‘Death to America’ Mayor Insists That ‘Dearborn is a City of Proud Americans,’ Convinces No One
New in PJ Media:
The alarming scene that unfolded last Friday in Dearborn, Mich., with Muslim protesters chanting “Death to America,” has resulted in some fallout for the city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud. While Old Joe Biden and his henchmen are happily taking a wrecking ball to the former Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, they don’t go around telegraphing their intentions.
Their friends in Dearborn were a bit too forthright about what the ultimate goal of the policies that the left and their Islamic allies really are, so reassuring words had to be uttered and the public put back to sleep. Hammoud found, however, that at least some people had been jolted away much too rudely for that to be possible.
Hammoud entreated the world Monday not to believe its lying eyes, but to heed his soothing words instead. “Over the weekend,” he wrote, “video emerged of a rally in Dearborn where some attendees were chanting statements that were unacceptable and contrary to the heart of this city. We reject all inflammatory and violent statements made at the gathering.” That was a swell disavowal, but it was glaring that Hammoud said nothing about investigating the people involved.
Instead, the earnest young mayor continued, “Dearborn is a city of proud Americans; the hateful rhetoric heard on Friday does not reflect the opinion of the members of this community. The Dearborn community stands for peace and justice for all people. We are proud to call this city and this country home.” While he intended this to tamp down the controversy, it only ended up making matters worse, because Hammoud’s description of Dearborn diverged so widely from what is generally known about the city.
Back in February, the Wall Street Journal an op-ed noting that “a local headline describing an Oct. 10 event at the Ford Performing Arts Center read ‘Michigan rally cheers Hamas attack.’” It quoted Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit in Dearborn calling for the “demise” of Israel. Another Dearborn-area imam, Usama Abdulghani, “called Oct. 7 ‘one of the days of Allah’ and a ‘miracle come true.’ He described the attackers as ‘honorable.’”
In response to all that and much more, Hammoud didn’t denounce the Hamas supporters and affirm his city’s rejection of jihad violence. Instead, he went into full victim mode, announcing that Dearborn police would “ramp up its presence across all places of worship and major infrastructure points. This is a direct result of the inflammatory @WSJ opinion piece that has led to an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online targeting the city of Dearborn. Stay vigilant.”
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