Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August/September 2000, Pages 65-67

Southern California Chronicle

AAPG Forum Launches Program to Acquaint Candidates With Concerns of Minority Press

By Pat and Samir Twair

“Political candidates come for our money, but not our vote.” So said Kapsom Yim Lee, editor of the bilingual Korea Times at a June 15 panel discussion sponsored by the Arab American Press Guild.

Arab Americans could identify with her comment—Except that, as recently as 1984, U.S. presidential candidates wouldn’t even accept Arab-American financial contributions, out of fear of their Jewish donors.

The AAPG program, “Challenges Facing the Minority Media,” featured speakers Gerardo Lopez, editor of La Opinion; Robert Farrell, political editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel; Ms. Lee; and Samir Twair, AAPG president and Washington Report correspondent.

Abdelhai Hamoud was master of ceremonies for the event, which opened with a presentation by Lopez, who noted that, with a daily circulation of 135,000, La Opinion ranks 45th or 46th among the 100 largest newspapers in the country.

“Our foremost challenge, from our perspective, is to produce a daily newspaper in Spanish in the U.S,” he said. “Our reporters go out and gather facts in English and write them in Spanish every single day. Few papers in the world do this on a daily basis.”

Another challenge is the paper’s readership, composed of people from Mexico as well as other parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

“Most of these readers came from a homogeneous society, whereas here they are confronting a different cultural, judicial and financial system,” explained the Mexican-born Lopez, who received a journalism degree from California State University Northridge.

“We gather facts with the same rigor and discipline as Los Angeles Times reporters do,” he continued, “but we also must do public service journalism by informing our readers how to become citizens, acquire health care and participate in the political process.”

Farrell, a former Los Angeles City Councilman, told the audience that the Los Angeles Sentinel was founded in 1933 and is published each Thursday for 25 cents an issue.

There are an estimated 400 African-American weeklies in the U.S., he said, but Atlanta is the only city where there is sufficient advertising to support a daily black newspaper.

“We are a fact-seeking advocacy newspaper,” Farrell continued. “Our goal is to be there for an African American if he has a problem and to get his point of view across to the public.”

The Sentinel accomplishes all this with a staff of six full-time reporters and 20 part-time writers and stringers.

“What distinguishes African-American newspapers is that we represent the shortcomings of society,” he concluded. “Our advertisers are chiefly black, except for those corporations which target our community. Our publishers have to make their money elsewhere because our margins are very narrow.”

Lee stated that the growth of the Korea Times in Los Angeles has paralleled that of the Korean community, which numbers about half a million in Los Angeles County.

Opened in Los Angeles in 1969 with 12 employees, today the Korea Times has a circulation of 100,000 and an editorial staff of 50. Most of the readers are first-generation immigrants and speak Korean. Advertising is generated almost entirely from the community, and the paper generally prints more pages per issue than the Los Angeles Times.

Çhe foremost challenge facing her newspaper, Lee said, is biased reporting from the mainstream press, which exaggerates racial tensions between Koreans and other minorities living in the inner city.

“The [1992] riots were an eye-opener for us,” she said, explaining that some 2,000 Korean-owned businesses were destroyed or damaged. “This accounted for a $400 million dollar loss—half of the damage incurred by the rioting in South Central Los Angeles.

“Now we focus on stories on other ethnic groups and we participate in forums such as this,” Lee continued. Her newspaper encourages voter registration and strives to make political candidates aware of the concerns of the Korean community.

The first Arab-American publication in the U.S. was Kawkab America (Planet America), stated Twair, who said there now are five weekly newspapers and five monthly and quarterly magazines serving the estimated half-million Arab Americans living in Southern California.

Each of these publications prints around 10,000 issues, which for the most part are distributed for free in Arab markets and restaurants. Advertising generally is from local Arab businesses, car dealerships and medical professionals, as well as long distance servers, casinos and concerts featuring entertainers from Arab countries.

“Without exception, these publications barely survive,” Twair said. “So you might say the biggest challenge we face is just to keep publishing.”

On a more serious note, he said the Arab American press faces a challenge no other minority does: the barbs and slings directed against Arabs by the pro-Israel lobby.

“The pro-Israel monolith controls the American media, which always take a one-sided view in sympathy with Israel when presenting news of the Middle East,” Twair declared, “and continues to perpetuate anti-Arab and anti-Muslim stereotypes.

“American political candidates invariably are concerned only with the vote of their Jewish constituents who represent only 2 percent of the U.S. population,” he stressed.

“They overlook the fact that Arab Americans and American Muslims already account for 7 to 8 percent of the population and are growing daily. Sooner or later, the politicians will have to realize we are out there and we vote!”

As a member of the Arab-American press, Twair said he regards his foremost responsibility as urging Arab Americans to vote and to be aware of candidates who speak out for a just peace settlement in the Middle East. One of the most outspoken, he said, is California Congressman Tom Campbell, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

“I propose that the minority press unite forces and meet with candidates and convince them they need our help and endorsement to win,” Twair concluded.

During the discussion that followed, Lopez stated La Opinion is “in a dialogue mood.”

“In the future, when something happens in the Middle East, I will be able to talk to Arab Americans here for their reactions. And as I leave, I am taking your sensitivity with me.”

Farrell concurred, stating that “through personal contacts, we usually can go through three or four links until we can reach anyone we need to talk to in the Korean, Latino, Armenian or whatever community we’re concerned with.”

Commented Patrick Flynn of the Orange County Arab American Republican Club: “The ideas exchanged here tonight were thought-provoking, but the most significant thing is that the AAPG succeeded in getting top editors of the Latino, Korean, African-American and Arab press together to exchange their views and hopefully build a coalition.”

Islamic Relief Slates Fund-raiser

When Jehangir Malik of Islamic Relief (IR) traveled to the former Soviet Union in May to survey the conditions of Chechen refugees in Ingushetia, he was protected by an armed guard round-the-clock.

The Kashmir-born relief worker says he had observed desperate situations when Kosovars sought refuge in Albania. The Chechens, however, seem to have been forgotten by most international aid groups. because they have been labeled terrorists.

Ten organizations convening in Moscow, including Unicef and the International Red Cross, had no concrete answer when Malik asked them why Islamic Relief has come up with $2.5 million in aid to Chechnya, while they lag behind. Malik believes that, from the youngest child to the oldest senior, Chechens have been branded as terrorists, and thus deprived of basic survival assistance.

“Islam binds us as one ummah [nation], numerous hadiths urge us to share responsibility as one family,” said Malik at a June 25 program in the Southern California Islamic Center.

Historically, the Chechens have fought for independence from Russia—in the 19th century under Sheikh Mansour. In 1944, 400,000 Chechens and neighboring Ingushettians were deported to Siberia, where an estimated 30 to 40 percent died in the first year.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a statement of independence in 1991, but by 1994 the Russian army renewed its attempt to reassert control over Chechnya. Two years later, an estimated 80,000 Chechens were dead and three-quarters of its capital, Grozny, had been destroyed.

In 1997 Islamic Relief, which was founded in the United Kingdom in 1984 and had helped refugees in the former Yugoslavia, dispatched medical teams, an ambulance and supplies to Chechya and Ingushetia.

In October 1999, the Russians again launched an all-out attack on Chechnya, claiming it was in retaliation for the bombing of apartment buildings in Russia.

As the seige of Grozny began, Islamic Relief closed its office in Chechnya and moved to Ingushetia, where 300,000 Chechen refugees had fled.

“When they ran out of tents, the people took refuge in unheated trains,” Malik stated. “It was up to IR to send food, nurses, and water tankers. Eighty percent of the refugees were women and children and those youngsters were traumatized. There was littl¹ in the way of school supplies or teachers, the children wandered aimlessly. When we gave them paper and crayons to draw with, they drew images of dead people, crying women and tanks.

ûThe biggest menace this summer is water-borne diseases. If there is no political decision and the people start trickling back into Chechnya, they will be at the mercy of vengeful Russian soldiers. Our $2.5 million will be depleted by the end of August. We must raise funds from somewhere.”

One source is American Muslims. A fund-raiser is planned for Aug. 25 at the Sequoia Center in Anaheim.

When asked if it is petroleum resources or pipeline routes that induce the Russians to relentlessly hang on to control of Chechnya, Malik explained that, should the Chechens ever achieve independence, other separatist movements in the former Soviet Union would launch similar attempts.

The Chechens, he concluded, “are a brave people with very limited means.”

Afghani Women Protest Taliban Rule

In the United States, they would be Gen Xers preoccupied with boyfriends, hot fashions and the club scene. As refugees of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, however, Sahar and Sajida are solemn young women who doubt they will ever marry or have children. Most likely, they say, they will die violent deaths as “revolutionaries.”

The two have been in the U.S. for four months to inform Americans about their organization, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

“In America, you seem to associate the word revolutionary with radical or communist organizations,” said Sajida. “We are pro-women and pro-education for girls and boys, we believe in secular democracy. In Afghanistan, these ideas are revolutionary.”

One’s first impression of Sajida and Sahar (not their real names) is that they’re tiny and delicate, almost frail. But they hold fierce convictions and, upon their return to Pakistan in late July, they will risk instant death as they move from one underground RAWA school or clinic to another.

Pakistan gives full support to the Taliban, which, Sahar says, “emerged like mushrooms overnight in 1994 and seized control from other fundamentalist war lords.”

The problem is the Taliban are so fundamentalist they have banned education for all women and do not allow them to leave the home unless escorted by a man.

“This leaves the estimated 50,000 widows in the capital of Kabul with no option but to become beggars or die,” lamented Sajida. “Conservative Saudis and Iranians say the Taliban are denigrating Islam, but there is no resistance. The people are worn out from ceaseless war since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979.”

Before 1979, 40 percent of the doctors in Kabul were women, who also accounted for 70 percent of teachers and 50 percent of civil servants. It was only the fundamentalist Taliban, who are mostly Pashtun, who imposed draconian rules on women and their ethnic traditions on all other Afghans.

Sahar explained that RAWA was founded in 1977 as an organization which supported women’s rights and human rights for men and women. After the Soviet invasion, RAWA took an active part in the opposition to Soviet rule. One of its founders, Meena, was imprisoned, later moving to Pakistan in 1982 to continue her work with the thousands of Afghans who fled there.

Both young women speak of Meena in glowing terms, describing how she established literacy programs, clinics and schools in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. On Feb. 4, 1987, Meena was assassinated, most likely by the KGB and fundamentalists who disapproved of her social welfare work among women.

Inasmuch as the Pakistani government supports the Taliban, RAWA institutions, such as computer learning and English classes, are taught underground in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan.

Sajida says she has been beaten by Pakistani police during anti-fundamentalist demonstrations. Both have been arrested for selling the RAWA publication.

Sahar and Sajida were educated in RAWA schools; their mothers learned to read in RAWA classes and now serve as nurses in the organization. Sahar’s brother is a bodyguard for them when they travel in public.

“If the U.S. really wants to help, it should take practical steps and impose sanctions on those countries aiding the Taliban and supplying them with arms.” Sajida said. “The United Nations should send in peacekeeping forces and disarm all fundamentalist militias.”

Mindful of their imminent return to Pakistan, both were concerned that they not be photographed full-face.

“Someday we may be killed, but we don’t need to hasten it,” Sahar said. “If we are, maybe it will be a prouder death than from a natural cause.”

The RAWA Web site can be visited at <www.rawa.org>. The e-mail address is < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

Community Honors Nonagenarian Poet

At 92, Jordanian-born Ibrahim Sweidan is Southern California’s oldest Arab-American poet, and in June he was honored by the Levant Educational Foundation. The occasional was the celebration of the centennial of Gibran Kahlil Gibran’s birth and of a book written by Sweidan in Arabic on the life and works of the Lebanese-American writer.

Dr. Nabil Azzam performed on the violin, “Give Me the Flute and Sing,” a signature song written by Ziad Rahbani for Fayrouz, with lyrics composed by Gibran. Salwa al-Said read her poetry. A huge birthday cake was brought into the room in the presence of the Lebanese Consul General Dr. John Makaron. As the nonagenarian poet cut the cake, Dr. Makaron observed: “If there is a glorious way to celebrate the liberation of south Lebanon, this is it.”

Congressman Apologizes to MPAC’s Al-Marayati

For the first time in the history of Muslim politics in America, a member of Congress formally apologized to the Muslim community on June 23, when Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale) retracted his aide’s words about Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

The incident began when MPAC issued invitations to Representative Rogan, State Senator Adam Schiff, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti and Steve Cooley, a candidate for D.A., to speak at a June 18 program on “The Role of Alcohol in Crime.”

Representative Rogan and Cooley declined to participate in the program at the Crescenta Cañada Family YMCA. The event was co-sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, La Cañada Presbyterian Church and the Pasadena Unitarians.

Representative Rogan’s 27th congressional district is one of the most hotly contested in the nation, since Rogan was the House manager of impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Rogan’s district, which embraces Glendale and Pasadena, and have vowed since the impeachment hearings to oust Republican Rogan, whose Democratic opponent is State SenatorSchiff.

Problems began when Rogan’s re-election campaign manager, Jason Roe, commented to a Los Angeles Times reporter that he didn’t want Representative Rogan to be seen hugging “an apologist for Muslim terrorism” (i.e., al-Marayati). He went on to say that Schiff’s appearance at the June 18 forum “raised some questions about the associations he plans to keep” if elected to Congress. Roe also was quoted as saying, “It seems to me odd that Senator Schiff would feel comfortable, especially as a Jew, to be participating in this event.”

Representative Rogan issued a statement on June 21 defending his campaign manager’s Islamophobic comments.

The irony is that many Jewish groups, including the Los Angeles Anti-Defamation League, took exception to Roe’s statements because of his reference to Schiff’s Jewish heritage. The only Jewish groups endorsing Roe’s comments were the Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Defense League.

After Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups expressed their outrage, Rogan had a change of heart. On June 23, he issued a letter to Marayati, stating in part: “I have reviewed statements attributed to you. Many of them were hostile to Israel. As a longtime supporter of Israel, I strongly reject these sentiments. However, provocative foreign policy opinions do not equate with pro-terrorist opinions. I find nothing in your previous statements that I have seen indicating you encourage or support terrorism.”

It remains to be seen whether Rogan, already in the doghouse with Democrats for his aggressive impeachment stance, will endure yet another irony and lose the election because of the minority, but critical, Muslim- and Arab-American vote in California’s 27th congressional district.

Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.