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American Arabs and Political Participation Division of United States Studies American Arabs and Political Participation Edited by Philippa Strum Division of United States Studies American Arabs and Political Participation Proceedings of a Conference sponsored by the Division of United States Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars May 5, 2006 Editor Philippa Strum Consultants Michael W. Suleiman Yvonne Y. Haddad This conference and publication were supported in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. © 2006 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. Available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20004-3027 www.wilsoncenter.org ISBN xxxxxxxx Cover photo: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a living national memorial to President Wilson. The Center’s mission is to commemorate the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson by provid- ing a link between the worlds of ideas and policy, while fostering research, study, discussion, and collaboration among a broad spectrum of individuals concerned with policy and scholarship in national and international affairs. Supported by public and private funds, the Center is a nonpartisan institution engaged in the study of national and world affairs. It establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue. Conclusions or opinions expressed in Center publica- tions and programs are those of the authors and speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individuals or organizations that provide financial support to the Center. The Center is the publisher of The Wilson Quarterly and home of the Woodrow Wilson Center Press, dialogue radio and television, and the monthly newsletter Centerpoint. For more information about the Center’s activities and publications, please visit us on the web at www.wilsoncenter.org. Lee H. Hamilton, President and Director Board of Trustees Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Chair David A. Metzner, Vice Chair Public members: James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States; Bruce Cole, Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities; Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Condoleezza Rice, Secretary, U.S. Department of State; Lawrence M. Small, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution; Margaret Spellings, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education. Designated Appointee of the President from Within the Federal Government: Tamala L. Longaberger Private Citizen Members: Carol Cartwright, Robin B. Cook, Donald E. Garcia, Bruce S. Gelb, Sander R. Gerber, Charles L. Glazer, Ignacio Sanchez Table of Contents INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 Philippa Strum A HISTORY OF ARAB-AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTicipaTION 3 Michael W. Suleiman THE POLITICAL INCORPORATION OF IMMIGRANT GROUPS: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 27 Gary Gerstle MICHIGAN ARAB AMERICANS: A CASE STUDY OF ELECTORAL AND NON-ELECTORAL EMPOWERMENT 41 Ismael Ahmed ARAB-AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTicipaTION: FINDINGS FROM THE DETROIT ARAB AMERICAN STUDY 53 Ronald R. Stockton THE GENDER GAP IN ARAB-AMERICAN POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 79 Jen’nan Ghazal Read ELECTING ARAB AMERICANS TO CONGRESS: AN ACTIVIST REFLECTS ON PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS 93 Abdeen Jabara ON BEING PALESTINIAN IN A NATION FIXATED ON ISRAEL 101 Kathleen Christison ARAB-AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTIVISM AND CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE POST 9-11 ERA 117 Janice J. Terry LOSING THE BATTLE: HOW POLITICAL ACTIVISM GUARANTEES ETHNIC INTEGRATION (IN SPITE OF DEFEATS ALONG THE WaY) 131 Helen Hatab Samhan BEING PART OF THE SOLUTION 147 John H. Sununu PARTicipaNT BIOGRAPHIES 153 Introduction and Acknowledgements PHILippa STRUM Surprisingly little has been written about the participation of American Arabs in this nation’s political life. While immigrants from what was the area in the Middle East then known as “Greater Syria” began arriving in the United States at least as early as the 1880s, their initial perception of themselves as sojourners in a land they would soon leave inhibited their integration into American society and politics. Arab Americans have nonetheless been active in the public square since those early days, cre- ating numerous local and some national institutions of civil society and then becoming heavily involved in the U.S. labor movement. Many began to think of themselves as Americans in the second decade of the twentieth century, particularly with the outbreak of World War I. Since 1967, Arab Americans have created a number of vibrant national organizations, and their participation in the political process has increased to the point that the percentage of Arab Americans registered to vote in 2000 (88.5 percent) surpassed the national average that year of 70 percent.1 As the essays by Ismael Ahmed, Helen Samhan and Michael Suleiman note, there have been and are a large number of Arab- American officeholders on the local level. Arab-American scholars and activists, as well as non-Arab-American scholars who study the com- munity, nevertheless regard Arab-American influence on the policymaking process to be dispropor- tionately limited. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Division of United States Studies therefore convened a gathering of such scholars and activists to examine questions such as the following and to organize their answers into a coherent body of information available to the public, scholars, and policymakers: • How politically active are Arab Americans? What is the nature of their activism? • What are the incentives and disincentives for Arab-American participation in the nation’s political life? • Do levels of political involvement vary by region? by gender? • What steps would Arab Americans have to take to increase their political influence? The answers, presented at a conference at the Wilson Center on May 5, 2006 and included in this volume, were varied. Ismael Ahmed and Ronald Stockton focused particularly upon Arab Americans in Michigan, and found high levels of participation. Helen Samhan detailed the growth of national organizations and some of the lessons they have learned. Kathy Christison examined the political disincentives experienced by Palestinian Americans, and Janice Terry recounted the particular disincentives of the post-9/11 era for many Arab Americans. Jen’nan Read analyzed the impact of gender, and Abdeen Jabara presented an activist’s view of systemic disincentives. John AmeRicaN ARABS AND POliTical PARTicipaTION 1 Sununu offered suggestions for increasing the community’s political impact. Michael Suleiman and Gary Gerstle helped put the discussion into historical perspective by tracing both the history of Arab Americans and the history of the political participation of other immigrant groups. It was a robust discussion, as these essays indicate. There were differences of opinion about issues such as whether or not the Arab-American community (or, perhaps one should say, the Arab- American communities – for as Michael Suleiman emphasizes, Arab Americans are a highly var- iegated group of people) has the financial resources to become a major force in American politics; whether the issue of Palestine/Israel or the issue of civil rights is now of greatest importance to the community; whether U.S. politicians are willing to engage with the community; whether the best tactic is coalition with other groups and involvement in their issues or a focus only on the issues of specific interest to Arab Americans. The conference and the papers written for it, then, became a way of getting a conversation started and a means of suggesting the issues that bear further research and analysis. We at the Center hope this volume will add to the conversation and encourage future work in this field. * * * The idea for this project originated with Michael Suleiman, who was a Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center during 2005. It was he who played the lead role in identifying possible participants and then in helping with the editing process. Yvonne Haddad was crucial to the organizing effort, bringing her knowledge of the field to every stage of the process. Susan Nugent, the Division of U.S. Studies Program Assistant, was largely responsible for the arrangements and editing assistance without which no conference can take place and no pub- lication ought to see the light of day. She was ably assisted in that effort by Acacia Reed, the Division’s Program Associate. Lindsey Grossman, the Division’s intern, was also of great help in the editing process. Jeremy Swanston was once again responsible for making it all aesthetically as well as substantively appealing. The Division and the Center are particularly grateful to Geri Mannion and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, whose belief in the project and generous funding made it all possible. NOTES 1. Amie Jamieson, Hyon B. Shin, and Jennifer Day, “Current Population Reports: Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000,” U.S. Census Bureau, Feb. 2002, p. 2, available at http:// www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf; Zogby International poll, reported in Judy Aita, “Arab- Americans Claim Their Place at Republican Convention, Political Leaders Encourage Community to be Active in U.S. Politics,” Washington File, Sept. 2, 2004, http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2004/Sep/02- 89612.html. 2 INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWledGemeNTS
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