Getting our point of view across

Leaders of Arab-American organizations who were in Cairo as part of a delegation visiting the Arab League met with a small group AmCham Egypt members on the morning of September 4 to discuss ways to present Arab perspectives more effectively in the United States. The breakfast meeting, billed as "Getting our point of view across: working with Arab-American associations, also focused on how to improve the images that Arabs and Americans hold of each other.

Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) president Dr. Ziad Asali, in a brief set of remarks, noted the relative weakness of Arab-American and Muslim-American voices in Washington DC political circles. "There is a scandalous imbalance of power in the United States," he said. "We need to mobilize and energize the Arab-American community."

Building a strong and influential lobby network will take time and hard work, he added. "There are no quick fixes. We will - if we start today - be able to make a serious difference 10 years from now."

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had raised the profile of the US Arab community, Asali said, but unfortunately this has been in an unfavourable light. "Arab Americans [previously] existed outside the consciousness of Americans," he said. "Now, we are part of it in a negative way."

While Asali's ADC is a pillar of Arab-American efforts at political activism, the Arab-American business community was also well represented at the meeting. Americas Arab Chamber of Commerce chairman Ahmed Chabbani and executive director Nasser Beydoun highlighted the significant role of Arab-American businesses in the US economy as well as how these businesses share the concerns of the wider Arab community with regard to US policy in the Middle East. "On the economic front, it is possible for us to make headway," Beydoun said. "The US understands trade and business. We are a capitalist nation."

The guest speakers reiterated that Arab-Americans are in every sense Americans, as well as being Arabs. The most constructive contribution they can make to improving US-Arab relations - and indeed their duty as US citizens - is to work within the American political system to make their voices heard, they said.

As for how to positively influence the US administration's attitudes towards problem areas such as Palestine and Iraq, where pro-Israeli organizations often seem to set the agenda in Washington, Beydoun echoed Asali's sentiments. "Politically," Beydoun said, "we are no match for the opposition in terms of making headway in the near future."

With regard to swaying the US media, he stressed that Arab Americans should consider buying stock in the major media organizations that they currently see as biased against them. "Many media outlets are publicly traded companies," he pointed out. "And believe me, these companies listen to their shareholders."

Other speakers described two upcoming initiatives aimed at strengthening Arab Americans' community consciousness. First, Asali introduced fellow guest Sam Hamdan, an event organizer and information-technology specialist who is involved in preparations for a nationwide Arab-American conference to be held in Detroit in May of next year.

Second, Ismael Ahmed, executive director of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) described plans for the proposed Arab-American National Museum and Cultural Center, due to open in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2004. The Museum will show the largely uncelebrated contributions of Arab citizens throughout American history. "People respect you when they know who you are," Ahmed said.

Most of the meeting consisted of an informal exchange of questions and comments with the roughly 20 AmCham Egypt members in attendance. In response to a question from Arab Banking Corporation corporate communications head Hanaa El Hilaly about Saudi assets being frozen in the United States, the Arab-American leaders said that - up to that point - they knew of know case of assets actually being frozen.

Executives at US financial institutions, they added, had assured them that people's money was safe in US banks. (Later the same week, the assets of one Saudi citizen were frozen following the addition of his name to the US government's terror-funding suspect list.)

Asali, meanwhile, warned of the dangers of "Clash of Civilizations" worldviews and stressed that the moderate majorities of all communities must work together to find common ground. He concluded on an optimistic note, however, stating - in a comment played up by the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly of September 12 - "We're going to win this one."

The guest speakers, along with the heads of other Arab-American organizations, went later the same day to address the Arab League on how they could help to facilitate more constructive US-Arab dialogue.

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