Islam Highlighted at City College of San Francisco Professional Development Program

By Elaine Pasquini

“Islam: Myth and Reality” was one of several diversity-focused workshops held at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) during its Spring Professional Development Program on Jan. 14. Workshop moderator was Abdul Jabbar, CCSF English and Interdisciplinary Studies Department instructor, and speakers included fellow interdisciplinary studies instructor Javaid Sayed and Amatullah al-Marwani, community relations director for the Islamic Society of San Francisco.

Al-Marwani, who converted to Islam in 1996, addressed the often-misunderstood issue of Muslim women. According to teachings in the Qur’an, she explained, women have, among other rights, the right to vote, to own and/or inherit properties and businesses, and to be educated.

Sayed told the audience that the tragedy of Sept. 11 was not related to Islam. “The greatest myth is that Islam is spread by the sword,” he said. “This myth can be killed by knowledge, understanding and education.”

Jabbar, a CCSF instructor for more than 30 years, described an episode of ethnic profiling he experienced after Sept. 11. The English professor discussed the tragic events with his students on Sept. 12, as did all other CCSF instructors. However, an investigation of Jabbar was initiated after a parent of one of his students complained to the CCSF campus police about the classroom discussion. Jabbar, an Indian-born, Pakistan-raised Muslim, told the Washington Report that he believes he was singled out for the police investigation because of his heritage and religion. Representatives of the American Federation of Teachers have since met with representatives of the San Francisco Police Department and the matter has been resolved, with CCSF administrators and the police department issuing an apology to Jabbar.

U.S. Foreign Policy Protested On Gulf War Anniversary

Carrying signs and chanting slogans, more than 150 Bay Area activists staged a rally in the heart of San Francisco on Jan. 16, the 11th anniversary of the Gulf war. Their message was clear: Americans should speak out against U.S. foreign policy and stand up for human rights. The speakers focused on ending the economic sanctions against Iraq, the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land and human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Richard Becker of the International Action Center and Iraqi immigrant Gulshen Beyalti discussed the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Iraq caused by 11 years of economic sanctions. Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, who has visited Iraq several times, asked, “How can we be silent while our government kills innocent people?”

Alison Weir of the Town Hall Committee to Stop War and Racism captured the crowd’s attention when she stated, “The U.S. gives Israel $14 million a day!” She urged the audience to “take back our foreign policy” and “stop allowing our money to go to Israel!”

Yousef al-Yousef of American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice warned that U.S. foreign policy is creating hatred of Americans around the world. “We need to take action to make people like us, not hate us,” he said. “We need to let people know Americans are being misrepresented by our policymakers.”

The rally was organized by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) and endorsed by the International Action Center, Middle East Children’s Alliance, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Town Hall Committee Against War & Hate, and American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice.

Israeli-Palestinian Talks Must Resume, Say Mideast Experts

Peter B. Edelman and Khalil Jahshan addressed the topic “The Middle East Peace Process: Different Perspectives, One Peace” at the San Francisco World Affairs Council on Jan. 17. Edelman, a professor of law at Georgetown University, serves on the boards of the New Israel Fund and Americans for Peace Now. Jahshan is vice president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and former president of the National Association of Arab Americans. The program was co-sponsored by the Women’s Interfaith Dialogue on the Middle East.

“Presently, the prospects for peace are dim,” noted Edelman. “The national leadership on both sides is deeply disturbing.” Both Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he insisted, are “impediments to progress.” The peace process, however, must be kept going until there are new leaders, he stressed, and renewed negotiations should be based on the Mitchell Plan. “There really is no alternative to negotiations,” he said.

Jahshan presented the current death toll since the intifada erupted in September of 2000 in terms of its American equivalent. As of Jan. 15, he said, 859 Palestinians have been killed—equal to 80,000 Americans—and 240 Israelis have been killed—equal to 13,680 Americans. In addition, some 21,000 Palestinians—equal to 1.9 million Americans—have been injured. Jahshan pointed out that the Mitchell Plan is not a “peace plan,” but a “confidence-building measure” to get both sides back to the negotiating table. He suggested the parties, including the U.S., begin preparing now for the eventual resumption of peace talks. “Adequate preparation is necessary,” he warned, “or the parties will end up like they did at Camp David [in 2000].”

Responding to a question from the audience about a post-Arafat Palestinian government, Edelman recalled the “bright, highly educated young staffers” working in the Palestinian Authority office he met last summer in Gaza. He said they gave him hope for the future of the Palestinian leadership. Answering the same question, Jahshan said that the U.S. and Israel made a big mistake after the implementation of the Oslo accords in focusing all of their efforts on the Palestinian Authority. Instead, in his opinion, more time and money should have been invested in the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza in order to promote a multiplicity of political parties and democratic institutions.

Dr. Laurence Michalak Discusses Tunisia

“Tunisia, a small seahorse-shaped country located on the coast of North Africa, is a relatively prosperous, peaceful and stable country,” Dr. Laurence Michalak told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Jan. 25. Michalak, vice chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, worked in Tunisia as a member of the Peace Corps in the late 1960s and recently returned for a visit.

One factor contributing to the country’s stability is its homogeneous population, Michalak said, with 99 percent of Tunisia’s 10 million citizens being Sunni Arab Muslim. Tunisia has a large middle class, he noted, and poverty has been virtually eliminated. Education is a top priority, he added, and presently more women than men are enrolled in universities. A fiscally well-managed country, Michalak said, Tunisia has a high rating from the International Monetary Fund. On the downside, he told the audience, unemployment is high and development of the northwest and interior areas of the country has been neglected in lieu of the more populated coastal region.

Michalak discussed three prominent figures in Tunisia’s modern history. He described Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president after the country’s independence from France in 1956, as a forward-looking pragmatist whose policies—a mixture of socialism and capitalism—were popular and successful.

In 1987, Michalak continued, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, a progressive in the tradition of Bourguiba, became president. Presently serving his third term, a constitutional amendment is required in order for him to run for a fourth term. Although the move is controversial, Michalak predicted the constitution would be amended and that Ben Ali will run in 2004.

The third figure Michalak discussed was Rachid Ghannouchi, exiled leader of the Tunisian Islamist party, Hizb an-Nahda, or Renaissance Party. A respected Islamist writer/activist/scholar, Michalak said, Ghannouchi was imprisoned by Bourguiba after a crackdown on Islamists following the 1979 Iranian Revolution and now lives in Great Britain.

ANERA Briefing

Honorary Consul of Jordan Kamel Ayoub and the Organization for Medical and Educational Needs (U.S. OMEN) hosted American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) president Peter Gubser and vice president Nina Dodge at a Feb. 12 dinner briefing held at the Arab Cultural Center of San Francisco.

Gubser updated the audience on the non-political, non-sectarian organization’s work over the past year to reduce poverty, alleviate suffering and improve the lives of Palestinian refugees living in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan. He was pleased that—despite the Israeli military’s continued attacks on civilians in the area, the global economic downturn, and the events of Sept.11—ANERA’s humanitarian endeavors were continuing.

The Ein Sultan potable water system in Jericho, he told the audience, would be completed shortly. The Gaza Women’s Loan Fund was still functioning, he noted, although, because of the Israeli military’s increased destruction of the area over the past 18 months, the project has slowed considerably. ANERA’s information technology program, he said, aimed at creating high-quality jobs in the technology industry by training students to design Web sites and write software programs, also is expanding. Gubser praised ANERA’s excellent staff of some 30 local Palestinians who work closely with grassroots charitable organizations to determine which projects are needed for community and economic development.

U.S. OMEN, a non-profit organization that works closely with ANERA, raised $5 million last year for medical relief, supplies and food for Palestinians.

Tax-deductible donations may be sent to U.S. OMEN, P. O. Box 16308, San Francisco, CA 94ll6, or to ANERA, 1522 K St. NW, Suite 202, Washington, DC 20005. ANERA’s Web site is <www.anera.org>.

Dr. Jack G. Shaheen Speaks on Media Stereotyping

Although they may disagree on how to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and other Middle East issues, said Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, Arab Americans have a common cause in fighting Arab stereotyping in the media, particularly in films and television programs which are exported around the world. “We can all be united on the subject of discrimination,” he asserted. Speaking at the Arab Cultural Center of San Francisco on Feb. 1, the media critic and award-winning author told the audience he wrote his book, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (available from the AET Book Club), “so that our children and grandchildren will not have to grow up with prejudices.”

Shaheen is also the author of The TV Arab and Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture.

Shaheen exchanged ideas with the audience on how to counteract and prevent hateful stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in movies and on television. “Each of us has the responsibility to do something,” he stressed. “Public opinion influences public policy.”

Noting that the situation is critical, he urged the audience not to let the events of Sept. 11 and the resulting backlash against Arab Americans prevent them from working for change. “The situation can be changed if a commitment is made,” he said.

Shaheen suggested that viewers contact local television stations when they see programs that demonize Arabs and Muslims. He also noted the need for a lobbying office near the film studios in Los Angeles.

On Feb. 2 Shaheen was the keynote speaker at a public workshop on media stereotyping co-sponsored by the Arab Cultural Center and the San Francisco Unified School District that was held at Everett Middle School.

U.S.-Israeli Relationship Examined

If Americans Knew, a Berkeley-based organization, hosted a panel discussion entitled, “The U.S. and Israel: Myths, Realties and How the U.S. can Avert the Coming Crisis” at the Mill Valley Community Center on Feb. 16. Panelists included Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian legal scholar and author of Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine; Yael Ben-Zvi, Israeli teaching fellow and Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University; Jeffrey Blankfort, activist and photojournalist; and Jess Ghannam, professor at UCSF and one of the founders of Al-Awda, the Palestine right of return organization.

Ghannam discussed the “myth” relating to the creation of Israel. In 1948, he pointed out, the majority of the land was owned by Palestinian Arabs. More than 800,000 of the 1.2 million Palestinians living in Palestine were forcibly expelled by the Zionist Jews and never allowed to return, he said.

Israeli-born Ben-Zvi explained that Israel does not have a constitution and that human rights in Israel do not include all its citizens, only Jews. The term “Jewish state,” she noted, “means non-equality for non-Jews.”

Ramallah-born Shehadeh, founder of Al-Haq, a West Bank human rights organization, was legal counsel to Palestinian negotiators at the Madrid peace talks in 1991. Addressing the issue of illegal Jewish settlements, he said they represented “the biggest obstacle to peace.” The number of settlers has doubled since the Oslo agreement was signed in 1993, he added.

Blankfort discussed the powerful Jewish lobby and its influence on the U.S. government and the media. “The Israeli lobby got a bang for its buck,” he quipped, referring to the $34 million contributed to American lawmakers since 1978 and the $3 billion in aid Israel receives annually from the U.S.

The program was made possible through a grant from the Vanguard Foundation. For more info contact If Americans Knew, 825 Page St., Ste. 202, Berkeley, CA 94710; tel: (510) 527-1302; e-mail: <ifamericansknew@hotmail.com>; Web: <ifamericansknew.org>.

Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in Ignacio, CA.