There's a reason they call it "Dearbornistan."
Following the first Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Arab and Kurdish asylum-seekers flooded to the United States, because it always seems to be the USA that accepts refugees from everywhere else in the world. It is perhaps surprising, for reasons of climate if nothing else, that so many of them settled in the city of Dearborn, Michigan, to the point where Muslims now constitute a majority in the city and control most of the municipal government.
That's causing some problems. Muslims tend not to be tolerant of other religious faiths in their midst, and this is proving no exception. Case in point: In a September 9th meeting, Dearborn's Mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, snapped at a Christian minister, telling him, "You are not welcome here."
At the Sept. 9 city council meeting, Hammoud lashed out at Dearborn resident Ted Barham after the Christian minister calmly explained his concerns about street signs named in honor of Osama Siblani, who has openly supported the work of Middle East terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, endorsing them as “freedom fighters.”
“I feel like having that sign up there is almost like naming a street Hezbollah Street or Hamas Street. I mean Hezbollah bombed the [U.S.] embassy in Beirut, killing many Americans,” Barham said. “I just feel that’s quite inappropriate.”
Hammoud called Barham a “bigot” and a “racist” and “an Islamaphobe.”
Did you get that? Because a Christian minister objected to street signs named to honor someone who supports terrorists, who supports the murder of Jews, who supports the October 7th, 2023 atrocities - you cannot support Hamas without supporting that - suddenly it's the minister who is the bigot?
Mayor Hammoud has clearly never heard of the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, or more likely, he just doesn't care. He told Ted Barham:
“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 the city because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence,” the mayor unloaded on Barham.
The minister responded, “I just want to say, God bless you, mayor.”
This is an ongoing problem. In nearby Dearborn Heights, the police department's uniform patches now feature both English and Arabic labels. And my friend and colleague streiff recently gave a detailed account of the dust-up between Mayor Hammoud and Reverend Barham.
Read More: Police Department in Rashida Tlaib’s District Introduces First-Ever Arabic Patch for Officers
There are issues of civil rights here. There are issues of constitutional rights. What the government does for anyone, it must do for everyone, or it must do for no one. The 1st Amendment prohibits discrimination in favor of any religion by Congress, and the 14th Amendment extends the restrictions of the Bill of Rights to the states and to local governments.
The Muslim-majority municipal government of Dearborn obviously neither knows nor cares about these founding principles of the republic, about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the freedoms enshrined therein. This government obviously neither knows nor cares about the fundamental human rights of non-Muslims in Dearborn.
There has been some pushback. The question is, will the city of Dearborn react?
An investigation by The Federalist finds the Arab-majority city has been extremely accommodating to Muslims, but not so much to minority Christians and Jews — particularly when it comes to the city’s involvement in celebrating religious holidays.
“The bottom line is that the City of Dearborn has become a hostile place for Christians and Jews,” civil rights attorneys Robert J. Muise and David Yerushalmi wrote in a letter of concern to Hammoud sent Friday and exclusively obtained by The Federalist.
City Attorney Jeremy Romer is copied.
This is what Islam does. They claim aggrieved status when in the minority, and when and if they achieve a majority, they turn the tables. Religious or, indeed, any minorities do not do well under Muslim-majority governments, and that's what's happening in Dearborn, right now.
Will the city react to any court rulings? Or will they dig in their heels?
Romer and Hammoud should be familiar with Muise and Yerushalmi. The attorneys have won some high-profile cases and hefty judgments against Dearborn for violating the religious civil rights of Christian clients.
For now, the attorneys’ American Freedom Law Center, a nonprofit Judeo-Christian law firm “Fighting for Faith & Freedom,” is reminding the mayor and the city that the Arab-majority city can’t play favorites with religious displays.
“While all of the residents of the City do not share the same faith, they do share the same rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution,” the attorneys’ reminder letter notes.
The letter requests the city equally recognize the holy days of Christians and Jews, including Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur.
What the government does for anyone, it must do for everyone, or it must do for no one. The only acceptable actions by the city of Dearborn are to either recognize the holidays of all faiths or none. They won't adopt the secular pose; that much is certain. But Muslim-majority governments rankle at the notion of acknowledging Christian or (perhaps especially) Jewish ones. And yet in America, under our Constitution, that is precisely what they must do.
This is what Islam does. In Dearborn, they have their foot in the door. Watch the legal proceedings, and watch what happens in this troubled suburb of Detroit. This is the model Islam uses. This is the intent, not just for Dearborn, but for cities across the United States.
