Mujid S. Kazimi

Sun, 10 Oct 2004

When I first arrived at MIT in September 1969, I went to see the international student office and asked them to put me in touch with some of the Arab students at MIT at that time. They got in touch with Mohammed Bakr from Saudi Arabia, then an undergraduate in Civil Engineering, who came to see me right away. He described some of the activities of the Arab students and gave me the names and telephone numbers of some of the Palestinians he knew in Boston. I was impressed with his taking the time to greet a new Arab student at MIT. Mohammed has served as the President of the MIT Alumni Club in Saudi Arabia for many years. Perhaps more interestingly, three of his children came to be undergraduates at MIT between the late 1990s and 2002: Omar, Othman and Ala'a.

The majority of the graduate students at MIT at the time were from Lebanon, like John Makhoul, Assaf Kfoury and Said Asfahani, but there were many from other countries as well. Among the Iraqi students at MIT was Kena'an Makiya, who was strongly against the US presence in South Asia at the time, but in recent years became an active promoter of the US invasion of Iraq to get rid of the regime of Saddam Hussien. Another student was Hani Findakly, who years later worked for the IMF and became active on the boards of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Middle East Institute in Washington DC.

The monthly seminars that were sponsored by the Arab Club (as it was called then, since there was only a Boston wide branch for the Organization of Arab Students) addressed many aspects of the political and social conditions in the Arab World. During the late sixties, the US was tormented by a huge debate on the war in Viet Nam, and many of the students in the Boston area were very active in the debates about the war. However, the focus of the Arab student seminars was often the occupation by Israel of lands from Egypt, Syria and Jordan (the West Bank) in the aftermath of the 1967 war. When I became President of the Club in 1970/71, I continued to invite a variety of speakers to the Series from different backgrounds. The events were often attended by Israeli students from MIT. The seminars were usually attended by many people from outside MIT, including members of the Arab Community in Boston.

Among the active MITArab students that I have not yet mentioned were Safwan Ben Gelloun from Morocco and Rateb Abu Eid, a Palestinian who had lived in Kuwait. Among the most active students from other Massachusetts universities were Ismael Serageldin from Harvard, Hatem Husseini from U. of Massachusetts at Amherst and Munir and Naila Jirmanous of Tufts university. The active students worked with Boston Arab community members, like Nabila Mango, Omar Khudari, Wasmaa Chorbachi and Emile Durzi, to organize several events highlighting the Arab heritage, culture and political developments. One of the memorable events at MIT was an Arab play starred by the Egyptian actor Adel Imam held at Kresge Auditorium in 1972. Adel Imam was the premier commedian of his time in Egypt, but he came to the US to raise funds for the United Holy Land Fund. The MIT Arab Club co-sponsored the evening at MIT.

In November 1970, the Association of Arab American University Graduates (AAUG) held its third Annual Convention at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston, and they invited me and others from MIT to become part of the local organization group. That convention cemented my relations with several emerging national Arab-American leaders among this group, who included from Massachusetts Drs Naseer Aruri and Elaine Hagopian and a young writer who later became well known throughout the world: Edward Said, who was the Program Chair for the convention. Little I knew then that I would become President of AAUG twice, in 1980 and in 1987. More importantly, it was the event that cemented my relation with another Arab activist from Massachusetts, Nazik Denny, who became my wife after I obtained my PhD in the summer of 1973.

When I returned to MIT in 1976 as an Assistant Professor, I sought to help the students of the Arab Club, and found them still very active in holding events to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 1977, they invited Shafiq AlHout, who represented the PLO in Lebanon and usually attended the general assembly of the UN, to speak at MIT. The US had not yet recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and thus the invitation flew in the face of the official position of the US. The MIT administration became worried that his presence could stir disruptive events by those who did not want the PLO to be heard in the US. The Provost of MIT at the time, Walter Rosenbleth, called me to convey his wishes that the invitation be withdrawn and to ask what preparations were being made by the students to avoid confrontation. I told him it was too late to un-invite AlHout but assured him that the students were seeking to hear an under-represented view and there he was no rallies were being planned to my knowledge. Shafiq Al Hout did not manage to come that year (but he did come many years later), and the talk was given by the AAUG President Abdeen Jabara and in spite of the heated atmosphere, the event was held without any disturbances.

I hope the above memories are of use to your goal of having a history of the Club archived.

Mujid Kazimi