On a recent Sunday, a group of Arab Americans sat outside of La Madeleine restaurant in Tysons Corner, sharing stories about life since Sept. 11.
Some members of the group, all of whom are active with the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Network of Arab American Alumni and Professionals (NAAP), have endured taunts and epithets from strangers. Others have undergone repeated airport searches, pulled out of line before boarding their flights. One woman went through an FBI investigation after wiring some money to family members in the Middle East.
The group also discussed national and international news affecting the Arab American community. They talked about joining an international Arab boycott of Starbucks coffee shops in response to some comments by Howard Schulz, chief executive of the company, condemning Palestinian response to the Palestine-Israeli conflict. They discussed a rally in support of a Boston cab driver and former terrorism suspect, who, following Sept. 11, was held in solitary confinement for eight months before being charged with any crime.
NAAP member Ghada Elnajjar, from Washington, D.C., said the group has focused on more domestic issues since the attacks of Sept. 11. Formed in April 2001, the group began by holding several fund-raisers in support of Palestinians and others in the Arab world. But now, Elnajjar said, the group spends more time trying to strengthen and empower the Arab American community.
"You watch the news and all the Arabs you see are terrorists," said group member Hanna Hanania, from Falls Church. "We want to see more positive images. That’s why we do our community outreach."
THE 150-MEMBER group has conducted toy drives, worked at homeless shelters and organized voter registration drives, along with several other volunteer initiatives. Many members have also discussed Arab culture with non-Arab friends and neighbors.
"9/11 raised the whole desire of wanting to know what Arab culture is all about," Elnajjar said. "Arab Americans have been part of American culture for 100 years. But only now are people seeing that [Arab Americans] are right next door, and that they don’t know anything about them."
Just days after Sept. 11, group member Abra Naz was visited by a non-Arab neighbor who Naz said never really visited before the tragedy.
"She came by and said, ‘Are you okay?’ That kind of thing feels very good," Naz said.
Naz, along with other group members, said public opinion toward Arab Americans seems to have improved over the nine-plus months since Sept. 11. They are seeing far fewer incidents of overt racism. But public policy, group members said, has worsened: They are hearing more reports of unjustified arrests, of green card holders being brought in for fingerprinting and of the FBI cracking down on those with expired visas.
"The negative things are the laws being put in place against us and the racial profiling," Naz said.
Hanania recounted a trip he took with a group of several Arab friends. On the outgoing trip, the friends stood together in a line to get on the plane, and they were all pulled aside and searched. On the way back from their trip, the group decided to split up and scattered themselves throughout the line, as if they were not part of one group. Even so, each of the friends was once again pulled out of the line and searched.
Just after the Sept. 11 tragedy, "People were hiding out," Elnajjar said.
NAAP members decided to hold a large gathering in October, though, which was well-attended.
"People were saying, ‘Thank you for having this. We were hiding out. We needed this,’" Elnajjar said.
More people have been joining the group since Sept. 11, and members attribute the growth to a need, among Arab Americans, to reconnect with their cultural roots. Hanania said several new members have told him they joined out of pride for their heritage and a belief in what the group stands for.
"People who have never cared to know about Arab culture, now want to know," Elnajjar said.
"For most of us, this is our country," Hanania said. "This is where we plan to be all our lives."