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Tag: muslims

  • Commentary: With immigration losing its edge, Republicans find a new boogeyman: ‘Radical Islam’

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    Imagine if a candidate for, say, the California Assembly appeared at a political event and delivered the following remarks:

    “No to kosher meat. No to yarmulkes. No to celebrating Easter. No, no, no.”

    He, or she, would be roundly — and rightly — criticized for their bigotry and raw prejudice.

    Recently, at a candidates forum outside Dallas, Larry Brock expressed the following sentiments as part of a lengthy disquisition on the Muslim faith.

    “We should ban the burqa, the hijab, the abaya, the niqab,” said the candidate for state representative, referring to the coverings worn by some Muslim women. “No to halal meat. No to celebrating Ramadan. No, no, no.”

    Brock, whose comments were reported by the New York Times, is plainly a bigot. (He’s also a convicted felon, sentenced to two years in prison for invading the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. No to hand-slaughtered lamb. Yes to despoiling our seat of government.)

    Brock is no outlier.

    For many Texas Republicans running in the March 3 primary, Islamophobia has become a central portion of their election plank, as a longtime political lance — illegal immigration — has grown dull around its edges.

    Aaron Reitz, a candidate for attorney general, aired an ad accusing politicians of importing “millions of Muslims into our country.”

    “The result?” he says, with a tough-guy glower. “More terrorism, more crime. And they even want their own illegal cities in Texas to impose sharia law.” (More on that in a moment.)

    One of his opponents, Republican Rep. Chip Roy — co-founder of the “Sharia-Free America Caucus” — has called for amending the Texas Constitution to protect the state’s tender soil from Islamification by “radical Marxists.”

    In the fierce GOP race for U.S. Senate, incumbent John Cornyn — facing a potentially career-ending challenge from state Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton — has aired one TV spot accusing his fellow Republican of being “soft on radical Islam” and another describing radical Islam “as a bloodthirsty ideology.”

    Paxton countered by calling Cornyn’s assertions a desperate attack “that can’t erase the fact that he helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas,” a reference to a visa program that allowed people who helped U.S. forces — in other words friends and allies — to come to America after being carefully screened.

    There hasn’t been such a concentrated, sulfurous political assault on Muslims since the angst-ridden days following the Sept. 11 attacks.

    In just the latest instance, Democrats are calling for the censure of Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine after he wrote Sunday on X: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” He’s since doubled down by posting several images of dogs with the words “Don’t tread on me.”

    In Texas, the venom starts at the top with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s waltzing toward reelection to an unprecedented fourth term.

    In November, Abbott issued an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — the latter a prominent civil rights group — as terrorist organizations.

    Not to be out-demagogued, Bo French, a candidate for Texas Railroad Commission, called on President Trump to round up and deport every Muslim in America. (French, the former Tarrant County GOP chair, gained notoriety last year for posting an online poll asking, “Who is a bigger threat to America?” The choice: Jews or Muslims.)

    Much of the Republican hysteria has focused on a proposed real estate development in a corn- and hayfield 40 miles east of Dallas.

    The master-planned community of about 1,000 homes, known as EPIC City, was initiated by the East Plano Islamic Center to serve as a Muslim-centered community for the region’s growing number of worshipers. (Of course, anyone could choose to live there, regardless of their religious faith.)

    Paxton said he would investigate the proposed development as a “potentially illegal ‘Sharia City.’ ” The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week jumped in with its own investigation — a move Abbott hailed — after the Justice Department quietly closed a probe into the project, saying developers agreed to abide by federal fair housing laws. That investigation came at the behest of Cornyn.

    The rampant resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment hardly seems coincidental.

    For years, Republicans capitalized on the issues of illegal immigration and lax enforcement along the U.S. -Mexico border. With illegal crossings slowed to a trickle under Trump, “Republicans can’t run on the border issue the way [they] have in the past,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

    What’s more, cracking down on immigration no longer brings together Republicans the way it once did.

    General support for Trump’s get-tough policies surpasses 80% among Texas Republicans, said Henson, who’s spent nearly two decades sampling public opinion in the state. But support falls dramatically, into roughly the high-40s to mid-50s, when it comes to specifics such as arresting people at church, or seizing them when they make required court appearances.

    “Republicans need to find something else that taps into those cultural-identity issues” and unifies and animates the GOP base, said Henson.

    In short, the fearmongers need a new scapegoat.

    Muslims are about 2% of the adult population in Texas, according to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, completed in 2024. That works out to estimates ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 residents in a state of nearly 32 million residents.

    Not a huge number.

    But enough for heedless politicians hell-bent on getting themselves elected, even if it means tearing down a whole group of people in the process.

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    Mark Z. Barabak

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  • Mamdani Won, But Our Battle Against Islamophobia Isn’t Over

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    Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux

    New York just weathered one of the ugliest political seasons of the last 50 years, with multiple public figures pumping out literally thousands of divisive, hateful messages about Muslims that were seen and heard by millions. Unfortunately, the bigotry has continued postelection and will poison our city until and unless a vocal majority demands it come to an end.

    On the night of Zohran Mamdani’s election victory, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, posted congratulations on social media, writing, “New Yorkers faced a clear choice — between hope and fear — and just like we’ve seen in London — hope won.” But Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, knows all too well that even after hope wins, hatred hangs around like an angry drunk in an alley, spoiling for a rematch.

    “Any decent New Yorker, certainly any Jew, should hate this bastard,” WABC radio’s morning host, Sid Rosenberg, recently told listeners in a rant against Mamdani that the station not only aired but excerpted and pushed out on social media. Two days before Thanksgiving, Rosenberg was at it again: “This punk is now the mayor. This little bitch,” he spat. “Now he’s putting together this transition team, which looks more and more like the Iraqi soccer team.”

    These comments are typical of the sort of bigotry the station aired throughout the campaign. I asked WABC’s owner, billionaire and former Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, why he allows it. “You know what I said to Zohran? I said to him, ‘Look, before November 4, there was war. After November 5, let’s settle down and forget about the past and go forward,’” Catsimatidis told me.

    I asked whether he plans to rein in the hate speech on his station. “I would not allow any hate speech,” Catsimatidis promised, and I will take him at his word.

    It would be nice to believe that New York’s problems are confined to one radio station and a troubled broadcaster who has frequently gotten himself fired, but politicians who know better have generated similar garbage. The losing campaign of ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, who chuckled along when Rosenberg suggested during an interview that Mamdani would cheer if another 9/11 attack happened, created and posted — but then quickly took down — an overtly racist ad that included a Black man wearing a keffiyeh while going on a shoplifting spree.

    “It was an ad that was created by a social-media personality, a comedian who came in at the very end, who put it together, and it was put up. And as soon as it was brought to my attention, other senior people on the staff’s attention that it was up, it was immediately pulled down because it hadn’t been approved,” Cuomo’s campaign adviser, Melissa DeRosa, told me. “It hadn’t gone through the right legal channels. And so that was a mistake, and we acknowledged it at the time.” The problem, of course, is that the ad was created in the first place.

    “The depth to which they were willing to go to polarize the city, to polarize the Jewish community, to inflict real fear in the Jewish community, I think, is inexcusable,” Morris Katz, a strategist for Mamdani, told me. “Andrew Cuomo, at the top of his lungs, for six months, with millions of dollars behind the effort, was essentially telling Jewish New Yorkers that this person is an existential threat to your safety. And eventually, that’s going to break through, to a degree. It was a real organized, deliberate, cruel misinformation campaign that penetrated certain parts of the Jewish community in New York.”

    The political ads were part of a deluge of online messaging, mostly on X, that only accelerated as Election Day approached. “We found a huge spike in online hate and fearmongering targeting Muslims in the aftermath of Mamdani’s primary win, blending racism, anti-Muslim bigotry, red-baiting, and anti-immigrant sentiment into one dangerous narrative,” Raqib Hameed Naik, the executive director of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate, told immigrant-oriented news website Documented. The center issued a report after studying 6,669 public social media posts about Mamdani in a 17-day window during the campaign and found that just under 2,000 of the, “frame Islam itself, not any policy detail, as a public threat.”

    In posts that racked up hundreds of millions of views and other forms of engagement, “Muslims were portrayed as threats to national security, incompatible with democracy, or as agents of an imagined foreign agenda,” Naik said. He’s talking about messages like the one right-wing agitator Laura Loomer posted the night Mamdani won the primary — “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame” — which got more than a million views.

    “We know from experience that this kind of online demonization and dehumanization doesn’t stay online,” Naik told Documented. “It creates a permissive environment for real-world harm.”

    Real-world harm is exactly what a Texas man named Jeremy Fistel promised before he was arrested, extradited to Queens, and charged with making a series of graphic, terroristic threats against Mamdani and his family. “I get messages that say, ‘The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.’ I get threats on my life … on the people that I love. And I try not to talk about it,” Mamdani said at an emotional September press conference, placing some of the blame on his political opponents. “I’m characterized by those same rivals as being a monster, as being ‘at the gates,’ language that describes almost a barbarian looking to dismantle civilization,” he said. “Part of this is the sad burden of being the first Muslim candidate to run for mayor.”

    Something similar happened when Khan, the mayor of London, first ran in 2016, defeating a Conservative Party opponent whose closing argument to voters was that “London stands on the brink of a catastrophe,” next to a photo of a bus blown up in a notorious terrorist attack. Khan went on to win by 13 points and has been reelected twice. As one Conservative activist noted, the party was blowing “a dog whistle in a city where there’s no dog.” It must also be noted that Khan continues to require as much security as King Charles III and has recently been the target of a surge in anti-Muslim online hate, according to a report commissioned by the Greater London Authority.

    The lesson from overseas is that bigotry’s defeat is never final: People of goodwill must always be ready to speak up, again and again, to drown out the stale rants of the haters with the voice of a diverse, tolerant democracy.

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    Errol Louis

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  • How racist provocateur Jake Lang tried to manufacture chaos in Dearborn – Detroit Metro Times

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    Right-wing provocateur and avowed racist Jake Lang arrived in Dearborn on Tuesday with a bulletproof vest, a Quran he threatened to burn, and a bag of bacon he shoved into people’s faces. 

    The Florida man also brought a criminal history: The Jan. 6 rioter was charged with repeatedly beating police officers with a baseball bat and riot shield, and a federal judge found that he “remains willing to engage in additional acts of violence.” President Donald Trump pardoned him and the other insurrectionists.

    That’s who marched into a peaceful, largely Arab American city and tried to start a fight.

    Lang, a Jewish Christian who openly calls himself a racist, came to Dearborn with a small crew of followers and a camera. His goal wasn’t dialogue or protest. It was provocation, panic, and propaganda. And when Muslims and their supporters shouted back after he spent hours taunting them, he plastered social media with videos claiming he’d uncovered a “violent Muslim stronghold.” His livestreams racked up more than 200,000 views in half a day, with many sympathizing with him.

    It was a textbook use of DARVO, a manipulation tactic defined as “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.” First, the aggressor provokes and antagonizes. Then he denies wrongdoing, attacks those who push back, and reframes himself as the persecuted victim. Lang executed it step by step.

    Lang and his handful of supporters began congregating early in the afternoon, schlepping a banner reading, “Americans Against Islamification” and large, wooden crosses. He mocked the Arabic language. He told Muslims they were “violent, disgusting people,” waved bacon in their faces, and repeatedly used the n-word. He told one group they were “chimping out” and made monkey noises at teenagers.

    He threatened to burn a Quran.

    He prayed for God to “remove Muslims.”

    He declared Dearborn a “Christian country.”

    He called white people who supported their neighbors “white traitors.”

    He wasn’t hiding who he was. At one point he said outright: “I am a racist because I don’t want other races taking over my country.” He then launched into a white nationalist rant about whites having “conquered” America.

    As the march moved toward Dearborn City Hall, Lang ranted that “this is not America,” that Muslims “want us all dead,” and that the city was an “insurgency.” Despite all the taunting, he put on a performance of contrived innocence for the camera, repeatedly insisting he was shocked by how he was being treated.

    The media treated the debacle like a debate instead of an ambush, calling the rally “dueling demonstrations” and a “debate over religion.” One headline attempted to summarize the day as putting “focus on the Muslim community,” as if a racist agitator threatening to burn a Quran is a legitimate point of civic discussion.

    This is the problem with both-sides framing: It pretends the issue is religious disagreement rather than a violent Jan. 6 defendant traveling to a diverse city to harass residents and film their reactions. Dearborn’s 106,000 residents include Christians, Muslims, and non-religious people. Sharia law has never been practiced there, nor could it be, legally. About half the city’s residents aren’t Muslim. But Lang’s stunt relied on Americans who don’t know that.

    The performance worked on many viewers, who appeared convinced they were watching an Islamic uprising. 

    Among the responses:

    “Islam is robbing our country of unity.”

    “They are a disgrace.”

    “God asks us to stand up and fight against people who are his enemies.”

    “Jesus said to the bad people like these ‘You vipers, you son of snakes.’”

    This is all a bastardization of Christianity. It’s weaponized faith used as a racial weapon, not unlike American southerners who justified slavery by citing the Bible. 

    Later, as some young Muslims shouted back after two hours of taunts, insults, and monkey noises, Lang grinned at the camera. This was the moment he came for.

    “The Muslim community is looking to drag us back,” he said. “They’re looking to destroy everything that makes America great.”

    Outside City Hall as the sky grew dark, white police officers offered Lang’s group a protected space cordoned off by metal barriers. Lang scanned the crowd and said, “If they’re white and dressed normally, they’re allowed in.”

    During a public comment period at the council meeting, Lang whined that the white population is “on the decline.”

    He told the council and other Muslims, “You will never look like us. You will never eat like us. You won’t build buildings like us. You are nothing. You can build nothing. Just like President Trump’s great American friends have said: You guys are not us and get the fuck out.” 

    Then he raised his fist and said, “America first, America only, God bless America, Jesus is king.”

    In a triumphant tweet afterward, he wrote: “Today we showed THE WORLD just how VIOLENT and disgusting the Muslim Stronghold of Dearborn TRULY IS!! I was assaulted dozens of times by little twig Pedolphile worshipping Muslims.”

    Lang’s behavior in Dearborn wasn’t unlike some of the conduct that landed him in federal custody. Prosecutors say he played a front-line role in the Jan. 6 attack, hitting officers with a bat and riot shield. He publicly declared that the Capitol riot was justified and said the “next step” was “guns.”

    A federal judge found “overwhelming evidence” that he remains willing to commit violence, yet he continues to cast himself as a political prisoner. And now he’s acting like the victim of a city he visited to antagonize.

    Can you imagine if a group of Muslims showed up in a small Christian town to scream racial slurs, taunt teenagers, threaten to burn Bibles, and declare the area “Islam?” You can bet the reaction wouldn’t be peaceful. 

    Dearborn residents saw what Lang was doing. The cameras saw what he wanted them to see.

    And the rest of us should see it for what it is. It was not a protest, not a clash of cultures, but a racist agitator manufacturing chaos to feed his movement and his ego.


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    Steve Neavling

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  • California D.A. retweets 9/11 attack images as he slams Mamdani

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    A California district attorney reposted on social media 9/11 images along with comments blasting the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Despite the gory images and strong denunciation of Mamdani, Dan Dow insists that he has no issues with the Muslim community in San Luis Obispo County, where he is the top prosecutor.

    He has “strong ties” with the community, Dow said in an emailed statement Thursday to The Times.

    But his posts have drawn backlash, and a Muslim advocacy organization is demanding an apology and an investigation.

    On Wednesday, Dow retweeted a post on X from a popular right-wing account that appeared to show a snapshot moments after flames jutted from the South Tower, the second of the twin towers struck by a plane on Sept. 11, 2001.

    A second visual tweet, more graphic than the first, displayed footage from two angles of a plane barreling into one of the towers. That was posted by the leader of an activist organization, described as a hate group by some, that claims to “combat the threats from Islamic supremacists, radical leftists and their allies.”

    Each was posted in the aftermath of the New York City mayoral election won by 34-year-old democratic socialist Mamdani.

    The posts were retweeted and subtweeted days later and 3,000 miles away by Dow, drawing rebuke from some locals, in a story first broken by the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

    Dow responded to a Times email for comment saying his issue was not with the county’s Muslim population, which numbers around 500, according to the Assn. of Religion Data Archives.

    “I shared the posts because, in my opinion, Mamdani is going to destroy New York being a self-proclaimed socialist,” Dow responded. “I support the Muslim community and have strong ties to our Muslim community in San Luis Obispo.”

    The first post Dow retweeted came from the account @EndWokeness, which vows to its nearly 4 million followers that it’s “fighting, exposing, and mocking wokeness.”

    The second post came from Amy Mekelburg, founder of Rise, Align, Ignite and Reclaim (RAIR) Foundation, which is listed as a hate organization by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

    The council’s Los Angeles office demanded Thursday evening that Dow apologize and “retract his recent anti-Muslim social media posts.” CAIR-LA is also asking for an independent investigation into Dow’s conduct and “his fitness to continue to serve as DA.”

    The organization is incensed at his retweeting of Mekelburg, whom they describe as “a known anti-Muslim extremist.”

    Mekelburg wrote a sizable message on the video post, saying she’d “given my entire self” to warn the world “about the threat of Islam after 9/11.”

    “And now … to see New York — my city — stand in this moment, where someone like Zohran Mamdani could even be elected,” she wrote. “My God, New York, what have you done?”

    CAIR-LA said that Mekelburg “falsely equated the election of Mamdani with 9/11, reinforcing the harmful stereotype that Muslims are inherently tied to terrorism simply because of their faith.”

    Dow subtweeted that specific post with a message that began by highlighting his 32 years of service in the U.S. Army and his four tours overseas.

    “I remember like it was yesterday our nation being attacked by Islamic extremists on 9/11/2001,” he wrote. “I love this country and I do not in any way share the same views as the 33-year-old socialist Zohran Mamdani.”

    He added in the tweet: “I am very sad to see the Big Apple torn apart by electing an un-American socialist who wants to trample on the values and freedoms that millions of Americans have fought and died for.”

    “Dow’s decision to repost content that weaponizes bigotry and baselessly ties an elected Muslim official to terrorism is appalling and reflects the deeply rooted dehumanization and fearmongering in this country that American Muslims have had to endure for decades,” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement.

    Dow’s posts also struck a nerve with one of his Muslim allies in San Luis Obispo, Dr. Rushdi Cader, who referred to the district attorney as “a personal friend” to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

    Cader told the Tribune the posts were “highly incendiary and puts Muslims at risk for harm, especially hijab-wearing Muslim women like my wife Nisha, whom Dan has himself described as ‘a kind and gentle lady’ who he ‘prayed would be blessed with peace.’”

    Cader added he thought Dow’s “ugly post” was borne “out of disagreement with Mamdani’s politics” rather than any direct attack on Islam.”

    Dow’s tweets drew other rebukes.

    San Luis Obispo County Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson called Dow a “Christian nationalist.”

    He “occupies a powerful public office that requires decency and discipline,” Gibson said of Dow. “This post is yet another example that he has neither.”

    San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica Stewart emailed The Times to say that the city was welcoming to all community members.

    “Dan Dow, as the county’s District Attorney, by definition, should be objective and fair,” she wrote. “For someone in his position to express racism is unacceptable.”

    Dow had his defenders too.

    Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer serves with Dow on the California District Attorneys Assn. Spitzer is the organization’s secretary-treasurer while Dow is the president.

    Spitzer found no fault with Dow’s social media posts.

    “Elected officials have a platform to share their views and be judged by their constituents,” he wrote in an email. “It is heartbreaking to see someone who has expressed such anti-public safety and anti-Semitic sentiments elected as mayor of New York, and we as the elected protectors of public safety have a right to express that.”

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    Andrew J. Campa

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  • What Zohran Mamdani’s Bid for Mayor Reveals About Being Muslim in America

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    In the autumn of 2008, Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, broke from the Republican Party and endorsed the Democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama. It had been a brutal summer of electoral warfare. Rumors that Obama was Muslim swirled, becoming a significant aspect of the media coverage of his campaign. A group working with his opponent, John McCain, called people in swing states, planted doubts about Obama’s religious background, and asked how they would vote if they knew that the Democrat was supported by Hamas. McCain’s spokesperson defended the calls, but when a voter later said, in a town hall, that she couldn’t trust Obama, who was “an Arab,” McCain shook his head. “No, ma’am,” he said. Obama was a “decent family man.” The implication that “an Arab” could not possess those qualities was poisonous enough, but it was Powell who tackled the unspoken. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he acknowledged that Obama “is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.” Nevertheless, Powell went on, what if Obama were Muslim? “Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?”

    Seventeen years later, that question has become central to New York City’s mayoral race, in which Zohran Mamdani, a thirty-four-year-old democratic socialist and a Muslim, has held a solid lead since winning the Democratic primary this past summer. There have been plenty of legitimate attacks on Mamdani’s candidacy, citing his inexperience and interrogating how he will deliver on his promises to make the city more affordable. In recent weeks, though, many critiques have been tinged with specifically anti-Muslim undertones. Ellie Cohanim, a former deputy special envoy to combat antisemitism in the first Trump Administration, posted a photo of the Twin Towers burning, on September 11, 2001, and wrote, “Never Forget. . . . Vote Andrew Cuomo & save our city”; the New York Post has run headlines that link Mamdani to terrorism, such as “WEAPONS OF HAMAS DESTRUCTION.” Cuomo himself, the former governor of New York, who is running against Mamdani as an Independent, recently made remarks about his opponent that garnered wide attention. In an interview with the conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg, Cuomo asked if anyone could “imagine Mamdani in the seat,” if there were another 9/11. When Rosenberg replied, “He’d be cheering,” Cuomo chuckled along and added, “That’s another problem.”

    The comment echoed a similar declaration made during another much watched campaign. In November, 2015, Donald Trump, who was then running for President, claimed that he had seen “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating during 9/11. A month later, he called for a plan to ban Muslims from entering the country in a bid to keep it safe. After he took office, in January, 2017, the policy went into effect, and hundreds of New Yorkers descended on J.F.K. Airport to protest. Governor Cuomo, in a show of solidarity, declared, “As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim.” It was a politically useful sentiment back then.

    Trump’s story was a lie, but it gave voice to long-held suspicions of so-called dual loyalty. After 9/11, authorities rounded up Muslim men across the country and detained them without charge—in some cases, for years—or deported them for minor visa violations. To avoid such fates, many Muslim families fled the U.S., leaving behind neighbors and friends. The New York City Police Department devised a Demographics Unit, whose undercover officers and informants combed through Muslim neighborhoods and hid in bookstores and mosques and restaurants in search of terrorist threats, leaving communities fearful that they were always being watched. The program continued for years and, after being challenged in court, was eventually disbanded.

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    Rozina Ali

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  • Michigan Muslim group pushes hate crime investigation after Warren mosque vandalized

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    A Muslim civil rights group is calling for an investigation into a possible hate crime after a Warren mosque and nearby construction equipment were vandalized over the weekend. 

    The Michigan chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) is also offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible. 

    The Islamic Organization of North America (IONA), the first mosque established in Warren, reported broken windows, wall damage, and graffiti inside the mosque and on equipment used for its expansion project. 

    The vandalism occurred sometime between late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, according to CAIR-MI. 

    Mosque officials have notified the Warren Police Department. 

    “We call on anyone who witnessed this vandalism or was told about this criminal act to immediately contact the Warren Police Department,” CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid said in a statement Tuesday. “There is no valid justification for anyone to vandalize private property, especially a house of worship.”

    Walid, who also serves as a prayer leader at IONA, said the mosque has been repeatedly vandalized and threatened since opening decades ago. 

    CAIR-MI said it wants authorities to investigate whether the vandalism was motivated by hate. 

    Earlier this year, CAIR’s Minnesota chapter called for a similar probe after a fire damaged a mosque in Bloomington. 


    Steve Neavling is an award-winning investigative journalist who operated Motor City Muckraker, an online news site devoted to exposing abuses of power and holding public officials accountable. Neavling…

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Wayne State ducks pro-Palestinian activists with new virtual board meetings

    Wayne State ducks pro-Palestinian activists with new virtual board meetings

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    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    A Muslim activist yelled at Wayne State University police on May 30: “40,000 dead, and you’re arresting us instead!”

    At Wayne State University, democracy is ducking behind a computer.

    The university’s elected Board of Governors is going virtual for its next public meeting for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. By doing so, the board is avoiding face-to-face encounters with student and faculty protesters who have been rallying in support of Palestinians.

    In addition, the board moved the public comment period from the beginning of the meeting to the end, making it impossible for students and others to address issues on the agenda before they are voted on.

    Exactly two months before the Wednesday, June 26, virtual session, campus police forcibly removed protesters from the last meeting, prompting more than 100 faculty and staff members to denounce the “racist assault” on students who were calling on the university to divest from companies linked to Israel.

    It’s also the first public board meeting since campus police resorted to violence after tearing down a protest encampment on May 30. Some faculty and staff members even called for the resignation of WSU President Kimberly Espy for her handling of the protests.

    Pro-Palestinian students and faculty members rebuked the board’s decision to go virtual, saying it’s clearly an attempt to silence dissent.

    “They moved it virtually as a defensive move so they would be able to get their word out without having any face-to-face interactions with the people they are elected to serve,” Ridaa Khan, a WSU student senator and pro-Palestinian activist, tells Metro Times. “Many of the students, staff, and faculty are upset and want this opportunity to address the board. A campus is supposed to promote free speech. This is setting a dangerous precedent. The genocide is continuing, and we are not being heard.”

    University leaders also appeared to renege on their promise to engage with students about the possibility of divestment. While trying to get students to abandon the encampment, WSU officials said the board would take up the issue at its next board meeting after hearing from students.

    That won’t happen now that public comment has been moved to the end of the meeting.

    “That messaging was part of an attempt to dismantle our encampment before they met any of our demands,” Khan, an undergraduate majoring in media arts and studies, says. “They told us to attend the meetings. Now they’re changing the terms of the meeting.”

    Sticking to their lack of transparency, the WSU Board of Directors declined to answer questions from Metro Times and referred the issue to the administration’s public relations team. University spokesman Bill Roose declined to say whether the virtual meeting was in response to pro-Palestinian protests but issued a vague written statement.

    “Meeting formats and locations are determined at the discretion of the Board of Governors,” Roose wrote. “The Board chose a virtual format for its June 26 meeting.”

    Roose said members of the public can stream the meeting at wayne.edu/live and that anyone wishing to comment must submit their requests “up to 48 hours before the meeting.”

    In other words, the board can meet wherever it wants.

    Faculty members also expressed frustration and astonishment with the board’s decision to go virtual, saying the elected members are shirking their duties to be accountable and accessible. The board is also sending a message to students that their voices don’t matter, the faculty members say.

    “It’s a complete slap in the face to the students, faculty, and staff who want to be heard,” one professor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisal, tells Metro Times. “It’s incredibly disheartening. The Board of Governors has a responsibility to the students, and instead of engaging with them, they are saying, ‘Your input means nothing to us.’”

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Fact check: Whitmer didn’t snub Hamtramck city officials at Negro League event

    Fact check: Whitmer didn’t snub Hamtramck city officials at Negro League event

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    When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials joined more than 100 Negro League baseball fans to celebrate Juneteenth at Historic Hamtramck Stadium on Wednesday, city officials were nowhere to be found.

    Residents, including former Mayor Karen Majewski, took to social media to question why their elected officials didn’t turn out to an event that honored Hamtramck’s unique place in Negro League baseball history.

    Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Muslim and self-described Democrat who has clashed with others in his party over his positions on LGBTQ+ issues, suggested he was disrespected by Whitmer and her staff.

    “No one informed me that the governor is coming, city manager had no clue, and it seems that there is a disconnect somewhere,” Ghalib responded on Majewski’s Facebook post. “We will find out who is responsible for the miscommunication and disrespect of the city leadership and fix that problem soon.”

    Turns out, there appears to be no “disrespect.” Whitmer decided to come at the last minute, making it nearly impossible to coordinate her visit with city officials so soon before the event. In fact, event organizers didn’t know Whitmer was coming until less than an hour before her arrival.

    And it wasn’t her event. It was organized by the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium and Hamtramck Parks Conservancy.

    And what Ghalib doesn’t mention is that organizers of the event invited him and the all-Muslim Hamtramck City Council to the event during a June 11 public meeting, but they didn’t show up.

    Ghalib, who says he was nearby at another Juneteenth event, insisted he knew nothing about the event, despite being invited on June 11. He claims on Facebook that “we never heard” of the event, and “I was never invited.”

    Curiously, Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri was at the event.

    State Rep. Abraham Aiyash, a Democrat from Hamtramck, attended the event and dismissed claims that something sinister was at play.

    “It was a very last minute decision,” Aiyash said of Whitmer’s arrival. “For what it’s worth, I was notified less than an hour before the event. Definitely wasn’t anything nefarious.”

    Whitmer arrived at the event shortly before noon and headed to Detroit afterwards for another Juneteenth celebration — the groundbreaking of the Doctor Violet T. Lewis Village, a 105-unit affordable housing development on the site of the former Lewis College of Business, Michigan’s only Historically Black College and University (HBCU).

    The apparent misunderstanding comes at a critical moment for Democrats, and the criticism by Ghalib underscores the growing disconnect between Democrats and many Muslims, who are angry with President Joe Biden for supporting Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, where tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed. During the presidential primary election in February, many local Muslims and other supporters of Palestinian rights voted “uncommitted” to send a message to Biden.

    The presidential election is expected to be a nail-biter in Michigan, and as a swing state, it could play a deciding role in who wins nationally.

    Whitmer, who is a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 campaign, previously said she opposed the uncommitted campaign because it would help put Donald Trump back in office.

    “It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” Whitmer said in February during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”

    As far as the war is concerned, Whitmer has been largely quiet lately but said in April that she hopes “we can have some peace very soon.”

    That same month, Whitmer condemned chants of “death to America” by some activists at a Dearborn rally. The group that held the rally said they opposed the chants.

    “This hateful rhetoric is unacceptable, and does not represent Michigan or Dearborn,” Whitmer’s office told Fox News Digital at the time. “The Dearborn community is full of hardworking, proud Americans. Our state is diverse, and we are proud of it.”

    At the Historic Hamtramck Stadium event, Whitmer signed a bill recognizing May 2 as Negro Leagues Day in Michigan — commemorating the first day a Negro League game was played.

    “This league was not only a crucial part of baseball history but also a testament to the strength, resilience and talents of Black athletes who overcame significant barriers to play the game that they loved,” Whitmer said. “By commemorating this day, we pay tribute to their legacy and ensure that their stories of perseverance continue to inspire future generations.”

    Also in attendance were Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrest II and state Rep. Helena Scott, D-Detroit.

    “As a Detroit native, but also as a Black man, I am particularly proud to see this day recognized in the state of Michigan,” Gilchrist said. “As one of the eight founding teams of the Negro Leagues, the Detroit Stars are a testament to the rich sports history of our city and state. This acknowledgement not only honors their legacy but also educates and inspires our communities about the resilience and achievements of these pioneering athletes.”

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Wayne State cops use force to remove peaceful pro-Palestinian activists from campus

    Wayne State cops use force to remove peaceful pro-Palestinian activists from campus

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    Police in riot gear resorted to violence to remove pro-Palestinian activists from Wayne State University campus early Thursday morning, tearing down a protest encampment and arresting about six peaceful demonstrators.

    Campus police swarmed the encampment shortly before 6 a.m. after giving three warnings for activists to disperse.

    Protesters, most of whom are tuition-paying students, complied with the demands and were forced to retreat to a public sidewalk just outside of campus along Warren Avenue. Police formed a line to prevent activists from returning to campus.

    “There’s no riot here! Why are you in riot gear?” activists chanted.

    Meanwhile, cops tore down Palestinian flags and knocked over tents, protest signs, tables, and boxes full of water bottles and food.

    @metrotimes #detroit #metrodetroit #wsu #waynestate #waynestateuniversity #gaza #palestine #israel #ceasefirenow ♬ original sound – Detroit Metro Times

    “Everyone was given ample warning,” university spokesman Matt Lockwood tells Metro Times. “Officers told everyone to clear out. We didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

    The raid came one week after activists set up the encampment and demanded that Wayne State divest from companies with links to Israel. On Memorial Day, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, joined protesters after WSU President Kimberly Espy set a deadline that evening for activists to abandon the encampment.

    As rumors of an imminent raid circulated, about 200 protesters gathered at the encampment. On Tuesday morning, Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat, told police that she and the activists were not leaving.

    At about the same time, the university canceled on-campus events and moved to remote classes, citing a “public safety issue.”

    Only a couple dozen protesters were at the encampment when the raid occurred.

    click to enlarge

    Steve Neavling

    Wayne State University police faced off with protesters, demanding they leave campus.

    At 6:30 a.m., activists marched on a public sidewalk to the southern edge of campus and were confronted by more police in riot gear. Cops demanded that the protesters leave campus. As the activists retreated as ordered, several cops wielding batons lunged at protesters, throwing them to the ground, pouncing on them, and threatening to use pepper spray. Several protesters were handcuffed and whisked away.

    The cops’ decision to escalate the confrontation only stoked more anger.

    “40,000 dead, and you’re arresting us instead!” protesters shouted at police, referencing the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis since the war began in October.

    “Fuck your handcuffs, we’re not going anywhere,” the activists chanted.

    click to enlarge A Muslim activist yells at Wayne State University police, “40,000 dead, and you’re arresting us instead!” - Steve Neavling

    Steve Neavling

    A Muslim activist yells at Wayne State University police, “40,000 dead, and you’re arresting us instead!”

    Mohammed Abuelenain was sleeping in a tent in his pajamas when police ordered activists to leave Thursday morning.

    “They came in the middle of the night when there was barely any of us,” Abuelenain tells Metro Times. “So it really shows they were being cowards for not showing up when we’re able to protect ourselves.”

    Abuelenain says the activists are demanding more transparency from Wayne State.

    “We’re protesting the genocide and Wayne State University’s investments in Israeli companies,” Abuelenain says. “And we are diverse. We want full disclosure, not simply what the endowments are and what possible percentages could be put into Israeli companies. We want full disclosure, and we want WSU PD to stop sending the chief of police to Israel to be trained by the [Israel Defense Forces].”

    click to enlarge Wayne State University police arrested several pro-Palestinian activists on Thursday morning. - Steve Neavling

    Steve Neavling

    Wayne State University police arrested several pro-Palestinian activists on Thursday morning.

    In a statement Thursday morning, Espy says the decision to raid the encampment came after consulting the WSU Board of Governors, university leadership, and other community leaders.

    “At Wayne State, we live by an unwavering set of values — including collaboration, integrity, diversity and inclusion — as well as a commitment to safety, security and equity for our entire campus community,” Espy said. “As president, I have a responsibility to uphold these values for all to live, learn and work.”

    Espy added, “Since the encampment was established on May 23, it presented legal, health and safety, and operational challenges for our community. University leadership repeatedly engaged with occupants of the encampment.”

    On April 26, pro-Palestinian activists turned out at a WSU Board of Governors meeting to demand divestment and began chanting, “We will not rest, until you divest.” Campus police, some in plain clothes, converged on protesters and pushed and yanked them out of the public meeting as they linked arms and continued to chant.

    More than 100 faculty and staff members condemned the use of force.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Muslim group demands Biden ‘intervene’ as newborns die at Gaza hospital

    Muslim group demands Biden ‘intervene’ as newborns die at Gaza hospital

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    As newborns perish at besieged Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, human rights organizations are urging U.S. President Joe Biden to “intervene” and demanding that Israel cease its attacks in the territory.

    Health officials in Gaza say Israel has laid siege to Shifa, making the hospital a deathtrap for the thousands of healthcare workers, patients and displaced people inside. While Israel has carried out airstrikes on the territory since the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas, Israeli officials have denied attacking the hospital, which has been left without electricity and vital supplies.

    The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, the Associated Press reports, citing the Hamas-run Health Ministry

    The Health Ministry said another 36 newborns are at risk of dying and that there are 1,500 patients at Shifa, 1,500 medical personnel, and more than 15,000 people seeking shelter at the hospital.

    Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Saturday that “medical devices stopped” and “patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die.”

    The hospital director also said that Israeli troops were “shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital.”

    Pictured is a newborn infant receiving care inside an incubator at a neonatal intensive care unit at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on September 29, 2022. Health officials in Gaza say Israel has laid siege to the hospital and blocked crucial supplies. As a result, officials said three premature babies had died after the hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on November 11, 2023, while another 36 babies were at risk of dying because there was no electricity.
    MOHAMMED ABED / AFP/Getty

    World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Al-Shifa “is not functioning as a hospital anymore.”

    A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Newsweek in a statement on Sunday that IDF placed 300 liters (79 gallons) of fuel near Shifa Hospital overnight for an emergency generator powering incubators for premature babies as well as “other urgent medical use.” However, the military blamed Hamas and said the militant group prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.

    Israeli officials have claimed that Hamas operates its command headquarters underneath the Shifa Hospital complex. The Israeli military released an illustrated map of the hospital with alleged locations of underground militant installations, without providing additional evidence to support the claims. Hamas and hospital staff have denied these claims, according to the Associated Press.

    IDF told Newsweek that forces are engaged in “intense battles” near the hospital, but said that, “Unlike Hamas, the IDF is taking all feasible measures under operational circumstances to mitigate harm to civilians.”

    IDF said a humanitarian corridor has been established to allow people to evacuate from the hospital south of Wadi Aza, through the streets of Al Wahada and Salah al-din.

    As the fighting near the complex wages on, advocacy groups say it inhibits civilians from being able to safely flee and puts those who can’t in mortal danger. Numerous people and organizations took to social media to demand a ceasefire.

    The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, demanded that the Biden administration “urgently intervene to stop the Israeli government’s ongoing siege of Al Shifa Hospital.”

    CAIR said in a statement on Saturday that if the White House allows the Israeli government to “murder” newborn babies there will be “no coming back.”

    “The Biden administration must intervene right now, right this minute, to stop the unfolding crime against humanity at the largest hospital in Gaza,” the statement reads. “Besieging a hospital, using snipers to murder fleeing families, and cutting off resources needed to keep newborn babies alive is beyond the pale, even for Netanyahu’s openly racist, genocidal Israeli government. If the White House allows the Israeli government to murder these newborns, other patients and their doctors, there will be no coming back for this administration’s standing within our nation and around the world.”

    Newsweek reached out via email on Sunday to representatives for CAIR and Biden.

    Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a UK-based nonprofit that works with Palestinian communities to help “uphold their rights to health and dignity,” joined the call for a ceasefire on Sunday, saying that is the only option to save the three-dozen premature and critically ill neonates at Al-Shifa.

    MAP’s Chief Executive Officer Melanie Ward said on Sunday in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, that babies in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit are dying from lack of oxygen as Al-Shifa has no electricity or fuel to run generators.

    Ward warned that more newborns at that facility will die soon unless power is restored.

    “The only safe option to save these babies would be for Israel to cease its assault and besiegement of Al Shifa, to allow fuel to reach the hospital, and to ensure that the surviving parents of these babies can be reunited with them,” Ward said.

    In a subsequent post, Ward expressed concerns over the Israeli government’s plan to move the babies to a “safer” hospital.

    “We are deeply concerned by uncritical media reporting regarding the Israeli military’s statement that it will help move premature babies trapped at the hospital to a ‘safer hospital,’” Ward said in a post, which contained a photo of rubble-filled roadways and heavily damaged buildings.

    She said with ambulances unable to reach Al-Shifa and no nearby hospitals able to accept an influx of patients, there is “no indication” of a way to safely transport the newborns.

    “It is imperative that the international community demands a #CeasefireNOW, allowing the hospital to operate safely,” Ward said in a follow-up post. “We say again international law must be upheld. The life of every patient, health worker and displaced person in Shifa is precious and must be protected.”

    Newsweek reached out via email on Sunday night to MAP for comment.

    Ghebreyesus also joined the calls on social media for an immediate ceasefire. In a post on X, he said that WHO officials have been in contact with Shifa Hospital staff, who described the situation as “dire and perilous.”

    “It’s been 3 days without electricity, without water and with very poor internet which has severely impacted our ability to provide essential care,” the director general said in the post. “The constant gunfire and bombings in the area have exacerbated the already critical circumstances. Tragically, the number of patient fatalities has increased significantly. Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore. The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair. Ceasefire. NOW.”

    In a televised address over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire without the release of the estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 attack that sparked the unrest.

    Israel has said its goal is to crush Hamas and will pursue militant fighters wherever they are. Experts and rights groups have accused Israel of committing war crimes, including genocide.

    Israel has come under mounting international pressure over the plight of civilians in Gaza, where roughly 2.3 million Palestinians are trapped, half of them children. The Israeli government also cut off the supply of food, medicine, water, and electricity in Gaza, igniting a wave of criticism.

    As of Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry says more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, while about 2,700 have been reported missing or thought to be trapped or dead under rubble, The Associated Press reported.

    On the Israeli side, at least 1,200 people have been killed, most of them in the Hamas attack last month, the AP reported, adding that 46 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the military’s ground offensive.