Dearborn is a city in the American state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, which is the home town of Henry Ford and the headquarters of Ford Motor Company. A few years ago, Muslims from some parts of the world immigrated to the U.S. for better economic opportunities. Ford Motor Company was the best and an excellent source of job opportunities for these individuals. So most people settled in the Dearborn area for better earning opportunities.

Now, there is a great ratio of Arab Muslims recently living in Dearborn, Michigan According to a recent estimate, more than 33,000 Arab-Muslims from Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen are living in this state of America.

There are some key Islamic organizations and centers that are working for the welfare of Muslims in the U.S.. There are also various mosques for the facility of the Muslims to offer prayers. Dearborn is among the few places in the U.S. where they announce the call to prayer over a loudspeaker. There are also various educational, social and cultural centers for the help of the Muslim individuals in this city. These Islamic centers provide cultural training, religious teachings and education. The main objective of these Dearborn Islamic Centers is to create brotherhood among the Muslims living in America.

Various mosques and Islamic centers established in Dearborn play a vital role in the lives of the Muslim Americans. There are various, well established, places for refuges where any Muslim can acquire knowledge regarding the basic teachings of Islam. Many Muslims feel better, more safe and relaxed within these centers because they are totally isolated from the outsider and external influences. There is also a great ratio of Christians living in Dearborn and many efforts have been made to make Christ better known to Muslims. Muslims do not believe the same concept as Christians that Jesus is the son of God. Various Muslim religious organizations are working hard to bring Muslims together in Dearborn and throughout the country.

Muslims of Dearborn were also seen protesting against the movie, ‘’ Innocence of Muslims,’’ as well as against the movie, Blasphemous’’. Islamic leaders in Dearborn held a rally to convey their message to the government of the United Sates of America. The main objective of the rally was to prohibit the laws, speech and freedom of expression that really hurt the religious feelings of the Muslims.

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More than 1,000 rallied Friday night in Dearborn against the anti-Islam movie that has sparked protests around the world. Organized by Arab-American leaders, the rally was the third protest in metro Detroit over the movie, the biggest one yet.

"Say No to Hate-Mongering, Say No to Islamophobia," read a large banner at the rally in Dearborn's civic center, the Ford Performing Arts & Community Center. On the podium was a sign that read: "We (heart symbol) Prophet Muhammad."

Many came with their families to the rally, dressed in Islamic headscarves and robes. Speakers included Muslim leaders, Arab-American activists, a Unitarian minister, U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit), Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Halloran, and civil rights leaders.

"United we stand, divided we fall," Donnell White, executive director of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, told the crowd. "We stand with you as our brothers and sisters."

Judge Halloran spoke about his Irish Catholic roots, noting that his ethnic group often suffered discrimination decades ago after they arrived in the U.S. They "were not looked at positively," he said. And now, Muslims are facing bias that needs to be challenged, Halloran said. "We need to speak out against discrimination against Islam," he said.

Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab-American News, told the crowd that the people who made the anti-Islam film "are not (true) Americans. They are against what America stands for."

Tarek Baydoun, an attorney from Dearborn, said "the growing tide of Islamophobia" is what prompted the rally. "It's relentless," Baydoun said of anti-Islam sentiment in the U.S.

Detroit Free Press, 29 September 2012

For an example of the refusal among some Americans to address the issues intelligently and with some basic honesty, see Henry Payne, "Dearborn Muslims rally against the First Amendment", Detroit News blog, 28 September 2012

According to Payne, Osama Siblani's call for "deterrent legal measures against those individuals or groups that want to damage relations between people, spread hate and incite violence" amounts to a blasphemy law.

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Over the weekend, Jerry Boykin was interviewed on a radio program out of Bakersfield, California ahead of a scheduled appearance at a local church early next week where he will undoubtedly promote his anti-Islam conspiracy theories.

During the interview, Boykin warned that every serious Muslim was determined to enshrine Sharia wherever they lived and that they were making great progress in establishing it in America. This prompted one of the co-hosts to ask Boykin about Dearborn, Michigan which he claimed was "almost one hundred percent Muslim and operating under Sharia law now," a statement with which Boykin agreed, adding that "if you walk down the streets, you would think you were in Beirut or Damascus".

Right Wing Watch, 26 June 2012

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The Council for American-Islamic Relations is calling on the FBI to investigate a fire that destroyed a mosque-owned structure Tuesday in Dearborn as a bias-motivated crime.

The storage space, about the size of a garage, is located off of Pelham Street next to Edsel Ford High School. It sits next to what used to be the Dearborn Woods Presbyterian Church, but is now known as the Dearborn Woods Community Center.

According to CAIR-MI Director Dawud Walid, the American Muslim Center on Outer Drive purchased the church and storage structure several years ago, and has since used the main building for funerals, weddings and other events.

On Tuesday just after 11 a.m., a fire broke out at the storage area. It was extinguished by the Dearborn Fire Department and did not spread to the main building.

However, CAIR-MI believes the fire was set intentionally, and that the arson was based on anti-Muslim bias. According to the statewide Muslim advocacy nonprofit, obscene graffiti and the word "Arabs" was discovered on the structure. Walid called on the FBI to investigate.

"If a bias motive is revealed in this case, the FBI should add its resources to those of local law enforcement authorities to help bring the perpetrators to justice," said Walid, who informed local FBI officials of the incident.

Dearborn Patch, 12 June 2012

See also "CAIR asks FBI to probe fire at building associated with Mich. mosque", CAIR press release, 12 June 2012

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Anti-Islam advocates from across the U.S. gathered Sunday in Dearborn for a conference to bring attention to what they say is a problem of Muslim honor killings.

About 150 gathered at the Hyatt in Dearborn for the Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference, named after a 20-year-old Arab-American Muslim woman who was killed by her stepfather last year in Warren.

But at another conference in Detroit, about 100 people gathered earlier in the day to oppose the anti-Islam conference, saying it was the latest attack on metro Detroit's Arab-American and Muslim communities. Dearborn has the highest concentration of Arab-Americans in the U.S., many of them Muslim.

"We stand for America," said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab-American News, at a panel at the DoubleTree hotel in Detroit. "And they (anti-Muslim activists) stand against America and against the American way of life."

Later, at the Hyatt, the message was the opposite. People gathered there said they are the ones who are standing up for the U.S. Constitution, freedom and justice. Islamic law "asserts authority over non-Muslims," said Pamela Geller, a blogger from New York City who often writes about Islamic extremism.

Robert Spencer, an author who also speaks out against Islamic extremism, said he and others have been unfairly labeled as bigots. "There is nothing hateful about saying we want everybody to be subjected to the same law," he said. Spencer said that Islam teaches Muslims to rule over non-Muslims and subject them to second-class status.

Geller said Mokdad's death was a honor killing based on Islam, but Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo told the Free Press on Friday it was not. The family of Mokdad is opposed to the anti-Islam conference and didn't want Mokdad's name on it, Cataldo said.

Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn said at the Arab-American conference in Detroit: "Honor killing has no religious roots in Islam."

Speakers also included U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Hansen Clarke, both Detroit Democrats, as well as Daniel Kirchbaum, executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. It was organized by the Arab American Institute, based in Washington, D.C.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the anti-Muslim activists are "against our true American values."

Detroit Free Press, 30 April 2012

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Dearborn, home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of Arab Americans, once again will become a focal point for debate over the practice and persecution of Islam in the west.

Pamela Geller, conservative activist and co-founder of Stop Islamization of America, is scheduled to host the "Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference" from the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn on Sunday at 5 p.m.

The event is named after a 20-year-old woman fatally shot by her stepfather last year in Warren. Initial reports suggested Rahim Alfetlawi shot Mokdad because he believed she had strayed from Islam, but prosecutors have since said that religion did not play a role.

Despite opposition from family members who say Mokdad's murder has nothing to do with Islam, Geller has refused to rename the conference, suggesting an attempt to cover up what she continues to call an "honor killing."

"Unlike those closest to her, we are going to honor Jessica's memory and stand up against the brutal practice that took her life," Geller said in a statement announcing the conference.

Local leaders say the conference is misleading and argue that Dearborn has become a convenient target for anti-Muslim groups, pointing to recent protests led by activist Pastor Terry Jones.

To counter Geller's conference, The Arab American Institute and partners have scheduled a competing town hall on Sunday titled "Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate." It is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in Dearborn.

"This is clearly not the first time our community in Michigan has had to deal with a hate group," AAI President Jim Zogby said in a statement. "Despite repeated efforts to target Arab Americans and American Muslims, the community has remained resilient and poised, sometimes choosing to ignore the fervor.

"This group we cannot ignore and this is the time to stand up and make our voices loud and clear in opposition to the politics of division and bigotry."

MLive.com, 27 April 2012

See also "Rejecting Islamophobia: A community stand against hate", Arab American Institute press release, 25 April 2012

And Sheila Musaji, "Geller & Spencer's human rights conference another anti-Muslim hate fest", The American Muslim, 26 April 2012

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