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The article reports that the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies held its annual symposium, this year on "The Politics of Education in the Arab World: Past Legacies, Current Challenges," at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. on March 23 and 24, 2006. Many of the papers presented focused on historical perspectives of education in the Arab world, including education during the colonial period. A few, however, addressed such contemporary challenges as the reform of Islamic education in modern but increasingly Islamist societies, public education for often alienated Muslim students in secular France, and humanitarian outreach.

The article presents the comments of various business executives on terrorism at Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center conference. Israeli refusenik Rami Kaplan described the crisis of conscience that forced him into the courage to refuse movement. Steve Ramer of the Christian Peacemakers Team discussed CPT's work in the occupied territory, especially the administratively divided city of Hebron and Huwaida Arraf stated the role of internationals as exemplified by the International Solidarity Movement.

The article presents information on the annual conference organized by the Palestine Solidarity Movement regarding divestment from Israel at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. on February 17-19, 2006. The opening plenary featured Noura Erakat of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation who reviewed the history of the current divestment movement in the context of the successful divestment movement from South Africa, a recurrent theme throughout the conference. Philip Farah, a former instructor at the Lutheran School in Ramallah, discussed church divestment efforts in the conference.

The article focuses on the third annual conference of Al Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition that took place from April 15 to 17, 2005 at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, California. The opening two days of the conference ended with cultural evenings. The first reflected the Arab-American heritage of many of the participants including speakers such as Vernon Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement (AIM), who spoke about the necessity of mutual support and understanding between various solidarity groups such as AIM and Al Awda, and a number of hip hop and spoken word performers. The closing cultural activities focused on traditional Palestinian arts.

This article reports that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hosted its annual conference May 13 to 15 at the Sheraton Premiere in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Entitled "Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism: Causes and Remedies," the conference drew about 300 people from the Washington, DC metro area. Panels included discussions of building bridges of understanding; Islamophobia and anti-Americanism in the media; Anti-Americanism and U.S. foreign policy objectives; Islam and American relations with the Muslim world; and misconceptions about Christians and Muslims in the public discourse.

The article reports that Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies has hosted a two-day symposium March 31 and April 1 in Washington, DC on the state of Arab studies programs. Many of the panelists addressed the role of Arab studies in the current political clime— specifically, whether or not academics could or did or should have an impact on U.S. policy toward the Middle East. Questions of tenure and public censure were addressed, as was the question of what graduating students did with the knowledge gained in their Middle East and Arabic-language studies.

The article reports that student-led Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) to divest from Israel in support of Palestinian rights convened its fourth annual conference at Duke University in North Carolina on October 15, 2004. Zionist efforts, similar to tactics used against the Rutgers conference last year, failed to shut it down. The opening plenary, entitled "the Edward Said Memorial Panel," featured Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu and clergy Mark Davidson of the Presbyterian Church, whose national board recently voted to selectively divest from Israel. Unfortunately, famed South African poet and antiapartheid activist Dennis Brutus was delayed in Great Britain and unable to attend.

The article reports that activists from around the world convened at New York City's Martin Luther King, Jr. High School on August 26 for the Iraq War Crimes Tribunal. Based on an indictment written by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, founding member of the International Action Center, the tribunal accuses U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and General Tommy Franks.

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, held its second annual international convention at Hunter College in New York City over the weekend of April 16 to 18, 2004. Activist Tiokasin Ghosthorse opened the convention by dedicating it to all Palestinian prisoners and all those who have died in the struggle. Following solidarity statements from sympathetic communities and the viewing of Palestinian art being auctioned for the benefit of refugees under immigration attack in Montreal, Al-Awda organizer Musa al-Hindi set the tone of the conference by saying that the Palestinian diaspora would not allow others to sign away their right to return.

Amidst a storm of controversy, including Zionist attacks and internal disagreements, New Jersey Solidarity (NJS) hosted the Third North American Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) in New Brunswick, New Jersey on October 10-12, 2003. After a welcome by NJS president Charlotte Kates, the opening plenary featured Elias Rashmawi of the Free Palestine Alliance (FPA), who described to the audience of several hundred how the steadfastness of Palestinians inspired the American movement to continue even while under attacks like those aimed at the NJS sponsored conference.

Highlights the International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism organizational conference held in New York. Theme of the conference; Primary organizer of the event; Protest on the erosion of civil rights.

Reports the seminar among Young Afghan Professionals for the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. Venue of the seminar; Mechanism of the seminar; Objectives of the Young Afghan Professionals.

The article presents information on a conference organized by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center based in Jerusalem which was held on March 3-4, 2006 at Washington, D.C. New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. In the conference, Jeff Halper, coordinating director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, emphasized the need to globalize the movement to resolve the Palestine/Israel issue, because of its impact on the world. Focusing on nonviolent resisters, Sabeel Vice President Jean Zaru said that Palestinians need to engage more of the world community in the struggle and urged building a global movement for peace and justice with a vision including diversity and excluding exclusivity.

The article reports on the annual Palestine Center conference, held on November 18, 2005 in Washington D.C. Noted scholar Naseer Aruri introduced the theme of the conference, "Palestine and the Middle East in a Global Context," with the question, "Is there now a new global environment?" Aruri sketched out mounting U.S. threats against Syria and Iran, as well as the rising power of states like Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa and China--all in the so-called "Global South." Appearing by video, keynote speaker Asmi Bishara, a Palestinian member of Israel's Knesset, stated that in the current global context, American hegemony was the most important factor in the region.

The article reports on a well-attended panel at the divestment conference that was entitled "Media: Bias, Strategy, and Promoting Divestment." Rima Mutreja of Palestine Media Watch described various ways in which that organization responded to media bias. She stressed, however, that response was not enough, that those concerned with justice must be pro-active. In addition to letters to the editor--Mutreja advocated writing letters praising good articles as well as ones pointing out faults--activists also should write their own op-ed pieces and let the media know about events that would be worthy of coverage.

The article reports that Network of Arab American Professionals held its second annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts during September 24 to 26, 2004. Founded to advance Arab Americans and Arab culture, as well as to promote full participation in U.S. society, the theme of this year's conference was "Empowering Our Community." To that end, panels were divided into various areas of concentration including professional, foreign policy, civic education, and films and the media. Within those sections were panels on such varied topics as Palestine, Iraq, how to organize, Arab women's movements, the vote, and civil rights and nonprofit law.

Two years ago at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee annual convention, the author met Jumana Odeh, and offered her some toys the author's children and she had bought for Palestinian children. Dr. Odeh took with her the ones she had in her car, and all made arrangements to mail the others to the Happy Child Center. The entire newspaper "Washington Report" staff had fun packing the jump ropes, toy cars, crayons, bubbles, dolls, harmonicas, and stuffed animals, and writing messages to the children.

From July 26 to 28, 2003, the 33rd annual Zenko Conference was held in Shiga Kogen, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Zenko is the abbreviated name of the Japanese National Assembly for Peace and Democracy, which this year hosted, at the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics, about 1,000 conference attendees from Japan, the Philippines, Korea, Great Britain, and the U.S. Having been involved for several years in a grassroots movement for an International Criminal Tribunal on Afghanistan (ICTA), the conference resolved this year to call for a similar tribunal for Iraq (ICTI). Another issue of concern to the Zenko conference was a planned new American military base to be built off the shore of Okinawa, Japan, already home to a large U.S. naval base. The Zenko conference also stressed the importance of action against corporations that were funding or benefiting from the war on Iraq.

Academics, journalists, and other interested parties gathered at Georgetown University of Washington D.C. on March 27 and 28, 2003 for a symposium sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The question under scrutiny was the issue of manifest destiny with regard to U.S. policy towards the Middle East countries. Robert Oakley, a visiting fellow at the National Defense University, argued that the U.S. has got some policy problems which were complicated by an attitude of desecration toward Islam as the result of a rise in evangelical movements in the U.S. Oakley warned against trying to fight terrorism unilaterally, however, maintaining that diplomacy was a far more effective tool than military intervention. U.S. could do nothing, diplomatically, to foster better U.S.-Arab relations because the Arabs would never forgive Christians for the Crusades. ABC News journalist John Cooley opined that the solution for strained U.S.-Arab relations lay in immediately addressing the situation of Palestine and Israel, but did not agree that the U.S. could withdraw from Iraq.

On April 12, 2003 about 30,000 people converged on Washington D.C. to join Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) coalition in reminding the U.S. administration that occupation of a country is not its liberation. Isma' il Kamal of the Sudan America Society, and Laila al Arian, daughter of Palestinian professor Sami al Arian, a political prisoner in the U.S., were among the notable speakers. The U.S. administration shared the brunt of the anti-war anger with Bechtel, Halliburton, The Washington Post, and Fox News.

Highlights the annual convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Theme; Participants of the event; Programs and activities.

Details the American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice conference on Middle East crisis in Washington D.C. Invasions of Palestinian territories by Israeli force; Names of speakers; Goal and objective of the conference.

The 2003's national American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) conference was held June 12 to June 15, 2003 at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The group's 20th annual conference was a mixture of educational panels, group discussions and speeches by prominent public figures, marred by lackluster attendance and concerns over the future of Arabs in America and abroad. While a select few attendees participated in an afternoon of congressional lobbying on June 12 2003, most ADC members — along with quite a few relatives — arrived the following day, just in time for an enlightening series of panels on domestic issues.