Biden condemns 'anti-Arab hate' after WSJ piece calls Dearborn 'America's Jihad Capital'
President Joe Biden condemned anti-Arab hate following a Wall Street Journal opinion piece calling Dearborn "America's Jihad Capital" and a day after the city's mayor said he would increase police patrols because of "Islamophobic rhetoric online."
Biden's Sunday social media post comes amid months of mounting frustration among Michigan's Arab and Muslim communities over the president's support for Israel in the Israel-Gaza conflict and the failure to secure a cease-fire among Israeli forces.
The frustrations have boiled over in recent weeks, culminating in a canceled meeting with Biden campaign officials and the arrest of a pro-Palestinian protester at a Biden campaign stop in Warren on Thursday.
Biden came to the defense of Michigan's largest Arab community Sunday in what appeared to be a response to the opinion piece, calling on the nation to "condemn hate in all forms."
"Americans know that blaming a group of people based on the words of a small few is wrong," he said Sunday on X. "That’s exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate, and it shouldn’t happen to the residents of Dearborn — or any American town. We must continue to condemn hate in all forms."
Dearborn's mayor took note of Biden's condemnation Sunday.
"The unfortunate reality is Islamophobia has become an acceptable form of hate," said Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on X. "Those who demonize or stereotype Muslims or Arab Americans quickly find bigger platforms and greater notoriety. I’m glad President Biden @POTUS recognizes the severity and danger of the @WSJ article."
Hammoud called on the Biden administration to "recognize the rhetoric and decision making that created the climate for it to be written in the first place."
"... If anyone is wondering how they can make a difference, come to Dearborn and witness how diversity has moved our community forward."
The headline of the piece about Dearborn published Friday in the Wall Street Journal aimed criticisms at residents for recent pro-Palestine demonstrations.
The op-ed by Steven Stalinsky, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, claimed that Dearborn residents have celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and demonstrated “open support for Hamas.”
"Thousands march in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran," the piece begins. "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."
In an X post published Saturday, Hammoud announced police would ramp up their presence at places of worship and major infrastructure points "as a direct result" of the piece in the WSJ. Dearborn police also will monitor social media for threats, Hammoud said in a statement.
The mayor initially called the piece “garbage,” though X indicated the account user edited the text to “inflammatory” at 1:13 p.m. Saturday.
"This is more than irresponsible journalism," Hammoud said in the statement. "Publishing such inflammatory writing puts Dearborn residents at increased risk for harm."
Michigan politicians quickly condemned the WSJ piece, including the governor and U.S. Sens. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, who said the column is "outrageous, dangerous and just plain wrong!"
"Dearborn is a vibrant community full of Michiganders who contribute day in and day out to our state," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Sunday on X. "Islamophobia and all forms of hate have no place in Michigan, or anywhere. Period."
State Rep. Alabas Farhat, whose 3rd House District includes Dearborn said: "Let’s not forget that dehumanizing words and policies lead to the rise in hate crimes we’re seeing. On Tuesday I’ll be introducing a resolution in the Michigan House condemning this vile rhetoric."
More:'He is not listening to us': Discontent with Biden grows in Michigan's Arab community
Protests calling for a cease-fire have been held in Dearborn and other cities across Michigan and the country since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. More than 27,000 Palestinians have died since Oct. 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The demonstrations have drawn national attention as Arab leaders rejected plans for Biden's campaign manager to visit this week, citing Biden’s handling of the war.
The op-ed concluded, "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."
The nonprofit institute offers "original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends to the governments of the U.S. and its allies, and to their counterterrorism officials, law enforcement agencies, militaries, and other authorities," according to its website.
Friday’s “typecasting” opinion piece wasn’t the first time Dearborn, home to one of the largest concentrations of Arab people outside of the Middle East, has been targeted, said Saeed Khan, associate professor of Near East and Asian studies and global studies at Wayne State University.
Rev. Terry Jones, a Quran-burning pastor from Florida, rallied in Dearborn several times under false allegations that the city planned to implement Sharia law; members of the California-based right-wing organization Unite America First protested outside Dearborn police headquarters in 2018 carrying semiautomatic rifles for the same reason.
“Dearborn has become this symbol of a project of Islamaphobia and anti-Arab bigotry,” Khan said. That’s despite the community having a diversity of residents and several leaders in Michigan’s Arab community serving in state and federal government.
But those typecasts, no matter how frequently made, endanger Arab and Muslim residents each time, Khan said. The speed with which media in general is shared today and the viral nature of the Wall Street Journal piece, in particular, inflame those dangers.
“Part of the reason why there is not only the anger about the story, but there also is fear is because we’ve seen in recent years people reading what they do in the media and then acting on it,” Khan said.
Zeinab Chami attended Fordson High School in Dearborn on Sept. 11, 2001, and experienced the community's collective fear in the months after the terrorist attacks. In the years since, rhetoric like that in the Wall Street Journal have surfaced repeatedly, Chami said, but the frequency doesn’t make it easier.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I was horrified,” Chami said. “You can’t get used this kind of stuff.”
Now an English teacher at Fordson, Chami said she plans to address the issue with her students Monday to try and make sense of the situation. Students need to know explicitly that it’s not acceptable to dehumanize their community, or anyone else's, and that they have a right to speak up, she said.
“It’s just sad to me because my youth was a lot more carefree than this,” Chami said. “For me, it wasn’t until my senior year of high school; for them, it always was.”
Census Bureau estimates in 2020 suggest the majority of Dearborn's residents are people of Middle Eastern and North African descent.
Local Jewish and Muslim religious leaders said in October their communities were experiencing a rise in hate crimes as soon as the Israel-Hamas war started.
Community leaders, including Hammoud, who became Dearborn's first Arab mayor in 2021, have since attributed residents’ growing discontent with Biden to his support for Israel.
Biden’s statement Sunday, after months of support for Israel and silence in the face of repeated protests, could be “too little, too late” to assuage the cynicism in the Arab and Muslim community, Khan said.
The Biden administration is either unable to or unwilling to meet demands for a cease-fire, drawing out the frustration and distrust in Dearborn, Khan said.
“That will keep things at an impasse,” he said.