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Book on Chicago's Arab history to be released soon

Arab-American author and columnist Ray Hanania is expected to publish soon a new book detailing the history of Chicago's Arab and Muslim community, the Chicago-based Arab American Media service said in a press release.

  • Gulf News Report
  • Published: 00:00 July 30, 2005
  • Gulf News

Arab-American author and columnist Ray Hanania is expected to publish soon a new book detailing the history of Chicago's Arab and Muslim community, the Chicago-based Arab American Media service said in a press release.

It noted that Hanania's Arabs of Chicagoland, which will be published on August 21 by Arcadia Press, is the first attempt aims at documenting Arab community's history in that state.

"Arabs first arrived in Chicago in the middle of the 19th Century. Documents kept by social activist Jane Addams at the Hull House museum identified a group of about seven Arab immigrants who lived together in what is today the University of Illinois' Chicago campus.", said the release, a copy of which was sent to Gulf News.

According to the release, one of the most influential magnets for Arab immigration to Chicago was the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893.

The World's Fair featured a massive display called Cairo Street where Arab World merchants sold merchandise.

Their tales of business success reverberated among Arabs in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, and immigrants seeking to earn profits began settling.

Arabs of Chicagoland includes 205 photographs with more than 757 people pictured of the community's history dating back to the 1920s, collected from families and from Hanania's newspaper archives.

The book includes profiles of several early Arab American settlers from different countries, including Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

It cites several studies that were were conducted in the 1950s and 1970s by PhD students examining the history of Arab settlement in Chicago .

Arab-Americans in Chicago note that Chicago today is predominantly Palestinian with the community almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims.

The next largest communities consist of Christian Lebanese, Christian Jordanians and Egyptians of the Muslim and Coptic faiths.

Despite their long history, "there are no landmarks recognising their many contributions to the city and the region.

"Chicago celebrates Arab Heritage Month every November, but the event is ignored by Chicago's major media despite an array of Arab sponsored activities that take place," said the release.

Also, it quoted Hanania as saying, "Chicago's Arab American community is significant in the bigger picture of Arabs in America, yet we have been unable to coalesce and work together for the greater good".

"I think our real tragedy is that we have allowed the city of Chicago, the second largest city in America, to ignore our community and take us for granted.

"The book helps to identify many Arab Americans who have achieved success in Chicago and I am hoping it will reinforce the pride that young Arab Americans can experience knowing that despite not being recognised by American society, we have done much to make this a great country." Hanania added.

Hanania is also the publisher of the humour book published in 1996 called I'm Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing Up Arab in America.

He was also the publisher of the first English-language newspaper in Chicago, The Middle Eastern Voice (1975-1977).

In August 2002, Hanania was thrust into the national spotlight when Jewish American comedian an anti-Arab critic Jackie Mason refused to perform on stage with him because Hanania is Palestinian.

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