WASHINGTON: Civil rights champions and representatives of the Biden administration joined nearly 400 Arab American leaders and activists to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee over the weekend in Washington D.C.
Among dozens of speakers who addressed the three-day conference were Ben Crump, civil rights attorney; Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security secretary; Jim Moran, who championed Arab American rights while in Congress from 1991 to 2015; and Sam Rasoul, Virginia legislator.
Calling Arab Americans “brothers and sisters in the struggle for civil rights,” Crump urged the ADC to continue its civil rights campaign for equality and not be discouraged by challenges that seek to “undermine” their rights.
“My grandmother taught me as a little boy, she said, ‘when you get a chance to speak truth to power, you do it.’ She said it doesn’t matter if people are saying it’s controversial, it doesn’t matter if people are saying it’s unpopular, it doesn’t matter if people are saying it’s inconvenient,” said Crump, who has represented families of many high-profile victims of police violence in the US — including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor — and represented the residents of Flint, Michigan, who were affected by the poisoned waters of the Flint River.
Arab Americans and African Americans are fighting “a war against the enemies of equality,” Crump added.
During a panel discussion on changes in the Arab world and the role of the Biden administration, Moran said American influence in the region is “waning,” adding: “I don’t think the US has provided the kind of leadership that we’re capable of providing.”
He said: “There are three reasons why we’ve engaged in the region. The principal one was energy — we needed to make sure we could have a supply of oil. The second reason is we wanted to be competitive in the Cold War … And the third reason…
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