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Expanding Arab Voice rings out
Tuesday, May 6, 2003
By SUZANNE TRAVERS
HERALD NEWS (NJ)
http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3
dnFlZUVFeXk2Mzc1MTEw
PATERSON - After 12 years of slow expansion, The Arab Voice newspaper
has
plans to double its circulation in the next few weeks to 40,000, upping
the
number of states where the paper is distributed from 12 to 32.
A free weekly supported by advertising, The Arab Voice combines local
coverage on issues concerning the Arab community in America with news
from
the Middle East. Walid Rabah, who founded the paper in Paterson in 1992,
said he hopes to reach smaller communities of Arabic readers that exist
all
over the United States, not just in the urban centers of New York, New
Jersey, Michigan and California where Middle Eastern immigrants have
tended
to congregate. Rabah has been touring the country for months, relying on
friends to point out pockets of Arabs in Nevada, Texas, Louisiana and
Tennessee.
"Where we found Arabs, we're sending the newspaper there,"
said Rabah.
Besides offering an Arab-American perspective on the news, he sees value
in
printing the paper in Arabic. "Most of the Arabs here ... want to
keep their
Arabic language. We need the newspaper to keep the language for the
younger
generation," he said.
Circulation will jump immediately when the paper opens an office in
Dearborn, Mich. Rabah said he is a week or two from closing a deal on an
office, which will be run by one additional staffer. The paper, which
now
runs about 35 pages an issue, will also be expanded to include some 15
additional pages focused on news from Chicago, Dearborn and Southern and
Western states.
There are about 50 Arab-related print publications available in the
United
States, according to Mostapha Saout, managing editor of Allied Media, a
Washington firm that links advertisers with ethnic media. There are
about
1.2 million people with Arab ancestry living in this country, according
to
the 2000 Census.
Some are magazines, like Arab American Business, but most are weeklies
like
The Arab Voice, Saout said. He said such papers provide a service by
covering news that pertains to Arab Americans, such as the war on
terrorism
or new laws like the Patriot Act that have impacted Arab Americans daily
experiences.
"The community feels that it is in a very tight spot and a very
vulnerable
time," Saout said. "Papers such as The Arab Voice help in that
sense ...
(they) help inform people about these issues."
The perspective The Arab Voice offers on such issues is also important,
said
Dania Rajendra, editor of Voices That Must Be Heard, a project of the
nonprofit Independent Press Association of New York that publishes
articles
translated from immigrant and ethnic newspapers in a weekly digest. She
said
The Arab Voice has published articles on the lack of democracy in the
Arab
world and questions of responsibility surrounding that issue, and has
done
in-depth coverage of community news like the detention of immigrants.
Some
have been included in Voices That Must Be Heard.
"Immigrants rarely see themselves in the mainstream media, let
alone see
issues and concerns reflected from their point of view," Rajendra
said.
Papers like Rabah's help immigrants in "building community life and
political power, (in) debating the issues of the day, as well as
unifying
people who may be spread far over a geographic area."
Amatalkar Mohammed, a Yemeni woman who came to the United States 11
years
ago when her husband came to study at the University of Tennessee, is
one of
about 13,000 people of Arab ancestry living in Tennessee, according to
the
2000 census. From Knoxville, she said she was eager to see The Arab
Voice in
print form. Though she reads Yemeni papers and The New York Times
online,
she said, she misses an Arab perspective on issues that impact her in
America.
Arab-Americans in the tri-state area can turn to other Arabic weeklies
such
as Aramaic, in Brooklyn, and Almanassah, in Hillside, said Rajendra, but
a
number of similar publications have shut down because of the advertising
drought brought on by a weakened economy.
Rabah said his paper's advertising revenues have remained strong and
that he
expects to add more ads from Arab-American businesses located in the
expanded coverage area. Ad rates will not change. The paper also reaches
about 1,500 Web readers through its site at www.arabvoice.com,
but runs no
ads there.
In addition to articles from correspondents in the Middle East and
syndicated columns by such writers as American Arab Institute president
James Zogby, the paper runs book and movie reviews, as well as
occasional
articles translated from English publications. At times, it even runs
Arabic
grammar exercises, Rabah said.
But the paper has not been immune from controversy. Last November it was
widely criticized for printing "The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion," a
forged document that purports to have been written by Jews plotting to
achieve world domination. The work was used as anti-Semitic propaganda
against Jews in czarist Russia and Nazi Germany.
At the time, Rabah said he printed the Protocols with a disclaimer
stating
that the paper didn't believe they were true, and that he believed
printing
them would be educational.
Later, he apologized for publishing the tract in a letter to columnist
Zogby.
Irfan Khawaja, an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey, was
one of
those who criticized The Arab Voice for printing the Protocols.
"Regardless of whatever else it may do well, the Arab Voice has
forfeited
any claim to being a legitimate newspaper as a result of the Protocols
episode," Khawaja said last Thursday.
A genteel man with a thin, pale face, and white hair, Rabah began
distributing the paper in Paterson, Clifton, North Bergen and Jersey
City
about 10 years ago, later expanding up and down the East Coast. Now 60,
he
has been a writer and journalist for more than 30 years, and has
authored 15
books in Arabic, including four for children. He works with an adult
son,
and leaves the office early on weekdays to pick up his 3- and 7-year-old
from school.
A Palestinian, who covered the Middle East for years, he left
"because there
is no freedom there. When you write they will put you in the
prison." He
said he was jailed for periods of a week to two months in Syria, Libya,
Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, for articles he wrote criticizing those
countries' governments.
Now in the United States, he said, "I write whatever I want. Nobody
ever
says anything. We write against the war, the U.S. government, the
American
media, but nobody ever asks us (about it.) That's why I'm a very good
American citizen," he said.
Reach Suzanne Travers at (973) 569-7167 or travers@northjersey.com.
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