WASHINGTON // It should have been an opportunity to address civil rights issues facing Arab Americans in the US; a chance to discuss the role Arabs in America might play as unrest, revolutions and government crackdowns sweep the Middle East.
Instead, the annual national convention of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the first and largest Arab American organisation in the US, has been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding a performance of the Syrian-American composer and pianist, Malek Jandali.
Mr Jandali had been due to perform his songs "Watani Ana: I am my homeland", a piece he wrote in response to the recent unrest in the region. But it appeared the lyrics were too political for the ADC, and organisers decided to drop the entire performance when Mr Jandali insisted on performing the song.
Then, only hours before yesterday's gala dinner where the musician had been scheduled to appear and in response to the furor that had been created by the cancellation, ADC announced it had re-invited Mr Jandali.
"We regret the series of events that led to the cancellation of Mr Jandali's performance," a short statement from ADC read. "We hope that by playing the song, with its powerful message of freedom, that we will address the valid concerns of many in the Arab-American community. It is in this spirit we hope to move forward and continue to build our grassroots network, as we work to empower Arab Americans."
The move comes after fans of the musician had learnt of the cancellation on Mr Jandali's Facebook page. Some of his 27,000-strong fan base vowed to boycott the conference; others to alert the media. The story was picked up by American and Arab media, and even spawned a Facebook page of its own - ADC: Human Rights or Human Wrongs?
The controversy then spilt into the first day of the convention on Friday. A few delegates decided to stay away all together. Others made their displeasure known through their presentations. Hady Amr, the deputy assistant administrator for the Middle East at the United States Agency for International Development, finished his remarks during one session with a pointed rejoinder to organisers from the US administration.
"On Syria, as across the Arab world, we support the rights for Syrians to speak their minds and the White House has taken note and is disappointed to find that a certain musician is not performing here today," Mr Amr said.
Khaled Mattawa, Libyan author and academic at the University of Michigan, told the audience that he had considered not attending. In the end, he said, he had decided the best way to register his anger was at the convention. He then proceeded to read out the lyrics of Mr Jandali's song.
A broad lament for the lack of freedoms in an unspecified homeland, "Watani Ana" ends with a prayer "to the heavenly God, to lift calamities from my country, my people and all mankind".
It is a humanitarian message that could be applied to any country in the world, Mr Jandali said Friday from his office in Atlanta, Georgia. He said he supported the ADC's role in fighting discrimination against Arabs in America but he remained upset that organisers never gave him a clear reason why they did not want him to perform the song.
"This is a very unfortunate decision, especially from an Arab-American civil rights organisation in Washington," said Mr Jandali, who performed at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. "They failed honestly and clearly to say why they did not want me to perform this song."
The controversy only deepened as media began pointing out the relationship between Safa Rifka, the ADC's chairman, and Imad Mustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the US. On his personal internet blog, Mr Mustapha has referred to Mr Rifka on as one of his "closest friends" in the US.
Only on Thursday, the day before the convention began, was a statement released that dismissed as "absurd" the idea that ADC would have disinvited an artist "for promoting democracy".
The news release never made clear exactly why Mr Jandali was no longer performing. On Friday, Ray Hanania, a member of the ADC's board of directors, said the ADC had tried to make a "fine distinction" between the political panels at the convention and a performance at the gala dinner, where any political content could be seen as having been endorsed by the ADC.
"He wasn't invited to make a political statement, he was invited as a musician," Mr Hanania said.
Mr Hanania, who said he had not been involved in the decision to drop the performance, argued that organisers of the convention "should not have censored" Mr Jandali. He said the move had distracted from the purpose of the convention.
Noura Erekat, a Washington-based human-rights attorney, said the decision was hard to fathom and that it was "unfortunate that we should waiver on supporting freedom as a principle".
Even so, she voiced surprise at the scale of the controversy.
"In the legacy of ADC's struggle to stay afloat and survive many transitions in recent years, many controversial issues have arisen that its base has not taken similar note of and similar issue with. While the Jandali controversy is worthwhile, we should ask ourselves as a community why we haven't held our organisations to account sooner."
It appears that on this occasion, at least, ADC was forced to bow to the will of its community.
okarmi@thenational.ae
Addendum
In the end, Malek Jandali, the Syrian-American composer and pianist,
never did perform at the annual convention of the American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington DC. In fact, he was not
re-invited to do so by the ADC, as suggested by a statement from the
ADC released on Saturday, only hours before the Gala dinner where he
had been originally scheduled to perform.
That statement announced that ADC would "open its annual Gala with the
playing of the song 'Watani Ana' by Syrian composer and pianist Mr
Malek Jandali". By that, however, the ADC apparently meant a recorded
version of the song rather than a live performance. The confusion,
reflected in the article above, caused many of Mr Malek's fans to
believe he had indeed performed on Saturday and forced him to set the
record straight on his FaceBook page on Sunday.
"To my wonderful fans: Thank you for all your support. To clarify, I
was not at the ADC convention last night and did not perform Watani
Ana. I am surprised that ADC decided to play my music without
contacting me to have my permission. I wonder why they claimed that I
was re-invited to the convention when no such invitation was issued.
Why has ADC yet to answer the questions & concerns of the Arab-
American community?"
