My American Neighbor? Bayan M. AL Momani
"My Arab neighbor," to go back in history to talk about how Americans observed Arabs, as being a collective term to refer Arabs coming from any Arab country. Usually Muslims are also considered Arabs as one American, visiting Jordan, once told me. The country is "Iran" which has its own ethnic and religious identity that is not related to Arab-Islamic world. The relationship between the two parts of the world, "East" and "West", goes way back in time. Each one of them observed and judged each other differently. Immigrants from the Middle East began arriving to America in the late 19 th century. Some came to escape religious persecution in the Ottoman Empire, but some came for economic opportunity to build a better life. But at that time, the typical Arab immigrant was young, male, single, and Christian. Over time, Arab immigrants saved money and invested it in small businesses. Arab Americans settled in cities and established communities, which included churches, clubs societies and publications. While they spoke Arabic, these early immigrants did not identify as Arabs. All the immigrants from the Middle East came with passports and identification papers issued by the Ottoman Empire. The terms "Turk" and "Syrian" were used interchangeably. 1 When someone reads about the history of Arab immigrants, or any reference, Arabs at that time were referred to as Syrians or Lebanese mostly after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire but not Arabs. The story goes on, in the history of Arab stories, during the First World War immigration from the Middle East dropped, but a second wave of migration began in the 1920s. The second wave of immigrants was different than the first in that it contained a significant number of Muslims. Immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s were about 70 percent Muslim and came from across the Middle East. 2 Greater ethnic and political consciousness of the late 1960s and early 1970s became institutionalized in the 1970s and 1980s and created several Arab American organization. These organizations would promote an accurate and positive image of Arab Americans and protect the rights of Arab Americans. These functions became increasingly necessary mostly as there are well organized media campaigns to link Arab Americans with terrorism which made them stereotyped and suspect to many Americans. 3 Arabs are also prejudiced in their own countries by the "other". If one keeps on reading history, he will find facts that exemplify this idea. William L. Cleveland's A History of the Modern East is an interesting book that gives a thorough and detailed history of the region in a very appealing and smooth way. Information can be easily found because of the organization of the book where each era is in a separate chapter. While reading one senses the effort made by the writer to stay unbiased, but in some places one finds him lenient in giving the whole picture. 1
Arab America Stories, History. W.K.Kellogg foundation, major funding for Arab stories. 2 same source. 3 same source.