DEARBORN, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Since at least 1979, the Muslim call to prayer has been broadcast over loud speakers in Dearborn with little notice.
All eyes on Dearborn.
But things drastically have changed in this city where the majority of residents are Middle Eastern or North African descent. A national spotlight was cast upon Dearborn after Muslim Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told a Christian resident during a city council meeting that he was not welcome in the city.
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Noah Mullins, the Turning Point USA chapter president at Grand Valley State University, was one Dearborn native who took notice. Mullins drove all the way from the Grand Rapids area to show his displeasure at a Dearborn City Council meeting this month. Mullins said the recent renaming of a Dearborn street after Osama Siblani, a man who had praised leaders of groups designated as terrorists by the U.S., and Hammoud’s rebuke of a Christian resident have stirred an awakening.
“Men and women across America are waking up to the state of our city and all eyes are on Dearborn,” Mullins told the city council.
A meeting is on the calendar.
An unidentified group has set a fellowship meeting for Christians on Oct. 26 in Dearborn at Ford Field Park. The meeting has been publicized on social media accounts.
A man who goes by the TikTok handle ThatOneArab has been posting popular videos attacking those people criticizing the call to prayer. That call to prayer happens five times a day and begins as early as 5:30 a.m.
ThatOneArab posted a TikTok video on Oct. 13 that showed him knocking on doors of Dearborn residents to warn them not to attend the Oct. 26 gathering of Christians.
“I’m letting neighbors know to stay safe and stay home that day,” said ThatOneArab in a video that has more than 200k likes. That video is no longer available on TikTok.
Muslim call and church bells.
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The X account End Wokeness posted a video Wednesday and has 818k views of Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin’s response to the noise complaints from the call to prayer broadcast.
“The truck will go by and hit a pothole and it’s much louder than the call to prayer,” Shahin said in the video. “It’s no different than church bells that you might hear on Sunday.”
Shahin brought attention to Dearborn when he said in an undated video that he has increased the percentage of his police force that is Arab from 3% to 45% and then recited a Muslim prayer.