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. With each business comes enough customers to support other businesses DISCOVER NATURE. Urban Wildlife is the topic of the Saturday gram at the Nature Center. The 10 a:m. free programs are informative and educational for families individuals and are available on a drop-in basis. The Oak Canyon Nature Center is at 6700 E. Walnut Canyon Road. Visual Services Inc. will be herethrough today.... The first all-Southern California Open Meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous will take place Saturday.... MDC 20th anniversary International Conference will be Saturday and Sunday.... The Saftta Ana-Tustin Police Benefit show is Sunday. The Anaheim Convention Center is at 800 W. Katella The AnJaheim Angels begin the last month of the season on the road. Markets "bring bakeries, which bring restaurants and book stores, such as Abdallah's Dar A1 Hayat Bookstore. Dar A1 Hayat means "home of life" in Arabic. Immigrants follow the businesses into the area to be close to where they work and shop. Newer immigrants move to the area to be close to friends and family who have settled there before them. A large mosque in nearby Gar den Grove and a recently opened mosque in Anaheim provide convenient locations for weekly services for Muslim Arabs. A center of Arab-American social activity is the Jerusalem International Restaurant at 808 S. Brookhurst St. Dalai Muhtadi, 36, has operated the restaurant for eight months. From 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. seven days a week, Muhtadi spends her days in constant activity trying to build up her business and overcome the low -success-rate -for new restaurants. But beyond serving hummos and baba Muhtadi 4 something of a community diplo mat, acting as go-between for religious leaders, business owners, Arab newspaper operators and her seemingly endless stream of friends and acquaintances. With all of the people dropping in for a quick falafel or holding lunch meetings over stuffed grape leaves on the patio, the Jerusalem has an "Everyone comes to Rick's" quality. It shares the shopping center with other businesses catering to Arab-Americans a bakery, n Islamic dress shop and a jewelry store. In coming weeks, a market is expected to move into the space formerly occupied by Sizzler and Abdallah's bookstore. Muhtadi has capitalized on her valuable location to create the meeting place she felt the Arab American community had been"It was very natural. I was longing for a community center. Running a restaurant is so hectic, I hardly have time to socialize. Here, I can see people. I'm a youth dents at local colleges who stave off homesickness with the familiar food and language at her restaurant. "Very often, meetings (of businessmen or religious leaders) are all men. My community got used to seeing me in situations with all men," she said. "Our community has not yet achieved the level of organization or infrastructure of other immigrant communities. The generation that immigrated be fore me did not do their job. New immigrants have to depend on their families (to get acclaimated to America). They don't know how to access the system," she said. "A lot of immigrants carry some of the fear (of governments back home) to the United States. They think it is the same here. They don't realize that here they Middle Easti A student of international health, she bills the restaurant as natural Mediterranean cuisine. The recipes come from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as other countries. Despite the complexity of many Arab dishes, all of the food is made from scratch. Fresh vegetables make up the base for most dishes. Food is cooked in oil or corn oil. Muhtadi believes health-conscious Americans can use Middle Eastern food as a doorway to understanding the Arab culture. "We haven't really started to explain our culture (to Americans). We need to show people there are two sides to the story," she said. "We have a beautiful culture."