According to a recent article in "Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia" on Arab Americans by Helen Samhan (Spring 2001), Arab Americans trace their roots to 22 countries in Africa and Asia that share a common language and heritage. Arab Americans are of many religions. The majority of Arab Americans are Christian -- Eastern Orthodox (e.g., Greek Catholic, Maronite, Coptic, Assyrian, and Chaldean), Roman Catholic, and Protestant -- but Muslims are the fastest growing segment of the community. The large majority of Arab Americans are native-born Americans, and 82% are U.S. citizens.

The first large wave of Arab immigration to the United States began in the 1880s and continued into the early 20th century. The second began after World War II and has continued to the present. While the 1990 Census counted about 870,000 Arabs, the 2000 population has been estimated at anywhere from 1 to 3 million. The Arab American Institute (AAI) believes there are about 3 million Arab Americans.

AAI explains that Arab Americans were undercounted in the 1990 Census, as were many other ethnic, minority, and immigrant populations. Because being of Arab heritage is an ethnicity, Arabs (like Hispanics) are not counted separately in the race question on the Census, but there is no separate ethnic question for Arabs. The long form of the Census includes an ancestry question, but 2000 data are not yet available. AAI data indicate that "most Arab Americans are of Lebanese or Syrian origin, but the population of Egyptian, Palestinian, and Iraqi Americans has been growing steadily." According to 1990 Census data, the population is relatively concentrated: in 1990, two-thirds (66%) lived in ten states, and one-third (33%) lived in California, New York, and Michigan. About half (48%) lived in just 20 metropolitan areas; as of 1990 the top six were Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, Northeastern New Jersey, Chicago, and Washington, DC. According to estimates by Zogby International, Fairfax County, VA was 11th among counties in Arab American population in 1990, and the 2000 population of Arab Americans is nearly 35,000. Montgomery County, MD, was 17th, with an estimated 2000 population of nearly 21,000.

Among the many well known Arab Americans: poet Kahlil Gibran, Senators George Mitchell and Spencer Abraham (now Secretary of Energy), Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, long-time dean of the White House Press Corps Helen Thomas, NPR talk show host Diane Reems, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea and clothing/slacks manufacturer J.M. Haggar are two highly successful Arab American business owners.

For source documents and more information about Arab Americans, try one of the following websites:

1. The Arab American Institute: AAI is a nonprofit organization established to represent Arab American interests in government and politics. It provides leadership training, addresses policy issues, and serves as an information clearinghouse and resource. AAI is located at:
             1600 K Street, NW, Suite 601
             Washington, DC 20006
             Tel: (202) 429-9210
             E-mail: aai@aaiusa.org

   A great deal of demographic and analytic information is available. Be prepared to explore; information is not always where you might expect it to be. For demographic data, from the home page, look at the list on the left column and click on "About Arab Americans," then "Where We Are" or "Who We Are." This will get you to Census data and analysis, including data for Virginia and Maryland. There is also a detailed analysis based on 1990 Census data by John Zogby, the well-known pollster. To find that, from "About Arab Americans," click on "Arab American Demographics," then click on "Arab America Today." For the Samhan article on Arab Americans from "Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia" -- an excellent source of information about this community -- click on "About Arab Americans," then look under "Arab American Resources" and click on the article, "Arab Americans." For information on well known Americans of Arab descent, go to "Arab American Resources" and click on "Arab Americans Making a Difference," by Casey Kasem. For a variety of articles about Arab Americans, click on "News and Views" (a blue box near the top of the home page) and then click on "Washington Watch," a weekly column by AAI President Dr. James J. Zogby. Several years of columns are available. See particularly "Understanding Arab Americans, Part I (April 3, 2000).

2. The American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), also located in Washington, DC.

   ADC is a civil rights organization "committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage. It was founded in 1980 by former Senator James Abourezk and has chapters nationwide." Its President is Dr. Ziad Asali. ADC is located at:
             4201 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300
             Washington, DC 20008
             Tel: (202) 244-2990
             E-mail: ADC@adc.org

   In response to the terrorist attacks, ADC has compiled a list of "Information Resources on Arab-Americans, the Arab World, and Islam." Go to the home page and click on that title under "Action Alerts."

MUSLIM AMERICANS

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), there are about 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide. The population is extremely diverse. Not more than 20% of them live in the Arabic-speaking world. Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population. Because the Census doesn't ask all Americans about their religious affiliation, it is hard to obtain full and accurate data about Muslim Americans. Population estimates vary from 4 to 8 milion. Several of the Muslim organizations estimate that there are about 7 million Muslims in the United States.

According to a State Department Fact Sheet, the first Muslims to arrive in what is now the U.S. were brought as slaves from West Africa. There have been significant waves of imigration early in the 20th century and from the late 1940s through the 1970s. During the more recent period, many Muslims began to come study at U.S. universities. The number of mosques, Islamic centers, and Islamic schools in the U.S. is estimated at 2,000 to 3,000.

The Muslim population is extremely diverse in its origins, including African Americans, South Asians (from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka), Arabs (from the Middle East and North Africa), Africans, Iranians, Turks, Southeast Asians (among them Malaysians and Indonesians), and East Europeans, as well as other American converts. A report on "The Muslim Population in the United States" by Fareed H. Numan in 1992 reported that 62% of Muslims lived in ten states, with California and New York having the largest Muslim populations. Virginia ranked 7th and Maryland 10th among these states.

According to a 2000 study by Zogby International, about 26% of American Muslims are Arabs of Middle East origin, 25% are from South Asia, 24% are African American, 10% are from the Middle East but not Arab, 6% are from East Asia, and the rest have other origins. A majority are reportedly immigrants, but they appear to have a high naturalization rate. The Zogby survey reported that more than 60% are now registered voters.

Muslim American leaders have expressed great concern about inaccurate and stereotypical views about Islam and about Muslims, particularly the belief that Islam condones the murder of civilians. CAIR's website explains that in Arabic, as used in the Quran, "jihad" does not mean "holy war." It means "to strive, struggle, and exert effort. It is a central and broad Islamic concept that includes struggle against evil inclinations within oneself, struggle to improve the quality of life in society, struggle in the battlefield for self-defense (e.g., - having a standing army for national defense), or fighting against tyranny or oppression." On CNN's Talk Back America program on September 16, Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan of CAIR said the following:

"To associate Islam with bin Laden is like associating Christianity with Timothy McVeigh or Judaism with Dr. Baruch Goldstein." [who murdered 27 Muslims at prayer in a Hebron mosque].

A number of Muslim organizations provide information about Islam and about Muslim Americans. Here are websites and addresses for several of them.

1. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is "a nonprofit, grassroots membership organization dedicated to presenting an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public." It was established to "promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America" nd believes that "misrepresentations of Islam are most often the result of ignorance on the part of non-Muslims and reluctance on the part of Muslims o articulate their case." CAIR has chapters in various cities including New York.

   Its website provides information about Islam, annual reports on incidents of discrimination against Muslim Americans, and a variety of other information. The website address is http://www.cair-net.org. CAIR is located at:
             453 New Jersey Avenue, SE
             Washington, DC 20003
             Tel: (202) 488-8787

   To locate the 2001 "Accommodating Diversity" report, go to the website and click on the "Accomodating Diversity" icon. For basic information about Islam, click on "About Islam."

   Al-Haaj Ghazi Kahkan, Director of Interfaith Affairs at the Islamic Center of Long Island and Executive Director of CAIR in New York, participated in a live "chat" hosted by ABCNews.com on September 15. It provides information about Islamic teachings, reactions against the American Muslim community, and a variety of related issues. The transcript is available at http://www.ABCNEWS.com. Click on the icon on "Community" on the right side, then look for "Featured Chat," "Muslim Leader on Backlash."

2. The American Muslim Council was established to increase the effective participation of American Muslims in the U.S. political and public policy arenas. Its website is http://www.amconline.org. It is located at:
             1212 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400
             Washington, DC 20005
             Tel: (202) 789-2262
             E-mail: amc@amconline.org

   For charts summarizing the findings of the 2000 Zogby International survey on Muslim Americans, click on the "Survey on Muslim Americans" icon. The Council commissioned this survey.

Other References:
"Encyclopedia of American Religious History." Edward L. Queen, III, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner Shattuck, Jr. New York: Facts on File, 1996.

"Fact Sheet: Islam in the United States." U.S. Department of State, Office of International Information Programs, 2001. (Includes useful references to other sources.)