A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories

322 Pages·2009·32.728 MB·English

by  Alia Malek

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“In a beautifully rendered work, Alia Malek succeeds in a challenging task: restoring humanity to a
community too long buffeted by the vagaries of chauvinism, bias, and ignorance. Her book . . . is at
once timeless, in its telling of immigrants in America, and unique, in its exploration of the diversity of
the Arab American community.. . . A stirring story of humor, loss, love, and triumph.”
—Anthony Shadid, Pulitzer Prize—winning author ofM'g/yt Draw: Near:
Iraq} People in the Shadow ofAmerimic War
“Great reading for anyone who is interested in the hyphenated American immigrant. . . . Beautifully
depicted. . . . The lives of these people who have come to the Land of Great Hope are compelling for
their struggles. . . . Engaging and enlightening, impossible to put down.”
——Helcn Thomas, columnist, Hearst Newspapers
“If you’re not an Arab American, then it’s really imperative for you to read this fascinating book. You
couldn’t ask for a more informative, engaging, and provocative introduction to millions of our fellow
citizens. From football star to soldier, from gay activist to union leader, cheerleader, minister, Democrat,
Republican, Christian, Muslim—Alia Malek brings the entire spectrum ofArab America to vivid, three-
dimensional life.” —Samuel G. Freedman, author ofjew Vs. few
“A unique, engaging portrayal . . . that is nearly impossible to put down. Malck [introduces] thpncadcrn-rw- -
to lovable, quirky, diverse characters who all have in common A desire to find comfortable Spaces in A
Country Called Amreeka.. . . A book of great imagination and unusual depth.”
——Steven Salaita, author ofAnti—Amb Racism in the USA and The Uncuyt‘ured Wars
“A deeply engaging series of portraits of Arab American lives in a profoundly complicated tinje. . . . This
should be a textbook across the nation—even the most reluctant readers will (hopefully) be enlarged,
their stereotypes neutralized.” —Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Habibi
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Among the surfcit of narratives about Arabs tha; have
been published in recent years, surprisingly little has
been reported on Arabs in America——an increasingly
relevant issue. This book is the most powerful approach
imaginable: it is the story of the last forty—plus years of
American history, told through the eyes of Arab Ameri-
cans. It begins in 1963, before major federal legislative
changes seismically transformed the course ofAmerican
immigration forever. Each chapter describes an event
in US. history—which may already be familiar to us—
and invites us to live that moment in time in the skin
of one Arab American. The chapters follow a timeline
from 1963 to the present, and the characters live in
every corner of this country.
These are dramatic narratives, describing the very
human experiences of love, friendship, family, courage,
hate, and success. There are the timeless tales of an immi-
grant community becoming American, the nostalgia
for home, the alienation from a society sometimes as
intolerant as its laws are generous. A Comm)! Called
Amreeka’s snapshots allow us the complexity of its
characters’ lives with an impassioned narrative normally
found in fiction.
Read separately, the chapters are entertaining and
harrowing vignettes; read together, they add a new tile
to the mosaic of our history. We meet fellow Ameri-
cans of all creeds and colors, among them the Alabama
football player who navigates the stringent racial mores
of segregated Birmingham, where a church bombing
wakes a nation to the need to make America a truly
more equal place; the young wife from Ramallah—
now living in Baltimore—who had to abandon her
beautiful home and is now asked by a well-meaning
American, “How do you like living in an apartment
after living in a tent?”; the Detroit toughs and the pot-
smoking suburban teenagers, who in different decades
become politicized and serious about their heritage
despite their own wills; the homosexual man afraid to
be gay in the Arab world and afraid to be Arab in
America; the two formidable women who wind up
working for opposing campaigns in the 2000 presiden—
tial election; the Marine fighting in Iraq was
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villagers who ask him, “\What are you, an \
here?” We glimpse how America sees Arabs \ a
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hows-Km: w .:“\ snerica. We revisit the 1973- oil embargo
that inmsxmg the American perception of all Arabs as
oil—rich sheikhs; the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis that
heralded the arrival of Middle Eastern Islam in the
American consciousnas; bombings across three decades
in Los Angelcs, Oklahoma City, and New York City
that bring terrorism to American soil; and both wars
in Iraq that have posed Arabs as the enemies ofAmerim.
In a post—9/1 1 world, Arabic names are everywhere
in America, but our eyes glaze over them; we sometima
don’t know how to pronounce them or understand
whence they come. A Country CalledAmree/ea gives us
the faces behind those names and tells the story of a
community it has become essential for us to understand.
We can’t afford to be oblivious.
ALIA MALEK is an author and civil rights lawyer.
Born in Baltimore to Syrian immigrant parents, she
began her legal career as a trial attorney at the US.
Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. After
practicing law in the States, Lebanon, and the West
Bank, Malck, who has degrees from Johns Hopkins and
Georgetown universities, earned her master’s degree in
journalism from Columbia University. Her reportage
has appeared in Salon, T17: Columbia journalism
Review, and The New York Times.T his is her first book.
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A C O U N T R Y C A L L E D
A M R E E K A
Arab Roots, American Stories
Alia Malek
3 1336 08624 8359
Free Press
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Copyright © 2009 by Alia Malek
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Library of Congress Cataloging—in-Publication Data
Malek, Alia.
A country called Amreeka: Arab roots, American stories / Alia Malek.
p. cm.
1. Arab Americans—Case studies. 2. Arab Americans—Social conditions—Case studies.
3.1mmigrants—United States—Case studies. I. Title.
E184.A65M35 2009
973'.04927—dc22 2008055091
ISBN 978-1-4165—8972-3
ISBN 978—1-4165-9268-6 (ebook)
To
Leyla, for believing
Rana, for reading
Hussam, for faith
Samar, for common sense

C O N T E N T S
Foreword ix
Prologue 3
SEPTEMBERIS. 1963
IUNES, 1967 Home 25
OCTOBER17. 1973 Dissent 53
Driven 81
NOVEMBER4, 1979
Silenced 103
OCTOBERII, 1985
Bound 125
DECEMBER8, 1987
Under Suspicion 149
IANUARYI6, 1991
Coming Out 163
APRIL 19, 1995
Courted 191
NOVEMBER7, 2000
Beginnings 229
SEPTEMBERII, 2001
Native Foreigner, Foreign Native 243
MARCHZO, 2003
Epilogue 261
Afterward 265
A Note on Sources 269
Acknowledgments 291
Index 293