Additional Information on the National Council of Arab Americans
On September 13, 2005, NCA co-sponsored (along with the International Socialist Review, The Nation Institute, and the Traprock Peace Center, among others) a Boston appearance by British Member of Parliament George Galloway, who, in the course of his address, condemned American support for Israel; praised antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan; charged that U.S. policies had “created the swamp of radical Islam” wherein the 9/11 attackers and “hundreds of thousands” of other “new terrorists” had been created; and accused the U.S. of “going around the world occupying countries and stealing their things.”
Other speakers at that event included:
- NCA member Naseer Aruri, who alleged that the existence of Israel, coupled with America’s staunch support for the Jewish state, had created the “so-called terrorists” of the Muslim world;
- socialist professor William Keach of Brown University, who urged the crowd to confront the “war criminals in the Oval Office”;
- counter-recruitment activist Eriko Nagai, who said that both race and class had played a major role in determining the fate of people in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans;
- Boston city councilman Chuck Turner, who said that “the soul of America … is covered in militarism, economic exploitation and racism”; and
- International Socialist Organization member Annie Zirin, who made a similar charge.