...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Ka-vetch, ka-vetch, ka-vetch: You think Mo Elmasry, Faisal Joseph and the socks like to whine? They’re pikers compared to the folks of Dearborn, Mich., “America’s Arab capital.” Toronto Star scribe, Michelle Shephard visited the 'burb and recorded some of its residents’ gripes:

DEARBORN, MICH.–In a time before 9/11, this town – home to the nation's largest population of Arab Americans – was one of George W. Bush's stomping grounds.

He spoke of the indignities of racial profiling and the use of secret evidence and the plight of Palestinians. And he appealed to the largely conservative nature of the population on issues such as abortion.

That was 2000, and many Muslims here had Bush bumper stickers.

Now, this Detroit suburb of 100,000 – often cited as a bellwether for America's 6 million Muslim voters –provides a study on the effects seven years of the Bush administration's post-9/11 policies have had on a religious and ethnic group.

Sharpen the focus further and enter the Shatila bakery on Warren Ave. on a busy afternoon. Every patron has a story about feeling like an outcast in the country where many of them were born or have lived for most of their lives.

Dr. Nazem Alhusein is a 46-year-old pediatrician who came here 21 years ago from Syria.

"In 2000, I voted for Al Gore," he says proudly, his Michigan baseball cap resting on a table inside the bakery. "Ninety-nine per cent of my friends voted for George Bush. Eventually, after we had him for two administrations, everyone felt I did the right thing."

Alhusein's wife is Canadian and his sisters live in Toronto, which means he drives north about once a month and endures repeated questioning at the border – something that didn't happen before 9/11, he says.

Syrian-born Ayman Saleh has a similar story.

"We feel like we're watched and held to a higher standard in every way," he says of travelling with his family.

The Shatila bakery is on a stretch of Warren Ave. that blends the Middle East with Middle America.

Signs here for halal meat shops, bakeries and grocery stores are mainly in Arabic – until McDonald's, KFC and Taco Bell logos mark the unofficial end of Dearborn's Arab strip.

West on Warren and it's a dismal row of auto-repair shops, liquor joints and dry-cleaning operation called Happy Cleaners, which looks neither happy, nor clean.

Dearborn's Arab community traces its roots to 1927, when hometown boy Henry Ford opened his car plant and Lebanese immigrants took advantage of his generous $5 a day wage for assembly-line work.

When immigration reform began in the 1960s and '70s, Muslim Iraqis, Yemenis, Palestinians and Syrians joined the Lebanese community, which had been predominantly Christian.

By the 1990s, Dearborn had a larger Arab population than any other U.S. city.

It's been called the Muslim capital of America, though its population certainly isn't representative of America's Muslims – since it is predominantly Shiite and there is no South Asian Muslim presence. Still, this is where politicians come to take the pulse of Muslim voters.

Last month, Barack Obama held a private meeting with Imam Hassan Qazwini, the Iraqi American who heads the Islamic Center of America, which boasts the largest mosque in North America, and is a favourite contact for world leaders.

Ushering a Toronto Star reporter into his impressive office for a recent interview, Qazwini offered tea and chocolates as he spoke of every Muslim American's "moral duty" to get involved in the November presidential election.

What unites U.S. Muslims, he said, is their fear of the erosion of civil rights and a "war on terror" that is really a campaign against Islam.

Qazwini related his own problems with profiling, saying he undergoes at least two hours of interrogation when he travels internationally.

"I'm someone who meets with presidential nominees, with the Pope and at least five times with President Bush since 2000 and I'm a well-known moderate leader in this country," Qazwini said.

"If this happens to me, what happens to the other six million Muslims in this country?"

Ironically, profiling was what he talked about with Bush eight years ago – when it was a problem that paled in comparison to what some Muslim and Arab Americans face today…

Tell me, Mr. Qazwini: Who’s to blame for the “profiling” (i.e. hyper-vigilance aimed at thwarting jihadi terrorist attacks)? George Bush? Or the jihadi terrorists?

Take your time mulling that one over.

Posted by: scaramouche at 10:21 | link | comments

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