OBH is not the first Arab 
fraternity 
in 
the 
nation. 
However, Elharake said the 
founders of OBH decided to 
create their own fraternity so 
they could build the traditions of 
the group themselves. 
Before presenting themselves 
to the audience, the brothers 
of OBH recognized the other 
multicultural fraternities and 
sororities attending the event. 
Members of other organizations, 
including Sigma Lambda Beta 
fraternity and Sigma Sigma Rho 
sorority, responded with chants 
and calls of support.
Kneeling huddled together in 
a circle, the brothers introduced 
themselves 
one 
by 
one 
by 
standing and removing their 
scarves and robes. Elharake 
brought each recruit to the 
middle of the circle and took 
away 
their 
scarves 
before 
stepping out. Amid chants of 

“ossoud,” or “lion” in Arabic, 
each member then revealed his 
name and pledged to support 
his fellow brothers. Many of the 
members introduced themselves 
through rap. 
Ahmad Saad, Business senior 
and OBH brother, said each 
member of the fraternity was 
given a lion name prior to the 
reveal. According to Saad, these 
names are given by members and 
denote certain characteristics 
about the recruit, like leadership 
or courage. Saad’s lion name is 
“Bassel”. 
“Immigrating 
from 
Bint 
Jebail, my parents don’t have 
it easy,” Saad rapped. “They 
look to me to carry their legacy. 
Strongest of the pack, I protect 
my brothers — no matter what 
it is, we’re always here for each 
other. Ballin’ since I was a kid, 
I’m the real MVP. The best 
there ever was, I got that lion 
mentality. Yeah, I go to Ross, I’m 
a different kind of lion. Imma 
build stacks on stacks without 
even trying. My brothers are 

my priority, and like lions in the 
jungle, we lead with authority.”
The 
creation 
of 
OBH 
comes just four months after 
the 
University’s 
first 
Arab 
sorority, Epsilon Alpha Sigma 
Empowered Arab Sisterhood, 
introduced its first pledge class 
in a reveal show held in Angell 
Hall. EAS, which has chapters at 
several other universities, is the 
first Arab sorority in the nation. 
Silan Fadlallah, LSA junior 
and president of EAS, said it 
was important for her sorority 
to attend OBH’s reveal show 
because 
EAS 
had 
received 
support from the University’s 
Arab community at their own 
debut performance.
“We’re here to show solidarity 
and support them, because we 
were the first Arab sorority to 
come to the campus and we 
know what that feels like,” 
Fadlallah said. “We’re not sisters 
with them, but we’re here to 
support them.” 
In 
2017, 
Elharake 
helped 
organize 
the 
#WeExist 
campaign to add a Middle 
Eastern/North 
African 
identity category to University 
applications and documents. 
In December 2018, Rackham 
announced plans to include 
Middle Eastern and North 
African identity options on 
applications for Fall 2019. 
Elharake 
said 
his 
work 
with this campaign and his 
decision to found OBH reflect 
his desire to bring awareness 
to the Arab identity on 
campus. 
“Every year, I see Arab 
men who come to U-M, 
ignore the community on 
campus, forget their roots 
and cave into the pressures 
of attending a predominantly 
white institution,” Elharake 
said. “My experiences fueled 
my desire to create, with the 
founding fathers, a peer-to-
peer structure for Arab men 
to mentor each other.”
Fadlallah 
echoed 
Elharake’s statement and said 
organizations like EAS and 
OBH aim to draw attention 
to the presence of a distinctly 
Arab identity at the University 

and around the country. 
“The Arab identity as a race 
is often unrecognized and goes 
unrecognized because we don’t 
have a checkbox if you’re filling 
out applications or whatever,” 
Fadlallah said. “We’re marked 
under white, which isn’t true. A 
lot of it has to do with advocating 
for that Middle Eastern and 
North African checkbox and, 
within that, the Arab identity.”
Throughout the performance, 
the 
recruits 
referred 
to 
themselves as lions, the symbol 
of the fraternity. According 
to Elharake, the symbolism 
harkens back to when Asiatic 
lions lived across the Middle 
East and North Africa. While 
Asiatic lions still live in sub-
Saharan Africa, there are very 
few left in the Middle East. In 
a text message to The Daily, 
Elharake said the members of 
OBH and the Arab community 
at the University embody the 
history of the Asiatic lions.
“Their 
story 
has 
become 
our story,” Elharake said. “For 
decades, most Arab men at 
the University did not hold 
leadership 
positions 
across 
campus, take advantage of the 
opportunities 
and 
resources 
offered or advocate for the Arab 
community. In many ways, we 
were extinct.”
Saad 
mentioned 
how 
the 
performance was meant to be 
both a humorous introduction 
to the group and a reflection on 
one the organization’s official 
slogans: “Protect what’s yours, 
even when they claim it’s theirs.” 
Saad said this underlying theme 
expresses 
the 
more 
serious 
aspects of the reveal show. 
“It’s to show how we’re serious 
about what we’re doing — we 
put in a lot of work in rehearsal 
and we wanted everything to be 
very structured and organized in 
conveying our message instead 
of being disorganized,” Saad 
said. “It really highlights the 
consistency and how serious we 
are about this.”

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