Anti-ADC Crusade Continues-Nadine Naber, Khaled Beydoun and the Hammer of Critical Race and Gender Politics

Former ADC President and Imad Hamad Mentor
Hala Maksoud, ADC President (1996-2001)

Former ADC President Honorable Mary Rose Oakar







Tweedledum and Tweedledee Continue their battle

Nadine Naber, Khaled Beydoun and the Hammer of Critical Race and Gender Politics

ADC in the Crossfire

Tweedledum and Tweedledee continue to have their battle.

Aiming at Imad, Shooting at ADC

When the manufactured scandal broke out Osama Siblani came out of the woodwork to claim that ADC has a “credibility problem” and that “ADC dropped the ball on us.”

Mind you that was on the first day that the harassment allegations came out against Imad Hamad. Rana Abbas, one of the “victims” of Imad Hamad is an employee of Osama Siblani who has used her “position” at the “Arab American News” and her contacts from her ADC days to continue with her crusade against her former employer.

Talk about loyalty.

I have said in this blog many times that the firing is at Imad Hamad but the intended target is ADC itself. I said that in June.

Now it is becoming clear to everyone that the goal is ADC itself. And make no mistake about it. Rana Abbas herself, whom ADC and Imad Hamad took in as a young graduate and gave great opportunities for someone with her age, education, and experience, is behind rallying the troops against her former employer from whom she drew a paycheck for 8 full years and left for a better paying job for a military contracting company that sent Arabic speaking linguists to Iraq.

The Rana & Osama ax grinding continues

“Professionalism” and “Objectivity”

On the “Arab American” News website an article entitled “Female staff members of ADC National go on strike in wake of sexual harassment scandal” appeared on 10/31/2013.

The editor of the English section is none other than Rana Abbas herself- one of the alleged victims.

Isn’t this rich?

From the paper that claims “professionalism” and “objectivity” on the Imad Hamad and ADC matter. The last people on planet earth who have the right to speak about ethics and transparency are Osama Siblani, the “Arab American” News- and Rana Abbas who ghost wrote the paper’s “objective and professional” editorial on the Imad Hamad and ADC issue- speaking in the name of the paper and the Arab American community!

Even the best writers can’t make up fiction this good.

Jarrar: An Insubordinate employee

The article references a column on the website Aljazeera English by former associates of ADC. A number of ADC employees went on strike after ADC fired Raed Jarrar, an insubordinate employee. Raed Jarrar “inquired internally about the sexual harassment investigation and raised concern about the board’s decision.”

Basically, Mr. Jarrar was an insubordinate employee who took it upon himself to look into a matter investigated, decided on, and closed by ADC board. He also questioned the unanimous decision of his employer, the board of 13 members 5 of whom are women. If there is ever a reason to fire an employee, that reason existed in Jarrar’s situation. He had the duty of loyalty and the duty of obedience. If he was not happy with his employer, was questioning the judgment of his employer, then he needed to find other employment. The fact that 13 professionals, 5 women and 8 men, reached a unanimous decision based on an investigation by a neutral third party should have been enough. ADC should be applauded for its decisiveness in dealing with an insubordinate employee. Any self respecting employer would have done the same.

                              “Objective” and “Professional”: Rounding up the ADC critics

            The paper, the duo Osama and Rana, as usual, seeks to provide “professional” and “objective” coverage by seeking only one kind of people to find the “truth.” The sorry excuse for a “newspaper” interviewed two individuals, professors from the choice fields of “Gender Studies” and “Critical Race Theory” who predictably will find a clear case of “gender violence”, “patriarchy” and a “culture of gender oppression” in ADC. Poor ADC- they dumped a whole load of “:critical theory” and “gender studies” jargon on it.

Let’s talk “Gender Politics”: Nadine Naber

One of those interviewed is Nadine Naber. She is quoted saying: “These women — the ones who came forward locally and those on strike in Washington D.C. — they are heroes of our community. They should be honored and supported. They should be recognized as people who have taken major risks in support of social justice, even though they may be paying a heavy price,” Naber said.

“The Culture of Sexual Harassment”

Seriously?  Rashida and Rana are your heroes to be honored and supported? One coming forward 15 years later and another 8 years later? You think this is courageous? And they have taken “major risks” and may be paying a “heavy price”? How? What heavy price? These women have been the darling of the media and who’s who of members of the Arab American and larger community who want to look enlightened or settle scores with ADC and Imad Hamad.

But the real offense of Ms Naber is her outrageous assertion that “some of the students that she had in the Arab American studies program were interns at ADC Michigan where they got exposed to the culture of sexual harassment.” Culture of sexual harassment? What culture of sexual harassment? Who of her students claimed that she was harassed? And “culture of sexual harassment” based on the allegations against Imad Hamad only?  

“Critical Race” Beydoun and the Imaginary Voices that Were Not Respected

Another person interviewed by the” objective” and “professional” “Arab American” paper is one of Rana Abbas’s friends, Khaled Beydoun, a professor at the UCLA School of Law who was previously involved with ADC.  Khaled is unhappy with ADC and is “critical”- I am using critical here as a term of art. Beydoun teaches in the “critical race” theory, a subfield of the law that is seen by many as a grievance industry set on inventing grievances and seeing racism in all aspects of American society- a subfield of the law that is seen as spending inordinate amounts of time on issues that the majority of scholars of the law consider trivial and of little scholarly value.  That aside-The paper described his position as “the fashion in which ADC National handled — or mishandled — the sexual harassment claims, not only amounts to malfeasance, but also endorses sexual violence toward women.”

“Endorses sexual violence toward women.”

The only stronger word that “critical race theory” Beydoun could have used is “cheerlead.”

I am lost here- is Beydoun speaking about Hala Maksoud/Mary Rose Oakar/Sara Najjar’s ADC or is he talking about Vivid Videos, the adult film maker?

Beydoun was quoted stating: “ADC National's rhetoric conflicts with its behavior, and its commitment to ‘zero tolerance for sexual harassment’ extends no further than the four corners of a sheet of paper.  Imad Hamad harassed a number of women, with impunity, for many years.  Fortunately, brave voices, like Rana Abbas and Rashida Tlaib, have come forward to highlight that their incidents with sexual harassment were not aberrations, or isolated, but part and parcel of an institutional culture that needs radical reform.  Female voices are not respected within the organization, which leaves female bodies vulnerable to violence.”

There is one man, Imad Hamad, who was accused of sexual harassment. These accusations were stale- 15 year old and 8 year old- and their stories and narratives had inconsistencies. Despite that ADC investigated the matter- twice. How are these incidents not aberrations or isolated? How is this accusation of one person “not aberrations, or isolated, but part and parcel of an institutional culture that needs radical reform.” Despite the claim of a “dozen women” being harassed by Imad who only heard from the Rashida- Rana duo and from a third woman with little credibility. Where are the “dozen” alleged victims of one person in the Michigan ADC office?

Female Voices/Female Bodies

How did Beydoun jump from one accused person to tar the whole ADC culture with the accusations?  Then this is the Beydoun special:  “Female voices are not respected within the organization, which leaves female bodies vulnerable to violence.”

How are female voices not respected when 5 of the 13 members of the ADC national board are women and the decision of the board was unanimous as to the issue of Imad Hamad?

How is it possible that “female voices are not respected” in ADC when of the three last ADC presidents two were women- Sara Najjar and the Honorable Mary Rose Oakar?

Who forgets that one of the best known and respected leaders of ADC is the late Hala Salam Maksoud who led the ADC from 1996 to 2001 and was Imad Hamad’s mentor?

Facts be damned

Why did Naber and Beydoun talk about ADC in the way they did?

It’s simple. That’s their vocabulary, this is the language they know, and the way they see the world: The women as oppressed and the men as oppressors.  That’s the world as seen through the lenses of “Critical Theory” and “Gender Politics.”

But aren’t facts important and reality relevant in examining a situation from that angle?

The famous saying is that if the only tool you have is a hammer then everything is a nail to you.

ADC got the hammer of “critical theory” and “gender and cultural politics” because the accused was a man and the accusers were women and that fit nicely within the two fields of inquiry.

 And facts be damned.

What about Bob?

In What About Bob, Bob Wiley, the character masterfully played by Bill Murray, tells a joke about the psychologist and the patient who is obsessed with sex.

The doctor shows all kinds of pictures to the patient and the patient sees sex in all of them. The doctor, frustrated, tells the patient “you see sex in everything.” And the patient responded that it’s not his fault that the doctor keeps showing him dirty pictures.

There are no facts to sustain the blanket accusations made by Naber and Beydoun. There is no culture of sexual harassment. There is no disrespect of female voices. The assertions of Naber and Beydoun have the same validity of What About Bob's mental patient’s appraisal of the pictures.

Precisely.