Arab American / Muslim American Life in America

August 18 – 31, 2002
Contact: Washington FPC – Algis Silas, Program Officer for Middle East and North Africa and South Asia
Tel: (202) 504-6317; email:SilasA@state.gov

The Washington FPC, in collaboration with the International Press Center/Chicago Office of Tourism and the NYFPC, organized a 12-day working reporting tour to Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City for eight journalists from Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.

The group meet with government officials from the Department of State to discuss the U.S. Middle East policy and the campaign against terrorism. Furthermore, the group met with national Arab and Muslim American leaders, journalists, academics and members of the local Arab and Muslim American communities in Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City to discuss issues of concern within the Arab and Muslim American communities.

In Chicago some of the meetings included visiting with Arab experts at the University of Chicago, meeting with Associated Editor Tim McNulty of the Chicago Tribune, and discussing issues of concern to the Arab American community with local Chicago journalists of the Chicago Association of Arab American Journalists and Communicators.

Some of the meetings in New York City included: meeting with Dean Peter Awn of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute; a special tour of an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York entitled "Arab Americans in New York City"; a historical tour of downtown New York; a meeting with the Deputy United States Representative to the United Nations; meeting with the Chairman of the Afghan Community in America and a visit to the Islamic Center of Long Brush Hollow Road in Westbury, New York.