YALLA VOTE ‘08 Our Voice. Our Future.

On Wednesday, Yalla Vote was at an inspiring and motivating event at the Arab American National Museum. The Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) hosted a movie screening of “Election Day.” The most exciting thing about the movie was that Yalla Vote was in it! Kenwah Dabaja, our previous Midwest Organizing Director was passing out information as a final push to get people to the polls at Grocery Stores and Rashida Tlaib, State Representative Elect, was volunteering for the Yalla Vote Campaign at that time too. The movie followed many people, each with a story of their own in trying to mobilize voters and heading to the polls themselves on election day. The movie was entertaining and really inspiring for those who would like to get involved. The election is in one week and we have to strive to make every vote count and every voice heard. Let’s go everyone, YALLA VOTE!!!!

To learn more about the movie, go to http://www.electiondaythemovie.com/about_the_film.php.

Yalla Vote at the Islamic Center of Detroit!

We have been out and registering people to vote here in Michigan by hitting every mosque and church in town. On Friday, September 5th, 2008, Yalla Vote had a voter registration and information table at the Islamic Center of Detroit in Michigan. We registered new voters and reminded them about how important it is to make our voices heard this November. Hassan Abraham assisted me in registering people and also getting signatures for the National Declaration.

Everyone was excited about the Yalla Vote Campaign and appreciated us being there and expressed gratitude. Many young people were present and wanted to be a part of our upcoming events in Michigan.

Three young people , Walid Ali, Suheib Bukhatmi, Mohamed Al-Jabbery, offered to help us with voter registration and also expressed interest in volunteering for their candidate of choice. This election is crucial and we will be registering more people to vote to increase Arab American participation . If you know a church or mosque we haven’t been at in Michigan, contact me via e-mail at aai-Michigan@yallavote.org and let us know!

-Jana

Rashida Tlaib might be running for State Representative for the first time, but she’s no newcomer to the area or to the issues. Residents know her by name, she’s visited their homes on her door-to-door campaign, and she’s part of a growing group of those who work in “service politics”. A self-described “daughter of the community” and “product of the culturally vibrant community of Southwest Detroit”, Rashida Tlaib is looking to represent Michigan’s 12th District, the district she grew up in.

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We’ve been out-and-about here in Michigan, spreading the Yalla Vote initiative to get out the vote and unite our voices under one declaration. This past weekend, we attended the American Federation of Ramallah’s 50^th Annual Ramallah Convention at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency. The huge event gathered some 2000 Palestinian Americans, many of whom trace their roots back to one of the seven major families of the Palestinian town of Ramallah, in the West Bank. Many of the attendees responded to the Yalla Vote campaign with enthusiasm and signed our National Declaration. On the Fourth of July, AAI’s Midwest Director Valerie Smith addressed the convention and explained how the Internet is revolutionizing grass-roots political activism, particularly in regards to the Yalla Vote campaign.

Meeting so many Arab Americans from all over the country on a monumental occasion such as this, and with many expressing great interest in this fall’s elections, it seems that it’s not too late for the larger Arab American community to make its voices heard come November.

As we head into July, with changes at the AAI’s Midwest office and community events happening each week, things are heating up! Sunday night Amir joined Hassan and Midwest Director Valerie Smith for the closing gala dinner event of the second symposium of the National Association of Yemeni-Americans at the Dearborn Hyatt, at which Valerie spoke about the Yalla Vote campaign. The conference brought together members of various Arab American community organizations as well as visiting Yemeni citizens, including the Yemeni Ambassador to the U.N., to discuss the importance of education in addressing the concerns and realizing the goals of our community.

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Hassan Abraham was born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan, where he has been a committed community activist and student leader. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2005, and he obtained his J.D. From Wayne State University Law School in Spring 2008. Hassan has previously interned with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, and he was a Vice-Chair for Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a social justice student organization at the University of Michigan. Recently, Hassan has been active in the presidential primary, traveling to several states to campaign on behalf of his preferred candidate. He has also worked in legal aid in Detroit, providing family law and disability law services to indigent clients.

If you’d like to email Hassan, he can be reached at: aai-michigan@yallavote.org

Hear what Hassan has to say:

Hail to the Voters: Michigan Campaign Begins

Well, the Michigan staff of AAI is back in our Dearborn office this week, energized and fired up for an exciting summer and fall in Michigan. Our office is now fully operational, preparing the groundwork for a successful Yalla Vote campaign, and planning ways to make a powerful presence in the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East.

The training we experienced in Washington D.C. was incredibly informative, and we’ve already incorporated many of the great ideas that we learned at out training sessions in D.C., including the creation of a goal thermometer for the National Petition, and posting photos of our volunteers in our office.  We look forward to developing this office much further, so that it becomes a true community hub, where activists, students, local leaders, and residents stop by and utilize the resources of the Yalla Vote campaign. Help make this office yours, come by to chat, pick up signs, tshirts or buttons, give us feedback, or sign the petition… this is your campaign, Yalla Vote!

AAI is proud to introduce the Yalla Vote Field Organizers. For information about these amazing young men and women, and how to contact them, please visit the Field Organizers page here at Yalla Vote.
Hassan, our Field Organizer in Michigan, gives us an update:

Yesterday, the staff here at the AAI Michigan Field Office had the great honor of meeting with a delegation of visiting Arab and Turkish community leaders and activists from Germany. The German guests were visiting our community on a tour with the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). The IVLP is an exchange program run designed to build professional connections between communities in the U.S. and leaders abroad. Past alumni of the IVLP program include over 200 past and current heads of state, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

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