A city dubbed by the US as ‘America’s jihad capital’ Wall Street Journal has become deeply divided over the war in Gaza, as residents refuse to vote for either candidate in the presidential election.
Dearborn, a small town near Detroit, Michigan, is home to the largest Arab-American community in America.
The mood among the local population has shifted significantly as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise and there is little evidence of a political solution in the near future.
Dearborn residents believe that America’s political leaders play a major role in enabling the suffering caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Their apathy for the upcoming election is growing by the day.
Abu Bilal, owner of Oriental Fashion, a clothing store on Warren Avenue in Dearborn, demanded to know “where is the humanity” when discussing the killing of 90 Palestinian civilians with The guard.
A city dubbed “America’s jihad capital” by the Wall Street Journal has become deeply divided over the war in Gaza as residents refuse to vote in the presidential election.
A man getting his hair cut at Al-Rehab Barber Shop on Dearborn’s Maple Street said — in Arabic — that he doesn’t care who becomes president after the November election. It won’t matter to him…
His barber agreed, saying he didn’t vote in 2020 and doesn’t plan to this year.
Joe Biden won the swing state in 2020 by just 154,000 votes. This political setback could hurt his ability to win the key swing state in November.
Turnout in Dearborn’s 2020 election was 10 percent higher than the previous election in 2016. Biden also won 10 percent more votes than Hillary.
These statistics suggest that voters were energized voters in 2020, but according to The Guardian, the word on the street in Dearborn is that attitudes couldn’t be more different this year.
During the Democratic primary in February, 6,432 voters in Dearborn chose “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s support for Israel’s war.
Biden held a campaign rally at a school near Dearborn on Friday, but Arab Americans across the country have rejected the campaign to win their votes.
Dearborn, a small town near Detroit, Michigan, is home to the largest Arab-American community in America.
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 nothing more than voices and that it is normal that our people are being killed at home,” said Jenin Yaseen, an artist whose family comes from a village outside Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
“Dearborn is made up of people from Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and other countries directly affected by American imperialism,” she added.
Members of Biden’s campaign team visited Dearborn in January. At one point, they were met in an empty room because Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud refused to see them.
Hammoud, along with two other Arab-American state representatives, refused to attend the campaign rally, saying its purpose was to discuss the election and not the war.
The 33-year-old mayor was unfazed by President Joe Biden’s “odd” comments about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which the president made while enjoying a scoop of ice cream with comedian Seth Meyers.
Hammoud criticized Biden in February, shortly before he cast his vote for his party’s leader instead of the party chairman at a polling station in Dearborn.
“I find it strange that you are sitting in an ice cream parlour eating an ice cream – that is when you start talking about a possible ceasefire,” he told DailMail.com when asked about the president’s latest comments.
Dearborn was dubbed “America’s jihad capital” by political commentator Steven Stalinsky in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal
Members of Biden’s campaign team visited Dearborn in January — and at one point were met in an empty room because Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud (pictured) refused to meet with them
He then referred to Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements about a plan to invade Rafah in Gaza.
“I’m not looking for lip service or words. I’m looking for action. You want a long-term, permanent, just ceasefire.
“We do not want a return to the status quo of occupation and apartheid, of bombardment, of siege, of destruction and destruction for the Palestinian people. And that means establishing a just Palestinian state,” he said.
In April, Muslim protesters were heard chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel” at a rally in Dearborn.
Protesters gathered in the city to commemorate Al-Quds Day, in support of the Palestinian people and against Israel.
The protest came less than a week after seven World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, sparking global outrage.
A video shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) shows Tarek Bazzi, a local activist, giving a speech on a stage as chants of “Death to America!” are heard in the background.
“It’s not just Genocide Joe who needs to go,” Bazzi said of President Biden.
“It’s the whole system that has to go. Any system that would allow and support such cruelty and evilness – such a system does not deserve to exist on God’s earth.”
Bazzi then turned his attention to Israel.
“So when these idiots ask us whether Israel has a right to exist… the cry of ‘death to Israel’ is the most logical cry that is being shouted all over the world today,” he said.
Then the audience repeated the chant.
Bazzi explained that the demonstrations have become “so anti-American” because “it is the American government that is providing the funds for all of these atrocities.”