DEARBORN, Mich. – Arab American leaders are calling on The Wall Street Journal to retract the controversial opinion piece about Dearborn.
The Arab American Civil Rights League members pushed back against the article by Steven Stalinsky that labels Dearborn as “America’s Jihad Capital.”
“How dare the chicken hawks, like Steven Stalinksy, call us jihadists because we have raised our voices of dissent against war,” ACRL chairman Jim Allen said Monday afternoon during a press conference.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and President Joe Biden have criticized the opinion piece.
“We are asking that The Wall Street Journal take an immediate retraction, apologize to not only this community but to all its readers,” ACRL founder Nabih Ayad said.
The ACRL gathered near the Dearborn Police Department.
The city has increased patrols following the article, particularly around places of worship.
“Inflammatory rhetoric like this is a direct contributor to the wave of Islamophobic violence our community has had to endure,” ACRL executive director Mariam Charara said.
Stalinsky, who is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, doubled down on the themes in his article.
“The main point of my article is that it is a fact that there is support inside Dearborn out in the open, in marches, in front of the community center, and in major mosques of the October 7th attack of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other prominent jihadis,” said Stalinsky in a statement.