Arab American Almanac, the most comprehensive reference on Arab Americans

Arab American Almanac, the most comprehensive reference on Arab Americans

By Ray Hanania

One of the pioneers of American Arab journalism is Joseph Haeik who is a member of the Arab Journalism Society in Los Angeles and also a founder of the Arab American Historical Foundation. He is publisher of the immensely popular “News Circle Magazine” one of the most professionally written publications in the community and founded in 1972. His most important work, however is the publication of the Arab American Almanac, a detailed compilation of American Arab achievements, leaders and achievers.

This month, Haiek released the 6^th Edition of the Arab American Almanac and it far exceeds the heights he has already reached from his previous five editions.

The Arab American Almanac, published by The News Circle Publishing House (www.Arab-American-Affairs.net), offers a detailed history of every aspect of Arabs in America compiled in 608 tightly packed and informative pages. The writing is compelling and accurate, built upon more than a half century of professional writing and journalism.

The book offers a list of the most important books written about Arab and Middle East topics. It offers endless lists including one detailing the achievements of American Arabs in Hollywood and film, in government and politics, and in business.

It provides a comprehensive listing of the most important American Arab organizations in the country with thumbnail histories that put the existence of Arabs in America in full perspective. It lists Arabs in the military and includes stories of Arabs in America that give a context to their existence in a way most other books about the community have failed to achieve.

You cannot understand the depth and substance of the Arabs in America without this Almanac and it is essential to any research or future documentation of American Arabs and their role in American society.

This is an important work of literature. It is mandatory for research on American Arabs. Every American organization and scholar should have a copy on their shelves in order to add depth to the shallow understanding that many Americans have of the rich culture of the Arab World and people and the contributions of Arabs to America’s greatness.

This is not a dissertation nor a political argument over issues of Middle East conflict, but rather a fair, complete and accurate account of who American Arabs were, are and will continue to be.

Arab American Almanac, 6^th Edition

Arab American Historical Foundation

PO Box 291159

Los Angeles, CA 90029

Email:  newscircle@yahoo.com

For more information

- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

It's Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street; A Jerusalem Memoir

It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street:

A Jerusalem Memoir

by Emma Williams

 “This book must be one of the most honest accounts of those terrible years. It's proportionate, subtle and comprehensive… biased towards nobody but the voices of moderation and hope.” —The Guardian

 “This intelligent, incisive account…and Williams’ cool analysis of the humanity and hypocrisy at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian fighting is striking.” —The Times

 “A reader only vaguely aware of the reality behind the headlines will find much that is observant and saddening in her vivid portrait of this tribal dispute.”—The Independent

“…notable for the depth of observation and insight and for the vividness of the descriptions of particular events and people… a moving and beautifully written book...  It will certainly help outsiders to better understand both sides and their struggle.”—Brian Urquhart, New York Review of Books

In August 2000, Emma Williams arrived with her three small children in Jerusalem to join her husband and to work as a doctor. A month later, the second Palestinian Intifada erupted. For the next three years, she was to witness an astonishing series of events in which hundreds of thousands of lives, including her own, were turned upside down.

Williams lived on the very border of East and West Jerusalem, working with Palestinians in Ramallah during the day and spending evenings with Israelis in Tel Aviv. Weaving personal stories and conversations with friends and colleagues into the long and fraught political background, Williams’s powerful memoir brings to life the realities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She vividly recalls giving birth to her fourth child during the siege of Bethlehem, and her horror when a suicide bomber blew his own head into the schoolyard where her children played each day.

Understanding in her judgment, yet unsparing in her honesty, Williams exposes the humanity, as well as the hypocrisy, of both sides. Anyone wanting to understand this complex and seemingly intractable dispute will find her unique account a refreshing and illuminating read.

Emma Williams studied history at Oxford, and medicine at London University. She has worked as a doctor in Britain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, New York, South Africa, and Jerusalem. She wrote for several newspapers and magazines about Palestinian-Israeli affairs and was a correspondent for the Spectator from 2000–2003. She now lives in New York.

It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street: A Jerusalem Memoir

by Emma Williams

Olive Branch Press, an imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc.

Memoir/Middle East • 6” x 9” • 448 pages • maps  

ISBN 978-1-56656-789-3 • paperback • $16.00

Praise for the British Edition of

It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street:

A Jerusalem Memoir

by Emma Williams

“One of three books ‘You Really Must Read.’  Our choice of the best recent books... Williams is an excellent recorder of dialogue on both sides of the political divide. Her purpose is to illuminate the plight of each community… It makes grim reading, but it is all true.” —Sunday Times

“Notable for the depth of observation and insight and for the vividness of the descriptions of particular events and people…  Emma Williams’s affection and feeling for those people and her doctor’s dedication to healing has caused her to produce a moving and beautifully written book which I hope will find a US publisher soon.  It will certainly help outsiders to better understand both sides and their struggle.”—Brian Urquhart, New York Review of Books

“Brilliant and moving... one of the best of recent books about Israel and Palestine… [U]nusual mixture of memoir and journalism, [Williams’] experience … will be welcomed by anyone who wants to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…, Williams’s own voice seeks truth, moderation and dialogue.”—New Statesman

“…brilliant memoir…she succeeds like few others in her ability to view the situation through the eyes of Jew and Arab… sensitive, compassionate and superbly written.  …more illuminating and instructive than many a pundit’s tome.”—Theo Richmond, The Spectator

“Superb memoir… If Williams is as fine a physician as she is a memoirist, I would entrust my own innards to her any day of the week. Splendidly crafted and passionately engaged, this is the most artistically delectable way of boning up on the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle that one could wish for.” —Terry Eagleton, Times Literary Supplement

“I recommend Emma Williams’s expatriate memoir of Jerusalem in the second intifada as an initial exposure to the dispiriting reality behind the propaganda, theirs and ours… an engrossing exploration of what that means.” —Eric Silver, The Jewish Chronicle

“One of the most honest accounts of those terrible years. It's proportionate, subtle and comprehensive… biased towards nobody but the voices of moderation and hope.”—The Guardian

“A clever book, in the best sense of the word… a valuable, highly readable contribution.”—The Australian

“Many books have been written about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… What makes Emma Williams’ memoir unique is the honesty of her observations on ordinary life: what it is like to live with occupation and suicide bombers…The beauty of this book is that, as the author’s political awareness grows, so does that of the reader.  She explains the conflict in simple terms, without getting bogged down by the tedious chronology that weighs down other Jerusalem memoirs…I plan on giving this book to people who ask me: ‘what is going on over there?’  Williams answers that question, and so much more.”—Daily Telegraph

“This intelligent, incisive account…and her cool analysis of the humanity and hypocrisy at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian fighting is striking.” —The Times

“Compelling… extraordinary and insightful account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”—Harpers Bazaar

“On one level, it is a personal memoir… On another level, it strikes in a more profound way, keeping at front and centre the people afflicted by the conflict and making tangible the fear to which many are condemned.”—Financial Times

“A careful and accessible explanation of the background to ‘the situation’…Williams manages to be scrupulously even-handed about one of the most contentious situations in the world.” —The Scotsman

Maria Khoury: Book signing schedule for "Coloring with Christina" and "Witness in the Holy Land"

Maria C. Khoury / Fall 2009 Holy Land Presentations with Book Signings Promoting Coloring with Christina, featuring the Holy Sites for the very young and Witness in the Holy Land for older readers.  New children’s book at Christmas from Christina Book Series: Meet the Evangelists, featuring a close-up look at Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

October 24, 2009 Presentation following Vespers 6:30 pm

St. George Antiochian Cathedral,

3400 Dawson St.

Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213                                           

Church Tel:  412-681-2988

October 25, 2009  Liturgy, 10:00 am (Presentation & Children’s Program)

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral

419 S. Dithridge Street

Pittsburgh, PA  15213

Church Tel: 412 682 3866

October 26, 2009

Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School (Children’s Program)

1819 Ellswroth Ave

Heidelberg, PA  15106

School Tel:  412 278 3333

October 27, 2009  6 pm (Event by Invitation)

Latrobe Academy of Medicine Dinner

at Giannilli' II, Route 30

East Greensburg, PA 15601

October 28, 2009 5:30 pm Student Presentation

North Park University

Chicago, Il

October 29, 2009

St John the Baptist Church 9:00 am Parents & Children & 7 pm Paraklesi

2350 Dempster Street

Des Plaines, IL  60016

Church Tel:  847 827 5519

October 30, 2009 10:30 am Children’s Program

Pythagoras Children's Academy of the Greek Orthodox Church

Saint Demetrios

893 North Church Road

Elmhurst, IL  60126

Church Tel:  630 834 7010

October 30, 2009 6:30 pm Children’s Program & Presentation

St. Spyridon Church

12307 S. Ridgeland

Palos Heights, IL  60463

Church Tel:  708 385 2311

October 31, 2009 7:00 pm SS Vespers Holy Anargyroi - Cosmas & Damianos Philoptochos Celebration

St. Demetrios Church

893 North Church Road

Elmhurst, IL  60126

Church Tel:  630 834 7010

November 1, 2009 Liturgy 10 am Children’s program 1:30 pm Presentation

St. George Antiochian Church

1220 S. 60^th Crt

Cicero, IL  60804

Church Tel 708 656 2927

November 2, 2009 6:30 pm Youth Encounter

SS Constantine & Helen Church

11025-45 South Roberts Rd

Palos Hills, IL   60465

Church Tel:  708 974 3400

November 8, 2009 10:00 am St. Julia Café’ Parish Hall

One Clock Tower Drive

Wellesley, MA 02481

Tel:  781-431-6463

November 9, 2009 5:00 pm Tree of Life Conference/participant

First Congregational Church

Cape Cod, MA

November 29, 2009 10 am Liturgy Children’s program

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church

West  Roxbury, MA

December 4, 2009 8 pm Youth Religious Retreat (Lock-In)

615 Mercer Street

Cherry Hill, NJ  08002

Church Tel:  856 665 1731

December 5, 2009 4 pm Reading with Students / Presentation following Vespers 5pm

St. George Church

30 East Forge Road

Media, PA 19063

Church Tel:  610 459 0366

December 6, 2009

St. Sophia Church

900 South Rooper Road

Jeffersonville, PA 19403

Church Tel:  610 650 8960

Zeitoun: a fascinating look at an Arab American experience during Hurricane Katrina

During the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, I recall writing about the Muslims living in New Orleans who were among those devasted by the conflict. No one really wrote about them. The only time anyone writes about Arabs and Muslims is when there is some negative controversy and we are being attacked and criticized.

Recently, I picked up a copy of the book by Dave Eggers called "Zeitoun," the story of one American Arab from Syria married to an American wife and their experience during Hurricane Katrina. I am working through it -- it's a bit labored in the bigeninning but the writing is starting to loosen up with the story.

The most disturbing part fot he book is not Egger's fault, but a fault of American society and the media that covers American Arabs. The mainstream news media does not "see" American Arabs any more as a community. Rather, we have been morphed into the larger community of Muslims. All Arabs are Muslims. Christian Arabs don't exist or create a blimp on the radar screen. Although Eggers approaches it from the narrative of a writer documenting the life of a family, the Muslim character of the story's protagonists seem to trump the Arab side of the experience.

Despite some issues I have with the way we in America approach stories about American Arabs -- wanting to cast them as Muslims in a religious conflict between Islam and the West rather than as a more natural relationship between Americans, the West and the Arab World -- this is a must read book. Well written. And one of the only efforts to document an aspect of Hurricane Katrina that impacted many American Arabs that was ignored by most of the media.

I urge you to buy it and read it. I am finishing it now.

Here is an interview with the author published in the Pittsvurgh Post Gazette on why he wrote the book and some background. Click to read the full interview.

Excerpt from interview:

"Zeitoun" is the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American Muslim
living in New Orleans who was incarcerated with no due process in the aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina. But the majority of folks affected by Katrina were
African-American. Why did you choose this story?

A: Before Katrina, there were 10,000 Muslims in New Orleans, so it's not so
rare. Coverage of Katrina has rightfully focused on the effect of negligence and
inaction and the latent effects of systemic neglect and racism that gave rise to
what happened to the largely black population of New Orleans, (but) I hope that
there are dozens more (books) that represent the city and its mosaic.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Phyllis Bennis offers two new insights into problematic foreign policy challenges

Phyllis Bennis has authored two small soft-cover books that help readers betters understand the challenges we face in "Ending the Iraq War" and "Understanding the US-Iran Crisis." Theya re easy reads and that offer he often doctrinaire perspectives that are essential to unraveling these complex political challenges.

Most Americans are never exposed to the full balanced of information about the Middle East and it is not surprising that the American understanding of all of the conflicts, from Iran to Iraq and Palestine remained skewered by misunderstanding, driven by prejudice and simply wrong. Bennis offers some light into two of the most topical of these conflicts that if Americans ever did spend a moment to read, they might actually learn something.

But as we know, the Arab perspective that does not fit neatly into the dominant stereotype of hatred, discrimination and politically motivated bias, is a perspective few will take the time to even bother to read.

They should, even if those perspectives can come across more clinical than compelling. The entertaining truth is easier to sell in America than the hard truth, but it's the hard truth Americans need right away.

Both books are available at InterLink Publishing. www.InterLinkBooks.com/

Barbara Nimri Aziz's new book: Swimming up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq

“Swimming Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq” by veteran anthropologist and journalist Barbara Nimri Aziz wins praise from all sides of the public spectrum.

Etel Adnan, poet, essayist, and artist writes: "It's so human. I loved the poems, the images, the anecdotes. They're heartbreaking. You want to hug these people. They will survive, and they will rebuild. We have to believe in that."

Scott Ritter, chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq (1991-1998) says of this unique perspective on Iraq: "Barbara Nimri Aziz has written a must-read book which puts a human face on an Iraqi people dehumanized by simplistic, misleading and inaccurate media accounts before, during and after America's illegitimate invasion and occupation of their homeland.
She also puts an inconvenient truth to the lies and misrepresentations often held as a fact by many Americans…, the awful impact of sanctions before the 2003 invasion, and the sophistication and depth of a thousands-year-old culture in the process of being destroyed."

Anthropologist Professor Laura Nader sees Aziz’s report on her many years observation of Iraq as “informative, empathetic, and eye-opening”. Nader writes “This gripping story about the embargo war on Iraqi peoples and culture is critical to understanding how American foreign policy erases history and the collective memory of both Iraqis and Americans”.

Aziz herself sees this account, stories and facts culled from her 42 trips to Iraq, as a portrait of a people who love their country. “If this concept, so lacking in war and conflict portrayals, can be grasped by Americans who too love their land,” she writes, “there is hope”.

This is a book which combines the analytical skills of a veteran anthropologist and the narrative ability of a journalist.

Returning from her Fulbright professorship in Algeria, Dr. Aziz will be touring the country, speaking at colleges and community centers. To set up an engagement, contact swimming@RadioTahrir.org, or write directly to aziz@wbai.org.

New Book "Prophets and Princes" by Mark Weston released

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Prophets and Princes – Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present By Mark Weston
Presents a new, post – 9/11 history of Saudi Arabia

New York, NY – Saudi Arabia is easy to criticize. It is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden and fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. Saudi women are not permitted to drive, work with men, or travel without a man’s permission. Prior to 9/11, the Saudis sent millions of dollars abroad to schools that taught Muslim extremism and to charities that turned out to be fronts for al-Qaeda. Yet the country is the economic and spiritual center of the Middle East, the source of one fourth of the world’s oil, and the cradle of Islam.

In PROPHETS AND PRINCES (Wiley, August 2008, $35.00), Mark Weston, a scholar who has lived in Saudi Arabia, writes that despite its serious shortcomings, the Saudi kingdom is still America’s most important ally in the Middle East. The country is a voice for moderation toward Israel and on the price of oil, and it is starting to make the economic and cultural changes necessary to adjust to modern realities.

Most books on Saudi Arabia focus on current events and give short shrift to the long history that is the key to understanding the Saudis. PROPHETS AND PRINCES begins with the birth of Muhammad in 570, but almost half of the book is a revealing portrait of Saudi Arabia today. Drawing on interviews with many Saudi men and women, Weston portrays a complex society in which sixty percent of Saudi Arabia’s university students are women, and citizens who seek a constitutional monarchy can petition the king without fear of reprisal.

PROPHETS AND PRINCES is loaded with new information about Saudi Arabia, painting a more complete picture of the country than other recent books on the topic do. For example:

· The Saudi government has stopped charities from doing any work abroad since 9/11, fired 1300 radical clerics and forbidden them to preach, and is completing the process of replacing over a million textbooks that had hostile references to Christians and Jews.

· The terror-filled spring of 2004, when Westerners were getting killed every few days, came to an abrupt end in June of that year when the Saudi police raided several terrorist hideouts after receiving tips from “disgusted neighbors.”

· 22 members of the bin Laden family were able to leave the U.S. in the days after 9/11 because the FBI had already thoroughly investigated the entire family, with their full cooperation, after the 1998 African embassy bombings.

· The outrage following the tragic girls’ school fire in Mecca in 2002, when fifteen girls were trampled to death as religious policemen prevented fire fighters from entering the school because the girls were not wearing the full veil, has led to a freer press and the transfer of the administration of the nation’s girls’ schools from religious authorities to the Ministry of Education.

Weston also brings to life the story of Muhammad, his successors, and origin of the Sunni-Shi’ite split in the 7th century; ibn Abdul Wahhab and the rise of Wahhabism in the 18th century; the discovery of oil in the kingdom in the 1930s, and the influence of the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb on al-Qaeda in 20th and 21st centuries.

Mark Weston, a former Visiting Scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, has been a lawyer for ABC Television and a journalist for ABC News. His articles have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Giants of Japan, The Lives of Japan’s Greatest Men and Women and The Land and People of Pakistan.

Filled with new and underreported information about life in Saudi Arabia, PROPHETS AND PRINCES is a must-read for anyone interested in the Middle East, oil, Islam, or terrorism.

The Foods of Chicago: A Delicious History by WTTW Channel 11 and G. Bradley Publishing

The Foods of Chicago: A Delicious History is a phenomenal book that examines the various ethnic and food servings found in Chicagoland. It was produced in conjunction with the WTTW Channel 11 (Public Television) program hosted by Geoff Baer called "The Foods of Chicago: A Delicious History" which aired recently in Chicago.

The 152 page book with high resolution color photos of each food serving and the food makers (from a wide range of ethnic groups that include Palestinian and Arab foods) is a high quality production available for about $35. You can get information on purchasing the book at www.GBradleyPublishing.com.

Foods covered include Arab/Palestinian, African American, Chinese, Cuban, Lithuanian, Greek, Irish, Italian, Polish, Native American, Jewish, Lebanese, Mexican, Puerot Rican, Swedish, South Asian and Polish. Each recipe features a detailed full color photograph, a recipe and, more importantly, the book puts each recipe into a cultural context with profiles of the many families and individuals who prepared the foods for the book. Three Arab families are included int he book from Chicagoland.

The compelling stories are edited and written by Diane Gannon, Gloria Baracks, Mark Weinstein, Liz Roy, with photography by Katherine Bish. Excellent.