‘Death to America’ Mayor Insists That ‘Dearborn is a City of Proud Americans’
Who is convinced?
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The alarming scene that unfolded recently in Dearborn, Mich., with Muslim protesters chanting “Death to America,” has resulted in some fallout for the city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud. While Old Joe Biden and his henchmen are happily taking a wrecking ball to the former Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, they don’t go around telegraphing their intentions.
Their friends in Dearborn were a bit too forthright about what the ultimate goal of the policies that the left and their Islamic allies really are, so reassuring words had to be uttered and the public put back to sleep. Hammoud found, however, that at least some people had been jolted away much too rudely for that to be possible.
Hammoud entreated the world Monday not to believe its lying eyes, but to heed his soothing words instead. “Over the weekend,” he wrote, “video emerged of a rally in Dearborn where some attendees were chanting statements that were unacceptable and contrary to the heart of this city. We reject all inflammatory and violent statements made at the gathering.” That was a swell disavowal, but it was glaring that Hammoud said nothing about investigating the people involved.
Instead, the earnest young mayor continued, “Dearborn is a city of proud Americans; the hateful rhetoric heard on Friday does not reflect the opinion of the members of this community. The Dearborn community stands for peace and justice for all people. We are proud to call this city and this country home.” While he intended this to tamp down the controversy, it only ended up making matters worse, because Hammoud’s description of Dearborn diverged so widely from what is generally known about the city.
Back in February, the Wall Street Journal an op-ed noting that “a local headline describing an Oct. 10 event at the Ford Performing Arts Center read ‘Michigan rally cheers Hamas attack.’” It quoted Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit in Dearborn calling for the “demise” of Israel. Another Dearborn-area imam, Usama Abdulghani, “called Oct. 7 ‘one of the days of Allah’ and a ‘miracle come true.’ He described the attackers as ‘honorable.’”
In response to all that and much more, Hammoud didn’t denounce the Hamas supporters and affirm his city’s rejection of jihad violence. Instead, he went into full victim mode, announcing that Dearborn police would “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. Stay vigilant.”
It’s understandable, in light of all this, that Hammoud’s new claim that Dearborn is just packed with “proud Americans” was received with extreme skepticism. Historian and journalist Daniel Greenfield responded by pointing out an uncomfortable fact: “you’ve taken part in rallies with terrorist supporters do you disavow Osama Siblani who called Hamas and Hezbollah ‘freedom fighters’?” Greenfield has noted that Siblani “had previously told the Washington Post that, ‘Mr. Bush believes Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Palestinian factions are terrorists, but we believe they are freedom fighters’” and that Hammoud had appeared at rallies with Siblani.
An Israeli, Michael Elgort, quoted a lengthy statement from Hammoud on Oct. 8, 2023, and addressed the mayor: “This you justifying October 7 and saying Israel has it coming?… Your tweet is totally in line with the message you pretend to condemn now, so nah, this hateful rhetoric does reflect your opinion.”
The popular X account LeftismForU responded in a similar vein: “Your history and your city’s constant explicit hatred for America/Western society, support for terrorism, and calls for violence against those who don’t conform to your radical and immoralistic [sic] views says otherwise. Another popular X writer, Alaskan Tequila, wrote: “Okay. You pretend to reject that hateful and violent rhetoric and we’ll pretend that we don’t know what taqiyya is.”
Educator and writer David Bashevkin observed acidly, “Weird I’ve never been to a rally for Israel that spontaneously broke out with chants calling for the death of America.”
It looks as if one bland X post from Abdullah Hammoud isn’t going to undo the damage that was done to Dearborn’s image last Friday. For two decades now, Americans who have been warning about Islam’s political, supremacist, and violent aspects have been demonized, vilified, and marginalized as “Islamophobes.” But Muslims such as those who were chanting “Death to America” in Dearborn last Friday just keep on proving them right.
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