Residents of Dearborn, Michigan have begun pushing back against the city-endorsed calls to prayer for the majority-Muslim population, recording videos that capture the astounding volume and length of the broadcasts that take place five times every day.
For context, Dearborn was the hometown of American auto manufacturer Ford Motor Company and its eponymous founder, Henry Ford. It became a hub for blue-collar work and symbolized the growing American middle class in post-World War 2 America. Even to this day, the Ford Motor Company is by far the largest employer in the city, with over 43,000 local jobs reported. The next single-largest employer has just over 7,000.
However, an influx of immigration from the Middle East resulted in the 2020 census counting over half of the population as reporting Middle Eastern or North African heritage, most of whom also identified as Muslim. The city’s mayoral office is now held by Abdullah Hammoud and the city council likewise has a growing number of Muslim office holders. Insofar as this growing political power has resulted in renamed streets honoring controversial figures and the calls to prayer, long-time residents of the city are starting to vocally push back.
One post to X shared a video of a woman recording a call to prayer during the daytime. “Woman records the Muslim call to prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers in Dearborn, Michigan,” the post stated. “Every resident is subjected to hearing it five times a day, from sunrise to sunset. How is this even allowed in America?”
Watch that short video below:
https://x.com/ImMeme0/status/1976034483020452242
Another post shared a different video of the same daily occurrence, this time in the evening. The same blaring sound spreads throughout the entire city. “In Dearborn, Michigan, residents are subjected to the Muslim call to prayer blasted across the city 5 times a day. This doesn’t feel like the America I once knew,” the post said.
Watch that clip below:
https://x.com/ImMeme0/status/1970274623540601153
As mentioned previously, Dearborn’s mayor, as a result of his religious affiliation, has helped facilitate a growing rift between the populous and politically powerful Muslim community and the heritage community of the storied city. The Christian Tribune covered one such instance, when the city was voting to rename a street in honor of a man tied to 1983’s embassy bombing in Beirut. “Muslim mayor berates white Christian constituent over concerns of renamed street for alleged terrorist sympathizer,” the Tribune headlined.
The Tribune wrote: “Mayor Abdullah Hammoud ordered a street renamed for Lebanese immigrant Osama Siblani, who has been living in the United States since the 1980s and founded The Arab American News in the same decade. Past objections to U.S. foreign policy and apparent support for groups like Hezbollah motivated concerned residents to speak out at a local meeting, only to be rebuffed by their arrogant Muslim mayor.”
The concerned constituent raised objections about the alleged ties between the street’s namesake and connection to the deadly attack in Lebanon. “I mean, Hezbollah, you know, bombed the Embassy in Beirut, and including many Americans. So I just feel it’s quite inappropriate,” the man stated.
In response, the Muslim mayor Hammoud simply said the man was “not welcome” in the city any longer on the grounds he was an “Islamophobe.” “You are an Islamophobe, and although you live here, I want you to know, as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence,” Hammoud declared.