Call it Jihad Junction.
Or “America’s Jihad Capital,” as the Wall Street Journal described Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
Home to the largest Arab American community in the United States, cries of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” have rang out through the streets following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis.
In the wake of the Hamas slaughter, Israel responded in Gaza and that has led to the death of thousands of Palestinians.
Dearborn had been reliably Democratic but is now gripped in Hamas fever – residents tell The Guardian they plan to sit out November’s presidential election. President Joe Biden will be hard-pressed to find votes here now.
“The whole community was aware (that the administration had sent campaign officials to meet with the community), and I think it says a lot, that he sees us as no more than votes and that it’s been normalized for our people back home to be killed,” said Jenin Yaseen, an artist whose family is from the West Bank.
She added: “Dearborn is made up of people from Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere that have been directly impacted by American imperialism.”
Biden captured Michigan – a battleground state – in 2020 by only 154,000 votes and his struggles in Dearborn could be a factor in denying him a repeat.
In February’s Democratic primaries, more than 6,000 Dearborn voters chose “uncommitted” in a protest of Biden’s support of Israel. His campaign team visited in January and was met by an empty room.
The city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, 33, refused to meet Biden’s envoys. He was not impressed when Biden shared an ice cream with comic Seth Meyers and talked ceasefire.
“I think I find it strange that you’re eating ice cream at a parlor – that is the moment that you talk about a ceasefire coming forward,” he told DailMail.com.
He added: “I don’t look to lip service or words. I’m looking for action. You want a long-lasting, permanent and just ceasefire.
“We don’t want a return to the status quo of occupation and apartheid, of bombardment, of besiegement, of devastation and destruction for the Palestinian people. And that means establishing a just Palestinian state.”
At one local protest, activist Tarek Bazzi, called for the takedown of the entire American system. As he spoke, cries of “Death to America” rang through the streets of the town Henry Ford built.
“It’s not just Genocide Joe that has to go,” Bazzi told the crowd.
“It is the entire system that has to go. Any system that would allow such atrocities and such devilry to happen, and would support it – such a system does not deserve to exist on God’s Earth.”
He added: “So when these fools ask us if Israel has the right to exist … the chant ‘death to Israel’ has become the most logical chant shouted across the world today.”
Bazzi said the protests have become “so anti-American” because “it’s the United States government that provides the funds for all of the atrocities.”
For his part, Dearborn Mayor Hammoud denounced the anti-American chants. As did Arab American News founder Osama Siblani, who slammed the provocateurs for “inciting such discord, know this: Your messages of extremism do not resonate with us.”
He added: “Critiques of our nation’s foreign policies should not translate into blanket condemnations. Your perspectives do not represent our aspirations, our community, or the values we uphold. As proud Americans, we embody the spirit of the American dream, free from the shadows of your divisive rhetoric.”