September 18, 2001

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

On the newsroom wall of the Arab-American Journal hangs a gold plaque that reads in Arabic script:

"Oh my Lord, increase my knowledge."

It's a message that the paper's editors looked to for inspiration this week as they scrambled to put out probably the most important issue in their history.

"We hurt just like all Americans, and want to express that," said publisher Nouhad El-Hajj, who has been putting out the paper for four years. Late Monday, the tentative headline was: "Terror hits home."

The Journal, along with the Arab-American News, are the two main newspapers that serve Dearborn's Arab-American population, the largest concentration in the United States. Each has a circulation of about 20,000 and is printed in both English and Arabic. The Journal publishes every two weeks; the News every week.

"Catastrophe," reads the Arabic headline in the News, which came out Monday.

Both papers feature essays by Arab-American and Muslim leaders strongly condemning the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and place a special emphasis on the victims, which included many Muslims.

The Journal, which comes out today, also has two pages devoted to e-mail and phone calls from non-Arab Americans expressing support of their community in the wake of recent threats directed at them

In Dearborn on Monday, a blood drive was held at the Arab Community Center for Social Services.

Donors waiting in line talked about their anger at the attacks, and their fears of ethnic intimidation.

Fouad Hannawi, who runs a parking lot in downtown Detroit, said he now leaves work two hours early to be safe.

"I have a family to take care of," said Hannawi, 39, a married father of three. "I can't have anything happen to me."

Hannawi, like many in Dearborn, hails from Lebanon, a war-torn land.

"I saw people get killed just because they belong to a certain group," he said. "I came here to get away from that, and hope it doesn't happen here."

He was concerned about the shooting deaths this weekend of a Sikh in Arizona and a Pakistani-American grocer in Dallas. Both deaths are being investigated as hate crimes linked to last Tuesday's attacks.

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Muslim leader who lives near Flint, was invited by the White House to attend Friday's special ceremony at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

But on his drive back to Michigan, he said, he was harassed by motorists who veered dangerously near his car and swore at him.

All day Monday, Kabbani spread the word through the news media that Islam had nothing to do with Tuesday's attacks.

And so did President George W. Bush.

On Monday, Bush visited the Islamic Center in Washington, taking off his shoes before entering. He listened to stories of Muslim women who feel scared to leave their homes.

"Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior," Bush said inside the mosque.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has set up a toll-free hot line to report hate crimes directed against Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians, and others who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent. Call 800-552-6843 anytime.

Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO at 734-432-6501 or warikoo@freepress.com. Free Press news services contributed to this report.