Commerce at (313) 945-1700 or visit <www.americanarab.com>.

Announcements

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation has announced The Russell Tribunal on Palestine. In the spirit of the important Russell Tribunal that addressed war crimes in Vietnam, the Tribunal on Palestine seeks to “mobilize the international public opinion so that the United Nations and Member States adopt the necessary measures to end the impunity of the Israeli State, and to reach a just and durable solution to this conflict.” Tribunal sessions are scheduled to begin in 2010. For more information, call +32-2-231-0174 or visit <www.russelltribunalonpalestine.net>.

Obituaries

Oliver Farrand Wallace, 83, died Feb. 27 at his home in Washington, DC of a heart attack. Born in Bethlehem, PA, he served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University, he accepted a job as chief engineer for the Navy Department in Philadelphia, then moved to Washington to work for the Veterans Administration. A member of the National Society of Black Engineers, Wallace worked for several engineering firms before starting his own company. He worked in Turkey, Japan, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, where he lived for 15 years and designed and built the heating and cooling systems for the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Riyadh and the Hajj Terminal in Mecca.

Jawed “JoJo Yazemi” Ahmad, 23, was killed by gunfire March 10 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, while driving near the governor’s palace. A native of southern Afghanistan, he was recruited as a translator by U.S. special forces in 2001, and later worked as a journalist for Canadian Television (CTV) and for the apocalyptically named U.S. military contractor, The Four Horsemen International Corporation. U.S. forces took Ahmad into custody in October 2007 and named him an “enemy combatant” in February 2008. He spent 11 months in custody, first at Kandahar Airfield and then at Baghram Air Base, before being granted access to a lawyer. While in custody, Ahmad and human rights groups say he was tortured. With the help of the International Justice Network (IJN), the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), the Stanford Law School’s Mills Legal Clinic, colleagues and friends, Ahmad was released on Sept. 21, 2008 without any charges filed or explanations given. He resumed working with CTV, and freelanced for Press TV. In the week before his death, Ahmad reportedly appealed for help from colleagues to obtain a Canadian visa.

Dr. Kamal Antoine “Anthony” Hanash died March 17 in McLean, VA. Born in Lebanon, he received his B.S. from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and his M.D. from AUB’s Faculty of Medicine in 1966. He received specialized training in urology from the Mayo Clinic’s Graduate School of Medicine, and in general surgery from the Metrohealth Medical Center. Hanash served at a variety of medical institutions, including recently as chairman of the Department of Urology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He helped the KFSHRC develop a urology partnership with the Glickman Urological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic as a member of the clinic’s international advisory board. An active member of the American College of Surgeons and the American Urological Association, Hanash published a number of scholarly articles, contributed 13 chapters to medical books, and authored five books. He was buried in Lebanon.