Latest news with #ArabAmerican
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
NYC DOT rankles staff in passing on recognizing Arab Heritage month with agency-wide message
Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez didn't recognize April as Arab American Heritage Month with an agency-wide email as he has in the past — an omission rankling some staffers who requested such a message be issued this year to voice solidarity with Muslim employees impacted by the war in Gaza. In April 2024, Rodriguez issued agency-wide message marking Arab American Heritage Month that did address the human toll of the war in Gaza. It urged all DOT employees to 'pause and reflect on the pain being felt by so many in the Arab American community, who have had family and friends impacted by the war in Gaza.' Communications reviewed by the Daily News and a DOT source confirmed staff asked department brass to issue a similar message this year. But Rodriguez issued no such message last month, sources confirmed. The internal tensions at DOT come as the war between Israel and Hamas remains a hot-button issue in New York, with pro-Palestinian protests playing out on city streets nearly every week and the conflict being hotly debated during this year's mayoral campaign. The DOT staffers told The News they were upset by Rodriguez's lack of agency-wide recognition at a time that Israel's war in Gaza — which was launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack — has left more than 50,000 Palestinians dead, according to estimates. The staffers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were especially irked as Rodriguez did issue an agency-wide email recognizing May as Jewish American Heritage Month this past Tuesday that made multiple references to President Trump. That message, obtained by The News, lauded Trump for issuing a national proclamation on May 16 that made a commitment to the 'security of Israel.' 'This selective recognition not only undermines the agency's stated commitment to equity and diversity, but also sends a troubling message about which communities are deemed worthy of visibility and respect,' said one Muslim DOT source. 'The repeated use of Trump in the email when he made statements about moving out the Palestinians from their land shows a lack of sensitivity to the Arab and Muslim staff,' the source added, a reference to the president's proposal to expel all Palestinians from Gaza. DOT spokesman Nick Benson declined to speak to the question of why Rodriguez didn't send an agency-wide email marking Arab American Heritage Month this year. He said the department made a post about Arab American Heritage Month on an internal messaging board; that communication made no reference to the war in Gaza. Kayla Mamelak, Mayor Adams' spokeswoman, said his office wasn't involved in crafting the DOT's messaging. With Evan Simko-Bednarski
The National
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Rebuilding Gaza would be incomplete without healing the psychological wounds
Dr James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute and a columnist for The National May 27, 2025
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hamtramck police chief and officer placed on leave as investigation opens
Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri and an officer have been placed on administrative leave as an investigation opens into alleged improprieties. Altaheri, 42, has been the chief of the department for about a year after the city council selected him in January 2024. He and officer David Adamczyk, hired in September 2024, are now on administrative leave, Hamtramck city manager Max Garbarino told the Free Press. "I can confirm that the chief of police and officer have been placed upon administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation," Garbarino said Wednesday, May 21. The city has opened an investigation into Altaheri and it has "also been sent to outside law enforcement," Garbarino said. Garbarino did not comment further on the investigation, saying it's the city's policy "not to comment on personnel matters." A memo from a city employee has been circulating among some officials alleging Altaheri acted improperly in several instances that may have broken the law. The memo's claims could not be immediately verified. Part of the memo mentions allegations that President Donald Trump's visit to Hamtramck in October was facilitated by a former Wayne County reserve officer who was trying to help get a presidential pardon for a wealthy acquaintance of the chief in New York City convicted of financial crimes. Before becoming the Hamtramck police chief, Altaheri was a leader in New York City's police department, the commanding officer of NYPD's Office of Equity and Inclusion. More: Michigan State Police start investigation into two Hamtramck councilmen over residency Altaheri did not return a message seeking comment. Adamczyk could not be reached. Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib told the Free Press in a statement that Altaheri believes that the city placing him on leave is "a retaliatory action by the city manager for disciplining one of the police officers who is a close friend of the city manager." "I and the city council members were not informed of the city manager's decision prior to taking it," Ghalib said. "Police Chief (Altaheri) described it as a retaliatory action by the city manager for disciplining one of the police officers who is a close friend of the city manager. City manager (Garbarino) said there are some allegation against the Chief reported by that police officer, that need to be investigated, which the police Chief denies." Ghalib added that "the city council will hold an emergency meeting soon to take some corrective actions and to address the issue." Ghalib was picked by Trump in March to be ambassador to Kuwait. Trump and the Republican Party did extensive outreach in Hamtramck and Dearborn last year during the presidential campaign, gaining support among Arab American voters. Ghalib was in Washington D.C. a few weeks go taking part in training for future ambassadors; he has to be confirmed by the Senate to become ambassador. More: Nessel asks for special prosecutor in Hamtramck voter case due to anti-Muslim bias claims Lt. Michael Shaw, the spokesman for Michigan State Police in metro Detroit, said that state police "don't have any investigations involving the Hamtramck Police Department." The FBI Detroit office could not be reached for comment. The investigation into Altaheri is the latest controversy in Hamtramck. Michigan State Police said earlier this month it has launched an investigation into the residencies of two city councilmen. The councilmen strongly deny the allegations. Some councilmen are also under investigation for alleged absentee ballot voter fraud. Ghalib said last year that Altaheri was picked because "we believed that he would be a great addition to our city, taking into consideration that he understands the culture of the community and he is bilingual (in English and Arabic), which would help improve communication with the community and build more trust." Hamtramck has the highest percentage of immigrants among cities in Michigan. Since becoming chief, Altaheri has done extensive outreach to the city's growing Yemeni American and Bangladeshi American communities, who have previously felt excluded from city government. He started the city's first citizens' police academy, which helped educate residents about how the police department operates and trains. Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@ or X @nwarikoo This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri placed on administrative leave
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hulk Hogan made me doubt whether I was 'a real American.' Sabu showed me I was.
Professional wrestling can seem like a childish artform. All the bejeweled cowboy hats, tasseled boots and hyper-muscular men screaming violent intentions into microphones. The outlandish ring maneuvers, melodramatic storylines and occasional dance breaks. But if you grow up consuming it, you may just never cut the cord. At 42, I'm one of those who never outgrew wrestling, and that's why I'm hurting over the recent death of a wrestler who played a strangely important role in my ability to embrace my Arab American heritage. Terry Brunk, a Lansing native known in the wrestling world as Sabu, died May 11 at 60, a ripe old age in pro wrestling, where drug use, concussions and other life-shortening injuries and habits are routine. He performed in his final match just last month, in a ring with barbed wire ropes, and bleeding all over the canvas one last time to entertain his fans. The illusions of winning and losing in professional wrestling typically fade for most kids around the same time Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are exposed. But if you keep watching, more fascinating aspects of this deceptively simple storytelling medium start to shine: the secrets of the trade, the backstage drama, the intricacies of the performances, all the improvisation, innovation and pageantry involved, and perhaps most of all, the reactions of the crowd ― and the lengths performers go to elicit them. Sometimes, the crowds are more fun to watch than the actual matches. And sometimes, the most rousing, fever-pitch crowd eruptions ― and the wrestlers who evoke them ― can stick with you for a lifetime. I noticed the disinterested dad in the crowd early in the show. He'd brought a group of very excited kids to Joe Louis Arena for a 2006 WWE event, bought them some merch and patiently watched them cheer the good guys, boo the bad guys, and at one point, tear to shreds a homemade sign paying tribute to a hero who had just turned villain. I relished watching the family take in the show from the row right in front of me. Nosebleed seats or not, I had a front row view of these frenzied little fans and their hilariously bored, mustachioed dad, who kept glancing at his watch. I also happened to hear the father say a few words in Arabic, which made me very curious how this family would react when a certain wrestler made his appearance toward the end of the show. Like many 1980s kids, I learned to say my prayers and take my vitamins from Hulk Hogan, who earned our adulation by thwarting all the dastardly, anti-American villains who dared challenge him ― chief among them, the Iron Sheik. The Iron Sheik was played by Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, a Persian American performer who pretended to be an Arab, an evil one. He wore an Arab headdress into the ring, antagonized fans and cheated every chance he got. His character was inspired by The Sheik, played by Ed Farhat, a Michigan wrestler and World War II veteran of Lebanese decent who used every ethnic stereotype in the book to develop a persona that enraged fans and drove his opponents to stardom. The Sheik was known for pulling foreign objects like pencils and forks from his tights, and using them to bloody his opponents' faces behind the referees back. He would snarl and bite and shout gibberish ― infused with a touch of Arabic ― to seem as monstrous as possible. And he would stall, infuriating opponents and fans, sometimes praying in the ring to delay a fight, prostrating like a Muslim even though he was a Lebanese Christian. The Sheik made a lot of wrestlers heroes. He made a lot of people rich. And he was the driving force behind Detroit's long-running Big Time Wrestling promotion company. Then, in his later years, he trained his nephew, Brunk, who would become a wrestling legend in his own right as Sabu. I remember, as a child, seeing a family photograph of a dignified-looking man in an Arab headdress. I asked my mother who he was. She told me it was her father, my grandfather. At that point, the only men I'd ever seen wearing the garment were raving maniacs prone to cheating their way to victory in wrestling rings. 'Are we the bad guys?' I thought. It was terribly disorienting. I no longer felt comfortable singing along to Hulk Hogan's theme song, 'I am a real American.' It was the first time I had to contend with the idea that maybe, despite being born here, not everyone would believe I was a real American. I still sang the song sometimes, but quietly, and I felt like an imposter. It would be another 20 years before I could fully reconcile that awful feeling. At the Joe in 2006, when Sabu's vaguely Arabic-sounding music hit, those kids in front of me flipped out with joy, along with the rest of the arena. And their father, his interest finally piqued by the fever-pitch crowd reaction, unfolded his arms and craned his neck to see a larger-than-life, musclebound man in an Arab headdress making his way to the ring to resounding applause. The father's eyes widened, he started to smile and slowly began to applaud. I had to stifle tears of joy. I loved Sabu. But I did not realize he'd become a mainstream fan favorite. I never imagined I'd ever see a man proudly wearing his Arab heritage cheered by a WWE crowd. Sabu had brought me full circle, embraced by fans who loved him as much as they'd hated the Iron Sheik. Like his uncle, Sabu used negative stereotypes to his advantage. The Sheik gave him the ring name Sabu as a tribute to the Indian American actor Sabu Dastagir, who starred in films in the 1930s and 40s as an exotic, vaguely ethnic type. Sabu the wrestler played an absurdly vicious character who often flew through the air to kick steel chairs into his opponents' faces. But his persona was silent and more dignified than the cartoonish Sheik. To entertain his fans, Sabu sacrificed his body in ways no one had ever dreamed of. In one famous match, after legitimately breaking his jaw, he directed his manager to wrap duct tape around his head to hold the shattered bone in place, and he finished the show. The fans adored him, and I couldn't believe it. There's always a contingent of wrestling fans who prefer going against the grain, rooting for the villains ― 'heels,' in wrestling lingo ― to take down the heroes. There's something exhilarating about rejecting the narrative you're expected to embrace, abandoning the 'babyfaces' — the good guys — and siding, for the moment, with fictional evil. During the 1990s, in the waning days of Hulkamania, those fans took over. Babyface characters were booed. Heels were cheered. And show promoters were forced to scramble for new formulas. That dynamic gave rise to an outlaw wrestling promotion based in Philadelphia known as Extreme Championship Wrestling, ECW, where standard moves like headlocks and toe holds were frowned upon, and death-defying feats of athleticism and brutality were obligatory. Two Michigan wrestlers trained by The Sheik played central roles there: Sabu, and Battle Creek native Rob Van Dam. They used chairs, tables, barbed wire, thumb tacks and other objects, often handed to them by fans, to do all manner of damage to each other. (At the time, 'concussion protocol' was not a well-known phrase.) The promotion struggled to get TV exposure, but video tapes of those wild shows made their way across the country fast, and soon enough, extreme wrestling became mainstream wrestling, with Sabu, Van Dam and others making appearances in WWE. And by then, crowds no longer cared what their heroes looked like, or whether they were playing by the rules. It only mattered that they were badasses. I'm still in awe when current WWE superstar Sami Zayn makes his ring entrances, sending crowds into a frenzy of song and dance. His character is not overtly based on his Syrian Canadian heritage. But it's there, in subtle ways. An inconspicuous bit of Arabic script spelling out his name on his tights. Merch that features a Rocky Balboa-style image of him in a championship moment that reads 'Yo Khadija, I did it!' ― an homage to the fictional boxer's famous "Yo Adrian!" Zayn runs a charity that provides mobile health clinics to communities in need in Syria. And during tours of the Middle East, the red-headed Montreal native wins over unsuspecting crowds by grabbing the microphone and addressing them directly in Arabic. He has no need to leverage stereotypes. No need for a one-dimensional gimmick. And no need for over-the-top, bloody, concussion-inducing violence to earn his place in the spotlight. Zayn can just be a charismatic wrestler who happens have Arab heritage, thanks to Sabu, The Sheik, the Iron Sheik and others who came before him, clearing the way for dignified stardom ― and for a 42-year-old wrestling fan to enjoy his guilty pleasure, with a little less guilt. Khalil AlHajal is deputy editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: kalhajal@ Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pro wrestler Sabu died in May, and I'm mourning the loss | Opinion
Boston Globe
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Smart politics or a publicity stunt? The man behind the latest effort to impeach Donald Trump.
Who is Shri Thanedar? Thanedar, 70, represents Michigan's 13th Congressional District, a solidly Democratic district in Detroit. He easily won reelection in the November general election. Previously, he lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2018 and then served one term in the state House of Representatives. Advertisement An immigrant from India, Thanedar has said he is pushing forward with an impeachment resolution because he feels compelled to defend the Constitution. He has put up advertisements in Michigan demanding that Congress impeach Trump. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up When was he first elected? Thanedar beat eight other Democratic candidates for the party nomination in 2022 before he went on to win his first term in Congress in November of that year. The win, however, left the city of Detroit without Black representation in Congress for the first time since the 1950s — a notable omission for a city that is nearly 80% Black. Many prominent Black leaders of Wayne County and Michigan Democrats — including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan — threw their support behind other primary candidates in 2024. One of his most viable competitors, state Sen. Adam Hollier, was kept off the ballot after election officials found that he had not submitted enough valid signatures. Advertisement A businessman who made his career in the pharmaceutical and chemical world, Thanedar has poured millions of dollars of his own money into his political races, including $10 million on his unsuccessful run for governor. Who is challenging Thanedar in the 2026 Democratic primary? Two young Black Democrats, including Hollier, recently announced campaigns to unseat Thanedar in 2026. A spokesperson for Thanedar's campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the incumbent's challengers. Michigan Rep. Donovan McKinney launched his campaign for the position about two weeks ago. He has the backing of Justice Democrats, a group known for helping to elect progressive members to Congress, and he earned the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents the neighboring 12th Congressional district. Thanedar's district features part of one of the largest Arab American populations in the U.S. Since the Israel-Hamas war, many of his constituents have decried his support for Israel. Tlaib, who represents the city of Dearborn, is the only Palestinian American in Congress and opposed the Biden and Trump administrations' unwavering support for Israel over the Gaza war. 'You all know I need a real partner in Washington, D.C. who will fight to represent and deliver for our Wayne County families,' Tlaib said in a video endorsing McKinney posted on social media Monday. Why is Thanedar pressing for impeachment now? Adrian Hemond, a Michigan-based political strategist, said the impeachment effort is likely to drive fundraising and mobilize support for Thanedar's primary race, even as it is destined to fail. The move may also be an attempt to 'box out' Thanedar's primary challengers from media attention early in the race, he said. Advertisement 'So it's smart politics for him,' Hemond said. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI, Full video here: — CSPAN (@cspan) Hollier called the impeachment resolution a 'publicity stunt' in an interview with the Associated Press. He accused Thanedar of ignoring real needs of his district, such as veteran benefits and childcare. 'This is the kind of thing that Donald Trump wants Democrats to be doing,' Hollier said. Thanedar is expected to force a floor vote on the matter before the end of the day, but Republicans and possibly some Democrats will likely vote to table it. Can Trump be impeached? Given the Republican majority in Congress, almost certainly not. Thanedar's resolution is expected to fail in the House chamber. If impeachment gained traction — more likely if Democrats gained a majority in next year's midterm elections — it would represent a historic third time that Trump has faced efforts to impeach him after he was twice impeached during his first term as president — first in 2019 on charges related to withholding military aid to Ukraine as it confronted Russia and later on a charge of inciting insurrection over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. Trump was acquitted both times by the Senate.
