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Dearborn’s first Muslim mayor deploys police after WSJ piece brands city ‘America’s jihad capital’

February 4, 2024 | | Print Article

The Democrat mayor of Dearborn, Michigan deployed police to guard mosques in a panicked reaction to a Wall Street Journal op-ed that may have hit a bit too close to home for some.

In his column titled “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital,” Steven Stalinsky warns of the prevalence of pro-Hamas sentiment in the Detroit suburb which has a heavily Muslim population where virulently anti-Israel demonstrations have broken out over Israel’s military operation to eliminate the terrorist presence in Gaza.

“Thousands march in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Protesters, many with kaffiyehs covering their faces, shout ‘Intifada, intifada,’ ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ and ‘America is a terrorist state.’ Local imams give fiery antisemitic sermons. This isn’t the Middle East. It’s the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Mich,” writes Stalinsky who specific examples of the incendiary rhetoric spewed by local radical clerics at recent events.

The WSJ piece was denounced by Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud who announced that he was mobilizing the city’s law enforcement personnel as a preventative measure because some people were saying mean things online.

“Effective immediately – Dearborn police will ramp up its presence across all places of worship and major infrastructure points,” the mayor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This is a direct result of the inflammatory @WSJ opinion piece that has led to an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online targeting the city of Dearborn. Stay vigilant.”

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The overreaction in the apparent absence of any serious threat allows the mayor and terrorist supporters to play the victim despite the presence of pro-Hamas extremists who could at this very minute be plotting violence against American targets.

“This is more than irresponsible journalism. Publishing such inflammatory writing puts Dearborn residents at increased risk for harm,” Hammoud told the Detroit Free Press, seeming to suggest that such opinions should be censored like they are in rigidly Islamist countries although he stopped short of calling for the author’s beheading.

Not helping to tamp down the radicalism is “Squad” fire-bomber and Israel-hater Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) who represents Dearborn and who has used her position in Congress to spew incendiary rhetoric and promote lies that could have come directly from the Hamas propaganda ministry, and for all anyone really knows, they did.

According to Stalinsky, who is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, “Support for terrorism in southern Michigan has long been a concern for U.S. counterterrorism officials. A 2001 Michigan State Police assessment submitted to the Justice Department after 9/11 called Dearborn “a major financial support center” and a ‘recruiting area and potential support base’ for international terror groups, including possible sleeper cells.”

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“The assessment noted that most of the 28 State Department-identified terror groups were represented in Michigan. Many current or onetime Dearborn residents have been convicted of terror-related crimes in recent years,” he wrote, adding. “What’s happening in Dearborn isn’t simply a political problem for Democrats. It’s potentially a national-security issue affecting all Americans. Counterterrorism agencies at all levels should pay close attention.”

Chris Donaldson
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