Anayat Durrani attends the annual Arab-American Festival in southern California and finds out how Arab-Americans celebrated in the US this year High above the festival grounds, large balloons can be seen holding up all 21 Arab state flags flapping in the wind. Colourful flags are everywhere, with Iraqi, Egyptian, Moroccan, Palestinian and Syrian flags mixing with the American Stars and Stripes on fences and all around the perimeter of the festival. Those attending proudly carry the respective flags of their countries and wear t-shirts proclaiming their countries of origin. Welcome to the 14th Annual Arab-American Day Festival, during which thousands of Arab- Americans made their way to the southern Californian city of Garden Grove to celebrate all things Arab. Now in its 14th consecutive year, the three-day Arab-American Festival, held this year from 25 to 27 September, is a celebration of Arab heritage, with cultural and entertainment events and activities, traditional Arab food and vendor booths, outdoor waterpipe lounges and even a carnival for the kids. "The main reasons I go to the Arab festival are to meet old friends and family, to enjoy Arab food, culture and music, and, most importantly, to dance the Palestinian national dance, or dabke," said Youssef Anton Nasrallah, a Palestinian- American attending the festival. This year's festival fell after the Muslim holiday of Eid, and, for Mohamed Ali Khater, an Egyptian-American, it felt like two celebrations as a result. For Khater, the festival is a good way of reconnecting with friends and family, as well as of networking and making new friends. "It's the only place you can see all the Arab nations' flags in one place, with people celebrating and holding each other's flags as if all Arabs were one," Khater said. However, the festival does not only attract Arabs, nor people only from the surrounding area. People from throughout the state of California, and even out of state, commonly attend. Palestinian-American Jihan Mansour drove all the way from Las Vegas in Nevada to attend this year's festival, having heard about the event through relatives living in southern California. "The Arab-American Festival is a wonderful event that showcases our heritage through food, products and services, as well as amazing entertainment," Mansour said. "Arabs from all over the country represent Arabs from all over the world in a strong, positive light." Last year, 60,000 people attended the festival, with organisers estimating a much larger turnout this year. Organised by the Arab-American Council, a non-profit group dedicated to the advancement of Arabs living in the US, the festival is part of the council's efforts to have 21 September recognised as "Arab-American Day" by the state of California. According to the organisers, some 650,000 people have attended the festival over the past 14 years. Today, there are some 3.5 million Americans having Arab roots, one-third of them living in California, according to the Arab-American Council, but the event is designed to reach out to other Americans, helping them to learn about Arabs and Arab culture. Americans from every background could be seen wandering into this year's festival, discovering something of Arab culture as they did so. "The festival shows people that we Arabs are normal people just like them. Some people in the United States have inaccurate views of the Arabs originating from the media, because they never meet or deal with them," Khater said, and the festival can help to correct these. However, for other people the smell of roasting shawirma and beef and chicken kebabs is enough to draw them in, festival attendees indulging in such staples of Middle Eastern cuisine, as well, of course, as hummus. Local Arab bakeries were also on hand selling favourite sweets like konafa and baklawa with Arabic coffee and mint tea."Seeing an event like this, it's hard not to come in, take a look, and stay for a while," said one passer-by. Arab-Americans today make up an important part of American society and represent all facets of American life. Well-known Arab-Americans include Christa McAuliffe, the teacher/astronaut who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, the Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, "Monk" actor Tony Shalhoub, Kinko founder Paul Orfalea, and Helen Thomas, former dean of the White House press corps, among many others. As if to underline this diversity, this year's festival had something for everyone. For the kids, the festival had a separate carnival section of fun rides and games, with many toy vendors to keep things busy. Much of the adult crowd sat among family and friends to enjoy the live entertainment, while other festival-goers joined the large circle that had formed around the performance of the Palestinian dabka, all the while waving flags at the stage. Still others relaxed at the open-air waterpipe cafés, puffing away at new and interesting tobacco flavours. For many members of the younger generation of Arab-Americans, the festival is also an important way of reconnecting with their Arab roots. It is an opportunity for families to instil Arab pride into their children and for young Arab-Americans to learn about their Arab identities. "Some kids may not have enough exposure to their culture, and the festival can serve as a place to introduce them to it and help them to learn the language as well," Nasrallah said. While the festival mostly consists of events, including poetry recitals, live Arabic entertainment and performances on stage including the dabka and folkloric dances, it also features exhibitions of books and folk arts, as well as vendors selling everything from belly-dancing items to religious, political and nationalistic merchandise. As in previous years, the US army and CIA had a presence at the festival, both organisations having set up booths in an effort to recruit Arab- Americans. Such efforts come on the heels of another recruiting effort aimed at Arab- Americans held by the CIA on 16 September in Dearborn, Michigan. At the latter event, CIA Director Leon Panetta told a crowd of 150 gathered for a Ramadan breakfast that "your nation needs you. It needs your ingenuity; it needs your wisdom; it needs the skills of your communities to help protect the way of life that all of us hold dear." Panetta commented that Arab-Americans, fluent in Arabic and understanding Arab culture, "reflect the face of this nation". Nevertheless, Arab-Americans have typically remained suspicious of the agency and have tended to approach the translation jobs offered to them with some degree of scepticism. While this year's Arab-American Festival drew large crowds, as it does every year, there were complaints about new sponsors who had booths at the event. For the first time, Playboy and Hustler Casino had presences at the festival. "Although the event was a tasteful one, we could have done without the Playboy table, as it seemed to bring us down a notch," said Mansour. "We all come from a strong Arab lineage and to throw the Playboy display into the mix sends a different message to the young people who follow our lead." Another attendee, Malak Harari, also said he felt the festival had taken a turn for the worse this year. "There was no reason whatsoever for booths such as Playboy and Hustler Casino to be present. They have nothing to do with Arab culture. I hope they won't be back next year because they did turn off a lot of people, Christians and Muslims alike." However, despite such reservations, overall all those attending this year's festival thoroughly enjoyed the event. "I'd still go next year. At last we have an event for us in Orange County, with some celebration of culture and language and the possibility to meet the community," Nasrallah said. Several organisations that are regular booth participants, ranging from The United States Organization for Medical and Educational Needs (US-OMEN) to California Access Services to the Palestinian American Women's Association (PAWA), sent a joint letter of protest to the organisers of the festival. The letter took issue with organisers over their inclusion of a "larger and more prominent presence of recruitment agencies," including the large pair of war games simulators situated near the stage "designed to go after the enemy," and the festival's inclusion of Playboy and Hustler Casino. In their letter, they state that the festival has gone from promoting Arab culture "into an enterprise that values profits over community." They called this year's festival "an insult to our heritage as a people and an embarrassment to our neighbouring communities." The signatories said they would not participate in future events until the festival returns to its original purpose of celebrating Arab culture in a family friendly environment.
