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How America's Muslims Have Handled 15 Years of Post-9/11 Islamophobia
If you want to find some of the best Middle Eastern food in America, you have to travel to a city nine miles outside of Detroit. In Dearborn, the hometown of Henry Ford, there's an American Dream story and a plate of Medjool dates behind almost every door. The immigrant community here started in the early 1900s, when the demand for auto workers attracted Arabs—primarily Maronite Lebanese Christians—to Dearborn. Soon enough, the city was the final destination for many new immigrants and refugees from the Middle East. Eventually, Dearborn became home to the largest proportion of Arab- and Lebanese-Americans in the United States. But in the years following 9/11, with anti-Muslim hysteria on the rise, Dearborn found itself the subject of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.
In the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11, Dearborn was the target of anti-Islamic protests and a focal point for anti-Muslim extremist beliefs. The city, known for its Arab hospitality and hookah spots, has been referred to as "Dearbornistan" by anti-Muslim polemicist Frank Gaffney, and failed Senate candidate Sharron Angle once claimed that the city was under Sharia law. It's hard to imagine that any of the people spreading these alarmist rumors about Dearborn have ever been there.
In the third episode of our new VICELAND show, BALLS DEEP, host Thomas Morton travels to Dearborn to spend time with a Muslim family—the Dabajehs—during Ramadan, the month of daily fasting that commemorates when the Qur'an was first revealed to Muhammad. He learns about Muslim beliefs and customs, and he is guided by Hussein Dabajeh, who shows Morton a taste of life in Dearborn and what it is like to grow up in a tightly-knit, supportive community.
The story of Dearborn hits close to my heart. I grew up not too far from the town of Bridgeview—an area with a large Arab population in the Chicagoland suburbs—that became a veritable war zone after 9/11, when I was eight. Shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center, hundreds of angry protesters marched on a local mosque; in the years that followed, many in the community had the misfortune of being victimized by hate crimes, and some were allegedly subjugated to FBI surveillance. Soon enough, we learned not to trust anyone. My last name was changed by my family without any discussion—for the sake of my own security—and I was forbidden from wearing a headscarf. I had to live as a "secret Muslim" for 12 years.
In the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11, Dearborn was the target of anti-Islamic protests and a focal point for anti-Muslim extremist beliefs. The city, known for its Arab hospitality and hookah spots, has been referred to as "Dearbornistan" by anti-Muslim polemicist Frank Gaffney, and failed Senate candidate Sharron Angle once claimed that the city was under Sharia law. It's hard to imagine that any of the people spreading these alarmist rumors about Dearborn have ever been there.
In the third episode of our new VICELAND show, BALLS DEEP, host Thomas Morton travels to Dearborn to spend time with a Muslim family—the Dabajehs—during Ramadan, the month of daily fasting that commemorates when the Qur'an was first revealed to Muhammad. He learns about Muslim beliefs and customs, and he is guided by Hussein Dabajeh, who shows Morton a taste of life in Dearborn and what it is like to grow up in a tightly-knit, supportive community.
The story of Dearborn hits close to my heart. I grew up not too far from the town of Bridgeview—an area with a large Arab population in the Chicagoland suburbs—that became a veritable war zone after 9/11, when I was eight. Shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center, hundreds of angry protesters marched on a local mosque; in the years that followed, many in the community had the misfortune of being victimized by hate crimes, and some were allegedly subjugated to FBI surveillance. Soon enough, we learned not to trust anyone. My last name was changed by my family without any discussion—for the sake of my own security—and I was forbidden from wearing a headscarf. I had to live as a "secret Muslim" for 12 years.
Snip
http://www.vice.com/read/americas-largest-muslim-community-dearborn-michigan-islamophobia?utm_source=homepage
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