“For three-and-a-half years, all I did was answer questions on behalf of Arabs and Muslims,” said Samar Dahmash-Jarrah, a Palestinian-American living in Florida.

“Finally I said, ‘maybe it’s about time that I let Arabs answer these questions that Americans keep asking me.’ “

The result is her book, Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts, in which Jarrah poses questions collected from Americans to Arabs, and prints the responses.

This article originally appeared in In These Times Magazine in September 2005.