Where Tea Doesn't Mix With Political Sympathies

[Rose Siding]

At El Khaiam cafe on Steinway Street in the middle of what is known as Little Egypt in Astoria, Queens, Arab immigrants sit around imitation marble tables and chat animatedly as they play backgammon or cards. They sip ink-black Egyptian tea or tart lemonade and smoke fruit-flavored tobacco from stained-glass water pipes.

If the cafe owner, Gamal Dewidar, had been there, the conversations would not have been about international politics. But Mr. Dewidar is not there on this day and some customers hijack the television remote to watch Al Jazeera Arab satellite TV news. All conversation ceases. The news anchor relates stories about sectarian violence in Iraq and strife in the Palestinian territories as the water pipes bubble and the swirling smoke condenses into a sweet fog. When the broadcast ends, patrons break off into small groups and heatedly discuss in Arabic events in the Middle East and criticize governments back home.
.....
.....Mr. Dewidar does not allow customers to watch Al Jazeera or CNN, and permits only Egyptian movies or Arab music videos on the huge television set up on a dark brown table in a corner of the cafe. Mr. Dewidar strictly enforces his rule against political discussions. If he suspects customers are whispering about politics, he turns up the volume on the TV to drown them out. If they retreat into the back patio to continue their discussions, Mr. Dewidar sends his brother outside to turn up the volume on the stereo out there.
....
If such brusque customer treatment seems unorthodox, Mr. Dewidar doesn't care. He sees it as the best way to protect his cafe. He started censoring patrons after what he described as a "mysterious" surge in visits by health and fire inspectors from the city. He worried that with anti-Arab sentiment aroused after the Sept. 11 attacks, his patrons' conversations might attract too much attention from city authorities.....

http://nytimes.com/2005/08/28/nyregion/28cafe.html

[wli]

1. COINTELPRO on the goose-step n/t