Hussein Ibish: the Arab American activist and analyst gives his take on U.S. policy toward Arab Americans and the Middle East.(Q & A)(Interview)

As the executive director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership and Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, you deal with both the domestic and foreign policy concerns of a very diverse community. Give us a picture of the makeup of the Arab-American community. The emphasis for many is on their country of national origin rather than on a broader Arab-American identity.

There are religious and ethnic minorities, who in many cases are marginalized, disenfranchised and involved in conflicts in the Arab world that the Arab identity has not been broad enough to include in the last 60 years.

There are also class divisions that are important in the Arab and immigrant community; and divisions also based on how assimilated people are and when their families arrived in the U.S. [There are] big differences between those who arrived pre- and post-World War I and post-1967 when the immigration laws changed.

How did 9/11 change the outlook of the Arab American community? It was not changed that much. I don't believe that any of the organizations that exist, whether they are Arab-American or Muslim groups led by Arabs, have particularly increased the scope or size of their membership since Sept. 11.

But a whole group of people was energized to get involved by Sept. 11 and the backlash who were not involved ...