Arab Americans

BEFORE Tony Shalhoub broke through as the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk, the Lebanese American actor had compiled a long list of supporting characters with widely diverse names: Haddad ("The Siege"), Kwan ("Galaxy Quest"), Scarpacci ("Wings"), Reyes ("Primary Colors") and Riedenschneider ("The Man Who Wasn't There"). Now it's the talent, not the ethnic look, that people notice.

Senior Homeland Security officials told a Senate panel Wednesday that they were having a hard time employing enough interpreters and analysts to counter domestic terrorist threats and that they needed to do more to reach out to American Arabs and Muslims. They also warned that some American Muslims were at risk of becoming radicalized and might try to execute homegrown terrorist attacks of the sort carried out on London subways and buses in 2005.

He wears a uniform and drives a car that has traditionally evoked fear and anger in Anaheim's Arab American community. But the moment Omar Adham's black and white cruiser pulls into a strip mall on Brookhurst Street, it's clear that that sentiment is melting in Little Arabia. "How you doing, Omar?" one Palestinian restaurant owner shouts. "Great to see you," says another man as he shakes Adham's hand between puffs on a cigarette.

"What kind of a name is that?" the voice coach asked at the end of the lesson. The name on the check he'd been handed by his student didn't match the young actor's European-sounding stage name. The actor hesitated. He was fairly new in town and leery of any missteps. "Umm, my grandfather was Middle Eastern," he said. The actor said the room temperature seemed to drop. The teacher took him aside and spoke urgently.

Federal and local authorities have uncovered new evidence in the bombing that killed a prominent Arab American civil rights leader in Santa Ana 22 years ago today, in one of the first acts of modern-day terrorism in the United States.

Members of a county Democratic Party pulled an Arab American candidate from their election ticket amid a furor over comments he made four years ago that some interpreted as sympathetic to Palestinian suicide bombers. At the urging of state party leaders, including Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, Passaic County Democrats withdrew its endorsement of Sami Merhi for a position on the county's legislative body. Merhi said he felt shocked and betrayed by the decision.

A Superior Court jury awarded $61 million to two FedEx drivers of Lebanese descent who said a manager had harassed them with racial slurs for two years. Edgar Rizkallah, 43, and Kamil Issa, 36, both of Pleasanton, said in the discrimination lawsuit that they were called "terrorists," "camel jockeys" and other epithets in 1999 and 2000 by Stacy Shoun, terminal manager for the Oakland FedEx Ground facility where the two men were contract drivers.

When President Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John F. Kerry were looking for precious votes in 2004 battleground states, they courted a community long accustomed to being overlooked: Arab Americans. But just two years later, the small but growing voter bloc appears to have slipped back into political obscurity as a new wave of violence in the Middle East galvanizes American officials' support for Israel. Despite recent calls from Arab American leaders for greater U.S.

Standing on the steps of City Hall on Thursday, local religious, civic and ethnic leaders rallied around an Arab American candidate for Anaheim City Council who was vilified last week by state Republican leaders as being anti-American and a supporter of extremist groups.