Arabs Guilty Only of Making a Living

Niraj Warikoo, of the Detroit Free Press, writes about another rush to judgement against American Arabs.

“It may seem unusual for someone to buy hundreds of cell phones at a time, but metro Detroiters of Middle Eastern descent say that practice is part of a long tradition of entrepreneurship in Arab-American communities.

Many new immigrants or emerging businessmen earn money by buying the cell phones and then selling them to gas stations, distributors or stores.

It’s called capitalism, Arab Americans say.

In Michigan, “you can talk to almost any family in the Arab-American community, and they all have some relative in the cell phone business,” said Warren David, a Lebanese American from Northville.

If police knew that, perhaps five Arab Americans would not have been arrested last week on terrorism charges after they bought hundreds of cell phones, said David, who recently sold his cell phone business to an Iraqi American.

“If they understood us a little more, they might not jump the gun so quickly,” he said.

Many people of Arab descent “are traders by nature,” Beydoun said. “That entrepreneurship should not be linked to terrorism just because they are Arab American.”