Summary
Known simply as “the markaz (center)”, the anchor of Palestinian Chicago’s Southwest Side immigrant enclave since the early 1970s, with a pronounced secular-left, pan-Arab and Palestinian nationalist orientation (Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile, PDF p.27).
Details
- The markaz provided language training, after-school cultural activities and social work assistance (PDF p.27).
- By the mid-1990s and early 2000s younger staff and youth program participants were increasingly embracing outward markers of Islamic piety, and in the 1990s young activists led prayers in the corners of its main room — remarkable given its secularist ethos (PDF p.27, p.35).
- The center was replaced by the Arab American Action Network, which established itself in the old markaz premises in Chicago Lawn; the secular community centers had closed by the 2000s while suburban mosques flourished (PDF p.27-28).