alia malek prisons personal stories of arab immigrants in the u.s. against the backdrop of major defense in u.s. history. the arab-american national museum in dearborn michigan hosts this one hour ten minute event. >> hi everybody. it's fantastic to be here in dearborn. this is one of the stops in my personal journey to completing this book. and it's true, the book in many ways did start after 9/11. i was a civil rights attorney at the justice when 9/11 happened, and most of the things people were talking about and prosecuting of the war on terror, how to keep the homeland safe, one of my colleagues from the criminal division was having a conversation with me and said you are never going to believe what you're talking to the eckert talking about upstairs' and brainstorming session. i braced myself and set let me know what are they say? he said somebody threw out the

idea of denaturalizing naturalized arab-american citizens. i said that is crazy. once upon a time basically when i was a teenager that was my fantasy to ship my parents back off to syria and i would have been the first person to have turned them in, but by the time i was a civil rights lawyer in the department of justice that didn't really seem particularly kosher and of course it was and that that historical precedent in the world were to we hadn't returned over japanese pollution and it didn't happen because it is illegal and the united states has evolved since the days of the internment but i kept coming back to this idea why is it possible to have these sorts of conversations and talk about arab-americans in this way? and the i.t. i kept coming back to is in dearborn it is an exception but in the national american consciousness arab-americans as americans are quite invisible. it's like we are a unicorn and he can wait somewhere in the

forest and maybe you'll spot one come negative and passed to the idea we are part of the huddled masses that came over in the late 1800's when other people easily think as americans like italian-americans or eastern european or jewish-american for irish-americans came over we weren't part of that in the imagination and we've really our contemporary narratives in society particularly present either and get all the other hand there were all these representations of arabs from over there and arabs as foreign and not part of hearing -- i don't have to go into the hills of those portrayals, and this was basically what i thought about it. i thought that kind of socks and i hope somebody does something about it, and i was going to keep being a civil rights lawyer where i can do something i would do something and i thought it is pretty inevitable somebody will write a book or somebody will sort of do something that

interests into the discourse. these other kind of images and other sorts of stories that have been so painfully absent from not our microgroups or the national conversation and i went about my life, and that including presiding on the eve of the invasion of iraq in 2003 and moved to lebanon and i worked there as an attorney and went about my life and did when i decided to make a sort of switch into journalism and came back and went to journalism school that colombia for years after 9/11 the book that i thought was inevitable had not yet been written or hadn't been published because it takes two to thank 80 someone to write it but nobody gave it a shot. and then that's when i said okay maybe i will take a swing at this, not really knowing anything about how to write a book. but so i started thinking there were certain decisions that had to be made and the first one was the narrative book and there had been a lot of political or academic work done but that's

not available to the wide audience or accessible. and something about storytelling that makes it harder for people to have their sorts of guards or prejudice is up and it was an easier rate that engaged hearts and minds to borrow the term from somebody else and so the second decision is hell am i going to capture of the diversity because when people say arab-americans that's also not particularly accurate. it's not reflective of what a massive amount of diversity exists within that moniker, the arab-americans, so what i decided to do what i knew i was going to have to have some sort of ensemble's cast, a wide variety of the plan we to introduce you to and the include people from this community so what i really wanted to focus on was the purpose of in the united states after 1964 and 1965 because there were these three legislative changes that happened on the national level but fundamentally changed america and essentially the

foundations for the kind of society that could elect somebody like barack obama, president in 2008 and those are the voting rights act of 65, the civil rights act of '64 and immigration act of 65 and most people don't know the legislation's and they all happened under lyndon johnson and fundamentally transform who is american, who can vote, who can participate in the american's creation of a society and political system and so when i decided to do is put together an alternate tie line of defense from 65 to the present that are important from an arab american perspective so of course these are important to all americans like 9/11 and other things since the american memory is much shorter than for example the air of memory. those defense the 73 energy crisis or the 91 gulf war passed from american memory as a significant moments and then other defense like what happens in california 1985 are completely unknown to anybody

outside arab america or progress of circles and had quite an impact on the community all across the country so once i started to decide to assemble the time when i went out and cast each of those chapters with a different arab-american to sort of live those moments of time in their skin and they generously share themselves and to sort of get a feeling for the book has the go forward and when i get a chance to read these events in time are turning points not just just in amreeka the story but it's the turning points in the lives of the people through whom we experienced these moments in time, and i should be even though the book has a time line that goes after 1965 it doesn't exclude the pre-65 immigration because i focus on people and places that have a history that goes back to the late 1800's so that gets wove in and and one of the things i wanted to do is place in the american consciousness and narrative's of our history that people from

arabic speaking countries are here just as long as other groups easily think of american to sort of the to get the idea of perpetual foreign that arab-americans specifically have come now to start the book on wanted to sort of make very tangible but both america and amreeka which is the arabic word for america with the places were like before the '64 and '65 laws and i start in birmingham 1963 so can anyone, does anyone know what happens in birmingham 1963? what happens specifically in birmingham? >> [inaudible] >> very good. yes, the bombing of alabama and the reason this is a significant event is because when is the constitution -- when does the court will segregation unconstitutional? it is 1954 in brown v. board of education. that is a long time for an dee dee to 1963 but anyone alive and well and 63 particularly in

dixie will be able to tell you segregation was a way of life. and was the agent of the church bombing that finally pushed jfk to pass a federal civil rights but he didn't actually live to pass it because the assassination shortlyer is why s legislative priorities lyndon johnson picks up and what i wanted to do was let you experience birmingham alabama and america before. i don't know if anyone can spot the arab-american in this picture. it's number 14. that is in salem, so this is -- he is our guide for what birmingham -- birmingham amreeka and birmingham america are like in this time and it's a tangible way to get a feeling for what's going on. this picture was taken in 1948 because the book, which is a book on arab-american opens up on the football field and birmingham, alabama in 1948. and i definitely didn't want to

give people what they would expect or think they know about american history or contemporary society. and ed's life intersects -- i started 40 because it as a person birmingham comes to be known because the surface football game in 1948, and i know this is a totally different conference what do you guys know what the iron bowl is? at between university of alabama and auburn. and they -- this competition start in the late 1800's but they stopped playing 41 years before 1948 because of some dispute over who had to pay the referee. finally they play again in 1948 and hear this game is at salem. his dad comes from what is palestine from ramallah, and his mom's parents came from lebanon and the emigrated to tennessee. so it coelom kind of becomes this football legend in birmingham alabama, and even though athletes can transcend certain racial boundaries, there are some things it can transcend

and you learn about that in the chapter but also, there's an interesting intersection of the church bombing and id's life that you see played out in the chapter. and that was -- this chapter is called prologue. from here we move to june of 1967. what happens overseas in june of 1967? >> [inaudible] >> good. i don't know who's keeping score between the different families but someone write that down. this chapter is called home, and the character is in baltimore. this is the dacia life in america by boat, and the reason this event is significant is for two reasons mainly among others of course. eight sycophant because it establishes that uneasy relationship between the arab americans and foreign policy in the middle east and second because these to come and i should say there were two distinct ways of immigration to the united states from the arab world from the mid-1800s to 1924 when the immigration from all places in northern europe came

to a halt. and they immigration after 1965. and these are kind of different groups of people. people coming over in the late 1800's, mostly from what is modern-day lebanon, syria, palestine and israel. they are mostly not exclusively christian. it's of skilled labor and they are coming before notions of nationalism and pan-arabism have really set in the region. after 65 a seems like much more skilled labor, much more people from the muslim faith coming over. people from other countries, you see egyptians, yemenis, you see iraqi is, you see all sorts of people from the arabic world coming over. but this event, the 67 war, and you see this in the chapter that takes place in dearborn between 67 and 73, kind of starts to bring them together because that earlier waves of immigration is in the second, third, fourth generation of young american by 1967 a kind of start to see that even over there do implicate that and have a consciousness

that starts to awaken and this chapter is called home. now this very handsome fellow is none other than mr. allen and in the suit is his brother rahm and this takes place here in dearborn and this chapter is anchored to the energy crisis of 73. it had to take place in detroit and i went about trying to find my perfect character because i wanted to set this place to visit this chapter in the american city most impacted by the energy crisis which is obviously detroit because dietrich's motor city and its place that makes the cars become kind of irrelevant at the time gas prices are extremely high and there are many arab workers working in the auto factories so they are sort of feeling it again not just as dietrich and dearborn but as auto workers and arab-americans are specifically feeling it in a different way because the kind of come to be blamed for this crisis it's

suppose it would not realistically started because of the embargo and this chapter is called a dissident and this is a significant 1973 because you start to see maturity and weakening in the kennedy and see them very after the 67 middle eastern war and they are willing and able to engage and i'm going to come back and read from this chapter and the reason i chose allen as a character is because you see him in 67 in the opening which i am going to read from a also a younger and less mature and i'm going to read from that chapter since you know the more mature version. you kind of see how that evolution happens. so this chapter takes place in november, so what happens november 1979. america becomes obsessed with the next three -- >> [inaudible] >> rich, the hostage crisis. that doesn't happen in their the world but the reason that's important here is because that's when you sort of start to see the with muslim and arab

americans lose their specificity. these people come from different countries, different religions, different backgrounds and yet all that starts to emerge as a amorphous muslim middle east that is a threat to america and this chapter is called driven and we experienced in the skin and these are persian and arabic middle eastern friends and you sort of see that drive that characterizes so many people in the community and you also see how there's that constant source of tension between how we are represented. now, the next chapter is the 1985 chapter about alex, and i'm not going to show the picture because it's kind of dramatic and will be a spoiler. but it's very significant because it is the first terrorist event to happen on american soil that goes out of the middle east conflict and casualty happens to be the arab american west coast director of adc and sycophant for arab-americans because it sent

through the community not only did this silent alex by murdering him but a lot of other people who start to feel like okay maybe we can economically be successful and maybe we can't see our kids go to grade schools and have great features but we are not about to descend on the topic of palesti.initl rate while from political activity. now the next chapter is 1987 and it's called found and it's about the beginning of the first. as a character is omar, who is a teenager. here he is in egypt but he is grown up in tyler, texas, a place people have names like tiffany and justin and they are blonden and southern baptist and omar is the only guy with hair on his body and at age 12 it starts with one curl hair and the next thing you know his hair is curly and he doesn't have any luck with the ladies and he blames this on his the arab and then he wants nothing to do it,

is a bomber as far as he's concerned. he doesn't know why a for the success with the place long gone and far away. but with the evin steps are to have an overseas he sees kids his age standing up to an occupation. he starts to sort of feel connected and it's interesting to see how his political or just identity awareness happens. there we go to 1991 and the first gulf war back and experience this with a family that lives in a small rural midwestern town, and it's a great way to see how american tolerance can which sometimes is easily extend it can be so quickly removed and then how it can reappear again and that kind of shows that shortness of the american memory. from there we mid-1995. what happens in april, 1995? anybody? oklahoma -- the oklahoma city bombing. this chapter is called coming now. it's called coming out for two reasons.

first, by 1995, from 96 to 97 when arab-americans' get the kick in the pence to become politically active because of the six-day war, by 1995 there is definitely a bit more of a willingness to be out as a cony nt, and then all of a sudden the bombing happened in oklahoma and everyone blames the areas where there as an american or arab-americans and you see this initial recoil but in the community and people stay out in part because it turns out as timothy mcveigh and the guy for this chapter is revere and he's coming out as both day and as arab and it's a great way to sort of explore that idea that the effort and, that for imports of who you are can change depending on where you are. and then anybody recognize this? the next chapter is about the u.s. presidential election and we experience with mia who is a

democratic operative and renda who is a republican. and it's to ways of being courted, the vote being courted by both campaigns. it's interesting to see how people approach and different campaigns approach organizing and mobilizing and moving and courting the community. and it takes place in other parts. i know i feel so bad i forever memorialize mia in this picture but this was2 [laughter] >> it has a very surprise ending. and this is the 9/11 chapter which we experience in the skin of a catholic priest in brooklyn but we don't just stay within that community obviously because of his brooklyn and new york and it is -- he is a great lens to show what happens. it shows people perish within 9/11 in the towers and the fields and a plan. and there's a startling discovery in the world trade center rubble that connects this

church and connects the history of the very first arab colony in the united states which was known as little syria which the romance of which are buried under the entrance to the park tunnell. the last chapter, and i'm going to read for this -- from this for the bid is about the second -- the invasion of iraq in 2003. and i feel like especially in light of the fort hood it is important we realize that both muslim and arab americans have been part of the service for better or worse and because we never know about their experiences or hear about them there's a massive document to which the actions of one person come to speak and we see the dynamics of collective guilt that we've become familiar with. so, the character in this chapter is abraham, gemini american diet, marine, grew up in new york city and decides after 9/11 to enlist because his city is attacked, he lives in northern brooklyn right across

the east river across from lower manhattan and at the same time he sort of is reeling from what happened to the city. he's running through the streets of brooklyn looking for his wife and he can't find her. all of the debris from the centers is falling on top of him and she decides she wants to enlist because he wants to fight whoever did this to his city and instead he finds himself in iraq and like many other soldiers who don't know why they are in iraq and the not afghanistan he decides to focus on seeing to it that everybody knows and that he tried with comes alive in one piece and where he can doing things to help iraqi civilians so this is from his tractor, the second scene. he leaves for iraq without telling his wife, she thinks that he's just reporting for his regular sort of training duties and because he can't bear to say goodbye to her, you know, with a knowing he's leaving and maybe never coming back. in the early sun rise hours of

april 11th, 2003, 3 weeks after the americans had invaded iraq and are being shot out abraham and his partner and counter intelligence quote, something happened on the bridge with the platoon." abraham is also declining to the passenger side of the humvee ready to head out in the reconnaissance mission from the college the marines transformed into the headquarters. he scanned the retial and found the panic play-by-play shot by reservists with his old platoon. shots fired, civilians hit. civilians hurt. abraham and his partner change course and rushed to the pri leading the for the saddam canal which had been commandeered by the company of the 225, marine reservist from pennsylvania, new jersey and new york. abraham treen and served with echo to 25 until arriving in iraq when he was attached to merten and counterintelligence because he spoke arabic. as abraham and his partner drove through the deserted streets, the screams continued over the radio. abraham felt his money in brothers under fire and urged his partner to hurry. as intelligence officers abraham

and his partner needed to know of and head off any provocation to the iraqi population. injured civilians would surely undermine efforts to win the hearts by iraqis who failed to see the americans as liberators. a brand-new a code to 25 had no translator with them at the bridge. the only arabic they were equipped with were the words he taught them back at camp lejeune where they gathered before flying to kuwait before they were helicoptered to the mission to secure the shiite city. and on top of it all, it was abraham's platoon. abraham's part brough pulled up to the northern entrance of the bridge to brace himself for a fire fight. man, what happened, abraham shells hit as the humvee slowed down at the wheel of barp wire guarding the bridges entrance? and older murray abraham recognized and up to pull back the wider. it's horrible. it's horrible, matthew told abraham shaking his head. it's little kids, he said in disbelief. abraham's partner referred to the common effort speeding 100 feet down the bridge and parked the car close to the southern entrance checkpoint. abraham jumped out and scanned

the people lying in front of the bullet riddled van buer blood and broken glass around them, the smell of gunpowder and the air and he could smell the guns that had been fired. all he heard around him or the screaming and cronkite from the bodies lying on the bridge. he did a quick and incomplete accounting as he ran over. there was the driver, the only man in the group lobbying on his side screaming he was going to die. he saw a little boy and wounded in the head. there was a woman wheeling and bobbing back and forth, there was the doctor frankly tending to another woman. then he saw the two casualties. maudine side by side wrapped in khaki green liners from soldiers ponchos were too tall were sized bodies. their blood soaked through the plastic cocoons which the kids laughed. someone told abraham they were baby girls. adrianne paused for only a second. he could save only those still living. who is shot he shouted out in arabic and as he did he realized the wailing wall mentally life this little boy in her arms. he had been hidden by her folds.

oh my god abraham fought, is the baby all right he asked again in arabic kneeling down to check the child. she's what did him away from her son continuing to cry and how will until she realized someone was finally speaking to her in arabic. she took abraham's hand. what happened? why did these people do this, she asked him gasping for air. we thought the war was over, she continued, her eyes drowning increase. why did you kill my baby, she nodded where her two daughters lead dead and found in the camouflage wrapping. [inaudible] she screamed and she began to hyperventilate bombing in place. you took my breath. the doctor came to iran and told him the woman had been shot in the lungs. and perhaps all the blood seeping from underneath her son was okay, the doctor assured abraham. the boy had just passed out. maybe that was for the better from all of this shop. they wouldn't be able to treat the wound on the bridge the doctor told them. they had to get them to the air force base, 20 kilometers south of nasiriyah, a cargo ambulance

was already on the way. abraham wanted to know what happened. signs were posted hundreds of yards from the checkpoint warning them in arabic the bridge was only open to military traffic. for those who couldn't read there were pictures that should have communicated the message and abraham made sure to teach everyone at least one word, stop, in arabic. he sounded out at camp lejeune for the boys from harrisburg, the ones who shot at this van full of civilians. the marines manning a checkpoint today durham they yelled out several times in english and arabic for the than to stop it had run past the stop sign, past the barbed wire and to the marines seemed like they were speeding up. the soldiers finally opened fire and then the machine guns with the doctors even shooting the 9-millimeter handguns because the van continued to come at them. with the marines landed by the iraqi sun rising in front of them they could not see into the van. they could not see the babies. the shooting would be classified

as justified, iran and realized. finally, the ambulance arrived. the mother of the two dead daughter is already heavy without her newly added sarraute wouldn't budge. she did a plan to carry her son but he let another mardy in do it so he would be able to help the woman. for arms free sheet through dirt from the ground into her face beating her cheeks and crying. i can't believe this happened, i can't believe you did this. we didn't need you to do this. saddam never did this, he never took any bonds life and my family. abraham lakhdar now. he was the only one on the bridge able to understand her. this is f-ed he kept telling himself that he can only imagine what he would do in this situation as his family were dead. he said to the woman in arabic let's go. we need to get your medical attention. we have to get you into that vehicle, he pointed to the ambulance. she was calm and quiet for a moment and reached for him to help her. he held her hand and placed her to her feet. suddenly she began yelling again. you should be ashamed of

yourself, you are coming to an arab country to kill arabs? when she said that come abraham fought i have to deal with this, too? he tried to stay thick skinned but he was passed off. killing women and children he thought? i didn't sign up for this. they finished loading the civilians into the ambulance including the bodies of the two baby girls. abraham and his partner drove behind. they were both quite as they drove through the deserted streets. more of an anything, abraham felt sadness for the woman whose name he never thought to ask. he tossed out into this new world of silent prayer that there be no more situations like this morning sunrise. he hoped someone was listening. and i'm going to also just read from this chapter because i have to. there's so much history in an dearborn and the trade that goes far back and some of you know

the stories and this is a great way to get to know them. even though this is about the 73 oil embargo and in the energy crisis the chapter starts in 1967 because for detroit, both detroit and alan my character 67 is another major turning point and not because of the 67 war this time but what else happens in 67 here in -- >> [inaudible] >> or brazillian, depending how would you want to call it. swiss starts on sunday and on monday alan's blight idea with his buddies is to take out their friend's blue plymouth and driving to detroit to take a joy ride as the city burns and see for themselves what is going on because young man in their 20s can take care of everything and figure it out for themselves. so why that evening -- they are young and smart enough to know get the hell out of there by that point so by that evening allen decides to watch detroit durham from his front porch on the south end so that is where we are going to join allen.

for those of you that every read this chapter and some of you probably have, i am doing an abridged versions don't feel crazy. monday night, so this is monday, july 24th, 1967 allen decided to keep his distance. he watched detroit for an instant from his family's front porch on the south and. the poorest neighborhood of dearborn with three square miles of modest homes stood hidden in the shadow of the plant and its big rising smokestacks. this madness might be new but for allen this had been hitting the fan for a while now. it had all started when the government took his older brother and send him to vietnam even though raviv still needed one more surgery to fix the hand he shattered working in the factory for four. allen was left living every day with a thought where the hell is he at? but before ronnie had gotten screwed by the government, al lynn plant to boost his own draft as soon as he graduated high school of 1965. their uncle served air force and army and allen was proud of them.

he truly believed in the united states fought in a war was on the side of good. after all, the country fought fascism in world war ii after only despicable sneak attacks by turtle officious and evil enemies. now we were under attack by new enemies, and if we didn't all fight the economy is over there of a fight with end up here. but it didn't make sense to alan a guy like ronnie with a busted hand should even be in the army let alone the imam, so he started reading about vietnam and had taken a sociology course in college and by the time ronnie got to the delta earlier that year allen already felt the whole thing was bullshit. nevertheless it felt strange romney was fighting somewhere now and alan wasn't getting his back to a lesson he learned early when he got a whopping from his father when the then kids. walking back from selling an elementary school a decade before, a kid had run up to romney and told him he wanted to fight. radhi handed alan his books and told him to take them home. when he got there, his father who worked the midnight shift of

four as a janitor was waiting wearing his slippers, swearing to lead to smoking the cigarette and having a coffee in his cup. where's your brother he asked. he's going to fight a kid, he shrugged. without changing the father ran out and came back with ronnie smacking him with his slippers became in the back door to read their father then looked at alan and said come here. what, alan protested. he knew he was going to get it. i didn't fight, he then got worse than romney. don't ever let your brother fight and you leave him alone your father said, now get up in your room. in the south and they were like brothers and they all had one another's back. it was a kind of place where if one of the guys can to the pool hall and said someone was about to jump than the other guys would go, no questions asked. when alan visited ronnie the first time the and then separated he realized ronnie was on his own. he didn't have anyone. alan now sat on the porch facing each right just a few blocks away. the neighbor from across the

street, and i tell and from brooklyn who married a yemeni donner was there with her son, tony. alan's sister, sandra, kept coming in and out of the house sitting on the porch swing. alves had been picnicing the day for the state fair grounds and joining the sunday afternoon with about 100 other people from the shiite mosque when they received words the riots were spreading. she hadn't been able to make it back to her mother's in highland park's she had come to ronnie's parents and sit with her young daughter. together, they watched the orange glow of the dusty skype 29 fires out of control but might in vietnam. is this what ronnie saw in vietnam, alan wondered, it looks similar to the news reels they watched in the states. they steered the black smoke as the black smoke rose from the building casualties. the dark haze hovered above dietrich much more ominously in the smoke the ford plant puffed into the south and every day. alan wanted to get out of here, finished college and by an ice house in a neighborhood where you didn't have to take windows shut to keep the soot from

coming in or worry if you keep your car outside it wouldn't turn rusty brown. ford motor company brought them all to this neighborhood this house and. italy on the wrong side of you tracks of the ford railroad. from the west with a management-led it was completely obscured from view. the south and was a neighborhood full of immigrants, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to read the all came on the promise of a job and pay. the work negative and always, italians, armenians, serbians and syrians were among them. the syrians came mostly from villages that in 1943 had become part of the lebanon. but only after the lebanese danny thomas got his own tv show with lebanese character to the stop calling themselves syria and become levities. the merchant marines who worked ships that traveled from ayaan to de transport came to worship at the sunni mosque of the liberty days to read some eventually state and now 10% of the south and the origins in arabic speaking world the yemenis were simple man who had

wives and yen and they were supporting. alan and other lebanese socialize with them closely on the in the coffee houses. to get jobs at ford, many had their arabic names giving their children english names and hidden the middle names. so amin became amen and alan was used, which their parents stopped using that, even when their children started school, so here they were. alan's father was in his 26 years as a janitor for. ronnie had worked before his head was crushed and alan signed up with the company in the summer of 65 during senior week. he already worked three days by the mind of his prom. any other dog was meant to last just the summer. alan thought he would never last two days little longer working his third summer now. he wanted to quit after the first day but there was no way to do that and still live in his father's house at least with these rockets now the didn't have to go to work.

but just like a ronnie disappeared, the south and was disappearing from beneath him and more bullshit called retial, more like urban removal. the city was body of the low-income houses to come for the south into an industrial zone. dearborn's mayor wanted to hover between dearborn and detroit or rather the true black folk. besides plenty of dearborn people already thought the south and was detroit and didn't really care anyway what happened to them and their factory children. but they will be moot, alan thought of the blacks can and burned the south and down as the mayor was morning. covered who called black folks iain word and plan to the law yet on martin luther king had put the fear of god in them all. on the porch, alan was afraid of what would happen to them and the chaos. the south and after all boarded the train and they were separated only by an invisible force field that ran along the share arteries like the avenue. and of course alan but in the suppressed of blacks eight deer one. blacks who worked at the rich nearly one-third of employees

not to even think about living in dearborn. in fact they went out of their way to go about dearborn to get home after their shift rather than drive through. hubbard said he wasn't when to let anybody come from detroit and harm dearborn but alan wasn't we to count on him to help the south end. if anyone came near his house, his family, his girlfriend or his neighborhood, he would be the one to give them a fight. as alan swung lazily back-and-forth on this week a bill made it everyone jumpy with a gunshot, a gun shot, they are firing! alan found himself on began to the others in the dark trying to get in the house first. dow was shoved her daughter into the arms of sauntering in the house and screamed to protect her. before he got in the house, alan remembered himself i will go to get see what it is, he declared, the man of the house. the women pleaded be careful, be careful. around back alan saw what happened. the neighbor had dropped a heavy chest of drawers as attempting to move goddamn, he thought, why should i feel scared.

he was sick of stuff sneaking up on him. he decided to head over to his girlfriend, karen, house five blocks away. they were all away on vacation. alan's seeley pleaded not to go but he wanted to make sure karen was a fan he relished being given to spend time with her in an empty house. your life of karen's house to find her startled. someone banged on her door. she was also not alone. robie, her best friend was there as well. karen, who knew how to shoot wanted alan to load up her brother's shotgun. he said the rifle and hung around for a couple of hours but robie wasn't going anywhere so he headed up to the avenue of the main drag of the south end. when allen got there as the might cut to make night he found a least 100 other guys standing in the street as the day on any warm summer night. allan joined the bench of his friends in front of the pool hall where the older guys hung out after they graduate from the spot from the drug store next door. the guys were smoking, shooting the breeze.

the national guard had been stationed at patent park but on the detroit side across the avenue a boulevard of several lanes, guards of jeeps were parked. some of the toss and his group decided to light up some firecrackers. boom, the firecrackers crackled to read the jeeves were rounded came over. what are you guys doing, the guardsmen asked, machine guns pointed, what's going on? the guys holler back don't worry about us, all is fine here. go back where you came from. we can take care of ourselves to it and that's sort of where we leave alan in 1967. [applause] so that's how the book is told and that is why it's easy and nasiriyah because i know a lot of things arab are scary or we are told are scary. it's interesting the discussions in c-span's. we can show them with a literate crowd we are. i think the one you to go up to the microphone though. so if anybody has a question.

>> yeah, in your chapter about alex i know i read the book and by assuming maybe some of the audience has, but for those that haven't, the killers of alex, have they ever been apprehended? do we know who they are? >> yeah, that is a great question. no, that is the problem with alex to this day nobody has been prosecuted were arrested for this crime and the people believed to be the killer some of whom have died, but that is what is the problem, that is what since the message loud and clear that this happened in 1985 we're in 2009 it gives this idea killing [inaudible] i don't know which reference to get the idea killing here this still something the was done with impunity and interesting

things about the alex murder is he sort of killed and reprisal for the murder on the cruise liner that some palestinian militants hijacked, and reagan visited with his widow. there's all this tension, stories are written about him and we know his favorite foods, restaurants like to go to in his neighborhood in the west village and to alex is is never correct. sometimes the call and a representative or -- it never says, they never kind of get alex's story right, no. like the widow is also widowed and it's very -- that is one of the toughest chapters i have to say one of the toughest to write and read. but important. it's very important as tough as it is we don't forget we and move past it and then it becomes part of the understanding of american history.

>> you know, in the story you told us about the yemeni from new york to decide to enlist in the army and fight against those who committed 9/11. i don't know if you have interviewed more or talked to more than one arab-american who had been to iraq, and if there is that conflict that people have felt between being the loyal to america and one to defend their country here at the same time a feeling like they are ordered to go to iraq, going to fight in a war maybe they don't believe in it and maybe they feel bad about fighting, killing other arabs. did you encounter that in your research and can you give some insight?

>> that is definitely a dynamic. but i want to point out that sort of a dynamic exists for a lot of the people who in list and go and fight. there are a lot of people who dissent from the iraq war and policy and who are not just arab-americans. everybody but they have sort of sign that and they have committed. everybody has to reconcile themselves to that. is it -- i think if you feel this is an untrussed war, the fact that you have to kill people unjustly is going to affect -- the minute you have that orientation that is on just, maybe being there and makes you -- we should be clear there are so many soldiers that dissent, these are the choices they find themselves having to make to honor their commitments. other arab american soldiers -- especially after fort hood because i spoke to abraham again and actually others, other people here may be can answer that question i think the conflict is more that they

understand because i think in abraham's case and other people who enlisted after 9/11 whether they be arab, muslim or not, but it didn't matter who had attacked -- i don't know how to explain it to you. 9/11 was personal for those of us in d.c. and new york because we lost people and we were afraid we lost people, but then to find yourself, i sort of lost my train of thought. but i think for a lot of these guys the problem is a doesn't seem justified. not that the victims are arab. i think he was fine to take on the taliban order al qaeda through whoever he imagined or understood to have attacked new york because they put his family at risk. but especially for me the reason i read the chapter, ebe was one of the first chapters i wrote we before, i wrote in 2006. i think it is so important that we acknowledge arab-americans,

muslim americans have been part of the services and i don't endorse military service perce but just that and visibility is just incorrect. it isn't historical and we can't really -- that's the point of the whole book. we don't know ourselves as a country whether we are looking at our history or society. if we don't know, if we don't have a familiarity with all the experiences of the different peoples that make up america and americans. uh-oh. [laughter] >> no, i want to compliment you on being able to trace some of the most important kinds of the development and civic human-rights in the united states through these benchmarks. backend period of time when people were protesting in detroit, too, the civil rights struggle was a central focus and sometimes a was difficult for others minority groups to understand their vested interest in establishing civil rights for black americans because black americans never won a civil right that didn't apply to every

other group and person in our country. however, i think the first scam bombing of the world trade center, but to the 90's, the first bombing of the world trade center kind of marked the time the pendulum is swinging back where there was an expanding time of freedom. i remember as a young man freedom was being insured, be guaranteed more to read it became not only illegal to discriminate against whole groups. it became unacceptable as a social -- as a social dynamic, yet post 9/11, even a 73% of black americans agreed it was okay to profile arab-americans. and it seems like a arab-american community will be the front one on the line to lose one's. to use the possibility as a civil rights lawyer and a government bureaucrat at one time the possibility that this

pendulum is going to swing back toward the middle or is it going to get worse? what is your prognosis for the future? .. them and that's why i wanted to pay that debt personally and by

going and working in the civil rights division. you know, things could have gotten really, really bad after 9/11 and they did in many ways but i feel it has swung back in some ways when i think about as a nation -- i don't know what obama will ultimately do but we gave a very strong statement that we do not approve of what the bush administration ushered fort hood sort of -- if i can just share a personal anecdote. i went to a very, you know, subpar public high school in baltimore. and after fort hood, a lot of my high school friends who i haven't been in touch for years but because of facebook now we are, they all reached out to me in fort hood. is everyone in your community and that was not my experience after 9/11. there was a sensitizing that had happened to other people and i think -- better late than never. i think a lot more people from

the arab and muslim american communities start to place themselves in the larger civil rights community and context and started to build bridges and once those bridges are built it's going to be harder, i think, turn around and -- you know, for the black folks who said that after 9/11 or everybody who said that, you know, we can -- that also has a psychological component that i can understand. but i don't know people in the community, the rights community have not said that and i think have seen us try to join them honestly and earnestly and we should also give credit to the fact 'cause when it's someone else's turn in the hot seat -- after 9/11 it was japanese americans that really reached out to a lot of the american american communities. and so, you know, if there's one prediction i'm going to make when the pendulum swings again and it's against someone else we better be the first ones to speak up -- i mean, as long as we're in a position where we're safe or feel like we can. [inaudible] >> do you guys really think camps are coming? >> no.

>> i do. >> i think they are there. i think they're available. >> they're in louisiana. >> there's no reason to think it couldn't happen. it happened before. the united states now -- i'm sorry. the united states now is talking about, you know, taking military action against iran. possibly using nuclear weapons because some of their installations are so deep underground. there's been a precedent for that, too. so yeah, it would not shock me a great deal. >> well, i think the louder, more visible and the more present we are and the more ingrained we would be in the society, the harder it would be -- >> as a of today, there are still about 4,000 arab-americans in prisons that were imprisoned after 9/11. some of them are in the process of being deported. >> well, they are not arab-americans then. >> they're americans. they are.

i mean, i have citizenship or a green card, even those with a green card can be deported. >> not -- well, then -- not if we speak up and not if we do our part. and we can't do it alone and it requires making alliances. and not ones of convenience. but ones that are actually built -- i mean, the platform can't just be for arab honor or for the arab sake but it has to be civil and human rights and social injustice. >> sure. >> one of the things that disturbs me, my family came here during the first wave in the early 1900s. i had great uncles that fought in world war i and uncles that fought in world war ii. and recently the soldier that shot up people in that fort, it really disturbs me that people

are focusing -- americans are focusing on that person when there's been lots and lots of arab-americans who have fought for this country and earned medals and some have died for this nation. and they are not recognized. all they see is this soldier that shot up people, this arab-american -- or arab who shot up people in the fort. and it really -- i can't tell you how it disturbs me when we're always stereotype in movies and television and on the news. i remember one time during the '80s they kept talking about syrian terrorists and like you i am of syrian descent and i was actually afraid to tell anybody that i was syrian for fear they were going to think i was a terrorist.

and they do lump us together whether we're christian or muslim. as far as the americans are concerned, if you say you're arab, they lump you as one. what is your feelings? >> no, i think you're right. that's definitely one of the reasons i wrote the book because i don't want to always be reactive. i like to try where possible to be proactive. that's what kind of is mind-boggling to me was that people came through ellis island. people -- you know, arab-americans, the so-called syrians were served in disproportionately high numbers in the other immigrant in world war i and world war ii and the foreignness persists. part of it is because of how the naturalization -- the history of naturalization vis-a-vis that first wave of syrians happened in the united states. but, you know, what i'd like to do is -- if american history or

if narratives of american history or contemporary society, it's like a big mosaics, there's so many tiles that are missing that we don't see. i'm trying to put some of those tiles back up there so the pictures are clear. it is the persistent idea that there is a foreignness to arabs. that they are not part of this. they are not part of us is the problem. and, you know, we should know -- it shouldn't be those of us in this room that people have served in the services or have contributed scientifically or politically or to the civil rights movement. all we can do is like try to fill in those gaps and this is not the only book that has been written or ever going to be written and we need to encourage more of these sorts of interventions no one will do it because it's the right thing to do. so until someone else sort of figures out how to make a profit off of it, i think we should -- because we believe in it be introducing those narratives

into the national conversation. >> i just have one more comment to make, i teach citizenship one night a week. one time a volunteer teacher. and i asked my class this fall, why do you want to be americans and you'd be surprised how much they say, you know, we like the freedom here. and the last person kind of ended it all by saying, i love america and it almost put me to tears 'cause i was thinking, and americans think that you hate us and you want to kill us. >> i mean, there's a massive gulf of -- or vacuum of information. and, you know, unfortunately, who creates knowledge? it's, you know, books, school books, education, newspapers, you know, journalistic products, pop culture products, movies, tvs. you know, until someone else -- you know, all i can say is that i believe that it is a problem.

i believe that, you know, the solutions are not impossible to imagine what they are. they are these sorts of interventions and i really encourage people to do it. and the fact that you have the museum here is one -- is a massive, you know, step in that -- in that direction. and, you know, we can't all be -- some people just want to live their lives and sort of do their thing. but if you feel it upon you that you can sort of engage in these teaching moments, then by all means do it. i sort of feel like, you know, just saying that i'm syrian is inviting a teaching moment on. okay, bring it. bring it on. we can take it. >> i can't leave without making a comment. and that is i want to congratulate you on the work that has so comfortably and personalbly introduced readers to arab-americans.

on an individual basis and i think it's a wonderful idea. discrimination and prejudice are easy to practice at a distance and against a group. but very difficult to maintain those prejudices when you get to know someone personally. and you've done that in your introduction. now, the most important thing is, i want to read more, i want to see more, and i want to hear more and keep up the good work. [applause] >> thanks. >> that's not just directed at me. [laughter] >> i know you said you wanted to kind of be more proactive than reactive. and i also know that authors sometimes inject things like symbols or things in their book to kind of spark a reaction from their readers. like what did you like implement in your book and what reaction were you trying to provoke from your readers to try to spark a change? >> well, for starters i was really trying to play on -- you know, wherever i thought people would be able to predict what the chapter would be like, i tried to not do that. and i also used images.

i think this image speaks so powerfully and strongly especially you know this is alabama in 1940, 1948. i introduced arabic and i use arabic inside the book at points to make it more familiar. i played with -- in the chapter coming out, the guy is walking across a protester and god hates fags, yeah, he hadn't found anything that allah said in the koran that didn't. so they are talking god, christian, god -- you know, bible, you know, christian text and he's -- it makes sense to him but it makes sense to him as allah in the con. i tried to do that in little places. but i really wanted the voice of the person in each chapter to come -- to come through. that's not my language. that's, you know, alan's language. that's the way the other characters talk. so pictures and, you know, like 9/11, i think that chapter -- it surprises everybody who reads it

and, you know, it was very -- you know, 'cause i thought who should -- 'cause 9/11 is so weighted. and i knew it was a little bit risky choosing a catholic priest because a lot of the crackdown comes down on the muslim institutions but you get -- you get that because he's right across the street from the mosque. 'cause i really wanted that ending that i know people are not going to expect. you know, i used two women in the 2000 chapter instead of two men because it's two women who really -- and i know a lot of people think -- one of the reasons bush was able to succeed is because every guy thought they were the ones that had -- were going to -- it was kind of like a mono to mono thing and i like how i used two women in those chapters. there are lots of ways to do that. you're right, even though i'm not present in the voices, like the things i decide to show you and tell you are in -- i really wanted to use alan's story. when he told me he took that joyride, it was just great, sammy, johnny and alan and the

plymouth and things like that. and i think everybody who reads that chapter think it's a country. family and when i throw in they are at the picnic. no way. and yes, we picnic. we live, we breathe, we picnic. you know us. there are little things that you put in there but it's so easy because it's such a bad image that they have. i don't have to do much to kind of, you know, sort of spark that. and i like to use imagery, too. i thought it was important. that's a good question. i talked to a high school in chicago last week and i have to say and they had the best questions and this is consistent, this new generation. >> you just briefly mentioned after 9/11 how it was very -- it was maternal, after 9/11 people

talked about the death of feminism because men needed to product the world. on the republican side, a lot of people -- republican called arms for the war in afghanistan was to like liberate women. they spoke a lot about women in afghanistan, the plight of women. now like nine years later there's still like a massive -- like there's a very deep profound problem in afghanistan. the afghans saying women are made for the home or the grave and there's been laws of forced marriage, legalization of rape and i was curious your point of view for civil rights of women in afghanistan. and on the left and the right people are against the war for very many ideological reasons. and that's not surprising. i was just curious to know how -- how do you feel about the problem with women being kind of like just in the dark, if you will, in afghanistan?

>> no, i think you're right in identifying that it is a problem. but, you know, there's this problem for us where people feel they can't talk about it because it's somehow -- it's saying that the military invasion of afghanistan is -- somehow if you concede yes there's a problem vis-a-vis women's right and you're conceding the invasion is justified. but i think it's -- i mean, i have no problem saying x is wrong, and y is wrong but we sort of have been existing in this polarize world where the x is right or y is right or x is wrong or y is wrong but it can never be both. and i think, you know, i think it is incumbent upon us -- i've been part of arab-american feminist circles and you do have that conflict. externally you feel like you have to defend and i is a, no, it's not really like that because they use the so-called treatment or condition or status of women as a way to penalize, you know --. >> way to racialize the entire group and it's never a

conversation that happened with context and if you can't feel comfortable in the context and externally we should be able to speak about these things. and on that burka issue. this is why it's not just x and y. i was at doj at the time. and the main hall -- it's called the great hall at main justice. there's -- you know, i think a really beautiful art deco massive statute of justice and she's -- she's naked but it looks like a man with breasts basically. there's nothing sexual about this statute and john ashcroft -- he would be speaking here and he would be by the breast of justice and this would where we would have events and discussions when i was at doj at the cost of $8,000 to the u.s. taxpayer they draped this jinourmous blue velvet curtain on the department of justice. why does he see it problematic to see a naked woman but

everything that's going on in afghanistan is not correct. these things -- these are complicated issues and i think the point is not to have fear. in the book if you think -- you know, i don't whitewash, there are characters who at times are weak and are not strong. i told everybody when i interviewed them, there's the temptation to cast yourself as the most dramatic hero-saving but that's not really going to ring true so i think we have to have the sort of openness. if we put it out there and we talk about it, then i don't feel it can be used against us. if that makes sense. it's a good question. >> i'm curious of your experiences as native american. were there any prejudices you had overcome regarding your ethnicity throughout your childhood or maybe even more currently? >> yeah. i mean, you know, i was the only arab-american in my high school

and i was one of the few immigrants -- there were a bunch of korean kids and they totally sold out and changed their names and they were like brent, amanda and dominick. i was the only one with a foreign name in my high school. and people who understand that i was arab, like anytime -- and i grew up in the '80s. it was not a good time for arabs on tv. and so you're -- i felt implicated by all of that and definitely felt like terror every time something blew up or some plane went down because you were going to hear a whole lot of, you know, racism. and even though i was kind of young, i knew that was directed somehow or somehow implicated me. in 1991 during the first gulf war which is one of the reasons i just couldn't be around for the second one, i remember -- this is not guantanamo level discrimination. but i just went to the mall because nordstrom had hoped and i went with my dad who has never had a mustache and then for some

reason, unknown to anyone, a few months before the gulf war grew a mustache. and all of a sudden he looked more like saddam hussein than anyone in baltimore. we begged, shave that mustache. i really can't now it would look like i'm shaving it because of -- and he really wouldn't shave it. and i went to the mall and i got my lipstick and i think life was perfect and we were followed to the car and thank god keyless technology made its way in 1991 and i remember hearing the way they were talking like iraqis, like total pleasure, you know, we're going to get them and, you know, rah-rah. the yellow ribbon which i used to always remember singing that song tie a yellow ribbon and -- and i like that song and then the yellow ribbon seemed to me a little bit celebratory. of something that i didn't really -- and even though that's not what it meant for other people, there were those sorts of things as a teenager really

upset me. you know, obviously like today checking in i could not check in -- this guy is like where's your green card. i'm straight up american. a lot of a green card. this is my driver's license so, you know, he's okay well, there seems to be a problem. i get pushed over and over. so finally the woman who's like -- and this woman is a black woman with an afro you're on the watch list and my security clearance was longer. being a woman sometimes you get off. it's arab men they are so scared of. but that definitely -- all those things, you know, they build up over time. i think that's what sensitized me to want to be a civil rights lawyer. because you kind of feel like you're marginalized or left out or there's no place for you and i sort of talk about in the after word for me i used -- do you know where they sell purses

and mugs and changes and i would get to my name and i would get down to alexandera, okay, come back up there was alice. there was no alia. it was never there. you're really not supposed to be here and that kind of always made me feel on the outside which also led me to want to be a civil rights lawyer but eventually i learned about the outside, you know, story of basically african-american people and i found my america there in many ways. parts of it. the narrative resonated with me. everyone has their own journey. okay. that's good. do you need to say some closing -- i don't know. thank you everybody. [applause] >> thank you very much.

>> alia malek is a former justice department civil rights attorney and contributor to the columbia journalism review and the "new york times." for more information on the author, you can go to alia malek.com. >> long time journalist steve roberts and professor of media and public affairs at george washington university has just written a new book called "from every end of the earth." steve you want to tell us about one of these families that you followed. >> well, one of them is pablo romero who dropped out of school in rural mexico when he was 11 years old. came to america as a farm worker when he was 13. spent his entire teenagehood in the lettuce fields in salinas, california. never went to high school. then he got drafted in the american army. got his high school equivalency, blossomed in the army, read every book in the post library. came home and got to junior college because the local college in salinas had a program for young hispanics.

then got a scholarship to uc irvine. and a professor of his said, you know, you should go to medical school. he said, me, medical school? the guy said how many spanish speaking doctors are there in salinas, california and the answer was zero. today, still never having gone to high school, pablo romero runs a neighborhood medical clinic in salinas, california, where 80% of his patients are the farm workers that he used to work with. >> why 13 families? >> well, i wanted a range of families. i wanted them to come from different countries. each one from a different country. i wanted them to represent different dimensions of the story. people like pablo came, you know, with no education and made their lives here. others came to graduate school. others came as political refugees there's a family from sierra leon in west africa where

the eddie stanley fled civil war. his father saw his brother and father decapitated by rebels. came to america as a political refugee. was taken in by a catholic church in new jersey.7vx so there's -- there's no one family or no ten families that tell the whole story but i tried to get a sense of the broader picture. and the title comes from barack obama'svuq inaugural address wh he said america is enriched every day by people from every end of this earth. and i agree with him. i believe it. >> how long did you follow these folks? >> well, i interviewed each one at great length. several of them actually were students of mine at george washington university who wrote about their families in a writing class of mine. i operate on the rule of ruthlessly exploiting my students at every possible opportunity. and so several of the stories come from my students. in several cases i had students who acted as scouts.

i had a student who was a high school teacher in philadelphia sent me one family. another was a waitress in a salvadoran restaurant sent me another one. the book is dedicated to my students because they were such an important part of shaping it. >> did your conceptions of immigration change? from writing this? >> yes and for. the basic notion)r that immigration is one of the most dramatic and compelling of all human stories never changed. i knew this from my own family history. my grandparents were immigrants. i knew their stories, i knew their lives. i grew up in an immigrant community ingk new jersey whe everybody i knew was from an immigrant family so that basic sense of what it takes to be an immigrant, the resilience, the tenacity, the courage never changed. what did change was understanding some of the new and more modern patterns of immigration.o/ for instance, people can use technology to stay in touch in ways they never could. my grandfather was out of touch

with his own family in russia for 50 years. today i have a student fromws% brazil whose brother was marrying a brazilian immigrant. her family could not come to america for the wedding. they couldn't get visas. so my student took a laptop and a digital camera and did a real time slide show for the bride's family clustered around a laptop rural brazil. that's a very different change. the other change that's very interesting is the growth of commerce. particularly with asia. india and chinese immigrants, they have a tremendous advantage. they speak the language. they know the customs. they have family connections. and so, you know, my hometown, italian family who imported olive oil from italy but the india and the chinese -- there's a family in my book, the father

of tom chan fled them in communism.ói he spends two weeks a month back in china where he runs a bits importing fireworks to america. in one generation he went from fleeing communism to going back and doing business with the same country. >> steve roberts author "from every end of the earth." thanks so much. >> my pleasure. new york university law school hosts the 90-minute event.

>> in thinking about this book and how we brought it about, the question really was how do you depict and how do you capture a prison beyond the law. because that's what guantanamo was.we guantanamo was createdg3ú by t individuals could be detained without any kind of legal protection outside the constitution, outside the geneva convention, outside the law and outside of habeas corpus, the ability to challenge your detention in court that's been with us since the nation's founding. many of you are, i'm sure, familiar with what's gone on at guantanamo. the arbitrary detention, the detention of many innocent individuals, the holding of