Protest to Encircle White House

For example he said, every December, when U.S. Muslims head to Canada to celebrate Ramadan with relatives living there, they have no problems crossing the border northbound, Bray said. But on their return to the United States, they are often detained and "asked silly questions, like 'Do you read the Koran?' 'What do you think of Osama bin Laden?' "

The constant sting of those suspicions, as well as the deaths in his homeland in Lebanon, have moved Mounzer Sleiman, head of the National Council of Arab Americans, to help organize the local Lebanese community to protest.

The community is not prominent on the protest scene, Sleiman said. "Most people are affluent and stable. They have family. Their involvement is more toward cultural activities, literature and entertainment -- not politics so much," he said.

The primary organizer for tomorrow's protest is the ANSWER Coalition, which helped coordinate the September antiwar rally.

The group has also staged smaller weekly protests in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington for the past three weeks and sponsored demonstrations in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.

The group's national coordinator, Brian Becker, said the Muslim and Lebanese groups taking part will be joined by many of the antiwar demonstrators who flooded the Mall last year.

"It is truly a U.S.-Israeli war," said Becker, an activist who has been associated with far-left organizations and is experienced in mobilizing large numbers of protesters. "The Lebanon operation is an extension of the U.S. war against Iraq. It is part of an integrated plan for the colonial-style domination of the entire oil-rich and strategic region."

The demonstrators plan to gather in Lafayette Square and march along Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street, across the Ellipse and up 17th Street, encircling the White House.

The permits were acquired with the legal help of Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, who worked for months last year to get permission for demonstrators to walk along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.