National Leadership Conference

By Ahmad Al-Hilali

DEARBORN– From September 30th to October 2nd, the National Leadership Conference took place in Dearborn as people from over 15 states came for this prestigious event. The conference was sponsored by the Arab American Institute and ACCESS. The main topic of discussion at the conference was the 2012 election, and how the election is going to affect Arab Immigrants, and Arab Americans Nationally. And there were workshops about many topics ranging from using social websites to Muslim’s advantage, to Islamophobia in America.  The speakers for the Islamophobia workshop were Wajahat Ali, and Matt Duss. “Mosques are considered to be Trojan Horses that house radical Islamists and terrorists,” says Wajahat Ali. “That is why there is such a tremendous amount of uproar about the Islamic Center scheduled to be built a few blocks away from the Ground Zero site. It is because of the Islamophobes. Examples include Zuhdi Jasser, Waleed Faris, Bridget Gabriel, Nonie Darwish, and Wafa Sultan and so forth,” There was also a session politically about the election, and why it is important for Arabs to vote. “You can control the elections because it is just like shopping,” one of the primary speakers, Mark Brewer, said on Sunday said” You look at the price, and no one forces you to buy it because you are the only one who knows your own budget. YOU choose.”  

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