Dearborn has become the model city of America’s double standard: where a non-Muslim can be jailed for a reckless Facebook post, but Muslims can openly chant ‘Death to America’ and glorify terrorists without consequence.
Dearborn, Michigan, has become the model city for America’s double standard: a place where the mayor and police chief, both drawn from a radical-aligned Islamic community, wield power not to protect free speech, but to punish dissent.
In November 2021, Abdullah Hammoud made history as the first Arab-American and Muslim elected as mayor of Dearborn. Just a year later, in 2022, he elevated Issa Shahin to become the city’s first Muslim police chief. Shahin is the 47-year-old son of an Egyptian father and Albanian mother, married to a Jordanian-American woman. He now controls Dearborn’s law enforcement arm.
Together, Hammoud and Shahin represent a historic shift: both of Dearborn’s most powerful offices, political and police, are held by Muslim men deeply tied to a very controversial Islamic community. And that fact matters, because under their leadership, a troubling pattern has emerged. Non-Muslims are punished for reckless words, while Muslims are shielded when they chant open incitement.
Dearborn’s new reality came into focus this month. Anthony Young, 27, allegedly made a foolish comment about the annual Arba’een march in Dearborn during a Facebook argument. This comment has led to shocking repercussions.
The Arba’een Procession commemorates the martyrdom of Mohammed’s grandson Imam Hussein, killed in 680 AD during the battle of Karbalaa. Imam Husham Al-Husainy leads the Arba’een procession, where thousands of Shia Muslims take to the streets. His mosque, the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center, is named after the town where Imam Hussein was martyred.
“Today, the whole world needs the meaning of the movement of Imam Hussein,” Al-Husainy said.