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Keffiyeh-clad Muslim in Rashida Tlaib’s district tells reporter ‘the American empire must fall’ in resurfaced clip

April 16, 2025 | | Print Article

Anti-American sentiment runs high in the congressional district represented by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), with one Muslim man telling a television reporter that “the American empire must fall” in remarks that sparked outrage on social media.

In the resurfaced video clip from a recent fundraising event in Dearborn Heights for the Middle East Children’s Alliance that was posted to X by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and shared by users, the keffiyeh-clad man expressed his desire to see America fall, an idea that is likely widely shared in the predominantly Muslim Detroit suburb.

While commenting on Israel’s ongoing operation to clean the Hamas terrorist presence out of Gaza, the individual suggested that there are “people here” who are willing to sacrifice their lives to bring about the end of America’s influence, a chilling example of the Islamist radicalism that’s prevalent in Dearborn, a city that’s been dubbed “America’s jihad capital.”

“We do feel like change needs to come, because change must come. And in the form that it must come is that this empire, the American empire that’s been hurting our people since the beginning, the imperial Western powers that have been hurting our people since the beginning, they must fall,” the man explained.

“And inshallah, inshallah, they will fall. And my message to people of Gaza and oppressed people across the world is that there are people here, both young and old, who are going to be willing to fight and are willing to put their lives and everything they can on the line to bring these empires down. Because they must come down,” he added.

X users reacted to the shockingly frank remarks from the man who some would suggest is a part of a dangerous enemy within.

In a February 2024 Wall Street Journal column by terrorism scholar and author Steven Stalinsky titled “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital,” the executive director of MEMRI ripped back the curtain on the teeming hotbed of anti-American sentiment that has found a perfect congressional representative in the bomb throwing “Squad” member Tlaib.

“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, Michigan,” wrote Stalinsky, who detailed specific examples of the incendiary rhetoric spewed by local radical clerics at local events.

The column was condemned by many, including Dearborn’s Muslim 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 but there have been numerous examples that would seem to prove Stalinsky’s point, including events where chants of “Death to America” have rung out.

“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,” Stalinsky wrote in his WSJ op-ed.

Chris Donaldson
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