OPINION:
This fall, a group of young men came within days of executing a slaughter in their hometown, Dearborn, Michigan, America’s first Muslim-dominated city. There, some residents have shouted “Death to America” and openly support the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Mohamed Ali, Ayob Asmail Nasser, Majed Mahmood and two teens, inspired by Islamic State group propagandists, had a collection of assault rifles, boxes of ammunition and firsthand intelligence on their targets: an amusement park and gay bars.
One researched the “Paris terrorist shooting,” a reference to the Islamic State group’s 2015 deadly rampage through Paris, which left 131 dead. On a group call among terrorists, a conspirator said he tried to persuade one of the teens and Mr. Ali to go to the Islamic State group headquarters in Syria, an FBI report said.
“But,” the report explains, “Athari [the teen] and Bukhari [Ali] said they were going to stay back and do the ‘same thing as France.’”
America should give thanks to the FBI. It detected the mass-murder plot and arrested the five just in time.
In March, Ayman Ghazali, a Dearborn Heights restaurant worker, plotted to kill Jewish children. He got much closer to his objective.
He rammed his truck packed with gasoline and fireworks into the entrance of Temple Israel synagogue, the custodian of scores of innocent children attending school.
This time, America should give thanks that the West Bloomfield Township synagogue employed skilled security forces who intercepted and killed the armed Ghazali. His vehicle exploded in a fireball.
The FBI determined that Ghazali, 41, wanted to slaughter Jews and was inspired by Hezbollah. Ghazali’s brother was a Hezbollah commander killed by Israel. It makes you wonder why the U.S. allowed him to enter America in 2011 and become a citizen in 2016.
Dearborn, with an estimated 54% Muslim majority, is part of the American heartland. It is also a hotbed for anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist rhetoric, online and in person.
MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, was founded by its president, Yigal Carmon, a former member of the Israel Defense Forces. The U.S.-based institute regularly captures and posts evidence of Islamic extremism found on verified video clips.
It has published a special report devoted exclusively to Dearborn.
“The city of Dearborn, Michigan in particular is a longtime hub for public, outspoken support for jihad against the West [America] and Israel, led by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” MEMRI states.
Every last day of Ramadan, Dearborn Muslims hold a rally to celebrate Quds Day — hours of anti-Jewish threats dreamed up by Iran’s first ayatollah.
“Once again Dearborn, Michigan, celebrates international Quds Day — established by Ayatollah Khomeini as it has for the past two decades, including pro-jihad, pro-Iran incitement and calls for Israel’s destruction and ‘death to America,’” wrote Steven Stalinsky, MEMRI’s executive director.
Mr. Stalinsky recapped a speech by a teacher that was given at the two-week point of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran’s military and terrorist corps: “Tarek Bazzi, a teacher and activist from Dearborn … addressed U.S. military personnel, stressing that there is no honor in leaving your family behind and throwing your life away for the benefit of pedophiles, billionaires, and Zionist Israelis. He exhorted them to instead direct their fighting spirit against the ‘real enemies of this country’ — corporate oligarchs, the ‘Israeli leeches’ and the ‘Epstein class.’”
At the 2024 Quds rally in Dearborn, Mr. Bazzi said, “We live in one of the rottenest countries that has ever existed on the earth.”
At a City Council meeting in September, Dearborn’s Islamic emergence reached a new level.
A Christian resident rose, went to the microphone and protested the naming of a street intersection after Osama Siblani, an outspoken supporter of terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, America’s first Muslim mayor, told him, “Although you live here, you are not welcome here.”
In America, mayors generally do not banish residents for speaking their minds at a city council meeting.
Mr. Hammoud has called Dearborn a city of resistance.
Mr. Siblani founded the Arab American News and is a favorite of Democrats, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Debbie Dingell. It’s a friendship that underscores how important placating Muslims is to winning Michigan in both state and national elections.
Dearborn is represented in Congress by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Democrat, who has repeated the anti-Israel chant, “From the river to the sea.” The words create the image of a murderous end to the Jewish state at the hands of Muslims.
Mr. Stalinsky’s report on Dearborn features snapshots of Michigan imams.
Imam Usama Abdulghani urged that children be taught to follow the teachings of Iran’s supreme leader.
Imam Hassan Qazwini, an active supporter of Democrats, wrongly states that the Islamic State group is an arm of Zionism.
Imam Abdou Zindani says that “one day the Muslims will slaughter the Jews like sheep.”
On Nov. 5, the FBI filed in U.S. District Court a 93-page criminal complaint against the three Dearborn adults, documenting with whom they spoke, where they purchased their arsenal and how they surveilled their targets.
The FBI relied in part on a confidential human source who joined an overseas chat in which a co-conspirator commented on the Dearborn Five. The FBI also deployed an “online covert employee” to surveil pro-Islamic State group discussions on platforms such as the Discord app.
One group member asked one of the two Dearborn teens, “You don’t have issue with your father anymore?”
He responded, “I’m not worrying anymore, though I will leave this dunya [temporary life] soon to meet my lord soon biithnillah [Allah’s will]. I’m just doing what I can until everything falls in place by Allah’s will.”
The 2020 U.S. census counted 109,956 Dearborn residents. A July 2024 follow-up showed the city had lost more than 3,000 people.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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