Small town considered America’s “capital of jihad” sinks into civil war

In a city dubbed “America’s Jihad Capital” by the Wall Street Journal, there is deep division over the war in Gaza as residents refuse to vote for either candidate in the presidential election.

Dearborn, a small city near Detroit, Michigan, is home to the largest Arab-American community in the United States.

The mood among locals has changed significantly as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise and there is little sign of a political solution in the near future.

Dearborn residents are convinced that America’s political leaders are largely responsible for the suffering caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and their apathy toward the upcoming election is waning by the day.

Abu Bilal, owner of Oriental Fashion, a clothing store on Warren Avenue in Dearborn, wanted to know “where is the humanity” when he spoke to The Guardian about the killing of 90 Palestinian civilians.

A man getting a haircut at the Al-Rehab Barber Shop on Maple Street in Dearborn said – in Arabic – that he doesn’t care who becomes president after the November election. It won’t make any difference to him…

His hairdresser agreed, saying that he did not vote in 2020 and does not plan to do so this year.

Joe Biden won the swing state in 2020 by just 154,000 votes – and the decline in political spirit could hurt his chances of winning the important swing state in November.

Voter turnout in Dearborn was ten percent higher in 2020 than in the last election in 2016 – Biden also won ten percent more votes than Hillary.

These statistics suggest that voters were motivated in 2020, but according to The Guardian, word on the streets of Dearborn is that attitudes this year couldn’t be more different.

In the Democratic primary in February, 6,432 voters in Dearborn voted “undecided” in protest against Biden’s support of the Israeli war.

Biden held a campaign rally at a school near Dearborn on Friday – but Arab Americans across the country rejected the campaign’s attempts to win their votes.

“The whole community was aware (that the government had sent campaign staff to meet with the community), and I think it says a lot that he sees us only as votes and that it has become normal for our people to be 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 elsewhere who have been directly affected by American imperialism,” she added.

Members of Biden’s campaign team visited Dearborn in January – and at one point found an empty room because Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud refused to receive them.

Hammoud and two other Arab-American state officials declined to attend the campaign rally because the focus was on discussions about elections and not the war.

The 33-year-old mayor was unimpressed by President Joe Biden’s “strange” comments about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas – which the president made while enjoying a scoop of ice cream with comedian Seth Meyers.

Hammoud called on Biden in February, shortly before he cast his vote at a Dearborn polling station, calling him “undecided” rather than for his party’s leader.

“I find it strange that you are in an ice cream parlor eating an ice cream – and this is the moment when you are talking about an impending ceasefire,” he told DailMail.com when asked about the president’s recent comments.

He then referred to Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements that he had plans to capture Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

“I don’t expect lip service or words. I expect actions. They want a long-term, lasting and just ceasefire.”

“We do not want a return to the status quo of occupation and apartheid, of bombing, siege, devastation and destruction of the Palestinian people. And that means the establishment of 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.

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Protesters gathered in the city to commemorate Al-Quds Day in support of the Palestinian people and resistance against Israel.

The protest came less than a week after seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip and sparked global outrage.

A video shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) shows Tarek Bazzi, a local activist, giving a speech at a podium while shouts of “Death to America!” can be heard in the background.

“It’s not just Genocide Joe who has to go,” Bazzi said, referring to President Biden.

“The entire system must go. Any system that allows and supports such atrocities and such devilry – 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 most logical slogan being shouted all over the world today is ‘Death to Israel,'” he said.

Afterwards the audience repeated the song.

Bazzi said the rallies had become “so anti-American” because “it is the U.S. government that provides the funding for all the atrocities.”