“You’re seeing minority populations and residents begin to really get involved in the political process,” says Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor-elect of Dearborn, Michigan. He spoke to The World’s Marco Werman about the issues facing his constituents.
Despite all the warnings about tobacco and lung cancer, it’s not easy to stop teenagers from smoking. And in one large American city that’s home to a large Arab American community, health officials say teen smoking is on the rise. But it’s not cigarettes luring young smokers there. It’s the hookah or shisha–the kind of waterpipe popular throughout the Middle East.Despite all the warnings about tobacco and lung cancer, it’s not easy to stop teenagers from smoking. And in one large American city that’s home to a large Arab American community, health officials say teen smoking is on the rise. But it’s not cigarettes luring young smokers there. It’s the hookah or shisha–the kind of waterpipe popular throughout the Middle East.
Beneath what is now the Battery Tunnel and the site of the World Trade Center is the remains of Little Syria, the first stop for Arab American immigrants who came to the United State near the turn of the 20th Century. Now, a small group is trying to save a six-story building that marks the history.
The Dearborn community is talking more than ever about what the All-American Muslim show, filmed in its community, can teach us. The discussion has come in the wake of Lowe’s decision to pull its ads from the show.