Ihsan Alkhatib

Interview with Arab- American community leader Imad Hamad On Dearborn elections and the Arab American community False claims hamper unity, depress turnout Elections are often times of high drama. The Michigan elections, particularly the Dearborn mayoral election, produced heat and noise that carried on after the elections were over and the results declared. To shed light on that phenomenon, I interviewed Mr. Imad Hamad, longtime community leader and activist and Executive Director of the American Human Rights Council. Below are edited excerpts from the interview: Q: What is your assessment of the recent elections in the Detroit area? I.H.: It was very good. A lot of excitement about new candidates. A lot of energy from the young volunteers in the different campaigns. It was gratifying to see more Arab and Muslim Americans running for office. As a community we are moving forward in important ways. We are breaking barriers. Despite all t...

On October 26, 2017, Jonathan Lawrence wrote a commentary for Reuters entitled “Sunni North Africa, fears of Iran’s Shi’ite shadow.”* Mr. Lawrence wrote: ‘Given the tiny number of Shi’ites living in North Africa and the tight control over mosques in the region, widespread Shi’ite religious influence on the ground is unrealistic. Whether or not the scale of proselytism justifies the level of concern, Moroccan and Algerian leaders view Iran’s Africa policy as a threat to their domestic order and regional security. The prospect of sectarian strife exists for “heterodox” – i.e. non-Sunni – minorities scattered across the region, numbering in the millions who live under mainstream Sunni rule. Some of these groups are offshoots of Shi’ite Islam, but are not necessarily the source of conflict. In Algeria, their mere difference – and the government’s toleration of them – sometimes provokes attack from local hardliners.’ Mere competition between religious doctrine...

Houla massacre memorial, courtesy of Houla.org Remembering the Houla Massacre. 10/31/1948 -  October 29, 2009 Houla Massacre of 1948 Apathetic State: No Military Readiness or Political Will to Stand and Fight The 1948 Houla Massacre Anniversary October 31, 2009 is the sixty- first anniversary of the Zionist massacre in Houla, a village in South Lebanon. The Zionist Hagganah gang, led by Menachem begin, blew up houses and massacred in cold blood tens of the town's men. As a consequence of the Zionist attack, (one of a string of subsequent attacks on South Lebanon over the years), led to the people of Houla becoming refugees in their own homeland in 1948, living in the Dbayeh refugee camp. It was not until the beginning of May of 1949 that these displaced Southern Lebanese were able to go back to their destroyed village. The Need for Strong defense of Lebanon The Lebanese right wing has always claimed that there is ...

It seems that wherever there is fighting in the Arab world, somehow you see French Bernard-Henri Levy. One is tempted to think that Levy is a man interested in visiting conflict zone to advocate for human rights and rally support for those rising against authoritarian regimes.  Not so. In a column in the Wall Street Journal of 10/10/2017 Levy writes* defending the Kurds right to secede from Iraq. He wrote that the Iraqi Kurdish Northern region is being denied the right to “be free, to flourish as an island of democracy and peace.” This is after the Kurdish Iraqi separatists have engaged in a violent land grab and ethnic cleansing of territory clearly beyond the boundaries of the Kurdish-controlled province. [Not too long ago a writer in the Wall Street Journal wrote a column critical of Catalonia’s referendum on secession. That writer made a compelling argument against secession. That very same paper provided space for Levy to advocate for Kurdish separatism.] N...

Mr. Imad Hamad, AHRC Executive Director Dr. Nahed Ghazzoul Dr. Ghazzoul will keynote AHRC's Refugees' Awareness Day Presentations and Reception on October 26: On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 6 p.m., the American Human Rights Council (AHRC-USA) will be hosting a special Dinner Reception regarding the world's refugee crisis, one of the most pressing crises in recent memory. The reception will be held at the Greenfield Manor Banquet Hall located in Dearborn, Michigan. The American Human Rights Council (AHRC-USA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Nahed Ghazzoul, an assistant professor at Al- Zaytoonah University in Amman, Jordan will serve as the reception's special guest and keynote speaker. Dr. Ghazzoul's is internationally recognized as an authority on the subject of refugees, especially the Syrian refugees. She has participated in numerous forums and international conferences related to this most pressing challenge facing the modern wo...

On Jerusalem: Tactically flexible, strategically inflexible Jerusalem is in the news. After an assault inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound Sanctuary (al Aqsa), Israel responded with security measures that the Palestinians and Muslims worldwide condemned.  Thousands of Jerusalem Palestinians protested and refused to go through the metal detectors to pray inside the al Aqsa. They prayed outside it. Israel tried to crush their protests but failed. Finally, Israel relented and removed the security cameras and the metal detectors. Why did Israel place the metal detectors? Why did it place the security cameras? It is incremental takeover of the Compound. The takeover process started with Jews asking for Muslim permission to pray at the Western Wall of al Aqsa. The Ottoman authorities, out of religious tolerance, allowed Jewish pilgrims to pray at the Borak Wall/the Western Wall. During the British Mandate, Zionists tried to expand this foothold at the wall....