This is a fascinating book that looks back at the 10 years since Arab Muslim extremists hijacked four airplanes and crashed three into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and the Pentagon, a decade that changed perceptions of Arabs and Muslims dramatically.
The book is a collection of 17 essays, many of them brilliantly written and insightful, but a few that are truly worthless and typical of the kind of political rhetoric that has fed not hindered the growing anti-Arabism and Islamaphobia that has risen in the West and the United States. But the good news is you can skip the few and focus on the many.
The collection of essays focuses on the challenges that Detroit's Arab population has faced as a consequence of the hysteria that has emerged from the basic American lack of knowledge of the Arab and Muslim Worlds with eassyists addressing various aspects.
Rachel Yezick offers an overview of one of the only major positive institutional by-products of the post-Sept. 11 era, the construction of the Arab National Museum on Michigan Avenue in downtown Dearborn. The museum is brilliant and wonderful, a collection of everything Arab Americana. Yezbick gives an overview of how it came about and what is there. (In 2004, I penned a lengthy feature on the opening of the Arab National Museum for ARAMCO Magazine.)
Authors Howell and Shryock offer a detailed look at the backlash against the American Arab community in Detroit and the so-called "War on Terror." This essay is a memorable look back published in Anthropological Quarterly in 2003. It's not updated -- it has been so well read already -- but it provides an aspect of the bigger picture the book seeks to paint. The essay examines the growth of how the government has examined economic ties between American Arab and Muslim organizations and Middle East connections, with an eye to the terror.
The book contains a heavy weight of perspective on the impact on Muslims, but essayist Matthew Stiffler looks at the impact of Sept. 11 on Christian Arabs, an often ignored and misdiagnosed community. In fact, so much focus is on Muslims and Arab Christians are often viewed as being a Christian Muslim anomaly by many Americans who can't tell the difference between either and simply put Christian Arabs into the box with Muslims as one religious identity.
Yasmeen Hanoosh offers a valuable look at Detroit's important and often ignored or misidentified Chaldean Community, Christians from the Middle East many of whom do not consider themselves Arabs. The Chaldeans are actually the bedrock of the "Arab" community in Detroit, all Christian and all misunderstood, stereotyped and misportrayed.
The worst essay of course is written by Will Youmans, one of the creators of the Jew-bashing web site KabobFest, which partners with the Jew-hating website Ikhras to libel, slander and defame anyone who criticizes Hamas and the growing extremist movement in the Middle East. (Youmans is also a failed "rapper" whose work seemed to borrow liberally from the cadence of Eminem, a Detroit native.)
Naturally, Youman's poorly written essay tries to stitch together some kind of ridiculous argument that connects his personal extremist political views with an "analysis" of the impact of Sept. 11. The only cargo in his writing that is of any value is his awkward attempt to detail the viciousness of Debbie Schlussel who repeatedly libeled Imad Hamad, the director of the Detroit Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The inclusion of the story is rather ironic considering that Youmans is involved in helping to destroy ADC today to advance his own political agenda, pushing the organization to extremism. Of course, the real irony is that there is little difference between Schlussel and Youmans or even Michele Malkin who Youman's also cites for her Islamophobic writings.
You'll quickly bore of Youman's clumsy writing style, but you should ump to the many other essays which actually offer some true insight and deep perspective.
The best essay is saved for last, written by the editors, Howell, Shryock and Abraham examining the consequences and lessons of the nation;s misguided, uneducated and misinformed approach to American Arabs, American Muslims, Islam and the intricacies of the Middle East community.
Published by Wayne State University
Great Lakes Books Series
Detroit, 2011
413 pages.
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