Arab Americans plan strong presence at 2024 Democratic Presidential Convention

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Updated 26 May 2023

Arab Americans plan strong presence at 2024 Democratic Presidential Convention

Arab Americans plan strong presence at 2024 Democratic Presidential Convention
  • Focus on more delegates, says AAI President James Zogby
  • New generation seeks inclusivity, not ‘stuck’ in Mideast politics

CHICAGO: Arab Americans are already planning to have a strong presence at next year’s Presidential Democratic National Convention, seeking to replicate and even exceed past achievements.

James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, or AAI, based in Washington D.C., said that while the community continues to face challenges overcoming discrimination and exclusion in American politics, it also continues to advance electing more Arabs to public office.

During an interview on The Ray Hanania Radio Show Wednesday, on the US Arab Radio Network sponsored by Arab News, Zogby said a younger generation of Arab Americans, who are moving away from the divisive politics of their parents’ homelands, would help strengthen their political empowerment. He added that “you get a very different mindset” from the younger generation here in America.

 

“The children of the immigrants have a different mindset. The children of the immigrants, when they take the lead, they find common ground rather than the divisions of their folks — (whose) feet are here but their heads are back home, as they say. What we find today is something of the same thing. The younger kids have a broader sense of being part of a community and look for common ground of issues of concern that are shared. And that is where we will go,” Zogby said, noting that younger Arab Americans do not get “stuck” in Middle East politics which pit various factions, movements and governments against each other.

“But when you deal with the generation of young Syrian-Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian American kids here, or the ones who are not so much kids but are focused on America and American politics, you get a very different mindset. I don’t think it will be that difficult. I think they want to get involved and they want to be a part of the process. And we will do our darndest to facilitate it. We have not in any convention since that ’88 one, we have never exceeded 80 (delegates) but we have always hovered around 50. I am sure we will have our component of a reasonable number of delegates because young people are running. They care about it and they want to be involved in the process. They did last time and they will do it again.”

Zogby said Arab American influence in presidential elections was strengthened in 1984 when the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson reached out to the community asking them to support his candidacy for president. Jackson, he said, “inspired” the Arab American political movement.

 

“We had never been involved in a presidential campaign before. There had been Syrians for Carter. Lebanese for Reagan. But there had never been an Arab American effort. And even in ’84 after the Jackson campaign, when a group of Arab Americans gave money to (US Senator Walter) Mondale, he (Mondale) gave the money back. They were very well known. They were St. Jude’s folks. Most of them from this group from Chicago. They were on the St. Jude’s board. But he was told to give the money back and he did. It was heartbreaking to them and infuriating for us,” said Zogby, who Jackson named as a deputy campaign manager for his presidential campaign.

“People turned out in record numbers to rallies and do all that stuff and they were excited that he was there talking to them, talking about them, mentioning the Arab American community’s name.”

Jackson did not win the Democratic Party nomination but Mondale, who won, lost in the November 1984 general election to then-President Ronald Reagan who went on to a second term.

Despite the loss, Zogby’s involvement in the Jackson campaign inspired him and others to launch the AAI in 1985 and to organize in anticipation of the next presidential election campaign in 1988. Democratic nominee Michael A. Dukakis lost his bid to Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush.

Zogby said Arab Americans elected a record 80 delegates to the Democratic Presidential Convention held in Atlanta in 1988.

 

 

“We decided that what we will do is we will continue what we did in 1984 and make it into a focused organization. Voter registration. Mobilizing the vote. Getting candidates, Arab Americans to run and being involved in public service and bringing our issue into the political mainstream. So, we did. We launched the (AAI) in 1985. We had one of our founding meetings in Chicago with our eye towards ’88 and how we were going to mobilize Arab Americans before ’88,” Zogby said.

“Well, we got sidetracked because the mayor of Dearborn ran on a platform of what to do with the ‘Arab problem.’ They are not like us. They don’t share our values. And they are ruining our darn good way of life. So, we focused on Dearborn voter registration and it turned out quite successful.”

Zogby added: “But by the time we got to ’88, we had an idea and that was to focus not only on mobilizing the community and getting them to run for delegate and win, but also to bring our issues into the Democratic state conventions. And we passed pro-Palestinian statehood resolutions in 10 states. We had part of the Jackson platform, at the national convention. And we actually had the first-ever national debate on Palestine from the podium of the convention as I introduced the Minority Plank on Palestine at the convention. But more important to me, was that we had 80-plus Arab American delegates. The previous high had been four. We were now at 80. And that was how successful our efforts were to get people to run.”

Since then, the Arab community has elected an average of 40 to 50 delegates at subsequent conventions where they have advocated for pro-Arab policies on the Democratic Platform including supporting a Palestinian state in 1988 and again in 2016. The conventions have also featured Arab American cultural events to raise awareness of Arab American concerns, from advocating for Palestine to fighting bigotry.

In 1995, Zogby was appointed as co-convener of the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee, or NDECC, an umbrella organization bringing together European and Middle Eastern Americans. And, Zogby has served in various positions with many presidential candidates including former Vice President Al Gore and US Senator Bernie Sanders.

When the Democratic Presidential Convention comes to Chicago Aug. 19 through Aug. 22, 2024, Zogby said the AAI will work with Arab Americans to host a festival showcasing all of the city’s various ethnic groups including Arab American culture and leadership.

 

 

“So, what we are planning for next year’s convention is a ‘Taste of Chicago Ethnic Fair’ where we are going to advertise: here’s the Polish restaurant, and the Irish restaurants and the Arab restaurants, and the Italian restaurants, and create a sense that the ethnic communities of Chicago have a real role to play in the (Democratic) party,” Zogby said, citing Chicago’s history as being one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse cities.

Zogby said the cultural event would help 2024 Democratic Convention delegates recognize the unique cultural and ethnic heritage of Chicago “and the Arab community will be a key part of that. We will try to do an event in the heart of the Arab community” making Arabs “a part of the bigger ethnic identity carrying them through the convention.”

He predicted it would not be difficult to replicate at the 2024 Democratic National Convention the achievements Arab Americans made during past conventions.

The Ray Hanania Radio Show is broadcast every Wednesday in Detroit on WNZK AM 690 and Washington D.C. on WDMV AM 700 radio on the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News.

You can listen to the radio show’s podcast by visiting ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.


Militants kill Pakistani soldier guarding polio team

Militants kill Pakistani soldier guarding polio team
Updated 31 May 2023

Militants kill Pakistani soldier guarding polio team

Militants kill Pakistani soldier guarding polio team
  • Attempts to eradicate polio in Pakistan have been hit by attacks targeting inoculation teams that have claimed hundreds of lives
  • Extremist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the CIA organized a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama Bin Laden

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani soldier was killed on Wednesday when militants opened fire on a polio vaccination team, the country’s military said, in the latest attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
Attempts to eradicate polio in Pakistan have been hit by attacks targeting inoculation teams that have claimed hundreds of lives in over a decade.
“Terrorists attempted to disrupt the ongoing polio campaign by firing on the members of the polio team,” the military said in a statement about the assault in the former tribal areas that border Afghanistan.
A soldier deployed to protect the vaccination team was killed during an exchange of fire, it added.
Extremist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the US Central Intelligence Agency organized a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is waging a campaign against security forces, claimed the attack in a statement to media.
Pakistan is grappling with an uptick in militancy since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan.
North Waziristan has historically been a hive of militancy and was the target of a long-running Pakistani military offensive and US drone strikes during the post-9/11 occupation of Afghanistan.


Iraqi killed fighting for Russia’s Wagner in Ukraine, says group founder

Iraqi killed fighting for Russia’s Wagner in Ukraine, says group founder
Updated 31 May 2023

Iraqi killed fighting for Russia’s Wagner in Ukraine, says group founder

Iraqi killed fighting for Russia’s Wagner in Ukraine, says group founder
  • Abbas Abuthar Witwit died on April 7, a day after arriving at a Wagner hospital in the Russian-controlled, eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk
  • Prigozhin confirmed he had recruited Witwit from prison, saying he was not the first native of an Arab country to have joined from jail

LUHANSK, Ukraine: An Iraqi citizen fighting with Russia’s Wagner mercenary force was killed in Ukraine in early April, the first confirmed case of a Middle East native dying in the conflict, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin told Reuters on Wednesday.
Abbas Abuthar Witwit died on April 7, a day after arriving at a Wagner hospital in the Russian-controlled, eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, the RIA FAN news site earlier reported.
Much of the fighting for Bakhmut was done by convict fighters, recruited by Wagner from prisons on the promise of a pardon if they survived six months at the front in Ukraine.
In response to a Reuters request for comment, Prigozhin confirmed he had recruited Witwit from prison, saying he was not the first native of an Arab country to have joined from jail.
Witwit, he said, had fought well and “died heroically.”
RIA FAN said Witwit had been wounded in Bakhmut, the city in Donetsk province that Prigozhin said Wagner had taken in mid-May, after a battle that had raged since last year.
Prigozhin previously said the whole conflict had cost 20,000 of his men’s lives.
In video published by RIA FAN, a man identified as Witwit’s father is shown receiving awards posthumously given to his son, and that he had supported his decision to enlist in Wagner as a “volunteer.”
“Abbas always pursued his freedom and wanted to be a man who defends his freedom and himself, and he told me he found his freedom in Russia,” he is shown saying.
According to court papers seen by Reuters, Witwit was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on drug charges in July 2021 by a court in the Russian city of Kazan. The documents said Witwit was a first year student at a technical university.


UK-based Islamic charities donate $24.4bn a year to good causes

UK-based Islamic charities donate $24.4bn a year to good causes
Updated 31 May 2023

UK-based Islamic charities donate $24.4bn a year to good causes

UK-based Islamic charities donate $24.4bn a year to good causes
  • Contributions came from more than 165,000 groups or individuals, says report
  • Number of Islamic charities has soared in last 20 years says Muslim Charities Forum

LONDON: Islamic charitable groups in the UK donated £20.2 billion ($24.4 billion) to local and international causes last year, according to an official report.
More than 165,000 groups or individuals contributed to the total, according to the study by the National Council for Voluntary Organizations, reported Kuwait News Agency on Wednesday.
According to a separate study by the Muslim Charities Forum, 600 organizations had now met the requirements and regulations set by the UK government for charitable work, up from around 25 at the turn of the century.
The initial Muslim-oriented charitable organizations were established in the early 1980s and mostly contributed to humanitarian causes in Africa and Eastern Europe, the study said.
MCF’s CEO Fadi Itani said his group’s study had shown that 150 Islamic charities geared toward international causes contributed £500 million (around $625 million) annually.
Forty-seven organizations have the capacity to gather £1 million to £20 million annually, said Itani. Approximately 30 more raised about £500,000 ($620,000) a year each, while 450 others contributed more than £150 million a year collectively.
The growing benevolence of British Muslims is backed up by a Walnut Social Research 2021 poll that showed they were the most charitable religious group in the country.
Walnut found that Muslim individuals donated around £370 annually compared to £165 for donors from other faiths.
 


Wildfire on Canada’s Atlantic coast forces evacuation of 16,000 people

Wildfire on Canada’s Atlantic coast forces evacuation of 16,000 people
Updated 31 May 2023

Wildfire on Canada’s Atlantic coast forces evacuation of 16,000 people

Wildfire on Canada’s Atlantic coast forces evacuation of 16,000 people
  • “It’s extensive. It’s heartbreaking,” said Premier Tim Houston, who announced a ban on woodland activity after visiting the disaster area to get a sense of the damage
  • The forest protection manager in the province's wildfire management group said it is safe to say that all of these fires were “very likely human-caused”

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia’s leader begged people to stay out of the woods and avoid any activity that could start more fires after a wildfire on Canada’s Atlantic coast damaged about 200 houses and other structures and prompted the evacuation of 16,000 people.
“It’s extensive. It’s heartbreaking,” said Premier Tim Houston, who announced a ban on woodland activity after visiting the disaster area to get a sense of the damage.
Many residents were eager to return Tuesday to see whether homes and pets had survived, while fire officials expressed concern that dry, windy conditions could cause a “reburn” in the evacuated subdivisions. The extended forecast is calling for hotter weather on Wednesday and no rain until Friday at the earliest.
Houston said the ban extends to all travel and activity in all wooded areas. That includes all forestry, mining, hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, off-road vehicle driving and all commercial activity on government lands, he said.
“Don’t be burning right now. No burning in Nova Scotia. Conservation officers reported six illegal burns last night. This is absolutely ridiculous with what’s happeniung in this province — three out-of-control fires, eight fires yesterday, 12 on Sunday. Do Not Burn!” Houston said Tuesday. “We have to do what we can to make sure we don’t have new fires popping up.”
Scott Tingley, the forest protection manager in the province’s wildfire management group, said it is safe to say that all of these fires were “very likely human-caused.”
“Much of it probably is preventable. Accidents do happen and so that’s why we certainly appreciate the premier’s message,” Tingley said.
Firefighters have been working to extinguish hotspots in the fire that started in the Halifax area on Sunday, Halifax Deputy Fire Chief David Meldrum said. He said Tuesday that it was too early to give an exact count of homes damaged or destroyed, but the municipal government put the toll at about 200 buildings.
Dan Cavanaugh was among two dozen people waiting Tuesday in a Halifax-area parking lot to learn if their suburban homes had been consumed.
“We’re like everyone else in this lot,” said the 48-year-old insurance adjuster. “We’re not sure if we have a house to go back to.”
Police officers wrote down names of residents and were calling people to be escorted to see what had become of their properties.
Sarah Lyon of the Nova Scotia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said an eight-member team was going into the evacuation zone to retrieve animals left behind.
In all, about 16,000 people were ordered to leave their homes northwest of Halifax, most of which are within a 30-minute drive of the port city’s downtown. The area under mandatory evacuation orders covers about 100 square kilometers (38 miles).
Sonya Higgins, who runs a cat rescue operation in Halifax, said she and more than 40 others waited in a nearby supermarket parking lot to be led into the evacuation area. They hoped to retrieve seven cats from two homes. She said the pet owners contacting her have been “frantic” to find their animals and get them to safety.


Pakistan ex-PM Khan in court as rights watchdog issues warning

Pakistan ex-PM Khan in court as rights watchdog issues warning
Updated 31 May 2023

Pakistan ex-PM Khan in court as rights watchdog issues warning

Pakistan ex-PM Khan in court as rights watchdog issues warning
  • The Islamabad High Court and a specialist corruption court granted Khan bail on Wednesday in the same graft case
  • Thousands have been rounded up since the Supreme Court declared that detention illegal and allowed him to walk free

ISLAMABAD: Embattled Pakistan opposition leader Imran Khan returned to court on Wednesday, as the nation’s human rights watchdog warned all sides are to blame in a rapidly deteriorating democratic crisis.
Khan’s brief arrest earlier this month sparked days of deadly unrest before Islamabad orchestrated a crackdown on his party, including mass arrests and a pledge to try some protesters in army courts.
The Islamabad High Court and a specialist corruption court granted Khan bail on Wednesday in the same graft case which prompted his arrest on May 9, his lawyers said.
Thousands, including grassroots supporters and key Khan aides, have been rounded up since the Supreme Court declared that detention illegal and allowed him to walk free.
Islamabad says the arrests are justified because it was targeted by anti-state terrorism, while Khan claims his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is being quashed ahead of elections due by October.
But Hina Jilani, the head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), issued a stark warning to “all political stakeholders.”
“Unless they desist from any further measures that could imperil the country’s fragile democracy, they may find themselves unable to steer the country safely through the multiple crises it is facing.”
Since he was ousted from office in a no-confidence vote last spring, Khan has waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, which analysts say was behind his rise and fall from power.
His arrest was widely seen as payback ordered by top brass after he repeated incendiary allegations that they plotted an assassination attempt against him.
The HRCP said “civilian supremacy has emerged as the greatest casualty” from the deepening political crisis, which comes as Pakistan suffers from a flatlining economy and worsening security situation.
“The government’s inability — or unwillingness — to safeguard civilian supremacy” and PTI’s “incessant humiliation of law... has led to making military interference in politics inevitable,” Jilani said.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch criticized Islamabad for agreeing to try 33 civilians in military courts for allegedly attacking army installations during the unrest.
“Pakistan’s military courts, which use secret procedures that deny due process rights, should not be used to prosecute civilians,” said associate Asia director Patricia Gossman.
As the clampdown on PTI continues, several senior figures have defected, leaving former cricket star Khan increasingly isolated.
He says arrests are being used to force resignations. Nonetheless he remains far and away Pakistan’s most popular politician.

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