Against the Odds, Islamic Association of Palestine Holds Fifth Annual Conference

By Kristin Szremski

The fear and uncertainty that gripped the Chicago-area Arab and Muslim communities since Sept. 11 intensified following the Dec. 4 closing of Holy Land Foundation, which had an office in Bridgeview, Illinois. Nevertheless, leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine made the decision to hold their fifth annual convention Dec. 21 to 25.

Chicago’s Arab and Muslim communities took great hits in the month of December. Federal agents closed down the suburban offices of three Islamic charities; arson destroyed the building that housed the Arab Community Center and Arab American Action Network on the city’s Southwest side; and several Middle Eastern men visiting the Chicago area on tourist and student visas nervously awaited Justice Department letters requesting their presence at voluntary interviews.

Donations to charities and other non-profit organizations fell off drastically, or were pre-empted entirely, by the closing of the Holy Land, Global Relief, and Benevolence Foundations. Many events were canceled or postponed, and public demonstrations opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestine, which were numerous before Sept. 11, evaporated.

Then, several days after Global Relief and Benevolence were shuttered and one week before the IAP convention was scheduled to begin, the Chicago Tribune published an inflammatory article calling the IAP the “propaganda arm” of Hamas in the United States, a charge the organization’s leaders deny. While the allegations in the article were mainly unsubstantiated—except for information supplied by self-described terrorism expert Steven Emerson—it represented yet another assault on the beleaguered community since the 9/11 attacks.

Days before the Dec. 21 start of the convention, IAP staffers had received just a handful of registration forms, and organizers debated whether the event should proceed at all.

The charities’ closings and the Tribune article “were very bad, and created intense pressure on us and the leadership of the IAP not to hold the conference,” said IAP board chairman Sabri Samireh.

The IAP has a dual image problem: it is an Islamic organization and it advocates for the Palestinian cause, neither of which currently is politically popular. Jewish lobby groups and a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “played a big role” in the media linking the Palestinian issue with the Sept. 11 attacks, Samireh said.

Holy Land was closed less than one week after Sharon’s visit, and many in the Arab community feel that Bush caved in to Israeli pressure to shut down the Islamic charity.

“But, we had a lot of discussion and decided against all the odds to move forward,” he said. “We should be courageous and strong enough to stand our ground.”

The organization’s leaders said they wanted to set an example for a community that was becoming paralyzed because of the frequent attacks upon it by the media, politicians and government. Similar events planned by other organizations had been postponed or canceled outright, they noted.

So, despite fewer than 20 pre-registrations, in addition to security and financial concerns, the conference took place Dec. 21 to 25 at the Holiday Inn O’Hare in Rosemont.

Attendance grew as the weekend progressed, however. The final count shows that adult and youth participants numbered about 1,200, less than half of last year’s 3,000 attendees. Nonetheless, organizers were happy with the turnout.

IAP president Rafeeq Jaber said many people had advised him to cancel the conference, and another national Islamic organization that was to have co-sponsored a conference with the IAP pulled out after Sept. 11.

But, Jaber said, he has unwavering faith in the community he serves, and if the IAP persevered, then the public would respond.

“I always believe in the people,” Jaber said in his opening remarks at the conference. “They will respond if the leadership stands for what is right, not what is popular. I have faith in our people and I believe they will come through.”

Over three days, the conference hosted some 30 sessions that covered topics such as the Palestine problem, the establishment of a Palestinian state, rights of refugees, protecting civil rights, reacting to backlash, priorities of the American Muslim community, promoting youth leadership, legal rights, and dealing with the media.

More than 40 speakers were on hand either to host workshops or participate in panel discussions. The organizations they represented included the Muslim American Society, American Muslim Alliance, Islamic American University, Palestine Right of Return Coalition (al-Awada), National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, the Nation of Islam, the Palestinian Authority, the Jewish Neturei Karta, and various civil rights activists.

Response to Attacks Debated

A Dec. 23 panel of speakers discussed ways to respond to recent media and political attacks on the Muslim community.

Agha Saeed, president of American Muslim Alliance; Sami al-Arian, president of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom; Minister Ismail Muhammad of the Nation of Islam; IAP president Rafeeq Jaber; Rabbi Visrod Weiss, of the Neturei Karta; and attorney Ashraf Nubani discussed the current state of the American Arab and Muslim population.

Advice for combating affronts to the community ranged from focusing on youth programs, studying the black civil rights movement and calling for non-citizens to remain silent.

“What we can do to respond, is to focus on the people who were born here,” Nubani said. “Our biggest issue is [our] youth.”

Al-Arian is no stranger to attacks on Arabs and Muslims. He recently was fired from his tenured faculty position at the University of South Florida supposedly because of negative publicity that resulted from a verbal ambush on the Fox network’s “O’Reilly Factor” program linking him to terrorism. Al-Arian also fought for nearly four years for the release of his brother-in-law, Mazan al-Najjar. Although not charged with any crime, Al-Najjar was jailed on secret evidence for nearly four years, and was released last year on the orders of U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. After Sept. 11, however, Al-Najjar was re-arrested on immigration charges and, Al-Arian said, is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

Al-Arian reminded the audience that the profiling experienced by the Muslim community is not new, having been seen in this country before. He cited the McCarthy-era witchhunt for alleged Communists and the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II as examples.

Although Al-Arian has been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy and support of Israel, he had words of caution for those not holding U.S. passports. “I say this with deep regret,” he said. “If you are not citizens, I advise you not to speak out. It will be used against you.”

The IAP’s Jaber said he wasn’t surprised by the government’s moves against the Islamic charities and other attacks against Arabs and Muslims in the media, because of the influence of the pro-Zionist lobby.

Admonishing habits that seem to keep the community in a reactive instead of a proactive stance, he warned, “We have an enemy in this country…that won’t sleep…until it sees us marginalized.”

Jaber went on to say that the 1960s civil rights movement under Martin Luther King, Jr. contains valid lessons that could be applied to today’s situation plaguing the Arab- and Muslim-American community. He urged audience members to “fight back” via the media and letters to policymakers and criticized the loss of basic freedoms due to draconian measures contained, for example, in the U.S. Patriot Act.

“We have the right to fight back,” Jaber emphasized, “and if we don’t fight back, we will all be burned, not just Muslims.”

Rabbi Visrod Weiss said Sept. 11 did much to erode favorable worldwide images of Palestinians. “The world was realizing that Palestinians were in the right land and were being oppressed,” he explained, “but Sept. 11 brought back the old picture of Muslims and Palestinians being terrorists.”

His advice for Palestinians in Palestine was to curb their violent reaction to Zionist policies. “The Palestinian people should understand if you respond to the [Zionist] attack by attacking,” he argued, “you are giving the Zionists what they want.”

Unifying the Muslim community was the message delivered by the Nation of Islam’s Ismail Muhammad.

“The proper response to any attack is to recognize that we are one Ummah [nation], one community,” he said. “The effective way to fight is in our unity. We must be united in this day as never before.”

Jaber ended the evening by calling for a future summit meeting in order to find ways to put the seminar’s ideas into action. As a strong believer in the grassroots movement, however, the IAP president brought the importance of fighting for Muslim and Arab rights back to the people. “You have an important role to play,” he told the audience. “Get involved in your organizations, give your input….we can build a consensus.”

Samireh described this year’s conference as “a big success… for [its] local and global aspects, with Palestine in the center.”

So far, reaction has been positive, the IAP chairman said, and his organization plans to hold one-day seminars across the country.

“There are calls to move forward and improve on this,” he explained, “to build on this momentum.”

Kristin Szremski is news editor at a suburban Chicago newspaper.