Wal-Mart Comes to Arab-America

Wal-Mart has just come to town. The mega store will surely hurt local businesses and is even taking it a step further. They have stocked up on specialty items to attract business from the Arab and Muslim community. I know this is a free market and all but surely this will hurt small businesses in town. More to come soon!
[Thanks Jess for story].

Neighborhood Watch

This program being pushed by Mayor O'Reilly will be what the citizens make of it. If they opt to make their city a literal police state, so be it. If they use this constructively, this program can actually be helpful.

http://www.pressandguide.com/stories/022708/loc_20080227007.shtml

We're Live...from Dearborn

So I hear there has been a big Bridge Card heist in the Metro-Detroit area. What does this mean for Arab-Americans? Chances are the blogosphere will soon be on fire with a flaming repudiation of Arabs, their questionable allegiances, and what they have been doing with the money they make from these scams. Well, let me be the first to declare Arabs are some of the hardest working Americans. So what does it mean if some Arabs have their hands dirty in this scam? In my opinion, it simply indicates Arabs are like any other group in this country. They are neither monolithic in act or belief and should never be generalized when something silly like this takes place.

Law enforcement officials, as usual, are attempting to yet again pin terrorist charges to a run of the mill fraud scam.


Agents from the FBI, Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Treasury assisted state and local agencies with the raids, which occurred around 11 a.m. Federal investigators are looking into the possibility that the money defrauded from the state might be funneled through the store owners and assisting organizations in the Middle East with ties to terrorism.“We look at this as a first step to see where this money is going,” said Bugbee, who mentioned the terrorist organization Hezbollah as a possible recipient of the money.

Once again, the presumptuousness of attention-seeking law enforcement officials will draw negative attention to this case and Arab Americans. Yet again the terrorism charges will certainly be proven false. Shouldn't law enforcement be playing down such allegations though? Why do they always pin these stupid terrorist charges which always pan out to be false? Shouldn't law enforcement know by now that some people just scam the system to make money?

Really, it's pretty ridiculous and I'm calling their bluff. There is an entire community which gets heat when something like this takes place and their presumptuousness does NOT help. Let the judicial system work. A spade is a spade. A scam is a scam. But a crook is not necessarily a terrorist.

Death of Mayor O'reilly Sr.

Here in Dearborn there was a service for the late mayor of Dearborn on Sunday. I had planned on attending but was caught up with some work. A number of Arab and Muslim leaders as well as a few of my friends attended the service. Within 14 months we have had 2 mayors pass away. Thats saying alot for a city that has had only 6 mayors since its consolidation with neighboring Fordson in 1929.