Whereas today the Arab American Institute estimates that roughly 3,700,000 Arab Americans are 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; Whereas persons of Arab descent have throughout their history in the United States generously shared their culture, music, and food with their fellow Americans 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 United States 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 America was the Moroccan Mostafa (Estanaico) Zemmouri in 1527, and Arab Americans, including the early Syrians and Lebanese, began arriving in significant numbers to the shores of the United States in the 1870s, including Antonio Bishallany, who arrived in Boston in 1854, and another early wave arrival, Dr. Joseph Arbeeley, who became American citizens, and waves of other Arab Americans that followed; Whereas Arab Americans have served the United States as first responders, in the public sector, and as public servants from both political parties, past and present, in the United States Government, the Congress, the Senate, as exemplified by James Abourezk, the first Arab American Senator who was raised by Lebanese immigrant parents in South Dakota, and as ambassadors, cabinet members, as well as all other Arab Americans in uniform today