Arab American View Newspaper suspends
publication
The health of an ethnic community is reflected in the
quality of its newspapers.
That’s the reason why I launched the Arab
American View newspaper. In March 1999 we hosted a dinner to
honor long time Arab community activist Salameh Zanayed and in October
1999 we organized a writers’ conference. The conference attracted more
than 150 attendees including 25 teenagers interested in pursuing
journalism as a career. The Zanayed dinner attracted 350 attendees.
What was disconcerting was that we didn’t have one
decent newspaper at the time to cover the conference or the dinner
and report on their success. No one in the American mainstream media
was interested in covering Arab American events, either. (Read the
Chicago Reader article on this subject.) So, after those two events, I launched
the Arab American View so that we could showcase our community
successes.
It started with a newsletter format in November 1999,
distributed for free to the Arab American community. Immediately, some
in the Arab community were the first to attack it because their names
were not showcased. One Arab American businessman used all his power
to condemn the newsletter and demanded that he and others be included,
even though he refused to support the paper financially.
I continued to publish and in February 2000, with the
backing of many other good Arab Americans and businesspersons
concerned about the need to create a communications system in our
community, I launched the Arab American View Newspaper, a tabloid
format of 24 pages. In January 2002, we went to full color and had
reached 36 pages of copy mailed to more than 2,500 Arab American
families.
I really wanted to see if our community here in
Chicago could have at least one newspaper that was professional and
that focused on the positive achievements of our community and not
engage in the usual name calling, backbiting and slander that plagues
some of the others.
But the critics in the pro-Israel and some Arab
American business leaders -- who believe that it is easier for them to
control the community and preserve their power bases -- opposed the
newspaper. Some even criticized the newspaper because I was Christian
and half of Chicago's Arab community is Muslim. Still, the paper did
well. Some Christians were angry that Muslim icons appeared on the
front page and cancelled their subscriptions. Bt those people were few
and far between and the minority. The majority of the community,
Muslim and Christian, supported the newspaper.
Unfortunately, though, the time came when too many
hurdles stood in the way of producing a good newspaper.
I had to temporarily suspend the print
edition of the Arab
American View Newspaper pending a review of its finances in September
2002.
The newspaper included many
important stories that could never be found anywhere. It was a brief
record that Arab Americans existed in this country and lived and
worked here with their heads high and proud.
Some of the stories included:
-
Profiles on four Arab teenagers were involved in
boxing in Chicago and who went on to win downstate championships. No
one in any other media reported on their achievements except our
newspaper. It helped motivate them to seek even more.
-
Profiles of retired award winning chef Mohammed
Hussien (that’s how he spells his last name, by the way), after more
than four decades at the Bergoff Restaurant chain. He was so proud
of his heritage, his achievements needed to be told and recorded so
someday others might read about them or be inspired to follow in his
footsteps.
-
Two young Arab grade school writers won last year’s
Chicago Human Relations Commission writing awards and no other media
even mentioned their success. We made them the front page of our
newspaper.
-
Rouhy Shalabi has become a fulltime member of the
Chicago Park District and soon, Bill Hadded will be named a judge.
These are amazing achievements, yet there is no place where we can
celebrate their successes any more.
-
We included profiles on St. George Church, the
Northbrook Mosque, Talat Othman, Grocer Ribieh Hussein, reviews of
dozens of Arab American restaurants and businesses, Walid Ali and
MPI Home Video, and so many, many more in 30 issues of the paper.
I am hoping to re-launch the newspaper again.
Anyway, we can all dream that someday we will have
another good newspaper that we can use to brag about the achievements
of what we have done.
It’s a thankless job that we are all involved in. But
someday, we might be able to see some of our younger people continue
in professional journalism from where we have reluctantly left off. Sometimes, they just need to see proof that
success is achievable by seeing the success of others like yourself.
Thanks you.
Sincerely
RAY HANANIA
PO Box 2127
Orland Park, IL 60462
rayhanania@aol.com
www.hanania.com
