Dearborn, Michigan, resident Edward “Ted” Barham, a Christian pastor, attended a recent City Council meeting to express his opposition to renaming a city street after pro-jihadist Osama Siblani. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud called Barham an “Islamophobe” who did “not belong in this city.”
Earlier this month, the city renamed a section of a street after Siblani, the founder and publisher of Arab American News, to honor his “contributions to the community.” Weighing in on this misguided decision, Hot Air’s David Strom noted that Siblani “is an advocate of violence and celebrated designated terrorist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas, which seems incompatible with being officially honored by the government.”
Strom was hardly alone. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
Siblani, an Arab-American newspaper publisher, has advocated for Israel’s destruction, praised terror groups like Hamas, and claimed the American government is “bought by the Zionist lobby.”Siblani’s radical track record in Dearborn—a heavily Muslim community known for being a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment—includes numerous public appearances in which he praised Palestinian jihadi groups as “heroes,” lauded the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and threatened to send Israeli Jews “back to Poland.”
During a September 2024 rally in Dearborn, when Israel was locked in a fierce fight against Hezbollah terrorists on its northern border, Siblani told a crowd chanting “death to Israel” that the terror group will “take care of the job” by eradicating the Jewish state, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors radical activity.Siblani later told the crowd: “To [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, who wants to bring [evacuated Israeli civilians back] to the north: We are going to take you back to Poland.”
Below, an X user lists several of Siblani’s greatest hits, which include describing Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli citizens as “a military operation with no terrorist overtones,” and stating that Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Palestinian factions are “freedom fighters.”
At any rate, Barham told City Council members, “I feel like having that sign up there is almost like naming a street Hezbollah Street or Hamas Street. Hezbollah bombed the embassy in Beirut, including many Americans. I just feel it’s quite inappropriate,” according to Fox 2 Detroit.
Hammoud made clear where his sympathies lie in his blistering reply. “You’re an Islamophobe,” he told Barham. “And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor you are not welcome here. The day you move out of the city will be the day I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city.”
America has a long tradition of embracing people from every corner of the globe. Our nation has offered countless newcomers the chance to build new lives, and many have expressed deep gratitude for the extraordinary possibilities that await them here.
For more than 250 years, immigrants have managed to balance the preservation of their cultural heritage with integration into the American way of life.
Unfortunately, this does not hold true for most Muslims. While they are happy to take advantage of the opportunities the U.S. — and the capitalist system — offer, they refuse to assimilate into Western culture. Siblani and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) come to mind. While both have benefited enormously from Americans’ largesse, neither has been afraid to express their contempt for this country.
Approximately 55% of Dearborn residents reported Middle Eastern or North African ancestry in a 2023 census, making it “the first Arab-majority city” in the U.S.
Dearborn is a microcosm of what we can expect if the influx of Muslims into the U.S. continues: the displacement of Americans.
The Dearborn experiment suggests that, unlike every other ethnic group that has immigrated to our shores over the last two and a half centuries, the Islamic culture just might be incompatible with our way of life.
It’s worth noting that Dearborn is represented in Congress by the vile, antisemitic, and anti-American Rashida Tlaib. In the clip below, recorded on Thursday, Tlaib delivers yet another viral moment on the House floor.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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