Muslims to "express rage and affect politics" as usual
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...608120342/1003
Metro Arabs push change in policy
More than 1,000 will form largest contingent at national protest of U.S. policies on Israel.
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
More than 1,000 residents of Metro Detroit traveled to Washington to demonstrate today against the war in Lebanon and Gaza in one of the largest political gatherings of Arab-Americans in history -- more evidence of a wave of political activism in the local Arab community.
Protesters from the area are expected to form the largest local contingent of the tens of thousands who are expected today to criticize both the Bush administration's unwavering support of Israel and what many people of Arab descent call Israeli aggression and occupation.
They will join national peace groups, who have helped organize the protest, in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
Movement for power
Like the demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam eras, experts say, the national protest today and previous large rallies in Metro Detroit are expressions of both anger and the perception by participants that they are unable to affect politics in other ways.
Only time will determine, they say, if the emotion and energy in the Arab communities of Metro Detroit and America can be converted to political power.
"Typically, movements like this harbor people of both stripes, those willing to work effectively with other groups toward their goals and those extremists who have stepped outside of the boundaries of reasonable anger and protest," said Todd Gitlin, a professor at Columbia University, and author of "The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage."
"Do they simply want to express rage on the part of people who have been bombed while they were on vacation? That is understandable," said Gitlin, reflecting the fact that many of the local demonstrators were in Lebanon as Israeli bombs fell on their families' homes.
"But in so far as they don't register with what the great body of the American people is and identifies with, there is a danger that they paint themselves into a corner."
'Expressing our frustration'
For many of the participants, the demonstrations are a matter of responding appropriately to what they say is the massacre of Lebanese and Palestinians and a cry in the political wilderness.
"Ultimately, as far as the Arab community is concerned, they want their voices heard," said Tony Kutayli, a spokesman for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington. "As Arab-Americans, we are proud to be American and proud to take part in the activities of this country and the government of this country. But the government of this country is not helping the situation by not calling for a cease-fire and by its active support of Israel.
"It is simply a matter of expressing our frustration and exercising our rights," Kutayli said.
Few American politicians support the point of view of many Arab-Americans that the problems in the Middle East are primarily the fault of the Israelis, abetted by the United States and driven by the political power of the American Jewish community.
The dilemma of Arab-Americans is reflected by a 410-8 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in July to support Israel in the current war.
'Angry and desperate'
Arab-Americans viewed it as evidence of their political desperation and a measure of their political accomplishments to date: Their position was opposed overwhelmingly in the House, but endorsed by three local members who represent areas in which they have large populations -- the Democrats John Conyers, John Dingell and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.
"That makes you angry and desperate at the same time," said Osama Siblani, executive director of the Council on Arab American Organization and the publisher and editor of The Arab American News.
"Even directing your attention to Congress is a waste of effort, an exercise in futility."
Siblani and other community leaders say that their means of political expression are the ballot, influencing political decision-makers and the media, and taking their issues to the streets.
"There is a short range and a long range, and it is not like we are going to stop," Siblani said.
"The short range is, stop the massacre and the killing. The long range is, keep talking to those officials and try to influence them and, at the same time, reaching to the American public and educate them on these issues."
The demonstrations have been noted, locally and abroad. Some local Jews say they are alarmed by some of the things that have been said, and what appears on protesters' signs. Ha'aretz, the influential Israeli newspaper, has opined that if the protests in Dearborn had occurred in Europe, they would have been branded as "anti-Semitic."
Not afraid to speak out
But many of the participants and their leaders say their point is not to outrage, but to express rage and affect politics.
"You have a community that is absolutely defiant in terms of speaking out about these issues," said Ron Stockton, of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, who teaches about issues that affect the local Arab-American community. "They are confident and they are outspoken.
"I read a story out of Florida recently which said Arab-Americans are afraid to speak out; they are intimidated," Stockton said. "That certainly is not the case here."
You can reach Gregg Krupa at (313) 222-2359 or gkrupa@detnews.com.
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