Brooklyn is the Mecca of Arab-America

It's been an incredible transformation, but almost overnight (night being a decade or so) Bay Ridge and other parts of Brooklyn have become sizable communities of Arab immigrants.

That's why, for one thing, this whole to-do over Debbie Almontaser -- her being bounced as principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy -- has so much import.

The city powers-that-be probably did not know the extent to which so many Brooklynites would be so absolutely offended by the way Almontaser was treated, the cynical way she was trounced from her position as principal of Khalil Gibran (the new Arab-themed public school) and replaced with someone who (we'd normally be reluctant to even say this but it is so very pertinent here) is not only not Arab, but is Jewish.

Of course we're awaiting a permanent replacement but the message has been sent already of disregard and (some have even said) of contempt for the growing community of Arabs and other Muslims in the great borough of Kings.

The fact of the matter is that close to half of the Muslims in Brooklyn and the rest of New York City are African-Americans, and there are strong bonds between the two communities (of immigrant Mulsims, largely Arabs, and African-American Muslims).

At one Arab school in Sunset Park, a private one, it was African-Americans from the black-led Ataqwa mosque (in Bedford Stuyvesant) who were providing security post-9/11.

Politicians increasingly are taking note of the new Arab immigrants and their growing clout.

It has to be noted that even Brooklyn Borough Borough President Marty Markowitz, not a radical by any means, felt compelled to show up at a rally on Almontaser's behalf and speak up for her and against the demonization of whole communities.

It will be recalled that what got Almontaser into this situation was that she was baited by a tabloid reporter who tried to get her to denounce other Arab Brooklynites for wearing the word "intifada" on their t-shirts.

She refused to do so, explaining instead that the root meaning of the word in Arab is a "shaking off" and she said that it was not in any way anti-American or anti-Jewish to wear the t-shirts.

And for that she was roundly trashed in neo-con New York media and unceremoniously yanked from the principal's office. Almontaser has an ongoing suit against the city in the matter.

Comments

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[Ajlouny]

I agree with her that the meaning of the word had no correlation to anything negative. It was an unneccessary action against someone that was in all fairness speaking a truth.