Dearborn leaders: Ignore anti-Islam protest

Ignore them.

That's the message Dearborn officials and community leaders are telling the public about an anti-Islam rally set for Dearborn on Saturday, one of about 20 in the U.S. that civil rights advocates say is the largest nationwide protest ever against mosques.

"As we have learned from experience in the past the best way for the average person in our community to handle these incidents is to ignore them," Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly wrote in an open letter published Friday on the city's website. "The demonstration is not really a forum for honest dialogue and anything that intensifies emotions will only intensify conflict."

One of the key organizers of the anti-Islam protests, Jon Ritzheimer of Arizona, has said he or others are going to arrest U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., because she supported the Iran deal. Organizers of the rallies also have said they support open-carry laws and have been encouraging protesters to come armed, prompting fears of violence.

A couple of counterprotests in support of Muslims in Dearborn have been cancelled, after the anti-Islam group shifted the location of their rally from the Islamic Center of America to an area near Dearborn's new City Hall building off Michigan Avenue. Instead, a coalition of Muslim and Arab-American organizations are urging people to ignore the anti-Islam rally and take part in several events already planned this weekend to help the community, such as a "Day of Dignity" event Saturday at the Muslim Center in Detroit to feed and clothe the needy.

"We're too busy trying to help the community," said Dr. Muzammil Ahmed, chair of the Michigan Muslim Community Council. "We don't have time engage with people who advocate hatred."

A coalition of 11 advocacy and civil rights groups in metro Detroit signed a statement this week that reads: "When faced with negativity, it is up to us to focus on the positive. We ... stand together to support ... community-based projects that promote service and justice in the name of unity ... make our neighborhoods beautiful."



The organizers of the Dearborn rally have repeatedly refused to identify themselves when asked through their Facebook page. the Michigan branch of the Global Rally for Humanity. O'Reilly and Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad also did not release his name, saying only that he was a Michigan resident and seemed reasonable.

The protests are against Islam and against an event on the same day called "Justice or Else" by Minister Louis Farrakhan in Washington, D.C., marking the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. Some right-wing websites interpreted recent remarks by Farrakhan as a call to kill white Christians, which Farrakhan said he never made.

O'Reilly and Haddad said they oppose Farrakhan's message as well and sympathize with the protesters' anti-Farrakhan stance. Haddad noted the concerns of some over Farrakhan's recent remarks.

Regardless, O'Reilly said it's best to ignore the rally, writing in his Friday letter: "I am asking all of our community leaders to promote one consistent message: Go about your usual business and ignore our visitors. We cannot let them succeed in creating a false image of who we are."

At previous anti-Islam rallies in Dearborn, some counter-protesters responded with shouts and occasional bottle-throwing, creating more tensions and a negative image, say local leaders.

Two of the groups involved with Friday's rallies, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, are antigovernment groups that are extremist, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, told Religion News Service this week: "We've never had this many events at once targeting mosques in this kind of national way." While the organizers are calling for open-carry, the attorney for Michigan Open Carry, Dean Greenblatt, said Friday that their group has "no connection whatsoever" to Saturday's rally.

Community leaders in Dearborn also are calling upon residents to ignore them.

"At first, I was all for a counterprotest," said Dearborn resident Majed Moughni. But now, Moughni feels "I would be doing an injustice by calling community members to a face-off with these armed men ... these protesters are coming to a hate-filled event, armed with rage and weapons — a recipe for disaster."

Tarek Baydoun of Dearborn agreed, saying: "They seem intent on provoking a response, not on expressing an opinion or engaging in dialogue ... most Muslims and others in our community have decided it is best not to engage them in any way."

The rally comes less than a week after Fox News aired a show that skewered the city of Dearborn's Muslim community.

On Monday, "The O'Reilly Factor" featured Jesse Watters' segment that stereotyped Dearborn's Arab-American Muslim community. The segment got several facts wrong about Dearborn, saying that Police Chief Haddad is Muslim (he's Christian), that the Dearborn Council is controlled by Muslims (only 2 of the 7-member Council are Muslims), and that a woman was stoned in Dearborn (didn't happen).

Even if the police chief were Muslim or a majority on council were Muslim, that shouldn't matter, said city officials and residents.

O'Reilly wrote a letter to the show on Tuesday, saying to Bill O'Reilly of Fox: "While we share a common name and heritage, I am compelled to respond to your piece on Dearborn last night, in which you were really spinning the truth. While I understand that segment was intended to be lighter fare, its presentation of false 'facts' is dishonest and has unplanned, and very negative, consequences."

In his Friday letter, O'Reilly cited the Fox News report. It's the latest defense he has had to make in recent years amid false accusations that the city is run by Islamic law and is hostile to Christians. Over the past five years, a number of anti-Islam groups have held rallies in Dearborn, with some saying the city doesn't support free speech rights. The annual Arab Festival in Dearborn has been canceled over the past two years because tensions with anti-Islam groups who attended resulted in higher insurance costs.

The city has said it has a long history of allowing demonstrations and free speech. The organizers of the anti-Islam rally didn't get a permit for the mosque in time, but city police told of them of alternative areas where they could rally, such as near the new City Hall building.

Mayor O'Reilly said of Saturday's rally: "We can use the experience to strengthen our resolve to be one community supporting all of its members."

Contact Niraj Warikoo: 313-223-4792 or nwarikoo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @nwarikoo

For more details on the events planned tomorrow by Muslim and Arab-American communities, click here.