Written by Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – President joe biden The city’s mayor on Sunday criticized anti-Arab rhetoric in response to a Wall Street Journal op-ed targeting Dearborn, Michigan, which he called “bigoted” and “Islamophobic.”
The Journal on Friday published an article with the headline “Welcome to America’s jihadist capital Dearborn,” which alleges that the city’s residents, including religious leaders and politicians, support the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and other extremists. suggested. The column drew the ire of Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, several U.S. lawmakers, and advocacy groups from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee.
The mayor on Saturday ordered the deployment of city police to houses of worship and other public places in response to “an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online targeting the city of Dearborn.” announced that it had been strengthened. As of Sunday afternoon, there were no reports of violence in Dearborn, a suburb of about 110,000 people that borders Detroit.
Although Biden did not directly address the Journal or the article’s author, he said on social media platform X that it is wrong to criticize “some people based on the words of a few.”
“That’s exactly what could lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hatred, and that should never happen to residents of Dearborn or any other American town,” Biden said on the platform formerly known as Twitter. said.
The city has one of the highest percentages of Arab Americans of any U.S. city, with census numbers showing it is approximately 54% Arab American.
“It’s reckless. It’s bigoted. It’s Islamophobic,” Hammoud said Saturday of the WSJ article, written by Stephen Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Institute.
Biden himself, who is running for re-election, has faced criticism and protests from Dearborn and other anti-war voices across the country over his administration’s support for Israel in the Gaza operation.
WSJ did not respond to a request for comment. Stalinsky said he stands by his views, adding that videos compiled by the institute show “shocking anti-American and pro-jihad sermons and marches” took place in the city. Ta. Reuters could not independently confirm the location or date the video was shot.
Rights advocates say Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bigotry and anti-Semitism have increased in the United States since war broke out in the Middle East in October.
Anti-Palestinian incidents that have raised alarm include the shooting deaths of three Palestinian students in Vermont in November and the stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American in Illinois in October. there were.
Some Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna, and Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, also condemned the WSJ opinion piece, and Jayapal demanded an apology from the paper. .
The latest outbreak of war in the Middle East began on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people. Israel then attacked the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, killing more than 27,000 people, according to the local health ministry. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been evacuated. This densely populated enclave also faces famine.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shoemaker)