We have all heard the cliché – take the good and leave the bad.  But, in issues of identity, is that too simplistic a view? What is “good” to one person is “bad” to another.  Love of community can be tribalism; commitment to family can be the loss of individuality; and rooted beliefs become obstacles to an ordinary life.

And when you are surrounded by peers who do not have these concerns, can it not be seen more as a source of confusion than pride?

Despite these difficulties, I believe there are advantages to having a hyphen in your identity.  For one thing, it gives you a wider view of life.  You understand that the world can be seen in many different ways.  It can also ground you; give you a sense of belonging.  

But, what we take from each culture?  Well, that is a question with answers as individual as each of us.

I want to hear from you want what you’ve kept and left in each culture.

Let's start with Maxime Chaya, the first Lebanese to climb Mount Everest.  Max Chaya became a Lebanese Hero when he raised, for the first time in history, the Lebanese flag to the highest point on earth - Mount Everest. Max Chaya was officially nominated a Seven “Summiteer” on May 15, 2006, after having conquered the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each Continent.

He has just begun his new expedition:  to make it to the South Pole unsupported!  Armed only with an Iridium satellite phone a pda and a camera, he will be blogging as he makes his way across some of the harshest terrain in the world.   You can follow his adventure on http://www.thethreepoles.com/.

Best of luck to Maxime!  We will be watching....

Bring you a little closer to home, we had another incredible accomplishment last week.  The corners of Franklin and River Street in Cambridge, MA have now been officially named Sami J. Herbawi Square.  For those of you that don't know, Sami is a long-time resident and supporter of Cambridge, as well as the owner of our beloved Andala Square. 

Best wishes to Sami!  (Pssst... don't forget our Second Sunday Social is this week at Andala Cafe, 286 Franklin Street, Cambridge... aka Sami J. Herbawi Square)

Finally, AAI also recently announced that their National Leadership Conference in Dearborn, MI from October 26-28 was a huge success.  Over 600 Arab Americans from across the country gathered to launch "Our Voice. Our Future. Yalla Vote 08" campaign. Presidential candidates, campaign representatives, nationally recognized commentators, and many top public officials addressed Arab Americans at the conference. You can see highlights of the weekend including speeches from Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson, Republican candidate Ron Paul, Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards at AAI's YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AAIUSA.

So, in this week’s blog, I decided to share with all of you the three reasons I am excited about NAAP’s conference.

Reason #1: The Panels
This is our fourth annual conference and, let me tell you, we have learned a LOT.  One of the consistent pieces of feedback we have gotten is – make the panels more interactive.  With that in mind, we changed the format of the panels.  Each panel will be more of an open discussion than a lecture with tangible action items to follow up on after the conference.  We don’t want you to sit in a room and hear us talk. We want you to actively participate in discovering and nurturing ideas that empower and improve our community, building momentum that carries far beyond the conference.

We have also lined up top-notch speakers including: Dr. Jack Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs; Dr. Nawal Saadawi, an internationally renowned novelist, a psychiatrist, and a writer; and H.E. Afif Safieh, Ambassador of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mission to the United States.

In addition, the panels follow four tracks – social, cultural, political and professional.  With topics ranging from personal relationships in the Arab-American context to Arab feminism to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship to political unification, there is something for everyone at the conference. (You can see descriptions of each panel by clicking here.)

Reason #2: The People
It’s the people that have always drawn me to NAAP.  I feel incredibly privileged to have access to such a diverse set of top-notch talent. The conference provides me (and you) with the opportunity to meet NAAP members from across the country in both professional and social settings. 

One of my favorite parts of the whole weekend is the kick-off.  There is so much energy in the room as everyone prepares for a great weekend.  This year, we kick off the conference with a night at the Battery Gardens.  We will be featuring local lyricists Yasmine El-Shaymaleh and Remi Kanazi, the comedian Mohammad Masoud and DJ Jungle.  This is when I usually take this time to enjoy the entertainment and catch up with old friends.  (I am also usually scoping out talent to bring to Boston – so let me know if you have any ideas!)

On Saturday, I spend the day attending panels and meeting new people.  (Make sure you have business cards or some kind of contact information on you! You will need it.)  I usually end up taking a ton of notes to follow up on later.  After a hard day’s work, I am ready to blow off some steam.  This year, we will be taking sail on the Majesty Cornucopia yacht, circling the Statue of Liberty. A keynote address will be given by Dr. Jack Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs and acclaimed entertainer Nedal Jaloudi will be playing.

On Sunday, I will usually take in the last two panels and make sure to attend the conference wrap-up.  This is when I collect any last minute contact information I may have missed.  I always feel a bit sad at the wrap-up but excited too.  Sad that such a great weekend is over but excited about what I have taken away from the conference. 

 
Reason #3: The City
I will be honest – where the conference is held matters to me.  Although I am usually pretty busy during the conference, I like to travel and explore.  So, when I heard that this year’s conference was going to be held in New York City, I was stoked!  The Embassy Suites is in Lower Manhattan's Battery Park area and is walking distance from the New York Stock Exchange - NYSE, Wall Street, the World Financial Center, the New York Harbor, South Street Seaport, the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferries, the Century 21 Department Store and the neighborhoods of Tribeca, SoHo and Greenwich Village. Times Square, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Broadway Theaters, the Museum of Modern Art and Madison Square Garden are all just a cab ride away.

Hmmm… I may just have to go a day early.

As you can probably tell by now, I have a lot of reasons why I go to the conference.  I would love to hear your reasons for going or your questions. You can either leave a comment below or contact me at farrah.haidar@naaponline.org. 

Sama El-Bannan is also ready to help you with your conference questions. She can be reached at sama@naaponline.org.

By Ray Hanania – There have been so many biased movies made in Hollywood about Arabs and the Middle East, I went to see “The Kingdom” this week ready to mine for even a glimmer of hope that pattern might change. I left the movie theater feeling like I had struck gold. “The Kingdom,” produced by Peter Berg, is a great movie, and for that reason, I know it is going to take a beating in the American media. It already has.

“The Kingdom” was both factual and offered a realistic portrayal of how most Arabs and Muslims also oppose terrorism. But most importantly, it is not like the other films on terrorism, and instead the real driving charater is an Arab and Muslim who is as determined as the Americans to fight terrorism.

The film stars Jamie Foxx as a lead FBI agent who goes to Saudi Arabia after a brutal terrorist bombing takes place.

The bombing is especially vicious and sinister. First, a group of terrorist drive through an American oil camp gunning down American children and mothers at a softball game and barbecue. And then, an Arab who presumably was a friend to the Americans, stands up after the shooting rampage and declares “Allah uh Akbar” and blows himself up taking another dozen or so innocent children and mothers. Followed by a huge car bomb as investigators and American agents are sifting through the body parts for evidence, killing more than 100 people.

At that point in the film, some Americans in the theater hissed and yelled at the Arabs.

The saving grace of the film is that “The Kingdom” isn’t about a terrorist attack. It is about an Arab Muslim military officer, played by Ashraf Barhoum (Barhom) (Col. Al-Ghazi), who is determined to fight the terrorists as much or more so than the Americans.

And that is why many American media pundits have trashed the film. The idea that terrorism is not an ethnic product but really a product of bad politics is so disturbing to the American people because it undermines all that they have taught themselves.

Worse, in the introduction of the film, it advances the deep dark truth that Americans keep hidden in their Pandora’s Box. That Osama Bin Laden went to the Saudis and asked if he could lead his Mujahaddin warriors who defeated the Russians in Afghanistan to defeat Saddam Hussein in Kuwait.

Oh my gosh. Do you mean to tell me that Bin Laden hated Saddam Hussein? So why did we invade Iraq?

A good question Americans are not permitted to ask because it exposes the immorality of the Iraq War. Even though everyone with any knowledge knows that to be true.

And Americans hate truth that does not portray them in a good light.

As an Arab American, I don’t object to the portrayal of Arabs as terrorists, just as I don’t object to the portrayal of White American Men as serial killers.

What I object to is the fact there is never a counterbalance of a significant, positive image of an Arab in film. An Arab character who was a hero and a theme in which at least some of the facts of the Middle East could be presented in a balanced way so the story could sink or swim on its own.

But if Americans wanted reality, all they have to do is turn on the evening news to see how dismal American foreign policy is playing throughout the world.

So American prefer the fantasy to the reality in Hollywood. If a Navy Seal operation to free a dozen American hostages fails in real life, we write a Hollywood script showing a teenage all-American boy fly a fighter jet in a dog fight with a dozen or more fighter jets in some fictional Arabian country, and win. Or, we cast the ogres of anti-Arab characters, Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger leap into a cesspool of Arab terrorists with one arm tied behind their backs killing scores of villainous Arabs without as much incurring a serious wound themselves.

Can’t Hollywood script writers still convey the conflicts and turmoil of the world without pandering to racism and stereotypes?

Edward Zwick tried it in “The Siege,” the 1998 film starring Denzel Washington as the lead FBI investigator of a series of terrorist acts in New York City. But Zwick failed. The Siege had a somewhat sympathetic story line about the unfairness of profiling Arabs trying to stop terrorism. But, Zwick pandered to the political pressures miscasting all the terrorists as Palestinian, the all time bad guys thanks to Israeli propaganda.

Palestinians have a conflict with Israel, not with America. Granted, Israel is America’s spoon-fed pampered child and Middle East bully, but Palestinians have not targeted American society for major terrorism in a fight which has been going on for nearly a Century, thanks in a large part to American support of Israel’s government’s extremist policies.

Zwick tossed in the gratuitous below-the-belt kick. He cast Lebanese American actor Tony Shalhoub as a positive Arab character, a Muslim FBI agent whose son is rounded up along with the rest of the Arab scum. But then Zwick has Shalhoub slam in the face a Palestinian suspect taken into custody, later excusing his lack of professional by promising to tell Washington what the Palestinians did to “his country,” meaning Lebanon.

It exposed Zwick’s lack of knowledge, and bias against Palestinians.

I saw “The Kingdom” in a popular theater outside of Chicago. Only about 25 people filled the 300 plus seats on a Saturday.

In reality, Americans are just not ready for the truth.

They prefer to waddle in their own ignorance, because only ignorance can explain American foreign policy in the Palestine-Israel conflict, the invasion of Iraq and our failure, so far, to capture of kill the real terrorist, Bin Laden.

Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and author. Copyright Arab Writers Group, www.ArabWritersGroup.com. Redistributed with permission.  All opinions stated in this blog are the author's own.

Now, I don’t know if I agree with Eman entirely.  I do, however, agree with her assertion that Arab-American women, especially recent immigrants and first generation, are held to a much different standard than their American counterparts.  I know that my marriage was celebrated much more than my educational accomplishments.  And that my mother is more interested in when I am planning to have children than how well my career is going. 

What really fascinates me though is the role women themselves play in this state of affairs.  After all, if my mother is asking me about children, didn’t her mother do the same?  And what can I do as a future mother to break the cycle?

As I have grown older (and supposedly wiser), I recognize that my mother’s action do not revolve solely around perpetuating the culture she grew up in. They stem from her desire to see me connected to my heritage.  She understood that my acceptance into this community hinged on adhering to its norms and felt it to be her responsibility to teach me those norms.

I don’t know if I have really lived up to my mother’s standards.  The truth is that I did as many things as I could my own way.  And doing so has opened my eyes to the price my mother knew I would pay.  I wouldn’t have done it differently though.

The question is – will I tell that to my daughter?

Now, four years later, I would have to say that my answer has changed. Having finished school, worked for a few years, traveled more throughout the country and met a number of different people, I ask myself -  what are the biggest difficulties and challenges that we as Arab Americans face in the workplace and in the society in general? What kind of misconceptions do people have about us? Most importantly, what should we do about it and how should we deal with it?

I believe that Arab Americans have a responsibility to face these difficulties and misconceptions and try to change them. From my personal experience, I have found that one of the best ways to do that is to start with being an example for people, whether its at the workplace by having the right work ethics of being honest, hard working and diligent; or by showing people how our cultural values and our beliefs might be a bit different than theirs, but ultimately they do not contradict with theirs; or by being a good neighbor and friend to people in our community. We can show people that we are not so different after all.  Just like them, we strive to build a good life for ourselves and contribute to this society.

First, my eyes widened. Then, I began to laugh.  I could not believe it.  The article read worst the most 1950s American articles.  How could this have been published?

Now, at this point, you might be asking – so, what’s your point?  Well, my fascination led me to do a little research on Arab publishing and what I found astounded me.  It should astound you too.

The 2002 UN Arab Human Development report remarks on the “dearth of creativity” in the Arab world. There is a severe shortage of new writing and a decline in the film industry. Foreign book translation is also low: in the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, say the authors, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in one year.

To put it bluntly, in the age of blogs, RSS feeds, YouTube, podcasts and enewsletters,you are what you publish and Arab nations are publishing less than anyone else.