The failure of American multiculturalism was recently on full display in Dearborn, Michigan. The city council of Dearborn, a majority Arab city, was holding a meeting when resident Edward "Ted" Barham stepped up to speak. The subject was renaming a street in honor of local bigwig and publisher of the Arab American News, Osama Siblani.
It all started innocently enough. "I'm sure he's done a lot of good things for the community," conceded Barham, "starting the Arab American News." Then he got into the meat of the issue.
He said, "He’s a promoter of Hezbollah and Hamas" before quoting past remarks from Siblani, including, "He talks about how the blood of the martyrs irrigates the land of Palestine … whether we are in Michigan and whether we are in Yemen. Believe me, everyone should fight within his means. They will fight with stones, others will fight with guns, others fight with planes, drones, and rockets."
Barham compared the signs to naming a road "Hezbollah Street or Hamas Street," calling them "provocative" and stressing that as a Christian, he wanted to encourage peace. He closed by quoting Jesus: "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Barham also reminded the city council that Hezbollah carried out the 1982 attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, and that might concern Americans.
What followed was pretty amazing. To say that Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud lost his crap is an understatement.
Mayor Hammoud responded with remarks that shocked many in attendance. "The best suggestion I have for you is to not drive on Warren Avenue or to close your eyes while you’re doing it. His name is up there and I spoke at a ceremony celebrating it because he’s done a lot for this community," Hammoud said.
He went further, accusing Barham of being "a bigot, and you are racist, and you’re an Islamophobe," before declaring: "Although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of this city."
You can watch the exchange below.
BREAKING: A Dearborn resident opposed naming a street after Hezbollah supporter Osama Siblani.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) September 16, 2025
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud snapped back: “You do not belong in this city, Islamophobe! Get out, you are not welcome here.”
pic.twitter.com/SMm8QVR9RB
This is outside any part of American political tradition. Nothing said in Barham's statement was in any way racist or "islamophobic." The way the mayor used "you" could easily lead one to believe he wasn't talking to Barham individually, but to all non-Arabs in Dearborn. Elected officials don't get to tell citizens they aren't welcome in any place in America. When they do, others should stand up and remind them they are servants of the people, not some imam laying down the law in Gaza or Damascus. This city council, however, was totally cowed into silence, forgetting that petitioning our government over grievances is a core Constitutional right.
This kind of behavior is par for the course in Dearborn. Back in 2010, four Christian missionaries were arrested by the Dearborn police for standing across the street from the Arab International Festival and engaging willing participants in a conversation about Christianity.
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Since then, neighboring Dearborn Heights, which has an Arab plurality, issued an Arabic script shoulder patch to its police force; Police Department in Rashida Tlaib’s District Introduces First-Ever Arabic Patch for Officers. The patch was withdrawn after a popular outcry.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. With a large influx of muslims comes Islamic culture. I'm not referring to halal foods. I mean cousin-marriage, honor killings, and sharia law (Chip Roy: 'Sharia law' will soon be 'forced upon the American people'). We are already seeing the normalization of female genital mutilization. And some of those changes will be imposed upon us by our hyper-political judges.
BACKGROUND:
Michigan Descends Into Dhimmitude As Federal Judge Rules Congress Can't Outlaw FGM – RedState
MN Hesitant to Proceed With Law Against Female Genital Mutilation – RedState
Female Genital Mutilation: An Epidemic That the Obama Administration Is Hiding – RedState
We've seen the same problem writ large when elected officials openly pimp the interests of their home country and its immigrant community to the detriment of the United States and their non-immigrant constituents. Ilhan Omar, when not participating in visa fraud, was quoted as saying:
Ilhan Omar, an American congresswoman, tells Somalians that she is Somalian first, Muslim second, and… [no, American wasn’t even mentioned].
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) January 28, 2024
Oh, and she says that her primary job in Congress is to protect Somali interests. https://t.co/ex5IlkAkR2
Admittedly, this anti-American attitude is not unique to muslim immigrant communities. Some of it is present among a sector of the Hispanic population. For instance
Democrat Rep. Delia Ramirez at a summit in Mexico City this weekend tells the audience while speaking in Spanish: "I'm a proud Guatemalan before I'm an American." pic.twitter.com/ctJs5QhFLh
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 4, 2025
Of course, the nutters from MEChA have been talking "reconquista" of all the lands forfeited to the U.S. by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. In fact, the official status of Mexican nationalism and separatism has given rise to the American flag, either on the flagpole or on clothing, being banned from some California schools, with no similar restrictions on the Mexican flag; see Ninth Circuit Upholds Ban on American Flag Shirts in a California High School. This, though, is a flash-in-the-pan, in my opinion. A lot of research shows that a Spanish-only household produces English-only grandchildren. There is no comparable data that indicates this is true with muslim families, and moreover, Hispanic culture is Western. Islamic culture has no commonalities with American culture, and there is no evidence that muslim immigrants leave behind Islamic culture, no matter their language preference.
What you see in that short clip from Dearborn is what awaits us all if we allow mass immigration and a lack of a coherent assimilation strategy to continue.
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