Bab al-Markaz 
Newsletter of the Arab American Action Network

Issue 26
November/ December 2011
Arab American Action Network
3148 W. 63rd St. Chicago, IL 60629
773-436-6060
773-436-6460
[email protected]
In This Issue
AAAN Updates
Feature: Anti- Arab Bullying
Quick Links
 
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List
Staff

Hatem Abudayyeh
Executive Director

Rasmea Yusef
Associate Director

Samira Ahmad
Lead Case Manager 

Gihad Ali
 
 Youth Organizing Program Coordinator

Halima Bahri
Youth Services
 Program Coordinator

 

  Muna Hammad
New Americans Initiative/ Citizenship Project
 
Nadia Musa
Childcare  

AmeriCorps Members

Medinah Abdelmuti
Hanan Ghanayem
Rowaida Nofal
 Muhammad Sankari
Fatmah Tabally
Shira Tevah
Laila Younes   

Board

Lamees Talhami 
President 
 
Ali Hussain
Vice President 
 
Louise Cainkar-Mashrah
Treasurer
 
Members
Laila Farah
Ahlam Jbara
Mona Khalidi
Souzan Naser
Ora Schub



Dear AAAN Friends and Supporters,

As we move into our 17th year of operations, the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements inspire us to work harder and smarter for equality and social justice.

 

Lowe's inspires us to continue to challenge  anti-Arab sentiment, racism, and Islamophobia.

 

Spoken word poet, singer, aspiring videographer, and former AAAN AmeriCorps member Aaisha Durr, now a nursing student, inspires us to remember that we make a real difference in the lives of Arabs, Muslims, and other working people and immigrants across Chicagoland.

 

  

And we're inspired to celebrate Arab Heritage Month with the children and families who remind us of our rich history, culture, and traditions.

Although you'll read below that the Arab American Resource Corps (ARC) won the "Outstanding National Service Program" award in Michigan, the project lost its funding, so 22 Arab organizations across the country will lose over 90 AmeriCorps positions in total. The AAAN need
s your support to keep these essential AmeriCorps members with us, members who helped us serve 20% more youth and social services clients in 2011 than in the previous year, when over 5,000 families walked through our doors.

 

The AAAN understands the importance of providing safety net services to families in need, but we also advocate for our community members, as well as promote leadership development and community organizing. These combined strategies lead to the social change that we are seeing around the world and in the U.S.

 

To help us make that change, please click here to make your tax-deductible online donation before year end! Or you can send a check to AAAN, 3148 West 63rd Street, Chicago, IL 60629.

 

Stay tuned for an exciting announcement about our upcoming annual event!

 

Best wishes for the holidays and thank you for your support!

Hatem Abudayyeh
Executive Director

 

 
AAAN Updates
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The Youth Organizing Program visited the Brookfield Zoo on October 22 courtesy of the Chicago Cultural Alliance. Amidst the beautiful fall sunlight and children dressed in Halloween costumes, the youth were tasked with finding scavenger hunt items, like a primate hanging from something, a stroller with two or more kids, and something spelled wrong. The winning team included Sarah Kiswani, Janan Abudayyeh, and Shadya Salem.

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Service Award
The Arab American Resource Corps (ARC), the AmeriCorps program run by the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), in which AAAN participates, was awarded the "Outstanding National Service Program" award during the Michigan Governor's 2011 Community Service Awards October 24. Congratulations to NNAAC and all our fellow ARC participants!

Read more here and here
 
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Youth Organizing Program members attended the National Conference of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression November 5. Speakers included Noor Elashi, who had visited AAAN the prior evening to talk with youth about her father Ghassan Elashi's unjust incarceration, and AAAN Executive Director Hatem Abudayyeh.  

 

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Family Empowerment Program staff attended a
Literacy Works training on November 4 about encouraging families to use math. They also attended the organization's 14th annual Tutor Forum November 9 to share ideas and resources with other educators.

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AAAN put up a display at Bridgeview Public Library for the month of November, Arab Heritage Month.  

 




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                           The Youth Organizing Program took a field trip November 13 to see the play Momma's Boyz by Teatro Vista at Chicago Dramatists. Told chronologically backwards, the story deals with the lives of three Latino youth growing up in the streets, providing them a rare opportunity to live out second chances.   
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AAAN celebrated Arab Heritage Month November 17 with a family reading and cultural night at Bridgeview Library.


See pictures here
 

 


 

 

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The Youth Organizing Program redecorated
the roof November 19.





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The Arab Women's Committee celebrated the Eid November 23. Congratulations to new American citizens! 


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The Youth Organizing Program visited the University of Chicago December 3rd. AAAN AmeriCorps member and U of C alum Shira Tevah, along with undergraduates Faisal Mukarram and Rawan Taleb and PhD student Ishan Chakrabarti, led the students on a walking tour and answered questions about admissions, academics, and life on campus.


ACCESS, NNAAC Refuse Lowe's Donation

The leaders of ACCESS and the National Network for Arab American Communities say their organizations will no longer accept donations from Lowe's.

 

NNAAC Director Nadia Tonova made the announcement this week as a guest on WDET's The Craig Fahle Show. She was speaking in response to a Lowe's' decision to pull its advertising from reality TV show "All-American Muslim" on The Learning Channel.  Lowe's made the move under pressure from the Florida Family Association, a fundamentalist Christian group that claims the program "riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."

 

NNAAC, which represents 22 nonprofit grassroots Arab American nonprofits nationwide, and its parent organization, ACCESS, have accepted donations from local Lowe's stores in support of community volunteer efforts, but Tonova said neither NNAAC nor ACCESS will to do so in the future. "While we understand that this was a corporate decision to pull advertising from the show, we feel that the Lowe's position does not align with our values," Tonova said.


Read more.

 

Civil Rights at School   

Local teen bullied for being Arab

Peacekeeping circle at AAAN
When 13-year old Manar Salama walked through the halls of the southwest side's Pasteur Elementary last fall, three other young women would follow behind her, bowing their heads, pretending to pray, and saying "ala-ala-ala-ala"-a chant calculated to sound like innocent sing-song to teachers, but which Manar knew was mocking the Arabic word for God, "Allah."  The girls put pictures and sensationalized articles about child brides in Yemen and Afghanistan in her locker, and would stand nearby, laugh, and say "that's going to be you" when Manar opened it. They called her "dirty Arab" and told her she was too fat for her jeans. One of them would routinely threaten to beat her up. Manar Salama was being bullied.

In February, after several months of this bullying, Manar told her parents. Her terror at school made her feel ill all the time. She had trouble eating and sleeping, began suffering from panic attacks, and missed school for the first time in her life. Her mother, Faida, called the school immediately and asked that Manar be put in a different classroom, away from her bullies.

By mid-April, Manar had not been moved to a new room. Faida kept calling the school, but was never put through to the principal. As the daily taunts and constant harassment continued, Faida came to the AAAN asking for help. AAAN staffers Muhammad Sankari, Cultural Outreach, and Halima Bahri, Youth Services, enlisted a colleague, Bharataji, the Southwest Youth Collaborative's (SWYC's) Safety Networks Program Coordinator for Chicago Lawn and Gage Park, and all three joined a meeting with Faida, Manar, the head of security, a counselor, and administrators from the school, and a representative of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

The AAAN stepped in to support Faida and Manar and help make space for a restorative justice process to occur, whereby everybody involved gets together  "to address the harm that was caused and what can be done to prevent the harm, and to figure out how the victim was affected and what brought the bully to cause harm," according to AAAN board member Ora Schub of the Community Justice for Youth Institute. Schub describes the process as "a way for everybody to bring their best self forward," and also "what you would want to have happen for your own kids" if they were the ones committing harm. Bharataji, an experienced youth organizer who has led peacekeeping circles for years, hoped to facilitate one with Manar and her bullies. "They were saying, when it was still hot, they really didn't want Manar to be in the same room as the girl who was doing the bullying. They didn't think that would work," Bharataji says.  "And I said, well, that's what we do, we're social justice people."
 
Read the rest of this feature story.

If you or someone you know is having a hard time dealing with an issue of bullying, call the Community Justice for Youth Institute at 312.842.5345; the Southwest Youth Collaborative at 773.476.3534; or the AAAN at 773.436.6060.   
 
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AAAN LogoThe Arab American Action Network (AAAN) strives to strengthen the Arab community in the Chicago area by building its capacity to be an active agent for positive social change. As a grassroots nonprofit, our strategies include community organizing, advocacy, education, providing social services, leadership development, cultural outreach and forging productive relationships with other communities.