The mayor of Dearborn has ordered more police officers on to the streets, ramping up law enforcement presence across places of worship and major infrastructure points this weekend following an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal that called the Michigan city the “jihad capital” of the US.
And on Sunday Joe Biden weighed in, denouncing anti-Arab hate and, without referring specifically to the newspaper, saying “it shouldn’t happen to the residents of Dearborn – or any American town.”
The newspaper published the piece on Friday with the headline: Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital.
Dearborn’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, reacted sharply, calling the piece “bigoted” and “Islamophobic” in an online post.
“Effective immediately – Dearborn police will ramp up its presence across all places of worship and major infrastructure points. 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,” Hammoud posted on Twitter/X on Saturday afternoon.
Effective immediately - Dearborn police will ramp up its presence across all places of worship and major infrastructure points.
— Abdullah H. Hammoud (@AHammoudMI) February 3, 2024
This is a direct result of the inflammatory @WSJ opinion piece that has led to an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online…
Rights advocates from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee condemned the article in the financial newspaper, owned by the Murdoch family News Corp empire.
They criticized it as an anti-Arab and racist slant for suggesting the city’s residents, including religious leaders and politicians, supported Hamas and extremism.
“Reckless. Bigoted. Islamophobic”, Mayor Hammoud said about the WSJ piece written by Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.
WSJ did not respond to a request for comment. Stalinsky said he stood by his piece.
The mayor also spoke to the Detroit Free Press newspaper on Saturday night: “This is more than irresponsible journalism. Publishing such inflammatory writing puts Dearborn residents at increased risk for harm.”
On Sunday, the US president posted a message on X, saying: “Americans know that blaming a group of people based on the words of a small few is wrong. That’s exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate, and it shouldn’t happen to the residents of Dearborn – or any American town. We must continue to condemn hate in all forms.”
Americans know that blaming a group of people based on the words of a small few is wrong.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 4, 2024
That’s exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate, and it shouldn’t happen to the residents of Dearborn – or any American town.
We must continue to condemn hate in all forms.
Meanwhile, the commissioner of the local Wayne county, David Knezek, made a Facebook post saying he was “deeply disturbed”.
“Rather than uplift the WSJ’s divisive and dangerous language, I wanted to remind people of the beautiful and wonderful city that I and countless others know the City of Dearborn to be,” Knezek said.
Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism in the US since the eruption of war in the Middle East in October, when Hamas led an attack out of Gaza into southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and took around 240 people hostage, some remaining captive inside Gaza as the latest ceasefire talks fail to reach agreement.
Israel launched a ferocious and ongoing military air and ground in response to the attack, which has killed more than 27,000 people in Gaza according to the local health ministry. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is displaced. The densely populated enclave also faces starvation.
The US Department of Justice has warned Americans about the escalation of anti-Arab and antisemitic hate speech and physical violence taking place across the nation since 7 October.
Among anti-Palestinian incidents that raised alarm were a November shooting in Vermont of three students of Palestinian descent and the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American in Illinois in October.
Reuters contributed reporting
