Other Arabs That Speak Out for Justice

Israeli Arab Muslim Woman Speaks Out - Salma Abdallah,

Click here to hear her First Radio interview as a spokesperson for the Walid Shoebat Foundation

Born in Israel, to Palestinian parents, she attended a Catholic school and grew up in a vibrant mixed cultural and religious neighborhood populated by Christians, Muslims and Jews - all Israelis. In this mixed community of immigrants hailing from many countries of both Europe and the Middle East, Salma learned basic values, humanitarian lessons and survival skills.

Some of her closest confidants were, on the one hand, Jewish Holocaust survivors, and on the other hand, Arabs who originated in Jordan and Egypt. In this dynamic human cauldron, growing up as a Palestinian Arab in the cultural melting pot of Israel, Salma learned the complexities of interpersonal relations and coming to terms with being a bi-racial product of the Middle East.

Living in two cultures, as a young person she gained vital lessons on how to face life realistically and courageously. Welcomed in Jewish homes, she was also cared for and protected by Jews. From this early experience she concluded that co-existence was not only possible but desirable, if a diverse Middle East is to work. "This takes compromise and sacrifice - but it will be worth it in the end, " said Salma. "We have much to learn from each other."

According to Salma, "democracy is possible in the Middle East, but this will require much experimentation and considerable time to adapt it to the Arab experience and mind-set. It is something that I believe in strongly and feel that it can work. I saw how Israeli's created a vibrant democracy, even though hardly any of them had come from countries where democracy was known or practiced."

Some 25 years ago Salma's family relocated to the U.S.. she studied Spanish and also psychology, because she wanted to gain a better insight into people's mentality as well as get closer to the community in which she lived. "I went to college with the daughter of the PLO ambassador to the UN at the time. He was a very nice and objective man, and I never heard him or his family condone violence. I also never heard them condemn it."

As a proud Muslim woman, Salma believes that coming to terms with realities is of utmost importance today. She councils her Muslim community to accept the existence of the State of Israel and see the positive values that derive from its being a part of the Middle East. She also encourages Muslims to take responsibility for mistakes made in the past and not to blame others, like Jews, Israelis, Americans and so forth. And finally she advises them to deal with the problems within their communities and to take responsibility for improving their own culture, education and community life.

Salma takes this message of empowerment to mosques, churches and synagogues, as well as to high schools and college campuses, and to many diverse organizations and public forums. She brings her hope for peace and coexistence, and her belief in the future, to TV and radio audiences, and is often interviewed in leading newspaper and publications. She is a person who lives with faith in a better future for all.

Dissident Arab Gets the Treatment
by Ahmad Al-Qloushi

I am a 17-year-old Kuwaiti Arab Muslim and a college freshman studying in the USA. I was three years of age when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. My parents still remember what it was like for us during the invasion. Waiting for long hours in line for a few pieces of bread. We had darkness 24 hours a day from the burning oil wells. My two uncles are still traumatized from being kidnapped and tortured in Iraqi prisons. Most of all we remember our one-week-old baby cousin who died while the Iraqi invaders were stealing incubators from hospitals to sell them for profit. The Americans by contrast came in to liberate us and asked for nothing in return. I love this country for the freedom it provides and for rescuing Kuwait’s liberty in the first Gulf War. 12 Years later, America once again has selflessly protected my country and my people by removing Saddam Hussein.

I arrived in the United States for the first time 5 months ago with tremendous enthusiasm to study the political institutions and history of this extraordinary country.

I enrolled in Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California and immediately registered for “Introduction to American Government and Politics." I was shocked by my Professor’s singularly one-sided presentation. Week after week, I encountered a lack of intellectual and political diversity that I would have more commonly expected to have heard on the streets of pre-liberation Iraq. In this particular class I heard only one consistent refrain: America is bad.

A week before thanksgiving Professor Woolcock assigned us a take home final exam. The final exam consisted solely of one required essay: “Dye and Zeigler contend that the Constitution of the United States was not ‘ordained and established’ by ‘the people’ as we have so often been led to believe. They contend instead that it was written by a small educated and wealthy elite in America who were representative of powerful economic and political interests. Analyze the US constitution (original document), and show how its formulation excluded the majority of the people living in America at that time, and how it was dominated by America's elite interest.”

When I read the assignment I remembered back to my high school in Kuwait. Many of my teachers were Palestinian; they hated America, they hated my worldview, and they did their best to brainwash me. I did not leave my country and my family to come to the United States to receive further brainwashing. I disagreed completely with Dye and Zeigler’s thesis. I wrote an essay defending America’s Founding Fathers and upholding the US constitution as a pioneering document, which has contributed to extraordinary freedoms in America and other corners of the world - including my corner, the Middle East.

Professor Woolcock didn’t grade my essay. Instead he told me to come to see him in his office the following morning. I was surprised the next morning when instead of giving me a grade, Professor Woolcock verbally attacked me and my essay. He told me, “Your views are irrational.” He called me naïve for believing in the greatness of this country, and told me "America is not God's gift to the world." Then he upped the stakes and said "You need regular psychotherapy." Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America you must be deranged. Professor Woolcock went as far as to threaten me by stating that he would visit the Dean of International Admissions (who has the power to take away student visas) to make sure I received regular psychological treatment.

This scared me. I didn’t want to be deported for having written a pro-American essay, so as soon as I left his office I made an appointment with the school psychologist. She let me go with a comment that I don’t need regular therapy. As I left her office, I couldn’t help thinking that even my Palestinian high school teachers had never tried to silence me or put me in therapy.

I have since learned that mine is not an isolated case. Many students in American universities are being indoctrinated and silenced by biased professors who hate America. America saved my life and the lives of my family. How can I not speak out?

The local media picked up the story of what happened to me. Professor Woolcock then filed a school grievance accusing me, under section 5 of Foothill’s grievance code, of an “act or threat of intimidation or general harassment.” If you are confused by this, so was I. Foothill’s Dean of Student Affairs, Don Dorsey, would not let me see the grievance as filed but he summarized it for me by saying, "Professor Woolcock feels harassed by your having mentioned his name to the media."

As a result of growing media attention I am told that Foothill’s Board of Trustees has received hundreds of e-mails. I came to this country to study American political institutions and I have certainly been getting a crash course. I’ve discovered that, as a tax-payer funded college, Foothill has a 5 member publicly elected Board of Trustees who care passionately about Education.

Ironically, as I was going through all of this I learned that California State Senator Bill Morrow was introducing the Academic Bill of Rights to the State Legislature to defend academic freedom and intellectual diversity on California’s campuses. As a result of my own experience and the many stories I have heard from other Foothill students, I am helping to form a chapter of Students for Academic Freedom to get my college and my state to adopt this bill. You can encourage Foothill’s Board of Trustees to pass the Academic Bill of Rights as official school policy by emailing them at http://www.fhda.edu/about_us/board/.

Ahmad Al-Qloushi was born and raised in Al-Shaab, Kuwait where he attended English language school. He recently became President of Foothill’s College Republicans. He is a Political-Science major at Foothill College.

Walid Shoebat - "I am humbled by your praise and your words, I welcome you to the fold of righteous Arabs who speak out for Truth and Freedom in the World."

Biography of Zachariah Anani

Zachariah Anani was a teenage militia fighter. Born into a family of Muslim clergy in Beirut, Lebanon, he began Islamic school at age three. His grandfather and great grandfather had been imams (religious authorities), and his family expected him to carry the torch.

At 13 he joined one of the many military groups that existed in the early '70s. "All the religious fragments had their own secret militia," he says. "I was trained to fight and kill Jews, and to hate Christians and Americans."

His family was pleased with his decision because according to Islamic teaching, those who die in battle against "unbelievers" are assured of reaching heaven. Ironically, Anani faced the Israelis only once. Most of the time, though, the Muslim groups fought among themselves.

Soon after enlisting, he made his first kill. By the time he turned 16, "life meant nothing," he says. "Every time I killed someone and two or three fighters witnessed it, they would give me a point on my chart. I carried 223 points."

Even his comrades feared him. "Although we had a sense of loyalty to each other," he says, "we were ready to take out enemies or friends." When a fanatical Muslim joined his regiment and began knocking on doors to wake the others for prayer at 3 A.M., Anani warned him: "I don't want to pray. Don't come and wake me." When he heard the knock early the next morning, Anani picked up his gun, shot him, and went back to sleep.

Anani was soon promoted to troop leader and then formed his own regiment. But "life seemed painful and empty," he says.

Anani met a Christian missionary and had a spiritual journey and converted to Christainity which became a turning point in Zak’s life.

Zak initially tried to keep secret his new faith, apart from one professor, no one at his univerisity suspected he was a Christian. But in the Muslim neighborhood where he grew up, everyone knew it. He moved to the city's Christian sector, but the persecution continued. Even his father hired assassins to kill him.

Finally church leaders convinced him to leave Lebanon because his presence endangered others. In 1996 Anani entered Canada as a refugee. It took another three difficult years before his wife and three children could join him. After Anani debated with a Muslim scholar in the United States, his family was attacked in Lebanon. Two of his children required surgery.

Zak has been attacked numerous times for his faith as a Christian, even in Canada.

When in Lebanon he was nearly beheaded and was only saved when an army patrol came by and the Islamist gang dispersed leaving Zak with huge wound on his neck. Zak nearly blead to death and was actually technically dead for 7 minutes before being revived.

In Canada where he now lives, his house and car have been burnt, his family attacked physically as well as Zak himself. Speaking out in a free country sometimes is not as safe as it should be.