The chaos that recently unfolded in Dearborn, Mich., was the consequence of a systemic problem, personified in pro-Hezbollah street signs that I, as a local Christian minister, criticized at a city council meeting last September.
The mayor’s response to my objection went viral: He told me that I am not welcome in Dearborn—a place I have lived since 2018—that I am a “bigot,” a “racist” and an “Islamophobe,” and that he would throw a parade to celebrate the day I move out of the city.
In collaboration with a journalist, the mayor later spread ridiculous and scurrilous defamation about me and other evangelical leaders in Arab American News, Al Jazeera and The Guardian. There is a reason Christians from Islamic countries often tell me that our mistreatment here reminds them of what they suffer.
More recently, Jake Lang, a Jan. 6 far-right activist, along with a local African-American pro-Trump pastor, a stream of bikers and a crowd of hundreds descended on Dearborn in protest at another city council meeting. The mayor’s viral video had attracted a wave of such unwelcome activities in the city.
The street signs I objected to that day in September are named after a local journalist who claims that his most significant achievement was leading a crowd in Dearborn to pay tribute to the then-leader of Hezbollah, despite Hezbollah’s deadly bombing of hundreds of U.S. Marines and personnel in Beirut in 1983.
Those street signs do not simply represent a single journalist’s view. They are representative of larger problems.
Imams in the biggest mosques in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights praise Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. That regime has been responsible directly and through proxies for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. It has brutally oppressed many more, including minority Christians in Iran, which is of particular concern to me as a minister.
I warned that day at the city council that some of the journalist’s words could be interpreted as encouraging violence in Michigan. Devastatingly, my warning was fulfilled when, a few months later, someone from the vicinity of Dearborn attacked a synagogue full of 140 small children in nearby West Bloomfield, Mich. On a more day-to-day level, several Jewish people have told me that they feel terrified at the thought of setting foot in Dearborn. Dear personal friends of mine in the vicinity have been the victims of repeated antisemitic attacks.
Even if Dearborn’s extremism is a problem, many Americans will agree that Jake Lang’s racist response is not the solution. I do not want my Muslim neighbors to feel targeted. When a mosque in San Diego was attacked not too long ago, it so happened that there were the same number of children there as well: 140. Both attacks were horrific.
The solution is to promote a transformation that directly addresses the issue of violence and encourages peace instead.
Recently, we hosted an Israeli Jewish man at Dearborn’s Peace Park West to speak about the tragic loss of his son, who was murdered in Washington, D.C. When an online threat emerged, I contacted the FBI, who reached out to the Dearborn police. They responded in full force to ensure the safety of the speaker and the audience.
I’ll give Dearborn credit where it’s due. The bereaved father spoke with love and compassion to those assembled.
Many pro-Hezbollah people in Dearborn insist that they are as American as anybody else. But supporting regimes whose motto is “Death to America” is un-American and anti-American. It invites opposition not only from the likes of Jake Lang, but from America in its entirety.
I therefore pray for systemic change. Nothing less will be sufficient if Dearborn wishes to avoid perpetual unwanted attention.
