Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud is rising police presence within the metropolis in response to studies of elevated Islamophobic rhetoric after a Wall Avenue Journal opinion piece.
Paul Sancya/AP
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Paul Sancya/AP
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud is rising police presence within the metropolis in response to studies of elevated Islamophobic rhetoric after a Wall Avenue Journal opinion piece.
Paul Sancya/AP
Dearborn, Mich. is ramping up its police presence after a Wall Avenue Journal opinion piece described the Detroit suburb as”America’s jihad capital.”
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud described ”an alarming improve in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric on-line focusing on town” in a social media publish on Saturday and referred to as it a ”direct response” to the column, which was revealed on Friday.
Efficient instantly – Dearborn police will ramp up its presence throughout all locations of worship and main infrastructure factors.
This can be a direct results of the inflammatory @WSJ opinion piece that has led to an alarming improve in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric on-line…
— Abdullah H. Hammoud (@AHammoudMI) February 3, 2024
Elevated safety can be stationed ”at locations of worship and main infrastructure factors,” stated Hammoud, who’s town’s first Muslim and Arab American mayor.
Consultants cite an uptick in hate incidents nationwide in opposition to Arab, Muslim, and Jewish communities because the Israel-Hamas struggle broke out, which has killed greater than 27,000 individuals in Gaza to this point. The struggle started after the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas militants that killed greater than 1,200 individuals in Israel.
In accordance with Census figures, the metro Detroit space is residence to the very best focus of Arab Individuals within the U.S. Greater than half of Dearborn’s 100,000-plus residents are Arab Individuals can be residence to the most important mosque in northern America, the Islamic Middle of America.
The op-ed’s creator, Steven Stalinsky, govt director of the Center East Media Analysis Institute, defended the article, saying he aimed to name out alleged open help amongst some Dearborn residents for the Oct. 7 assault.
”Hate in opposition to anyone is horrible, after all,” Stalinsky instructed NPR. ”And I do not settle for that this text is inciting to that. If something, the individuals which are cited within the article ought to be denounced and so they’re those supporting terrorism. That is in regards to the challenge of counterterrorism.”
NPR was unable to substantiate any of Stalinsky’s allegations.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, stated in a press release that the op-ed falsely claims that pro-Palestine protesters help terrorism and that the column resorts to ”smear ways.”
”We welcome the proactive strategy taken by Mayor Hammoud to guard the Muslim group from potential assault based mostly on the false claims on this inaccurate and inflammatory commentary,” stated CAIR-MI Government Director Dawud Walid.
Neither Hammoud’s workplace nor the WSJ responded to requests for remark.
The mayor of neighboring Dearborn Heights, Invoice Bazzi, additionally launched a press release in gentle of the op-ed and stated its police division can be intently monitoring the scenario — each on social media and on the bottom.
President Biden additionally weighed in. In a social media publish Sunday, Biden denounced anti-Arab hate with out naming the WSJ.
Individuals know that blaming a gaggle of individuals based mostly on the phrases of a small few is unsuitable.
That’s precisely what can result in Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate, and it shouldn’t occur to the residents of Dearborn – or any American city.
We should proceed to sentence hate in all varieties.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 4, 2024
”The opinion pages of a newspaper ought to be a spot for the free alternate of concepts and the promotion of wholesome debate, however editorial boards have a duty and an obligation to discern when an opinion piece incorporates hateful, harmful rhetoric,” stated the Board of the Arab and Center Jap Journalists Affiliation (AMEJA) in a press release to NPR. ”Mr. Stalinksy’s commentary demonized a complete American metropolis, focusing on a selected ethnic and non secular group.”
”After we have a look at these headlines, these tales, and these tweets that go viral, the secret’s to know two issues: there’s a cottage trade on the market that followers the flames of anti-Arab hate and anti-Muslim hate, particularly to advance, typically I feel, a political agenda,” stated Maya Berry, Government Director of the Arab American Institute (AAI). ”And the second a part of it’s to at all times, at all times perceive that this hate has a really actual and direct impression on individuals’s lives.”