A new Arab American Museum is opening in Michigan. “Using high points of Arab culture as the foundation for the new museum makes perfect sense. Still, the narrative ends abruptly, without addressing the gradual disintegration of Arab intellectual and military dominance. At some point, curators ought to plunge into the contentious historical debate over the decline of Arab influence. That skirmish–pitting those who emphasize the deleterious effects of Ottoman and European colonialism against those who stress factors internal to Arab culture and Islam–sheds important light on the forces that have driven Arabs to come to America.”