Ihsan Alkhatib

Part 1 of 2: This month I interviewed Imad Hamad, the Executive Director of the American Human Right Council (AHRC), a veteran community leader and activist, with questions about the challenges facing the Arab and Muslim American community. The achievements as well as the challenges. Below are edited excerpts:   -What are your thoughts as to the Arab and Muslim American community, especially in Michigan? The community should be proud of its achievements. It is heavily engaged in all avenues of life in Michigan. It is an important community socially, economically and politically. We have a large number of successful business people, attorneys, medical doctors, pharmacists, engineers, educators, etc.   The list is long. Name it we have it. Politically, we are represented in government and on the bench. It is an impressive steady progress. Very promising future ahead indeed. However, this is not a free of challenges journey and success. -What ha...

The Trump administration’s approach is grounded in the history of the US- Iran relationship and the importance of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Trump grounds the understanding of Iran in the context of the relationship since the Ayatollah’s revolution. That context involves violating the Tehran embassy, blowing up the Beirut embassy and marine barracks, holding diplomats hostage, kidnapping Americans through proxies for weapons and other acts of violence. As former Secretary of State Tillerson told Iranian Minister Jawad Zarif, Iran has been killing Americans and getting away with it. Not anymore. Second, missing from your analysis is Saudi Arabia. While many Democrats are willing to abandon the Kingdom under the pretext of human rights violations as Obama did, Mr. Trump considers Saudi Arabia a vital ally whom the US will not abandon. Iran has presence or influence in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.  Only Saudi intervention saved Bahrain from Iran’s proxies. Mr. Trump is responsi...