Dearborn, Michigan, may be the closest thing America has to a Mollenbeek, the seething, Islamicized neighborhood of Brussels believed to have harbored the terrorists involved in both the metro and airport attacks this week and last fall’s slaughter in Paris. An ordinary Detroit suburb sometimes called the “Arab Capital of North America,” Dearborn has the nation’s largest mosque; it’s home to the Arab Museum, Middle Eastern cafes, and halal beef burgers at McDonald’s. It’s also the target of right-wing fearmongering and snarky Islamophobic commentaries, such as when the satirical Fox News “correspondent” Jesse Watters, on Bill O’Reilly’s show, went to Dearborn last fall to ask residents, “Do you miss the desert?
Ron Haddad is Dearborn’s chief of police, and he says he gets one question a lot when he travels around the country. “Someone will come up to me and put their finger in my face, and they’re already angry,” he says. “They say, ‘Will the people in your community report acts of terror to you?’“
Read more-Politico Magazine
You've reached your daily free article limit.
Subscribe and support our veteran writing staff to continue reading.
Dearborn, Michigan, may be the closest thing America has to a Mollenbeek, the seething, Islamicized neighborhood of Brussels believed to have harbored the terrorists involved in both the metro and airport attacks this week and last fall’s slaughter in Paris. An ordinary Detroit suburb sometimes called the “Arab Capital of North America,” Dearborn has the nation’s largest mosque; it’s home to the Arab Museum, Middle Eastern cafes, and halal beef burgers at McDonald’s. It’s also the target of right-wing fearmongering and snarky Islamophobic commentaries, such as when the satirical Fox News “correspondent” Jesse Watters, on Bill O’Reilly’s show, went to Dearborn last fall to ask residents, “Do you miss the desert?
Ron Haddad is Dearborn’s chief of police, and he says he gets one question a lot when he travels around the country. “Someone will come up to me and put their finger in my face, and they’re already angry,” he says. “They say, ‘Will the people in your community report acts of terror to you?’“
Read more-Politico Magazine
Image courtesy of Getty
Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis.
TRY 14 DAYS FREEAlready a subscriber? Log In
COMMENTS
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.