Excerpt:
A rising chorus of Arab-American activists denounced the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for cancelling the performance of a musician over the pro-freedom song he was due to perform.
The Justice Department, however, will still send a top official to the weekend event, a spokesperson said.
POLITICO reported yesterday that the ADC, a longtime Washington civil rights group, dropped Syrian-American composer and pianist Malek Jandali over his piece choice at their weekend convention -- a new composition with broadly pro-freedom themes but that eschews specific mentions of Syria or the "Arab Spring." The group declined to comment yesterday on the move and did not respond to inquiries today from POLITICO, but people in communication with it said officials offered explanations ranging from logistics to politics for the decision.