Whereas every April, the United States shall celebrate Arab American Heritage Month given the rationale herein provided; Whereas today the Arab American Institute estimates that there are roughly 3,700,000 Arab Americans living in the United States, from a variety of faith backgrounds including both Christians and Muslims originating from any of the 22 Arabic speaking countries, have throughout their history in the United States generously shared their culture, music, and food with their fellow citizens and contributed disproportionately to their numbers to the economy and society of the United States, having brought with them to the United States their resilient family values, strong work ethic, dedication to education, and diversity that have added strength to our democracy; Whereas Arab American entrepreneurs from the first door-to-door peddlers to owners of restaurants, bakeries, and stores, to large manufacturers of men’s and women’s clothes (Farah and Haggar for example) have been hard-working, self-sufficient contributors to the United States economy; Whereas the first recorded Arab in the United States was the Moroccan Mostafa (Estanaico) Zemmouri in 1527, and that Arab Americans, including the early Syrians and Lebanese, began arriving in significant numbers to these shores in the 1870s, including Antonio Bishallany, who arrived in Boston in 1854, and another early wave arrival, Dr. Joseph Arbeeley who became United States citizens and including waves of other Arab Americans that followed