By Ray Hanania

    More than two dozen Arab American businesses are reporting hardships as a result of the September 11th terrorist attacks, with noticeable losses in business not only from declines in American customers, but Arab patrons, too.

    Although many American government officials have repeatedly urged Americans not to take their anger out on Arab Americans, more than 1,100 incidents of physical violence and vandalism have taken place around the country.

     These represent only the incidents that have been reported, and they include murder, assault, arson of churches, mosques and some businesses, and threats, according to information gathered by several national Arab and Muslim sources.

     But the reports that document violence have not addressed the more subtle yet more serious threat to the community as a whole, the unofficial boycott of Arab owned businesses by Americans and even Arabs, some of whom are afraid to be seen in public in a way that emphasizes their Arab heritage.

     "In the past two months, I have had to pay for the rent here out of my pocket," said Majed Diab, the owner of the Majed Restaurant in Tinley Park.

     Diab, a 30-year veteran Middle East chef and immigrant to Chicago from Qalqilliya, Palestine a village near Nablus, opened his restaurant last April at 7547 W. 159th Street. The family restaurant seats more than 70 and features a family atmosphere and a menu that includes everything from stuffed lamb to stuffed grape leaves. The aroma of Arabic coffee always fills the air.

    Diab began in the restaurant business working in Amman, Jordan for 7 years. In 1989, he came to Chicago and worked at the Nile Restaurant for two years, and then returned to Amman. In 1991, he returned and worked at the former Noor restaurant in Bridgeview.

     Although he holds a degree in civil engineering, Majed says he loves the restaurant business and will continue somehow to either make it work or look elsewhere.

    Despite rave restaurant reviews not only in the Arab media but the local American media, too, Diab said the customer base has dropped significantly since September 11.

     "I understand maybe some Americans may not come here because of anger or whatever," Diab  said. "But what I don't understand is the drop in Arab customers. That is unexplanable."

    Speaking through a relative, Diab said that he is faced with the possibility of closing soon if business does not pick up.

    "He works here 16 hours a day. The food is great. Everyone says so. The restaurant is clean. And there is a large Arab community here. He could go work for someone else and earn $40,000 a year as a chef, but he thought there was a need for an Arab restaurant here," a relative says.

    The Diab's are right. The largest concentration of Arab Americans in the Southwest Suburbs is in Tinley Park and Orland Park. Voter registration data from the state show that there are more than 1,500 families in these two suburbs.

    The Arab population stretches from Orland Park and Tinley Park in the south all the way through Bridgeview to Burbank and Oak Lawn in the North, where even more Arab Americans live. Harlem Avenue which slices through the community, has a growing business strip of businesses that include banks, travel agencies, accountants, lawyers, hair salons, grocery and music stores among a list of Middle East restaurants.

    "We have put our faith in God and we turn to him for answers," Diab says, standing at the counter of his empty restaurant on Sunday night. Shawerma (gyros) sizzles in the background, and the counter is lined with fresh Kibbee and other cooked meat and spinach pies.

    "We hope it will continue, but we don't know what to do."

    Because there is no local Arab business association or chamber of commerce to help, businesses like Diab's face a gloomy future, especially if Arab Americans stay home and don't support their ethnic businesses.

    "The fact is that the Arab community succeeds when these small businesses succeed," one Arab American observer said. "And, the community fails and faces greater challenges if these businesses start to close. I am afraid they will start closing for a variety of reasons, many directly related to the public animosity caused by the terror attacks of September 11."

If you know of an Arab Business that is having problems, please send an email with the information to: Editor@ArabAmericanView.Net ... we wish to try to help these businesses survive ...