In Arab Enclave Near Detroit, ‘Everybody’s Guard Is Up’ Over Israel-Hamas War
Man was charged with making a threat against Palestinian-Americans in Dearborn, Mich.; ‘we’re pretty tight here,’ residents say
DEARBORN, Mich.—This Arab American enclave outside Detroit is attracting online vitriol in the wake of the Hamas-Israel conflict, putting people on edge, but many residents say they trust the strength of their community.
“It’s not causing problems here. Everybody is doing their jobs and even at protests, they’re mad, but they say what they’re going to say and go home,” said Sadiq Musleh, a 47-year-old auto worker of Yemeni descent, as he got a haircut on a rainy Saturday morning at a barbershop tucked between an Arab meat market and a halal pizza shop.
He said the post-9/11-era was a scary one for many Arab Americans as they faced discrimination and threats, but that the atmosphere isn’t nearly as hostile now. “After 9/11, it was really tough, but after that, no,” he said.
Last Thursday, Dearborn police said they arrested a man in the nearby suburb of Farmington Hills, after he made what they called a credible threat on social media against Palestinian-Americans in Dearborn. The man, identified as Carl Mintz, has been charged with threatening terrorism, a felony, and misdemeanor malicious use of a telecommunications device. He was arraigned on Saturday and bail was set at $500,000 in cash. As of Sunday, he was still being held, a police spokesman said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
“The police are awesome here in Dearborn, they protect people. They actually hunted him down and caught him,” said Shorouq Hayek, 36, a Palestinian-American schoolteacher, attending an “All Out for Palestine” rally Saturday afternoon in a city park with her three children. Hundreds attended the rally, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Resistance is justified, when people are occupied.”
“We’re pretty tight here in Dearborn, we’re a very diverse city and people usually stand with each other,” Hayek said.
Police said they have beefed up patrols at schools and houses of worship in the city and are continuing to monitor and investigate social media threats. On Sunday, the FBI said it has seen a rise in threats against Jews and Muslims in the U.S. since the war began and that it was concerned about the possibility of attacks as the war intensifies. On Sunday a 6-year-old was killed and his mother injured in a stabbing attack near Chicago that authorities said was a hate crime.
“For over a century, Metro Detroit has been home to a strong interfaith tapestry formed by decades of fellowship among neighbors of Jewish, Islamic, Christian, and other faiths,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud in a statement. He recently went on paternity leave and wasn’t available for an interview. “We will not allow the disheartening actions of one individual to break the bonds of our longstanding relationships with one another,” he said in the statement.
Dearborn has long been a magnet for Arab Americans, starting in the 1920s when they came to the city to work at the massive Ford River Rouge complex. Today, the majority of the city is Arab American, including many people of Lebanese, Yemeni and Iraqi descent, and Hammoud is the city’s first Arab American mayor. It is represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, the only Palestinian-American in Congress and a liberal firebrand who often clashes with her own party’s pro-Israel policies.
On Friday, she issued a statement calling on President Biden to do more to save Palestinian lives as they face what she called an impossible evacuation order and threat of a ground war.