Waging Peace

Palestinian Activist Inducted Into Hall of Fame

Samira Hussein was inducted into Montgomery County’s Office of Human Rights Hall of Fame at a March 21 ceremony and dinner at Indian Spring Country Club in Maryland.

Hussein was honored for her tireless work “chipping away at the walls of ignorance and misunderstanding by educating County youth about Arab-Americans and Muslims.” Due to her relentless dedication and her keen negotiaion skills, Montgomery County Public Schools now require all its teachers to complete a 45-hour cultural sensitivity course. As a result of her work, Maryland also revised its testing policies to respect the religious observances of Muslim students. This Washington, DC suburban county now recognizes April as Arab-American Heritage Month due to Hussein’s leadership, and she was called a “visionary” for her deeds and words which trumpet the vital need to embrace diversity in America.

Hussein’s life story, featured in the February 2002 issue of Rosie magazine, details her 1967 expulsion from her West Bank home. Israeli soldiers demanded that the 12-year-old girl and her family leave immediately in their pajamas, barefoot, in the middle of the night, carrying nothing. Nor did her troubles end when she and her husband, Mohammad, moved to Florida in 1974. For eight years in the 1990s, after having moved to Maryland, she and her family were threatened and abused during the Gulf war because of their religion and their name. Ignorant people thought they must be related to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain.

Instead of withdrawing from the fray, however, Hussein began speaking to public school classes about her culture and her religion. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, she is working harder than ever to educate Montgomery County employees and students about Islam and Arab culture.

—Delinda C. Hanley

“Teaching About the Arab World and Islam”

Audrey Shabbas and Dr. Aminah McCloud held a highly informative Saturday workshop for teachers in Rockville, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC on March 23. The workshop was sponsored by Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), which also publishes the quarterly journal Middle East Policy, and has offered free workshops to teachers throughout the United States since 1985.

Audrey Shabbas, who has conducted more than 500 workshops and summer institutes for teachers, literally wrote the book on educating American students about the Middle East. Shabbas showed teachers how to use creative ideas and strategies from the Arab World Studies Notebook (available from the AET Book Club) to teach students about the Arab world and Islam. The notebook walks teachers through lesson plans that include activities highlighting Arab contributions to science, mathematics, geography, medicine, literature, and art. Students can try their hand at Arabic calligraphy and Islamic art projects as well as creating traditional Arab costumes and foods. Students also are invited to explore the similarities among the three holy books of the Abrahamic faiths.

Dr. McCloud’s workshop presented fascinating information on Muslim slaves in America, a subject omitted from American history books. McCloud next worked her way through the history of Muslims’ intentional immigration to America, which started in 1917. She also noted the rising numbers of indigenous Muslims, including recent waves of conversions from the Hispanic and Native American communities. There is now a mosque in every state, including Alaska, which holds meetings in a storefront building. The first known mosque in America was built in Maine by Albanian Muslims and the first still-existing mosque was built around 1924 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa by Lebanese Muslims.

According to Shabbas a Muslim companion of Mahatma Gandhi, Badshah Khan, taught the Indian the art of nonviolent protest. Khan explained that Muslims were prohibited from taking up arms unless they were being oppressed. The speakers also discussed the strong roles played by women in early Islam and the practice of covering women’s hair. According to Shabbas the concept of chivalry came from Islamic Spain during Muslim rule—which was, incidentally, the golden age for Jews. For more fascinating facts, try to attend a workshop. For information about the fully funded staff development program phone Jon Roth at MEPC offices, (202) 296-6767, or e-mail him at <jroth@mepc.org>.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Israeli Embassy Protest Draws 1,000

Black Voices for Peace (BVFP) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) threw a demonstration on April 5 and everybody came. Protests in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC have taken place on a regular basis for years, but often with very few in attendance. With virtually all the West Bank under siege, however, about a thousand people representing the diversity of America showed up to raise their voices to the Israeli and U.S. governments that the occupation of Palestine must end. African Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, Latin Americans, East Asian Americans, and Americans of European descent filled the sidewalk and hillside opposite the Israeli Embassy to express their horror at the genocide being perpetrated on the Palestinian people. Those who spoke reflected the diversity of the crowd, including BVFP’s Damu Smith, who demanded immediate unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces, Arafat’s release and access to foreign diplomats, the cessation of attacks on ambulances, and a halt to the flow of U.S. tax dollars that funds it all.

Khalid Turaani of American Muslims for Jerusalem and Albert Mokhiber of the ADC also spoke. Mokhiber drew cheers when he said there should be “Statehood for DC and Statehood for Palestine, Civil Rights in DC and Human Rights in Palestine.” Representing the three major faiths whose holy land is under siege were Howard University’s Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, the Reverend Graylan Hagler of Plymouth Congregational Church, Art Laffin of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Community, Phil Anderson of the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, and Deborah Hyams of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI). Isis Nusair of SUSTAIN (Stop U.S. Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now) and Ted Lewis of Global Exchange spoke as well, as did Mahdi Bray of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), who reminded the crowd that it was Martin Luther King, Jr.—who was assassinated on this date in 1968—who said, “Silence is betrayal.” Peta Lindsay of International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and this writer also addressed the demonstrators.

Concurrent with the demonstration for Palestine, pro-Israeli supporters demonstrated outside the PLO offices in downtown Washington. Despite the 4 to 1 ratio of pro-Palestinian to pro-Israeli demonstrators (ironically about the same ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths), the mainstream media chose to give the pro-Israel protesters about four times as much coverage.

—Sara Powell

IDF Influence on Israeli Politics

On March 20, at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington, DC, USIP senior fellow Yoram Peri discussed the intimate relationship between Israel’s political and military echelons. Peri’s research was triggered by Israel’s 1999 elections—the first time three generals competed in a primary where Knesset elections were not held at the same time.

“About 10 percent of the Knesset and 20 percent of the government are retired senior military officers,” said Peri, a senior lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During the 1999 elections, he continued, some 100 senior military officers joined the campaign wave by joining various political parties—with the exception of Likud. Claiming that the military officers wanted to pursue the peace plan, Peri told the audience, “Netanyahu was not doing that so they sought to replace him.”

According to Peri, the 1980s increased Israel’s interest in peace. The 1987 intifada proved that Israel “could not solve the Palestinian problem by military means alone,” he said. In 1988, he continued, the PLO adopted the two-state solution and “the military realized that the PLO could be a negotiating partner.”

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Peri noted, the threat from Israel’s eastern front, including Soviet-backed Syria, was greatly reduced. A few years later, however, a new threat emerged, he explained: in 1991, Iraq attacked Israel with Scud missiles. “Israel realized that it was time to reach an agreement with inner-circle states such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon,” Peri said, “since the main threat would be from outer-circle states such as Iran and Iraq.” Normal relations with the inner-circle states, however, will require a change in Israeli policy toward the Palestinians—a change Peri claimed many Israelis do not support.

Peri went on to describe two schools of thought, each vying to determine Israeli policy. There are the “hopefuls,” who believe peace can be achieved, he said, and the “hopeless,” who think that so long as Arafat is in power, peace is unachievable. It is difficult to determine which camp has the upper hand, he said.

On the one hand, the Israeli academic explained, the general chief of staff (GCS) holds an extraordinary amount of power, preparing the military for combat and determining the military’s direction during war. In light of the GCS’s current “hopeful” outlook—Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz promised to be the first GCS in peace time—the “hopeful” camp mustered the potential strength to push Israel’s policy in the direction of peace.

On the other hand, Peri continued, “there is not one supreme commander of the military.” Power is split among the minister of defense, the prime minister, and the Knesset, he explained. While the GCS may determine military activity, Peri elaborated, he does not decide on Israel’s policy, and thus must act within a framework decided by the minister of defense, prime minister and Knesset. If all three do not agree on Israel’s policy, the friction can become insurmountable, he said. The constant difficulties faced by Sharon’s government, where “hopeless” Sharon and “hopeful” Peres hold very different ideals of Israeli policy, proves his point, Peri said.

In light of the continuing violence in Israel and the occupied territories, Peri recognized the difficulties facing advocates of peace. “Do not forget Israel is a nation at arms,” Peri reminded the audience. Every Israeli citizen serves in the army, he pointed out, causing military mentality to infiltrate civil society. “Israeli society has thousands of experts,” he said, “and they dominate the public debate in Israel.”

Peri went on to say that “military officers have a very narrow perspective of international relations,” and claimed that their preoccupation with defense and security blinds them to their fundamental moral obligations. Arguing that the infusion of military and civil society is unhealthy, Peri concluded that the solution lies in Israel’s democracy and its ability to lessen military influence.

—Kristel Halter

Ames Interfaith Council Activities

Ihab El-Kady addressed the Feb. 10 annual meeting of the Ames Interfaith Council (AIC), held at United Church of Christ-Congregational Fellowship hall. El-Kady, who is from Cairo, Egypt, is a member of the Iowa State University (ISU) Muslim Students Association and holds both graduate teaching and research assistantships in ISU’s physics and astronomy program.

A receptive crowd of 30 gathered to hear his presentation, entitled “Islam and Muslims in America post-9/11.” Following the speech, El-Kady fielded questions from the audience for well over an hour. “Give me hard questions, please,” he asked the audience, which obliged. El-Kady’s candid answers elicited a variety of positive responses—including, on several occasions, laughter and exclamations of surprise and agreement.

“How could a wonderful religion like Islam produce people who would engage in terrorist acts like the attacks of 9/11?” asked AIC vice president Pat Whiteford.

El-Kady responded by noting that in the United States members of the Klu Klux Klan have engaged in cross burnings, church bombings, and other outrages. “They say they act in the name of white people and Christianity, but no one asks how a religion like Christianity could produce such terrorists,” said El-Kady, “because they don’t represent Christianity, just as the people who planned and committed the attacks on 9/11 do not represent Islam.”

Other questioners asked about Islam’s positions on the taking of interest in financial dealings, slavery, the status and rights of women, including headcoverings and veils, and Christian participation in activities at the mosque, among other topics.

At a meeting on March 2, council members and other community leaders examined the AIC’s mission and programs and discussed the organization’s future. Some AIC members feel the group has not done enough to encourage interfaith dialogue. Others have questioned whether, in attempting to facilitate such dialogue, the council should become involved in politically sensitive issues, and have opposed any involvement by the council in such issues.

There was a perception on the part of some council members and observers that the council was reluctant, slow, and ineffective in addressing the public dispute in 1997 over the relocation of Darul Argum Masjid, the Ames Muslim community’s mosque. (See story on p. 78 of this issue.) Nor did the council respond positively to an attempt in 2000, led by author and editor Betsy Mayfield and campus minister Beverly Thompson-Travis, to bring together representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other local faith communities to craft a common statement of principles on the crisis in the Holy Land. Efforts to bring representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities together at the council’s table with any regularity have met with very limited success.

The remarkably positive response of nearly a thousand Ames citizens to the open house at the new Darul Argum Islamic Center in late January, however, has inspired new efforts by some council members and other interested community leaders to encourage, facilitate, and maintain a more vibrant interfaith dialogue.

—Michael Gillespie

South Africans Express Solidarity With Palestinians

Nearly 3,000 people from all over Gauteng, South Africa gathered a block away from the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria on March 21 to show solidarity with Palestinians. The Palestine Action Group (PAG), a coalition formed the previous week by 20 organizations, planned the march for Human Rights Day, in support of the human rights of people in countries where the most fundamental of these rights are denied.

They marched to the Union Buildings and protested Israel’s military invasion and massacre of Palestinians. Protesters had planned to march from Venning Park to the U.S. Embassy and then on to the Israeli Embassy, where more speeches would be delivered. After two days of negotiations with police and Tshwane Council representatives, however, the demonstrators were denied permission to march on the embassies. The route was changed to end at the seat of government.

Speakers at the rally represented a number of the constituent PAG organizations, including the African National Congress (ANC)’s Ebrahim Ebrahim (chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on foreign affairs), Mazibuko Jara of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) vice president Joyce Pekana, Pandelani Nefolovodwe of Azanian Peoples Organization (Azapo), and Thembisa Fakude of the Palestine Solidarity Committee. There were speakers as well from the Swaziland Solidarity Network and the Free Burma Campaign. Three memoranda—to the U.S. and Israeli embassies and South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma—were read aloud at the march.

The PAG comprises the following organizations: the ANC, Anti-Privatization Forum, Al Aqsa Foundation-South Africa, Azapo, Call of Islam, Cosatu, Human Rights Foundation, Islamic Center for Africa, Media Review Network, Muslim Youth Movement, National Consultative Forum on Palestine, Pan Africanist Congress, Palestine Solidarity Committee-Jhb, Palestine Solidarity Committee-Benoni, Palestine Solidarity Group-Cape Town, Socialist Party of Azania, Qibla, South African Communist Party, and Union of Muslim Students Associations.

For more information, contact: Na’eem (+27 83 680 5257/83 680 5257).

—South African Palestinian Solidarity Committee