Are Dearborn Protests A Harbinger Of What’s To Come?

Ever since the 9/11 attacks on America and President George W. Bush’s insistence, in anticipating a backlash against Muslim Arab-Americans, that Islam was a “religion of peace,” we’ve been rather reluctant as a nation to address an elephant in the room that’s only grown larger with time. That is, the rise of radical, non-assimilating Islamic enclaves residing in ever-increasing numbers in some of our largest cities. The city of Dearborn, Michigan, located on the outskirts of Detroit, is a potential ground zero in the inevitable conflict between a growing Islamic community that is taking over city government, and a reduced population of Christians and others who oppose the direction Dearborn is headed.

Dearborn was outwardly a jewel of Western progress during the post-World War II period – home of the Henry Ford Museum and the iconic Greenfield Village, both treasure troves of American ingenuity and inventiveness. These two places were must-sees for school field trips and family outings in the mid-to-late 20^th century and remain popular now. However, like its big brother Detroit, Dearborn was a place where racism thrived until the civil rights movement started to make progress in the late 1960s, so it certainly was far from perfect back then.

Lately, Dearborn is making headlines for other reasons besides the historical museums. A former January 6^th imprisoned protester, Jake Lang, arrived in Dearborn recently to lead another in a series of anti-Islam protests prior to a city council meeting. Lang, a professing Christian who led a similar protest in Dearborn last November, is outwardly contemptuous of Islam and is accusing the Dearborn mayor and other Muslim leaders of driving the city government toward eventual Sharia law. Whether or not this is a true reading of their intentions, based on recent activity the Muslim leaders in both Dearborn and neighboring Muslim-run Hamtramck are not doing themselves any favors with either their words or their deeds.

For instance, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and the city council are in the midst of renaming several prominent streets and landmarks for Muslim figures instead of the pro-Western American names that have been used for many years. Ongoing complaints relating to the Muslim daily calls to prayer broadcast over loudspeakers have been met with denials and limited action to reduce the noise. Late last year, Mayor Hammoud made local headlines by telling local pastor Ted Barham that he was “not welcome here” due to Barham’s objection to renaming a Dearborn street for an Islamist journalist. 

It turns out that the journalist, Osama Siblani, was publisher of the Arab American News and a member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame for his work as a “trailblazer” and “voice of the community.” However, according to Barham, Siblani was openly pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah, praising them as “freedom fighters.” Siblani also considered Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a hero. As Barham noted, it seemed inappropriate to name a street after someone who actively supported terrorist, anti-American groups. However, Barham did not seek legal action against the mayor despite intense pressure to do so, citing the need for “loving your enemies” as Christ commanded.

While the mayor insists that Dearborn is a place that welcomes people of all faiths and prides itself on its diversity, the Barham incident seems to suggest otherwise. In a glimpse of the predictable conflict within the so-called Red-Green alliance, the Muslim mayor of nearby Hamtramck has, with town council approval, banned flying the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag in public places. In Dearborn, the city council is banning books it claims have pro-LGBTQ themes. Actions like these can cause the most unlikely of temporary alliances, such as conservative Christians with conservative Muslims who both oppose the LGBTQ+ agenda.

Eyewitness reports of the recent protest indicate that police were busy keeping participants from both sides from turning the protest and counter-protest into a full-blown riot. It did appear that the more vociferous Muslims went further in trying to intimidate the non-Muslim protesters. On the other hand, Jake Lang’s in-your-face condemnation of Islam didn’t help matters any. In a recent protest held during a Muslim holiday in Dearborn, three counter-protesters were arrested, and one of them was a 57-year-old Dearborn resident whom ICE claims is “an illegal alien from Iraq.”

The questions surrounding these events abound. Are the Muslim leaders imposing too much of their way of life on the population at large? Are Christians such as Jake Lang (whose Christianity needs a reboot, by the way) and other non-Muslims overreacting to the actions and words of the Muslim leaders? Is there any possible compromise as a way forward for both groups to coexist peacefully, or will the chaos that has become so much of the American story continue? We can only hope and pray that it will not.