Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Features
  • Comment
  • Store
The Arab Daily News

The Arab Daily News

Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem

  • About
    • About
    • Our Writers
    • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
    • Book Store
    • Contact
    • Submit Book Reviews, Press Releases
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Corrections Policy
    • Profile on Ray Hanania
    • Submit Press Release
  • Features
    • Food
    • Book Review
    • Humor
    • Movies
    • Travel
  • Arab Stores Targeted
  • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Heritage America resources
    • Directory
      • Groups & Organizations
      • Mosques, Churches
      • Restaurants
      • 2008 & 2014 Arab Media Directories
    • National Arab Heritage Month
    • Video: Chicago Arab History
    • Video: Photo Array of Chicago Arabs
    • Overview of Arabs in America
    • Hanania standup comedy
    • Arabs on the Titanic
    • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
    • Arab News Ray Hanania Radio
    • Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast
    • Podcast Info
    • Hanania Podcast intro
    • Live Arab Radio
  • Your Views
  • Hanania on Tiktok
  • Toggle search form
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12 American Arabs
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Dr. Manal Fakhoury has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Board of Directors, and that attorneys Spojmie Nasiri of California and John Floyd of Texas have joined the organization’s National Board.
    CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd American Arabs
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC: Honor Dr. King Day with Civility, Unity, and Action American Arabs
  • Citgo Gas Station and Quik Mart at 3759 W. Chicago Ave in Chicago ordered closed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot because a street gang member with an AK-47 killed someone in front of the store. Only Arab and Muslim stores are being closed by the Mayor
    When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot targeted Arab businesses in 2021 and 2022 Activism
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast Arab News
  • State Rep. Cyril Nichols interviewed on live Arab American radio in Detroit with host Ray Hanania Friday Dec. 9, 2022
    Nichols discusses need to improve Arab-Black relations in Chicagoland American Arabs
  • Voting sticker issued to voters in Cook County elections in 2016. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    Gov. Pritzker Announces Six Appointments to Boards and Commissions — no Arabs included American Arabs
  • Closure notice posted on the doors and windows of Arab American businesses during Mayor Lori Lightfoot's closure of Arab owned stores in June - Sept. 2021. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    Pritzker again ignores needs of Arab businesses in latest appointments Activism
  • Arab American Democratic Club (AADC) official candidate endorsements for the November 8, 2022 General elections.
    Arab American Democratic Club issues endorsements for Nov. 8, 2022 Cook County Illinois elections Activism
  • Arab Democrats urge NO VOTE on Gov. J.B. Pritzker re-election bid Activism
  • Assyrian American GOP issues endorsements in Nov, 8, 2022 elections
    Assyrian American GOP group endorses candidates in Illinois Activism
  • Abdullah Hammoud, elected Mayor of Dearborn Nov. 2, 2021. Photo courtesy of Abdullah Hammoud Facebook Page
    AHRC’s 2022 Spirit of Humanity Gala a Great Success American Arabs
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts Arab World
  • Rep. Cyril Nichols to be feted by supporters at fundraiser Saturday Oct. 22 Activism
  • Stand up For Human Rights website, United Nations
    UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sadistic’ punitive measures against French-Palestinian rights defender Salah Hammouri Activism
Chicago's racist Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered more than 150 Arab owned stores closed in 2021 in a racist effort o fight street gang crimes

Arab Daily News launches Arab American Network to fight racism

Posted on March 12, 2022March 12, 2022 By rayhanania 1 Comment on Arab Daily News launches Arab American Network to fight racism
SHARE ...
4         
 
  
4
Shares

  • Tweet

Arab Daily News launches Arab Community Network to fight racism

Arab Americans need to come together and act as one unified voice to demand the rights we are being denied in America. We need to call out activists who exploit these differences or fuel the divisions in order to give themselves power. We need to challenge activists who embrace and work with elected officials like Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot who have taken discriminatory racist actions against Arab Americans. If Arab Americans can’t come together, we will never get our rights and we will be ineffective in helping our people back home in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to name just a few countries.

By Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania

The Arab Daily News online newspaper is launching the Arab American Network page in order to help bring together all of the many and important Arab American community organizations.

Arab Americans are divided on issues of internal politics driven by the fact that Arabs come from 22 countries and are further divided by more than 100 ethnic subgroups and even religious and cultural distinctions. But those internal political divisions prevent Arab Americans from succeeding in achieving their full civil and human rights in America.

As a consequence, Arab American become easier targets of discrimination because of that weakness.

Too often Arabs will fight among themselves more energetically than they do when they fight for their rights in the larger society, including fighting to champion the rights of Arabs in their home countries including in Palestine, Syria and Iraq. A weak Arab American community means that Arab Americans are pushed aside by American officials on the local domestic front but also internationally.

American Arab Chamber of Commerce President Hassan Nijem is joined by Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez and 25 Arab American business owners who say Mayor Lori Lightfoot is wrongly closing their businesses. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
American Arab Chamber of Commerce President Hassan Nijem is joined by Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez and 25 Arab American business owners who say Mayor Lori Lightfoot is wrongly closing their businesses. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania

 

It’s a key reason why America is so pro-Israel and hesitant to criticize Israel’s government, for example, when it commits acts of violence against Palestinian civilians. Those divisions weaken the voice of Arab Americans when they fight for the rights of Syrians, for example, and are unable to persuade American officials to implement just policies to prevent further violence there.

 

What needs to happen is for Arab Americans to recognize that their inability to unify is undermining the struggle for justice in Palestine, Syria, Iraq and other countries. More importantly, those divisions are the leading factors that have allowed anti-Arab policies in America to continue.

Chicago, for example, has a long history of anti-Arab discrimination. Under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of the most anti-Arab racist mayor’s Chicago has ever had, Arab Americans were the target of his hate-driven wrath. Despite repeated efforts to work with Mayor Emanuel and change his discriminatory policies, during his eight years and two terms in office, Emanuel undermined nearly all involvement of Arab American participation in Chicago government.

When Emanuel was first elected, he ordered the city of Chicago to terminate the Arabesque Festival that had been established under his predecessor Mayor Richard M. Daley four years earlier. Emanuel also gutted the Chicago Human Relations Council and closed the Arab Advisory Commission, and he refused to acknowledge the annual Arab American Heritage Month celebrations which originally were held in November but in 2018 were changed to coordinate a national Arab American Heritage Month in April.

The State of Illinois, for example, passed a law that made April officially Arab American Heritage month and yet many of the state’s key political leaders including former Gov. Bruce Rauner, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former Mayor Emanuel and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have never organized celebrations of Arab American Heritage month the way they have for the Irish, Gays, Poles, Blacks or Hispanics.

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of the city's most racist anti-Arab mayors
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of the city’s most racist anti-Arab mayors

 

Mayor Lightfoot, who was elected to succeed the racist former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, boasted about her personal identity asn African American, woman and Lesbian to tout the rights of those communities. But she wen teven further than Emanuel in anti-Arab discrimination when she ordered a crackdown on mostly Arab owned and some other minority owned grocery stores in Chicago claiming that street gang members were using the all-night, 24 hour retail stores as cover following violent incidents. Under Lightfoot, Chicago has seen the highest level of gang related homicides in the city’s history. That’s ironic because Arab Americans supported her election.

Despite these glaring acts of racism by Pritzker, Emanuel and Lightfoot, several Arab American activists who chosen to partner with them to undermine Arab community demands for equality, giving them cover from criticism. That division paid off for those activists who have had their pictures taken with Pritzker, Emanuel and most recently Lightfoot in an effort convey their own personal self-benefit.

But these unchallenged acts of racism in cities like Chicago, for example, have weakened the national effort to secure stronger rights for Arab Americans.

J.B. Pritzker from his election campaign Facebook Page at UFCW union endorsement.
Illinois’ racist governor who has refused to work with Arab AMericans in removing discriminatry laws such as the one punishing anyone who bopycotts Israel.

 

Lightfoot created a Middle East and North Africa and Asian Committee that has so far done nothing to challenge rising anti-Arab racism. The group was deafly silent in confronting Lightfoot’s racist closure of Arab American stores. The appointment to the committee did not even go to an Arab American.

Worse, Illinois is one of 32 States that has adopted a law that punishes citizens and businesses that boycott and criticize Israel’s racist policies in the creation of illegal Jewish-only settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem. The law denies Americans who criticize Israel from qualifying for business loans through the state’s $180 billion dollars in Pension Fund investments. Those loans are given only to businesses that sign an affidavit that they do not support a boycott of Israel.

Nationally, this weakness has resulted in Arabs being excluded from the U.S. Census which is the foundation of ethnic power in America. Ethnic and national groups that are specifically named in the Census receive hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Grants, money taken from taxpayers, which includes more than 4 million Arab Americans.

Chicago's racist Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered more than 150 Arab owned stores closed in 2021 in a racist effort o fight street gang crimes
Chicago’s racist Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered more than 150 Arab owned stores closed in 2021 in a racist effort o fight street gang crimes

 

The Census data is also used to mandate the creation of Congressional Districts that unify ethnic voices. But when Arabs are not included, Congress ignores them and does not consolidate their voting power into one district thereby weakening their ability to elected members of Congress from their community who are Arab American.

What we need os for the Arab American community to wake up. To come out of their slumber and recognize the need to unify. They need to challenge leaders who fail to stand by strong unification and who continue to fuel divisions and embrace tolerance for differing political and social views and opinions.

In American politics, there is no such thing as 100 percent. When Americans elected people to office, they select the candidate with the closest reflection of their views and do not demand 100 percent agreement. They support candidates who build consensus and who embrace compromise to pass laws that strengthen individual rights.

It’s time this internal division ends.

It’s time that the community stand up to activists who place their own personal self-interest above the interests of the larger community.

It’s time that the Arab community punish leaders who embrace anti-Arab racists like Pritzker, Emanuel and Lightfoot. 

It’s time they demand these leaders join in pressuring these elected officials to change their policies and recognize Arab Americans as equal citizens in this country, in the 50 states, in the county’s and in the state legislatures.

Until we do that, we will always be marginalized and excluded.

The Arab American Community Network page ont his website will help bring honest and moral groups together to fight as one voice to defend Arab Americans from racist discrimination and bigotry and to ensure that Arab American receive their fair share of the services this country owes to them.

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
rayhanania
rayhanania
Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News
RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

Click here to send Ray Hanania email.

Follow RayHanania on Gettr.com, the uncensored Twitter Ray Hanania on Gettr, the new Twitter
rayhanania
Latest posts by rayhanania (see all)
  • Israeli-push behind effort to ban Tiktok in the United States - January 19, 2023
  • Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12 - January 18, 2023
  • CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd - January 12, 2023

  • Tweet

SHARE ...
4         
 
  
4
Shares
 
4
Shares
4         
 
 Tweet 
American Arabs, Bloggers, Christian & Muslim, Civil Rights, Commentary, Culture, Election, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, News, Opinion, Politics, racism, Ray Hanania, religion, Spotlight, Syria, Terrorism, The Arab Street, US Arab Politics Tags:Arab American heritage month, Arab American Network, Arabesque Festival, discrimination, fight racism, fighting discrimination, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, racism, unifying the community

Post navigation

Previous Post: Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expresses concerns
Next Post: Arab Chamber to host Arab Heritage Month dinner March 30

Related Posts

  • Daniel earl, murdered in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
    Blinken condemns Pakistan decision to acquit killers of Daniel Pearl Arab World
  • How Trump’s Military Parade Could MAGA: USS LIBERTY Survivors of The Six-Day War Lead the March on June 8 Arab World
  • USS Liberty: The Fix Was In Before The Blood Was Dry Bloggers
  • ADC Stands with Ihlam Omar
    ADC Stands With Congresswoman Ilhan Omar!  American Arabs
  • Senator Frances Black, one of the 2018 AAI Spirit of Humanities Award recipients
    American Civil Liberties Union to receive top national Arab American award Activism
  • Israeli snipers kill 6 Palestinians in Gaza Arab World

More Related Articles

Orlando’s PULSE and a Global Response American Arabs
Christian Baptists raise funds for needy in Iraq and Gaza Bloggers
The Election Results Paralyzed Me Bloggers
American Politicians, Bought and Sold American Arabs
RX: ZX Money and Suicide #JimKaz #BigPharma Bloggers
Antiochian American Church enthrone’s new Patriarch American Arabs

Comment (1) on “Arab Daily News launches Arab American Network to fight racism”

  1. rayhanania says:
    March 13, 2022 at 4:52 am

    as most chicagoans celebrate “Chicago Day” & all the city’s ethnic groups Thank you #YesterdaysAmerica for including #ArabAmericans in your story. it’s more than what mayors @RahmEmanuel or @LoriLightfoot ever did. April is #ArabHeritagemonth https://yesterdaysamerica.com/chicago-heritage-arabs-in-chicago/?utm_source=Arcadia+Publishing&utm_campaign=5c0750e825-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_02_03_54_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2c9e324320-5c0750e825-47808369&goal=0_2c9e324320-5c0750e825-47808369&mc_cid=5c0750e825&mc_eid=4daa71a046#utm_source=yesterdaysamerica&utm_medium=YANewsletter&utm_campaign=ChicagoDay

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • Tiktok.com/@RayHanania
    Israeli-push behind effort to ban Tiktok in the United States
    January 19, 2023
  • Ghassan Rubeiz
    To what extent is Hezbollah responsible for the current crisis in Lebanon?
    January 17, 2023
  • Image from Rashid-al-Din Hamadani's "A Compendium of Chronicles. Image courtesy of Wikipedia
    Why allow religious extremists to re-define Islam in the West?
    January 10, 2023
  • CAIR Executive Director and co-founder Nihad Awad
    This Thanksgiving, let’s use our Blessings for good
    November 23, 2022
  • NEWS
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12
    January 18, 2023
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Dr. Manal Fakhoury has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Board of Directors, and that attorneys Spojmie Nasiri of California and John Floyd of Texas have joined the organization’s National Board.
    CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd
    January 12, 2023
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC: Honor Dr. King Day with Civility, Unity, and Action
    January 11, 2023
  • Citgo Gas Station and Quik Mart at 3759 W. Chicago Ave in Chicago ordered closed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot because a street gang member with an AK-47 killed someone in front of the store. Only Arab and Muslim stores are being closed by the Mayor
    When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot targeted Arab businesses in 2021 and 2022
    January 4, 2023
  • NEWSWIRE
  • Arab Democratic Club Feb 12, 2023 Forum & Brunch flier
    Arab Democrats host forum for Chicago and suburban candidates Feb. 12
    January 18, 2023
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Dr. Manal Fakhoury has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Board of Directors, and that attorneys Spojmie Nasiri of California and John Floyd of Texas have joined the organization’s National Board.
    CAIR Announces Dr. Manal Fakhoury as New Board Chair, New Board Members Spojmie Nasiri and John Floyd
    January 12, 2023
  • AHRC Executive Director Imad Hamad
    AHRC: Honor Dr. King Day with Civility, Unity, and Action
    January 11, 2023
  • Stand up For Human Rights website, United Nations
    UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sadistic’ punitive measures against French-Palestinian rights defender Salah Hammouri
    October 19, 2022

Creative Commons License
All work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

  • 08-09-21-Ziyad-Ad-Pantry-essentials.jpg
  • 08-09-21-Ziyad-Sices-Ad.jpg
  • ZiyadBrandLogo-2016BlackRedBackgrnd.jpg
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib, book cover. Photo courtesy of Cune Press
    Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib
    November 1, 2021
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast
    December 15, 2022
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    “Ramy” cable series melds Arab world reality with every day American life
    October 22, 2022
  • The Ray Hanania Radio Show Live Wed 5 PM EST in Detroit, Washington DC, Ontario and on Thursday in Chicago. Watch the program live at Facebook.com/ArabNews
    Second Season of “The Ray Hanania Show” Arab American radio launches April 6
    April 4, 2022
  • American Arab CHamber President HassanNijem accepts the Proclamation from Chicago Ald. Roderick Sawyer at the Chamber dinner March 30, 2022
    Chicagoland celebrates Arab American Heritage Month
    March 31, 2022
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at Gab.com, MeWe.com and IDobbinate.com, the alternatives to Facebook and Twitter Censorship.

Click here to get information on The Ray Hanania Radio Show and its podcasts

Copyright © 2023 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme