Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2000, pages 83-85

Education

ADC To Hold Annual Convention June 8-11

By Betsy Barlow

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee will hold its annual conference June 8-11 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia across the Potomac River from Washington, DC and near National Airport. The theme of the conference this year is “Truly Arab, Fully American.” On Thursday, June 8, the program will start with a briefing at l0 a.m. for congressional visits.

Speakers will be Muhammad Hallaj, retired professor and a member of the Palestine National Council; Randa Fahmy-Hudome, counselor in the office of Senator Spencer Abraham; Kit Gage, national coordinator for the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom; Edmund Ghareeb, media analyst and professor; and David Khairallah, Georgetown University Law Center.

A White House briefing will follow at l p.m., and then from 2:30 p.m. ADC members will visit members of Congress. The day will end with a kick-off dinner on Capitol Hill at 6:30 p.m., followed by a dance at l0 p.m.

The conference will start at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 9 with a panel on “A Vision for a Just Peace: The Land and the People.” Speakers are Azmi Bishara, Palestinian Arab member of the Knesset; Shafiq Al-Hout, former PLO representative in Lebanon; and Rashid Khalidi, president of the American Committee on Jersualem.

Speakers at the Friday noon lunch are Bill Lanne Lee, acting assistant attorney general, and Tom Campbell (invited), a Republican congressman who will be running for a California Senate seat in November. Kathy Kelly, coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, will receive a humanitarian award.

Speakers for a panel Friday afternoon at 2:15 on “Legislating Discrimination” are Malea Kiblan, Maher Hanania and Noel Salah, attorneys; Jeanne Butterfield, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; and Scott Paul, legislative assistant to Rep. David Bonior (D-MI). At 3:45 p.m. the topic will be “An Agenda to Lift the Sanctions on Iraq,” with Phyllis Bennis (invited), fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, and Paul George, director of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center.

Two concurrent roundtables take place at 5:15 p.m. The topic at the first one is “ADC: 20 Years Later—Taking Stock,” with Albert Mokhiber, ADC vice chair; Nabeel Abraham, professor at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, MI; and Merrie Najimy, ADC Chapter in Boston.

At the second roundtable organized by RAWI (Radius of Arab-American Writers) on “A Search for an Arab-American Literature,” speakers will be Barbara Nimri Aziz, executive director of RAWI; Hayan Charara, author of The Alchemist Diary; Ron David, editor-in-chief of the “For Beginners” series; Lisa Suhair Majaj, poet and scholar; and Amira el-Zein, professor of literature at Georgetown University.

At the Friday night dinner, the Sudanese novelist Tayeb al-Saleh will speak, and awards will be given to poet Naomi Shihab Nye, Lebanese musician Marcel Khalifeh, and a tolerance award to Robert Buchler, president of the Detroit Edison Company. A hafleh will follow from l0 p.m. to l a.m.

On Saturday morning at l0 a.m. a panel of journalists will discuss the media coverage of the Arab world and Arab Americans. The moderator will beDennis McCuistion, host of the McCuistion program. Invited journalists are John McLaughlin, host of “The McLaughlin Group”; Tom Brokaw, anchor and managing editor, “NBC Nightly News”; Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press”; Nat Hentoff, columnist, The Village Voice; Peter Jennings, anchor of “ABC World News Tonight”; Ted Koppel, anchor of ABC’s “Nightline”; and Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times.

At Saturday’s 12:30 lunch program invited speakers are the presidential candidates and the national chairs of the Democratic and Republican national committees. At 3 p.m. two concurrent panels will meet.

The first panel will address “Arab-Americans and Multicultural Education: Strategies and Planning.” Speakers are Zeina Azzam Seikaly, outreach coordinator for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University; Audrey Shabbas, Arab World and Islamic Resources (AWAIR); and Anas Shallal, Human Relations Committee, Fairfax, VA schools.

The second panel will tackle “U.S. Foreign Policy and the Arab World,” with speakers Mona Makram Obeid, professor and former member of the Egyptian parliament; Chris Ross (invited), former U.S. ambassador to Algeria and Syria; and Fawwaz Girges, professor, Sarah Lawrence College.

Two more pre-banquet concurrent workshops will meet at 4:30 p.m. One, on “Participating in the Electoral Process,” will be led by Abed Hamoud, president of the Arab American Political Action Council. The second, on “Growing Up Arab American,” will be led by Reema Ali, a student at Emory University, and Nawar Shora, law student at the University of West Virginia.

Speakers at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night will be Hanan Ashrawi, secretary-general of Miftah and a member of the Palestine Legislative Council, and (invited) Donna E. Shalala, secretary of health and human services. A lifetime achievement award is slated for consumer advocate Ralph Nader and a humanitarian award for Hans von Sponeck, who recently resigned from the U.N.’s Iraq oil-for food program.

At 9 a.m. Sunday morning a general assembly will be open to all ADC members, followed by a panel on the Syrian and Lebanese negotiating tracks, with Raghid al-Solh, scholar; Murhaf Jouejati, resident scholar, Middle East Institute; and Helena Cobban, free-lance writer. The program will conclude with a 12:15 to 2:15 brunch and discussion on Jerusalem with Walid Khalidi, Institute for Palestine Studies.

Registration for the conference may be made by phone, (202) 244-2990, or fax, (202) 244-3106. Various packages are available with or without meals. ADC has negotiated a special convention rate of $106 per night per room, single or double, for rooms reserved before May 25. Contact the hotel directly to reserve rooms at 1 (800) 228-9290 or (703) 920-3230, and mention the ADC conference to get the special rate. The hotel is located at 1700 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202.

Other Conferences

The Trans-Arab Research Institute, in cooperation with the Boston University Arab Students Association, presented a one-day conference on Saturday April 8 on “The Right of Return: Palestinian Refugees and Prospects for a Durable Peace.” Keynote speaker for the conference was Dr. Edward Said, University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, who spoke on “Dispossession as Distortion and Dislocation.”

Panels addressed the Israeli, American, European and PLO positions on the Right of Return, International Law, Social Conditions of Refugees, and Plans for the Future. Conference organizers were Naseer Aruri and Elaine Hagopian.

The 17th Annual Meeting of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies will be held April 28-29 at the St. Augustine Center, Villanova University, Villanova, PA. Topics for the program are “Tradition and the Challenge of Modernity,” Muslims and Christians Together,” “Revisiting Islamization in Pakistan,” “Secularism, Pluralism and Democracy,” and “Taking Stock.”

In addition, Caroline Williams will show and discuss her new video, “The Grandeur of Cairo.” Khurshid Ahmed, Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad, will give the keynote talk on Friday night on “The Implementation of Islamic Economics over the Last 20 Years.” For further information or to register for the conference, contact the program coordinator, Ms. Susan Hausman, 421 SAC, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA 19085; phone (610) 519-4791.

Audrey Shabbas and MEPC Teacher Training Opportunities

Audrey Shabbas, president of AWAIR, with the support of the Middle East Policy Council gives workshops around the country. On Friday, May 5 she will present a one-day program organized by the Boston Globe at St. John of Damascus Church in Dedham, MA. Call Christine Bezreh (781) 449-1230 for reservations.

Ms. Shabbas will this summer be giving full-week programs for Oklahoma City Public Schools (June 5-8), North Carolina State Office of Education (June 12-16), and for the Utah State Office of Education at a date to be announced.

The new catalog of AWAIR has many new and interesting titles. Request a copy by sending $1 to AWAIR, 2137 Rose St., Berkeley, CA 94709.

For the early elementary level AWAIR has The King’s Giraffe; Ali—Child of the Desert; and Pulling the Lion’s Tail, as well as Arabic bilingual versions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Girl Who Hated Books.

For middle school and above, books such as Red Cross/Red Crescent and Sister Cities explain the work of humanitarian and people-to-people programs (Cairo with New York, Bukhara with Santa Fe, both Giza in Egypt and Tehran with Los Angeles, Carthage, Tunisia with Carthage, MO, and Dushanbe, Tajikistan with Boulder, CO).

The Memory of Hands is a fiction collection of short stories centering on the lives of Muslims in urban America. Women of the Muslim World: Personalities and Perspectives from the Past include the lives of 21 women from the 8th century to the present. For more information about the workshops or the books, contact Audrey Shabbas at < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > or phone (510) 704-0517.

SERMEISS and NCUSAR Tour

The Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Seminar (SERMEISS) and the National Council for U.S.-Arab Relations will host a study tour for K-12 teachers June 13-29 in Syria. The 15 participating teachers will visit Greco-Roman ruins, early Christian sites, Crusader castles, churches, mosques, Ottoman Turkish monuments and Arab palaces in Damascus, Aleppo, Palmyra, and the Euphrates region.

Research Opportunities

The American Institute for Maghrebi Studies (AIMS) announces a competition open only to citizens of Maghreb countries who are conducting doctoral or post-doctoral research. Citizens of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco or Tunisia may apply by May 1 for grants for research to be conducted in Morocco or Tunisia.

Grants are typically for 20-45 days, but support for longer stays may be considered. Grant awards are typically $l,000-$2,500. Grant funds, which should be expended by Oct. 1, 2000, are made possible through support from the U.S. Department of Education. For futher information, contact the AIMS executive director, fax (801) 378-5730, e-mail: < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

Suad Joseph, professor of anthropology and women’s studies, University of California-Davis, is planning an Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, to be published by Brill in 2003 as a three-volume set. Joseph will be the general editor, with Julie Peteet, University of Louisville; Afsaneh Najmabadi, Barnard College, Columbia University; Seteney Shami, Social Science Research Council; Jacqueline Siapno, Australian National University; and Jane I. Smith, Hartford Seminary, as associate editors. The editors are soliciting at this stage information from or about scholars whose research is relevant to this project. Interested persons should contact Heather Nelson, c/o Suad Joseph, Anthropology, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616; fax (530) 652-8885 or e-mail: < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

Resources

The Textile Museum, 2320 S St. NW in Washington, DC, in connection with its exhibit “Flowers of Silk and Gold: Four Centuries of Ottoman Embroidery,” has launched its first virtual exhibit, a Web site developed in conjunction with the gallery museum. While the exhibit will be in the gallery through July 30, the virtual exhibit will remain available indefinitely.

The Web site offers an opportunity to learn about history, geography and daily life in the Ottoman Empire by looking at these colorful and intricately embroidered textiles. The site is divided into three sections: Textile Gallery, Ottoman Culture, and Teacher Source. While the three-lesson plans in Teacher Source are best used in conjunction with a visit to the museum, they may be used with supplementary materials if a visit is not possible.

A 12-page article examining U.S. policy in the Middle East, written by Stephen Zunes, associate professor at the University of San Francisco, has just been published by the Foreign Policy in Focus, as Special Report #9. This article will be of great value to high school and college students attempting to understand the goals, successes and failures of U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf, Kurdistan, Israel and its neighbors, as well as on issues such as Islamic radicalism, terrorism, and the struggle for democracy. The author concludes with some suggestions for a new Middle Eastern policy. With so much of the press simply cheerleading for the administration of the day, the candor of this piece is refreshing. Professors may wish to assign this article to open minds to a more critical appraisal of U.S. performance on its stated goals. The article can be ordered from Foreign Policy in Focus at P.O. Box 4506, Albuquerque, NM 87196-4506, phone 505 388-0208; fax 505 355-0619. The price listed is $5.

Middle East Outreach Council

The Middle East Outreach Council is celebrating its 20th year. The current newsletter, edited by Linda Adams, University of Utah, contains memoirs from those involved in its creation and first years, 1980-1986. They include Sheila Scoville, then at the University of Arizona; Jonathan Friedlander, UCLA; and Robert Staab, then at the University of Utah.

As part of the 20th year celebration, the organization has instituted an annual book award. Deadline for receipt of nominations is Sept. 1.

A special feature in the Spring 2000 newsletter is an article and teaching unit by former MEOC president Marta Colburn, resident director, American Institute for Yemeni Studies, on Kidnapping and Hospitality in Yemen. It may seem unusual to put these two concepts together, but Colburn does so carefully in a unit that will certainly grab students’ attention. Colburn herself was kidnapped, with her visiting parents, for 38 hours last year.

Newsletters are sent to members of MEOC; to receive regular issues, contact Mary Martin, membership secretary, at (215) 898-4690 or e-mail: < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >. To try for an extra copy of this particular issue, call editor Linda Adams at (801) 581-5003 or e-mail: < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

Betsy Barlow is the program coordinator for the University of Michigan’s Center for Middle East and North African Studies in Ann Arbor.

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