DEARBORN (WWJ) - Police patrols are beefing up in Dearborn after a Wall Street Journal article calling the city "America's Jihad Capital" led to a rise in "alarming" online threats targeting the Metro Detroit suburb over the weekend.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said in a social media post just after 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3, that Dearborn police would ramp up its presence across all places of worship and major infrastructure points effective immediately.
"The this a direct result of the garbage the Wall Street Journal opinion piece that has had led to an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online targeting the City of Dearborn," Hammoud said.
The piece written by Steven Stalinsky -- an American commentator on the Middle East, terrorism, terrorist use of the Internet, and encryption technologies who as served as the Executive Director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) since 1999 -- and published on Friday opens with:
Dearborn, Mich.
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.
Stalinsky goes on to write about how residents "celebrated" with rallies and marches throughout Dearborn when Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, led surprise attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, sea, and air on Oct. 7, 2023.
He said "local enthusiasm for jihad against Israel and the West extends beyond celebration of Hamas," and specifically called out the Islamic Center of America for holding a memorial service for a Hezbollah operative killed in an Israeli airstrike on Dec. 30.
"Support for terrorism in southern Michigan has long been a concern for U.S. counterterrorism officials," Stalinsky stated, ending the piece with: "What’s happening in Dearborn isn’t simply a political problem for Democrats. It’s potentially a national-security issue affecting all Americans. Counterterrorism agencies at all levels should pay close attention."
Hammoud, Dearborn's first Arab-American and first Muslim mayor, decried the article online, stating: "it's 2024 and the Wall Street Journal pushes out this type of garbage?"
"Reckless. Bigoted. Islamophobic," the mayor wrote. "Dearborn is one of the greatest American cities in our nation."
David Knezek, Wayne County Commissioner and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), backed Hammoud, writing that he was "deeply disturbed" while reading the WSJ article.
"Rather than uplift the WSJ's divisive and dangerous language, I wanted to remind people of the beautiful and wonderful city that I and countless others know the City of Dearborn to be," Knezek said. "It's a city that my family made its new home shortly after immigrating from Italy, a city whose children my family educated and fed for decades as teachers and lunch ladies, a city that forever changed the auto industry, and a city whose diversity and inclusion continues to enrich the lives of all those who visit it. The list goes on and on."
"I am grateful for Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud, his leadership and the leadership of all the city's elected officials. I am equally grateful to call so many of Dearborn's one hundred thousand plus residents by friends and will always stand strong in support of our neighbors," Knezek concluded.