Tuesday, March 4, 2008

La Shish and Right Wing Bigotry

La Shish closed up shop for good yesterday but the fine dining and cuisine La Shish provided will not be the restaurant’s legacy. The right wing blogs have been on fire for years attacking Talal Chahine but unfortunately, many of the attacks were the result of stereotyping, bigotry, and outright racism.

It is true that Talal Chahine apparently cheated the government of millions of dollars of tax revenue and this is reprehensible. But the hoopla and identification with terror groups is something the Arab-American community has grown used to whenever one of its member’s attempts to evade taxes. As many in the community know, Talal Chahine was certainly not known for his Islamic devotion but instead the excess and pomp with which he lived.

At some of his establishments he served alcohol. This is by no means the sign of someone with a strict Islamic ideology since selling alcohol is strictly forbidden in Islam. I could care less about whether or not this man was religious, but instead wish to underscore the blatant contradiction reality has with what is being reported.

What is particularly disquieting about this entire situation is the alarmism with which it was received on the internet and the knee-jerk finger pointing which ensued. Talal Chahine was well embedded within the white establishment and if he was supporting terrorism, then those closest to him in local government must have been complicit.

Whether it was the Dearborn city officials who demand kick backs from successful Arab-American businesses or other very high ranking non-Arabs who were close to this man, I hope to see many arrested for accepting bribes and kickbacks from him. Afterwards, I would like to see terrorism charges pinned on as icing. But do we ever see that happen? Of course not. Although this may seem absurd, this line of reasoning is precisely that which the feds follow when it comes to Arabs.

On the flipside, it is possible that Chahine is not the Islamic fundamentalist the government is making him out to seem. The government recklessly pins terrorism affiliations to EVERY single tax fraud case that involves Arab-Americans and in my opinion, this strategy is intentional. The point is to build a climate of fear as a back drop to all Arab-American business transactions. Compound this with the enormous financial resources being thrown at Detroit federal law enforcement agencies because of its large Arab population and what results is a trigger happy fed which will accuse you of terrorism for running a red light!

Once again, I could care less about Talal Chahine or anyone affiliated with him and I certainly do not wish to be an apologist for him. But what I would like to bring attention to is the countless other businessmen who are not being treated as full fledged Americans. Having only superficial ties to the homeland of their parents, the only remnants of their culture, country, and sometimes even religion is simply their name.

These individuals identify as Americans before any other form of identification but must suffer excessive scrutiny and punishment if they partake in what millions of other white Americans partake in on a daily basis, that is, white collar or blue collar crime. It is by no means acceptable, but a cause for concern in our country which prides itself for its fair and just judicial system.

I said it before and I’ll say it again.
A spade is a spade. A scam is a scam. But a crook is not necessarily a terrorist

3 comments:

noam chomsky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
noam chomsky said...

It's unfortunate that Arab-Americans who break the law in terms of money laundering are always linked to funding terrorism. This writing hits the point beautifully. Great article!

HA55AN said...

Very well said. Many people I work with said the food was great. They also realized that this man wasn't very devoted to Islam as they asked me about the whole alcohol issue.
Common sense people are starting to see the media for what it is. And I hope blogs like this reinforce those perceptions. Great article, thanks for this.