Brian's father Fouad Ashkar, pictured here with his granddaughter at his home in Dearborn Heights, Mich., said he's very proud of his son.
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Watch a video about Brian Ashkar from reporter Liberty Zabala.
A stack of video games, a cabinet of movies and Detroit Lions memorabilia in the Ashkar family home depicts the life of a middle-class Michigan family.
“We’re just like any other John, Jane Doe in America,” said 63-year-old Fouad Ashkar.
But there are distinctions made obvious by the opulent gold frames that display Arabic texts and draped tapestries that cover the walls of the Ashkar house.
The two-story Dearborn Heights home offers a glimpse of the cultural marriage between East and West that is prevalent in much of the Arab-American community in Detroit.
“Learning to be American and Arab was a constant fight,” Ashkar said. “It was a conflict between the values that I learned in Lebanon and the values and the culture here.”
In many ways, Detroit serves as the epicenter of the nation’s Arab community.
Brian Ashkar
Nearly one in three residents of Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, is Arab American, according to U.S. Census data. The metro area also has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation while being home to the nation’s largest mosque and first museum dedicated solely to Arab-American history and culture. The museum will be the site of the AAJA convention’s Opening Reception tonight.
The AAJA Michigan chapter cited the presence of the Arab-American community as a major reason for wanting to host this year’s convention.
The Detroit Arab community varies ethnically and religiously from its early history of Syrian and Lebanese Christian immigrants to recent Iraqi Muslim refugees.
The area has allowed Fouad Ashkar, a first-generation Lebanese-born American, to be heavily involved with several Arab-American local organizations for more than 30 years. His involvements include serving as a board member for the Arab American Chamber of Commerce and the Arab American National Museum.
It has also created a quasi-bubble for his sons, 29-year-old Fadi and 26-year-old Brian, shielding them from discrimination.
The oldest of Fouad’s five children, both Fadi and Brian say their day-to-day lives have been virtually undisturbed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
But that’s not to say the Arab and Muslim American community in Detroit has gone unscathed.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee reported more than 700 violent discrimination cases from racial profiling to arson and assault throughout the nation - many in Detroit – during the first year after the 9/11 attacks.
Even today, nearly half of Muslim Americans said they personally experienced racial or religious discrimination, according to a Sept. 11 anniversary report released by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.
“My heart was aching and bleeding at times,” Fouad said. “We are part of this country.”
And those stories made some more cautious.
“I remember being afraid to go outside my house, ” said Zeinab Ashkar, Fadi’s 25-year-old wife, who feared retaliation for wearing a hijab, a head covering worn by Muslim women.
Now, on the heels of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, the Ashkars gather in their well-manicured backyard next to an unused Broilmaster Premium gas grill – it’s Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims, and they haven’t eaten since morning.
That Monday evening, Fadi, Zeinab and their two children prepare to meet friends for iftar, the evening meal that breaks their daylong fast.
As they were leaving, Fouad gives each of them three kisses to the cheek, then offers a traditional saying.
“As-Salamu Alaykum.”
Follow Kyle Kim @kyleykim.
