Dearborn, Mich., will increase police presence after op-ed calls it ‘America’s jihad capital’

Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn, Mich., on Saturday ordered an increase in security across his city after an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal called the city “America’s jihad capital.”

“Effective immediately — Dearborn police will ramp up its presence across all places of worship and major infrastructure points,” Hammoud wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“This is a direct result of the inflammatory @WSJ opinion piece that has led to an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online targeting the city of Dearborn,” he added. “Stay vigilant.”

Hammoud earlier had criticized the opinion piece as “Reckless. Bigoted. Islamophobic.”

“It’s 2024 and the @WSJ still pushes out this type of garbage,” he wrote, adding, “Dearborn is one of the greatest American cities in our nation.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the op-ed’s writer, Steven Stalinsky, defended his piece and said he did not intend for it to stir up anti-Muslim hate.

“Nothing in my article was written to instigate any sort of hate,” Stalinsky said to the AP. “This is a moment for counterterrorism officials to be concerned.”

In the months since the war between Israel and Hamas began, incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitism have skyrocketed.

Last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of 2023, a 178 percent increase from the same period the previous year.

President Biden touched on the WSJ article, writing in a post Sunday, “Americans know that blaming a group of people based on the words of a small few is wrong. That’s exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate, and it shouldn’t happen to the residents of Dearborn — or any American town. We must continue to condemn hate in all forms.”

Hammoud praised Biden’s response to the WSJ article but criticized the administration’s support for Israel.

“I’m glad President Biden @POTUS recognizes the severity and danger of the @WSJ article. It’s equally important that his administration recognize the rhetoric and decisionmaking that created the climate for it to be written in the first place,” Hammoud wrote.