The role Arab Americans must play

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/08/31/10241423.html

By Sobhi Ghandour, Special to Gulf News

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The status of the Arab community in the United States truly reflects the state of division that prevails in the Arab nation. In fact, Arab immigrants in the US do not constitute a unified community that reflects its Arab identity.
Immigration to the US does not change the mentality of Arabs, as they do not become different from what they were in their home countries.
The Arab immigrant usually leaves his country for various economic, political or security reasons, or to look for a better standard of living. These reasons do not require Arab immigrants to engage in political work or even think of it because they have other priorities. Arab immigrants need a long time for getting used to and interacting with the US community before getting involved in the American political life. Also, Arab immigrants, who did not experience democracy in their home countries, do not have the passion for political work in general. This is simply because they are scared of political work, and when they leave their home countries, they fear getting involved in politics even more, as a result of their unpleasant past experiences.
New Arab immigrants to the US find themselves struggling with the issue of identity. This is the true reflection of the Arab world for about 30 years, when the Arab identity was the basis for establishing Arab organisations and centres that emphasise the common cultural identity of Arab immigrants from different parts of the Arab world.
Herein lies the importance of efforts by the Washington-based Centre for Arab Culture and Dialogue (Al Hewar Centre) in terms of focussing on the common Arab identity and calling for Arab Americans and Arab immigrants elsewhere to interact with each other on the basis of this identity.
Low number
The number of Arabs in the US is 3 million out of a total population of 300 million. Arabs constitute no more than 1 per cent of the total population. There are many reasons for the inability of Arabs to bring about changes to the US political life. Among these are the low number of Arab Americans, who cannot make noticeable changes in the US, even though most of them are highly qualified.
Another reason is that Arab immigrants work individually, and not collectively as one bloc. There are a number of Arabs in US politics, but this does not mean they support Arab issues. This is simply because they are Arabs in name only, and do not have any loyalty to the Arab nation and its issues.
Arabs in Michigan constitute one of the largest populations of Arab Americans in the US. Arab Americans are divided into many different and even conflicting groups, and thus they have not yet affected American political life, with the exception of Michigan’s Arab Americans, who have successfully managed to get one of them elected as a member of the Senate.
The Arab media and intellectuals repeatedly make a wrong comparison between the status of Arab Americans and that of Jewish Americans.
Arab Americans are relatively new arrivals in the US, while that is not the case with Jewish Americans, who have been here for a long time.
Arabs came from different countries to one country, while Jews in the US are American citizens who effectively contributed to the setting up of Israel for Jews from all over the world, in the occupied Arab lands.

Success of Zionist lobby
Arabs, however, should not be blamed for the success of the Zionist lobby in gaining absolute support from Washington.
The US is not a neutral party in the Arab-Israeli conflict but a strong ally of Israel, since the creation of the Jewish entity. This is why it is still arming Israel to the teeth and extending blind political, financial and moral support.
And this makes any comparison between Arabs and Jews unfair.
The Jewish lobby in the US deals with one relationship – the Israeli-American one – while Arab American institutions are caught between more than 20 Arab countries and the US.
The relationship between Arab Americans and Arab countries is totally different from the relationship between American Jews and Israel, which has led to the so-called identity crisis among Arab Americans.
Above all, there are differences between Arab Americans who were born in the US, and those who were born in their home countries, and later on came to the US and got American citizenship. Another category is Arabs who came to the US, and have not yet become American citizens, and thus are unable to play a bigger role in politics. This category of Arab immigrants does not interact or communicate with American society at all.
Another important reason behind the absence of Arabs from the political scene is that they are from various religious and sectarian backgrounds. Therefore, some rush to belong to religious organisations, which exclude half of the Arab community from the American political scene. Other Arab Americans isolate themselves from what is happening around them due to personal reasons.
It is noteworthy that half of Arab Americans are Christians, who immigrated to the US since the early 20th century from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, and were followed by consecutive waves of immigrants from Iraq and Egypt.
Apart from the Arab community in the US, there is the Muslim community, which includes Arabs, and non-Arabs, from non-Arab Asian and African countries.
What is noticed here is that half of the Arab community are Christians, while more than half of the Muslim community is made up of non-Arabs.
Consequently, we are talking about two populations – the Arab community, and the Muslim community (which is estimated at 6 million, constituting 2 per cent of the total population and almost equal in number to Jewish population.)
Coordination
Therefore, both the Arab and Muslim communities are required to coordinate their stances and interact with each other through Arab and Islamic centres in the US.
If such integration takes place, it will be of great benefit for both communities and their joint role in influencing US policy.
There are Arab and Islamic institutions in the US working towards improving the image of Arabs and Muslims in the US.
Apart from political issues, improving the Arab and Muslim image in the minds of Americans is very important due to its relationship with American public opinion and media as well as with educational and academic institutions.
Institutions such as Al Hewar Centre are working to improve the image by conveying the reality. Projecting the true image of Arabs and Muslims is the main objective of these centres, which seek to improve the status of the Arab and Muslim communities, and also makes them aware of the issues that are important to their Arab and Muslim culture.
This approach is in line with the efforts of Arab Americans to participate in US political life, so that they are able to play a more effective role in American society.
* Sobhi Ghandour is the director of Al Hewar Centre, Washington.

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The role Arab Americans must play

The role Arab Americans must play

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