It’s Bigoted to Locate America’s ‘Jihad Capital’? – No One Has Challenged the Facts. Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital: Imams and Politicians in the Michigan City Side with Hamas Against Israel and Iran Against the U.S.

It’s Bigoted to Locate America’s ‘Jihad Capital’?

No one has challenged the facts.

The Wall Street Journal opinion section drew a pile of angry tweets when it ran an article by Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute. They fixated on the headline and didn’t seem to read the article.

The headline was “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital: Imams and politicians in the Michigan city side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the U.S.” The subhead here merely described the article’s contents, that the city’s Muslim leaders and political leaders sided against Israel and America.

The angry response has to be the words “jihad capital.” Somehow, you can’t equate Hamas and jihad? You can’t equate the slaughter on Oct. 7 with jihad?

On Oct. 10, Imam Imran Salha of Dearborn’s Islamic Center of Detroit told a rally crowd that Israel’s past actions have put “fire in our hearts that will burn that state” — Israel — “until its demise.”

On Oct. 14, Imam Usama Abdulghani called Oct. 7 “one of the days of God” and a “miracle come true.” He described the attackers as “honorable” and called them “lions” defending “the entire nation of Muhammad the messenger.”

The Islamic Center of America, a leading Dearborn mosque, held a memorial service on Dec. 30 for a Hezbollah operative killed in an Israeli airstrike, where Imam Abdulghani expressed his “warmest congratulations” to “our very special leader, Imam Khamenei,” the leader of Iran, the backer of Hamas and Hezbollah.

But don’t call Dearborn a “jihad capital.” —>READ MORE HERE

Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital:

Imams and politicians in the Michigan city side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the U.S.

Thousands march in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Protesters, many with kaffiyehs covering their faces, shout “Intifada, intifada,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “America is a terrorist state.” Local imams give fiery antisemitic sermons. This isn’t the Middle East. It’s the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Mich.

Almost immediately after Oct. 7, and long before Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, people were celebrating the horrific events of that day in pro-Hamas rallies and marches throughout Dearborn. A local headline describing an Oct. 10 event at the Ford Performing Arts Center read “Michigan rally cheers Hamas attack.” Imam Imran Salha of Dearborn’s Islamic Center of Detroit told the crowd that Israel’s past actions have put “fire in our hearts that will burn that state”—Israel— “until its demise.” In May 2023, Mr. Salha had urged his congregation to say “amen” in agreement with his prayer that Allah “eradicate from existence” the “sick, disgusting Zionist regime.” In October 2022, according to the Washington Free Beacon, his organization received $150,000 in funding from the Homeland Security Department’s nonprofit security grants program.

At another rally, held Oct. 14 in front of the Henry Ford Centennial Library, Imam Usama Abdulghani also didn’t hide his support for Hamas’s terrorist actions. The American-born, Iranian-educated Shiite Islamic scholar called Oct. 7 “one of the days of God” and a “miracle come true.” He described the attackers as “honorable.” He said they were “lions” defending “the entire nation of Muhammad the messenger.”

Local enthusiasm for jihad against Israel and the West extends beyond celebration of Hamas. The Islamic Center of America, a leading Dearborn mosque, held a memorial service on Dec. 30 for a Hezbollah operative killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Hadi Institute, which runs an Islamic Montessori school and bills itself as a youth community center, held a “Commemoration of the Martyrs” on Jan. 5. This event honored Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, leader of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. Both men were on the U.S. list of designated terrorists when they were killed in a U.S. airstrike on Jan. 3, 2020. The commemoration included poetry and praise, along with claims about ISIS being operated by both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mossad. Imam Abdulghani used his remarks to express his “warmest congratulations” to “our very special leader, Imam Khamenei”—essentially declaring allegiance to the Iranian ayatollah who regularly calls for the destruction of the U.S. —>READ MORE HERE (or HERE)

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