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Members of Moslem Students Association march with a banner that
reads: "Cancer of the Middle East, Israel must not exist." The
demonstration was held May 13 in Detroit's Grand Circus Park.
James Zogby Makes
A Significant Impact
DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
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ocal Arab Americans
have high praise for
James Zogby and his
political work.
"What he's doing on the
political level is very im-
pressive. He mobilized the
Arab community," said Thrry
Ahwal, director of the
American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee's
(ADC) Detroit branch.
Zogby's Arab American In-
stitute was "instrumental in
getting our people involved in
political circles. He formed
Democratic and Republican
clubs here in Michigan," said
Osama Siblani, publisher of
the Dearborn-based
newspaper, Sada Alwatan.
According to Siblani, ac-
tivists like Zogby are working
to push Arab Americans into
the mainstream of U.S.
politics.
"As
Ahwal,
Said
Americans, we need more like
him. He's a very energetic,
hard-working believer in
democracy."
Siblani called Detroit's
Arab-American community,
centered in Dearborn, a new
one. Although the first Arabs
arrived in Detroit early in the
century, mass immigration
did not begin until the
Lebanese Civil War erupted
in 1975, he said.
"Eventually, we will have a
tremendous impact on state
and national politics," he
said.
Siblani said a hint of things
to come could be seen during
March's Michigan
Democratic Party caucuses.
Dearborn voted overwhelm-
ingly for the Rev. Jesse
Jackson despite the fact that
there are "no blacks in Dear-
born. Our community made a
significant impact."
Arab-American groups also
are concerned with events in
the Middle East, particularly
the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Groups such as the ADC, the
National Association of Arab
Americans (NAAA) and the
Palestine Aid Society identify
with the Palestine Liberation
Organization, call for a
Palestinian state in the West
Bank and Gaza and actively
support the ongoing revolt
there.
Some Islamic groups call for
the outright destruction of
Israel. The Muslim Students
Association-Persian Speaking
Group held an Al Quds
(Arabic for Jerusalem) Day
march May 13 in Grand Cir-
cus Park. They passed out
leaflets called "Facts On Oc-
cupied Palestine," with a
front-page picture of a gun
sight focused on the word
"Israel."
While Persian speakers are
not Arabs. their organization
is part of a general Islamic
Society of North America in-
cluding Moslem Arabs. It has
distributed the anti-Semitic
"Protocols of the Elders of
Zion."
Like
Arab-American
organizations, the Islamic
Society seeks a reduction in
U.S. aid to Israel. In 1985, for
example, ADC and NAAA
sponsored full-page adver-
tisements in newspapers such
as the Washington Post and
Christian Science Monitor,
which inferred that aid to
Israel is given at the expense