Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa Addresses Arab Americans

By Pat and Samir Twair

During his third trip to the U.S. in four months, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa addressed nearly 1,000 Arab Americans on Feb. 7 at the West Coast Anaheim Hotel. At the event, hosted by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Egyptian diplomat stressed the league’s priority to forge relations with Arab Americans as well as to represent the interests of Arab societies.

Moussa announced that the league is planning a conference in the U.S. with Arab Americans, focusing on politics and culture, as well as a June economic conference in Cairo.

“As much as we admire the U.S. and benefit from aid and cultural exchanges,” he said, “we have to recognize we deeply differ with the policies followed by the U.S. that involve Israel. We differ with any policy that favors Israel over the Palestinians.”

Noting that Arab states stood beside the U.S. after the attacks of Sept. 11, Moussa stressed that, while the league is against international terrorism, terrorism isn’t the only item on the agenda.

“The Israel-Palestine conflict must be addressed,” he emphasized. “To let occupation go on unabated is a recipe for chaos and the collapse of all that has been achieved. We support a two-state solution. There can be no Israeli peace without an Arab peace. The balance of power is tilting toward Israel, but the rights of the Palestinians must be recognized and the land of the Syrians and Lebanese must be returned.”

During the question-and-answer period, Moussa was asked what actions the league can take to halt Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s holocaust of the Palestinian people.

“The murderous policy of Israel against Palestinians in killing civilians and demolishing houses is at the top of the agenda of the next [Arab] summit,” he responded.

Asked about Israeli Tourism Minister Benny Elon’s campaign to transfer the Palestinian population to Jordan, Moussa replied:

“This is not a new issue. Sharon has said all along that Palestine should be Jordan. No one has taken it seriously. Israel has become a regional superpower and has reached the conclusion that it is at its finest moment. It knows it is protected [by the U.S. veto] and the Security Council can’t censure it, so it wants to impose its peace now.

“No Palestinian would sign a peace agreement the Israelis think they can impose,” he continued. “Israel is exploiting the situation and continues its occupation of Arab land. Israel should remember the peace it imposed on Lebanon in 1982. The Lebanese immediately threw out the agreement. This is what would happen if Israel tries to push through a lopsided settlement.”

In response to a query about Arab nations adopting democracy, Moussa said the Arab world is in a period of rebuilding. “The presence of non-governmental organizations and trade unions signifies the societies are opening up. Democracy is a process,” he reminded the audience. “It happened here [in the U.S.]. The Middle East fell behind largely because of colonialism, but the process is starting.”

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daley greeted Moussa, who was introduced by ADC’s Michel Shehadeh. Others present included the Arab League’s Permanent United Nations Representative Ambassador Hassan Hassouna, Egyptian Consul General Afaf al-Mazariky, and ADC Orange County President Nader Abduljebair.

ADC Leaders in L.A.

On Jan. 20, the Arab American Press Guild hosted a debriefing session in which visiting ADC national leaders discussed with the Los Angeles Arab-American media new strategies for their organization.

Noting that they were on a six-city tour, ADC president Dr. Ziad Asali, executive vice president Khalil Jahshan and communications director Hussein Ibish fielded questions from more than 100 Southern California reporters.

The purpose of their cross-country visit, the three explained, was to engage in dialogue with chapter members and discuss past accomplishments and future decisions, including establishing offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Cleveland and Atlanta.

In response to a query about ADC’s official response to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders, Jahshan stated ADC has been issuing complaints to the White House since the assassinations began.

Dr. Asali commented that it is difficult to sway the Bush administration from its view that Sharon is waging war against terrorism. Moreover, so long as Sharon can argue that Israel is under attack, Asali said, he believes the Israeli leader can remain in office. However, Ibish interjected, Sharon’s most likely successor will be Bibi Netanyahu, who is campaigning daily on U.S. television.

The ADC president urged the Arab-American media to impress upon their audiences that they cannot settle for being second-class citizens. “Become active in political parties, participate,” Dr. Asali said. “It is not right that, out of 435 members of Congress, only 11 are Arab Americans.”

Jahshan pointed out that more than 200 national and regional Arab-American organizations now fall under the umbrella group Congress of Arab American Organizations. This group, he said, can make a quantitative leap forward when it informs legislators that its members can vote in a bloc.

Arab American Democratic Caucus

When the California Democratic Party convened its 2002 convention in Los Angeles, the Arab American Caucus hosted a Feb. 15 session at the posh Bonaventure Hotel. The Arab-American group offered a short slide presentation on the danger of losing civil rights by Japanese Americans who discussed what happened to them at the beginning of World War II and the massive arrests of Muslims after Sept. 11.

Ten candidates discussed their political platforms during the event, which also offered a buffet dinner. Chair of the Arab American Caucus, which was formed in 1991, is Lobna Hewedi. Samir Hijazi is the Southern California vice chair and Fadi Saba the Northern California vice chair.

CAIR Billboards on View

On Feb. 1, the Southern California Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) launched a billboard campaign on the theme of tolerance, unity and kindness. On three busy thoroughfares, a large billboard depicting the smiling faces of seven Muslims identifiable by their appearance featured the words, “Even a Smile is Charity—a message from your Muslim neighbor.”

The billboards are located on the Santa Ana and Newport Freeways, and on Century Boulevard near the entrance to Los Angeles International Airport. Although the cost is high—$15,000 for the month of February—every day that month a minimum of 330,000 motorists saw that message. Two more billboards are planned for Riverside County. Each month, the billboards will carry a new message from the Muslim community.

American Muslim Achievement Awards

Dr. Farouk El-Baz and Shabbir Mansuri were honored Jan. 27 by the Islamic Center of Southern California, which presented them its 2001 American Muslim Achievement Awards.

Dr. El-Baz, born in Zagazig, Egypt in 1938, received a doctorate in geology from the University of Missouri in 1964. He participated in the Apollo space program and was secretary of the Landing Site Selection Committee for the Apollo missions to the moon.

Scientists and astronauts referred to Dr. El-Baz as “the King.” While circling the moon for the first time during Apollo mission 15, astronaut Alred Worden noted, “After the King’s training, I feel like I’ve been here before.”

A segment of “Galileo Was Right,” episode 10 in the HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon” produced by Tom Hanks, was entitled, “The Brain of Farouk El-Baz.” The popular TV series “Star Trek: the Next Generation” featured a shuttlecraft named “El-Baz.”

After joining Boston University in 1986, Dr. El-Baz founded the Center for Remote Sensing to promote the use of space technology in archeology, geography and geology.

Mansuri, born in Ahmedabad, India in 1945, moved to Los Angeles in 1969 to study chemical engineering at USC. In 1990, following a remark made by his daughter, he founded the Council on Islamic Education (CIE).

The seventh grader had told her father that, according to her textbook, when Muslims, or rather nomadic Bedouins, pray, they fall on their knees, slap their palms on the ground, rub their faces with sand, and touch their foreheads to the earth. Then they say their prayers.

As a result of the formation of CIE, Muslim experts now assess textbooks, and the organization has sponsored workshops to train more than 10,000 educators, making them more sensitive to the true message of Islam. Through its Speakers Bureau, CIE also has provided experts to address more than 100,000 students in Southern California schools and universities.

Maher Hathout Authors Book on Jihad

Dr. Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California, has written Jihad vs. Terrorism, which critiques the Islamic concept of jihad and the popular Western conception of it as meaning acts of violence under the guise of religiosity.

Contrary to Western interpretations, the author emphasizes, the Qur’an characterizes the struggle of jihad as one which utterly forbids violence against innocent civilians and abhors the notion of terrorism. For more information, contact <dawnbooksllc@juno.com>.

Eid al-Adha Prayers Draw Record Crowds

More than 8,000 Muslims gathered Feb.22 for Eid al-Adha prayers in the Los Angeles Convention Center, where Dr. Maher Hathout offered the khutba. Observances also were conducted in Pomona, Riverside and San Diego.

In Orange County, more than 5,000 worshippers held prayers in the Anaheim Convention Center, and an estimated 1,800 Muslims gathered at the Sequoia Conference Center in Buena Park. Another 1,600 observed Eid at the Mission Viejo Islamic Foundation, while 1,800 prayed at the Islamic Institute of Orange County. More than 500 convened at the Islamic Educational Center in Costa Mesa, and 350 congregates of the Islamic Center of Irvine prayed at the Hyatt Hotel in Newport Beach.

Special guests at the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City included Rabbi Harold Schulweis and 45 members of his Valley Beth Shalom synagogue. Their visit was a follow-up to a November lecture by Nazir Khaja of the Islamic Information Service to more than 2,200 people attending the synagogue’s lecture series on world religions. Ironically, around the time the reciprocal visit was being planned, federal agents arrested members of the Jewish Defense League for plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque.

Following the prayer service, Muslims and Jews remarked on similarities between the two faiths—be it the absence of religious icons, statuary or images, to a common respect for Abraham. Rabbi Schulweis commented that it was time for his synagogue’s families to invite Muslims into their homes to share holiday observances. Khaja noted that after the chilling effects of Sept. 11, Muslims acknowledge that they must explain their faith to fellow Americans.

Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.