Growing community

E very time Hayat Abdallah steps outside of her bookstore to have a cigarette , she is greeted by a dozen familiar faces. They exchange a dozen friendly greetings in Arabic. "Sometimes I think I'll forget my English," she jokes. Abdallah, owner of the area's only Arabic bookstore, sells everything from newspapers and magazines from the Middle East to books on north African politics imported from England. Her store is part of a growing community of Arab owned and operated businesses on a strip of south Brookhurst Street. Estimates for the Arab-American community range from more than 200,000 in Orange County to half a million in all of Southern California. Most government agencies that keep track of who lives where, such a s the Census Bureau, do not know how big the Arab-American community in Anaheim is because it is part of the all-encompassing "other " category. What can be pinned down is the center of that community. It's in Anaheim, on Brookhurst Street. Markets, clothing stores, cafes and restaurants focused on Middle Eastern culture set the Brookhurst shops apart from the normal strip mall fare. Sometimes called Little Gaza, the neighborhood is growing the way other ethnic neighborhoods grow. Involvement in sports is part of mother's strategy for successfully bringing up five children in America. The International Children Foundation tries to help orphaned and needy children in three Middle Eastern countries while separating itself from the countries' conflicts. Some Arab-Americans fear the media will portray all Arabs or all Muslims in a negative light because of recent events overseas.