rab Americans are expected to vote in large numbers Tuesday, despite concerns over voter intimidation and weak outreach from the presidential candidates, representatives of major community organizations say.

The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has set up a voter protection unit staffed by lawyers to help dispel rumors that may have prevented some from going to the polls in the past.

"As always, there will be voter intimidation," predicted Abed Ayoub, one of five attorneys attached to the unit. Enthusiasm for the election is higher than it was in 2004, he contended, pointing to a recent ADC-sponsored event in Michigan that saw at least 500 Arab Americans register in just two days.

At the same time, the ADC has received hundreds of calls over recent months from Arab Americans who mistakenly believed they may have been ineligible to vote.

"One rumor was that if you are in foreclosure, you can't vote," Ayoub said. Another is the misconception that those who couldn't read or write in English -- often a problem for elderly Arab Americans -- would not be allowed to use translators.

But the greatest fear is of an incident like the one at the 1999 municipal election in Hamtramck, Michigan, where dozens of dark-skinned Arab Americans were asked to take a citizenship oath before voting. The move caused many to avoid the polls for fear of embarrassment.

Even in more recent elections, a number of complaints were made to ADC, though never made public, the lawyer said. "This year we want to attack the problem before it happens," Ayoub said.

Votes of the estimated 3.5 million Arab Americans could be pivotal, especially in swing states. And though a September poll by the Arab American Institute showed that Sen. Barack Obama was far more popular -- with a 54 percent to 33 percent lead over Sen. John McCain -- it also found that 20 percent of Arab Americans are not enrolled in any political party. And Arab organizations say both presidential campaigns have largely failed to recognize Arab Americans as an important voting bloc.

"Neither party has done a lot of outreach to the community," said Lelia Al-Qatami, ADC's communications and cultural affairs director. "Ethnic outreach is very common, but we haven't seen any with regards to the Arab community." [Link]

There are all sorts of people who have volunteered for the Obama campaign for passionate reasons of their own. One of the hardest-working subsets of Obama campaign volunteers are Muslim-Americans, who have struggled for acceptance into American culture ever since 9/11. Whisper campaigns designed to paint Obama as a Muslim (and therefore, a terrorist) has been particularly hurtful to them, especially after John McCain commented to a supporter that Obama was not an Arab, but "a good man, a family man," as if an Arab-American could not be either one.

Even worse for the community was an incendiary DVD circulated in thousands of newspapers and paid for by a right-wing political action committee entitled, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West." This was deeply distressing because then, even friends, co-workers, and neighbors began to regard Muslims they'd known for years with suspicion.

Needless to say, there is a strong Get Out the Vote effort underway within the Muslim-American community. While they are disappointed that Obama has not been more forceful in their defense, they do believe that his election would help a great deal to tamp down some of the discrimination they have had to face[.] [Link]

When Ahmad Waizy from Lindome tried to complete an international payment transaction on Skandiabanken’s website, he was unable to complete the payment as the bank rejected his first name.

After ringing the bank, he was told that Skandiabanken’s online payments system has a bar against names that could be of Muslim origin. Over 4000 people have Ahmad as a first name in Sweden today.

The Ombudsman against ethnic discrimination (DO) has asked Skandiabanken to justify its policy. Skandiabanken’s head of press Lena Hök told Svenska Dagbladet newspaper that the bank was only following the European Union’s sanctions list. This means that certain common Arabic names such as Hussein and Mohammed are affected.

However, Hök said that Skandiabanken welcomed the official report to the Ombudsman as they need a clear directive on the current status. [Link]

Representatives of Arab-American groups attending a public meeting with U.S. officials today remained skeptical about assertions that Treasury Department and FBI efforts to shut down charities suspected of funneling money to terrorist organizations are not based on religion or race.

During a roundtable discussion with Arab-American charity and community leaders at the Treasury Department headquarters, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorist Financing Patrick O'Brien said the government was "committed to strengthening our relationship with Arab and Muslim-American communities." [Link]

A new program by the U.S. Department of Justice targeting Muslim men of Arab descent for surveillance is unconstitutional, civil rights groups say.

The new "terrorist profile," set to be unveiled as early as this week, is meant to keep tabs on such men who frequently travel abroad and maintain extensive international contacts, the Detroit News reported Monday.

Under the measure, the men may be subject not only to stops at the U.S.-Canadian border, but also to wider investigations that could include electronic surveillance and detentions, whether or not they are suspected of wrongdoing, the newspaper said.

"What is dangerous is that they've moved away from reasonable suspicion of criminality into the area of what they are calling suspicious behavior," Michael German, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the newspaper. He said the group is preparing legal challenges to the initiative.

"Our people contribute economically and culturally in all aspects of American life, and this is like a slap in our face," said James Allen of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce in Detroit.

The guidelines won't circumvent constitutional limitations on the use of race, a Justice Department spokesman told the News. [Link]

U.S. says some Arab, Muslim men who regularly travel abroad may face more scrutiny.

Border guards recently began detaining Wissam Charafeddine every time he crosses from Windsor into the United States. Without explanation, he has been handcuffed in front of his parents and held apart from his pregnant wife for hours in isolated detention.

Charafeddine says he has done nothing wrong, "not even a driving ticket." But authorities, who always release him, say there is no remedy. Charafeddine is among a large group of Arab-Americans and Muslims who are detained for undisclosed reasons whenever they cross the border.

So far, Charafeddine is affected only when he goes to Canada. But as early as this week, the U.S. Department of Justice says it will announce a "terrorist profile" by which Muslim men of Arab and Pakistani descent who frequently travel abroad and maintain extensive international contacts may be subject not only to stops at the border but also to full-fledged national security investigations, which may include electronic surveillance, detentions, searches and interrogations, regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing. [Link]

The federal government is putting border officials at Mississauga's Pearson International Airport through sensitivity training so they can more appropriately deal with Arab and Muslim passengers.

The Canada Border Services Agency is contracting out training sessions for up to 500 of its border services officers, stressing the need for those who screen passengers to "effectively perform their enforcement responsibilities in a respectful manner" at Canada's busiest hub.

Groups representing Canadian Arabs and Muslims are welcoming the sensitivity courses, scheduled between this September and March 31, 2009, as necessary and overdue.

"After 9/11 we became all potential terrorists without doubt, and we still have some examples of people being picked up from the line because they wear long beards or the hijab," said Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation. "It still happens on a regular basis."

He said his organization has held meetings with several government departments, including the federal border agency, to raise complaints of profiling and discrimination, and even delivered training kits to the CBSA last fall.

"That sort of proactive act, or measure, didn't come out of the blue. We had to lobby very hard with them to realize that you cannot (target certain groups) because you have preconceived perceptions or because there are all sorts of clichés out there."

Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said training courses are an "excellent idea" that are in line with the seminars and speeches that he has delivered to federal employees, including with the Canadian Air Transportation Safety Authority, over the last two years.

But he still hears complaints of Muslim and Arab passengers returning from certain Middle Eastern countries like Iran and Syria being subjected to greater scrutiny than Muslims and Arabs returning from European countries.

Those travellers are also more likely to have their luggage searched, to be questioned about their activities and purchases abroad and to have their passport information taken down, Elmasry said. [Link]

Prosecutors filed hate-crime charges against a Seattle man accused of beating a convenience store clerk while yelling anti-Muslim and anti-Arab slurs.

The attack happened on July 3 in Fremont.

Court documents said that Edward Hugh Campbell was dressed in green camouflage and called the clerk a "bin Laden sympathizer" who did not respect his military uniform.

Prosecutors said Campbell smashed a beer can against the clerk's face, causing severe cuts around the victim's left eye.

Campbell is not an active member of any armed service. [Link]

In response to questions from the minority journalists, Obama argued that he's not compounding prejudice against Muslims in American when his campaign works to counter false reports that he is Muslim. "I think my credentials on supporting Muslim Americans are very strong," said Obama, noting that he spoke about discrimination against Arab Americans in a 2004 speech to the Democratic convention.

"I just don't like the idea of somebody falsely identifying my religion," said Obama. [Link]

The U.S. is its own worst enemy when it comes to the desperately important task of recruiting immigrants as spies, analysts and translators in the war on terror, new Americans are telling intelligence officials....

The government's policies raise suspicions and fear in the immigrants' home countries and disturb potential recruits here who might otherwise want to help. Some U.S. policies after the 9/11 terrorist attacks made things worse, said Kareem Shora, of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

"The policy missteps and mistakes tended to alienate the very community they are now trying to approach and work with," Shora said. "The NSA wiretapping, rendition, waterboarding, linking the war in Iraq with the issue of radicalization and the terrorism threat. ... What I ask is that at some point that these conversations address these hard issues."

Even the Japanese-American experience of World War II haunts this conference. Larry Shinagawa, of the University of Maryland's Asian American studies program, said immigrant groups have reason to be suspicious of the government's sudden interest. The government admitted in 2000 after years of denials that census records were used to track down Japanese-Americans by name and address for imprisonment in internment camps during the war.

One major need now is for people who can speak the languages most needed in the anti-terror fight. The children of immigrants, even if they don't grow up speaking their parents' language, can learn it to the required level of proficiency in 16 weeks. It takes people without that cultural heritage about 63 weeks, according to Jean AbiNader, a government cultural trainer with IdeaCom. Inc.

And then there are cultural matters as well. Immigrants and their children don't need to learn these things; they can teach them.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are collaborating on a summer internship program to begin to tap that expertise. Twenty college students are coming to Washington, D.C. for 10 weeks. They will get free Arabic classes in the morning at George Washington University and spend the afternoons working in the agencies' intelligence offices.

"We need these people, their expertise, their understanding of culture, of language. We don't have it today and it is a great deficiency," said Charles Allen, a long time CIA officer who is now the Homeland Security Department's intelligence chief. "This will be an enormous augmentation."

U.S. policies have until recently forbidden recruitment of first-generation Americans who have direct family ties abroad, a practice that began after World War II, despite the fact that many code breakers in that conflict were not born in America, said National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell.

New rules drop that obstacle, he said. Still, the security clearance process can take 12 to 18 months for a citizen without close ties abroad. It can go on for years for children of recent immigrants. McConnell wants to shorten that to 60 days. [Link]

On the October 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, during a discussion with right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, co-host Alan Colmes said, referring to a chapter in Coulter's new book, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans (Crown Forum): "[Y]ou're quoted as saying, 'Maybe I'm winning the camel jockeys over,' " to which Coulter responded: "Yes ... That's actually in the book. That's not a made-up quote." Colmes then asked: "So you have no problem referring to Arabs as camel jockeys?" Coulter responded: "Oh. Yeah. No. They killed 3,000 Americans. I'll be very careful with my language." In response, Colmes said: "[W]hen you refer to an entire ethnicity as camel jockeys, it sounds bigoted," to which Coulter again asserted: "Yes, and it's so mean after they killed 3,000 Americans, and I shouldn't be mean to them," adding, "We have sure moved away from the day when we called them Krauts and Nips."

The description of Coulter's book by publisher Crown Forum states: "Now you can read all the quotes that have so outraged her enemies and so delighted her legions of fans. More than just the definitive collection of Coulterisms, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans includes dozens of brand-new commentaries written by Coulter and hundreds of never-before-published quotations."

Later in the segment, Coulter said that her "camel jockeys" comment "was a quote on [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad." Colmes responded: "You were talking about camel jockeys. That's plural." As Media Matters for America documented, Coulter did refer to Ahmadinejad as a "camel jockey" in her February 15, 2006, nationally syndicated column, but she also used the plural version of the phrase "camel jockey" in her book without referring to any individual. [Link]

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid of Colorado was the special guest at the BRIDGES meeting on Wednesday, July 18, at the Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC) in Dearborn.

The meeting hosted representatives from numerous organizations and government agencies, as well as several local community leaders. BRIDGES Co-Chair Dan Sutherland, Civil Rights Officer for the Department of Homeland Security, along with Stephen J. Murphy, U.S. Attorney for Michigan, opened the meeting by welcoming Eid to Dearborn and thanking him for his presence.

Eid, an Egyptian American, has held office as a U.S. Attorney since 2006. After serving as Colorado's chief federal criminal prosecutor, he received the nomination by President Bush, shortly followed by unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Eid spoke to the attendees about his life experiences and his journey to becoming a U.S. Attorney. He told stories about his family's struggles as immigrants to the U.S. in 1957, and the obstacles he faced as a young man as the only Arab American at an all-white school.

ADC Michigan Regional Director and Co-Chair of BRIDGES, Imad Hamad, recognized the importance of Eid's presence at the meeting.

"It is extremely refreshing and gratifying to see a young Arab American in such a leading position as the only U.S. Attorney of Arab descent in the nation," stated Hamad after the meeting. "He resembles a true model of success, and stands as an example to all young Arab Americans in this and other communities who wish to engage themselves in government and politics. His presence here today is an affirmation of the fact that Arab Americans can achieve great things in this country."

Eid spoke extensively about the need for government agencies to work vigilantly and without bias or influence when handling cases involving suspected terrorism. He has had personal experiences with discrimination, including a post-9/11 incident involving his father at a hospital near his home in Colorado. Eid recognized that there needs to be a sense of responsibility in the process of gathering intelligence, and that people should avoid making quick assumptions. [Link]

A full house has turned out at the Directors Guild of America for the L.A. premiere of the new documentary "Reel Bad Arabs," which makes the case that Hollywood is obsessed with "the three Bs" -- belly dancers, billionaire sheiks and bombers -- in a largely unchallenged vilification of Middle Easterners here and abroad.

"In every movie they make, every time an Arab utters the word Allah? Something blows up," says Eyad Zahra, a young filmmaker who organized the screening this week with the support of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The documentary highlights the admittedly obsessive lifework of Jack Shaheen, a retired professor from Southern Illinois University, the son of Lebanese Christian immigrants and the author of "TV Arabs," "Reel Bad Arabs" and the upcoming "Guilty? Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs after 9/11."

In his tireless quest for evidence -- any evidence-- of Arab stereotyping, Shaheen has viewed (and reviewed in his books) thousands of movies and TV shows. What he has found, the 71-year-old academic says, are the most maligned people on the silver screen. It is a diss that dates back to the earliest days of cinema and continues today with popular television shows such as "Sleeper Cell" and "24," which Shaheen calls the worst of smears, "because it portrays American Arabs as the enemy within, like, 'Look at the terrorist -- hey, he's my next-door neighbor!' "

In the documentary, Shaheen shows dozens of film clips to illustrate his point. Arab women? Hip-swiveling eye candy of the oasis or "bundles in black." If Arab men are not presented as buffoons, or smarmy carpet-dealers, or decadent sheiks (and oh, how the oily sultans are smitten with the blond Western womens!), then they are basically your bug-eyed hijacker-bomber....

In an interview before the premiere, Shaheen says that the OPEC oil embargo, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis all conspired to cast the Arab as film villain beginning in the 1970s. "We pray and we kill," Shaheen says of the depiction. Like other stereotypes on film -- of blacks, Jews, gays, Latinos, Native Americans -- Arabs are now in the crosshairs.

"The Arab serves as the ultimate outsider, the other, who doesn't pray to the same God, and who can be made to be less human," says Shaheen, who argues that movies and TV shows do matter -- that they shape public opinion at home and abroad. "Do you have any idea what it must be like to be a young person watching this stuff over in the Middle East?" he says. And if you ask Shaheen who even cares about an old Chuck Norris film, he answers, "Have you ever looked through a TV Guide? These movies are on television constantly. The images last forever. They never go away...."

In the Q&A session after his documentary, Shaheen explains that he is not advocating a politically correct scrubbing of all portrayals of Arab Americans and Arabs -- even as terrorists. The problem is balance, he says.

Meaning? Hollywood still shows black pimps and Latino gangbangers, but pop culture has also made some room for Will Smith and "Ugly Betty." "I've seen the Arab hijacker, but where is the Arab father?" Shaheen says. What we need, he says, seriously, is a sitcom called "Everybody Loves Abdullah." [Link]