The mayor of Dearborn called me an ‘Islamophobe’

I didn’t remotely expect to go viral when I walked into the city council meeting here in Dearborn, Michigan, last week. But I’m glad I did. I say that not out of ill will towards the honorable mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, who called me an “islamophobe” for objecting to the name chosen for two intersections. I say it because the incident makes me think of much more serious experiences of prejudice against fellow Christians in so many Islamic countries around the world – and now also in western countries. This problem urgently needs to be counteracted with the type of peace (please, not hostility) and freedom that we have often enjoyed in Christian-influenced countries.

I objected to how two intersections in Dearborn have been named after the prominent Arab American journalist Mr Osama Siblani. I acknowledged that Mr Siblani has made many important contributions to the community, including bringing attention to the suffering of people in Palestine and Lebanon in the past two years. I mentioned that I have lived in Lebanon in the past, and also briefly in Israel, including an area considered Palestine by many.

However, Mr Siblani openly and constantly promotes Hezbollah and Hamas, even though, as I mentioned, Hezbollah was behind the past bombings of many Americans in Beirut. I read two quotes from Mr Siblani in 2022, one of which glorifies violence and the blood “that irrigates the land of Palestine”.

The other quote could even be interpreted as inciting violence in Michigan:

“We are the Arabs who are going to lift Palestinians all the way to victory, whether we are in Michigan and whether we are in Jenin. Believe me, everyone should fight within his means. They will fight with stones, others will fight with guns, others will fight with planes, drones, and rockets, others will fight with their voices, and others will fight with their hands and say: ‘Free, free Palestine!’”

I clarified that I was not promoting a strongly pro-Israel militaristic stance, but instead that as a Christian I would like to encourage peace and not violence. I referred to Christ’s warning that the person who wields the sword dies by the sword. I described Christ as the Prince of Peace who said “The peacemakers are blessed,” and whose death opened the door to peace between Jewish and non-Jewish people.

My comments were met with significant pushback, but it was the mayor’s response especially which went viral, including the words:

“ … you are a bigot and you are a racist and 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. …”

I responded by saying, “God bless you Mayor, God bless you sir.”

Three years before in 2022, I had experienced a similar interaction with the mayor. Dearborn is a city in which enormous Islamic events occur on public premises – 40,000 people in one day, or 55,000 people over one weekend. Of course I don’t object to these. It’s a free country, and people should have a right to do that. What I do object to is double standards: a friend was getting serious resistance while applying to have movie nights showing the life of Christ in a small park shelter. Our team were being slandered as “preying on children” simply because we were offering popcorn and hotdogs for the movie.

I thought it was wrong that he had to defend himself against these accusations at multiple city council meetings while seeking permission for his events, when enormous Islamic events are approved at the click of a finger. I went to the city council and said that I feel as though I live in a Muslim country. I mentioned that I have lived in two Muslim countries: Pakistan for four years, and Lebanon for a year, and that Christians are not allowed freedom of speech and freedom of faith in Muslim countries.

On that occasion too the mayor dramatically shut me down with accusations of “bigotry” and “Islamophobia”. He publicized the encounter to thousands of constituents, many of whom applauded him. But I was also pleased to see that a sizable minority of Muslim Arab neighbours defended my stance publicly on social media.

The mayor’s words on these two occasions are for me personally water off a duck’s back – because I live in America, where my rights are ensured. I hope to become an American citizen this year, in addition to my Canadian and British citizenships.

I choose no longer to live in Canada, or Britain, because my freedoms of speech and of faith as a Christian are no longer fully protected even in those western countries. If we lose these freedoms here in America, then we will have lost them everywhere.

The original Islamic country, Saudi Arabia, where the mayor went on the hajj to Mecca a few months ago, still does not allow even one church in the entire nation. A friend who has been cheering me on by email in the past week has shrapnel in his body from a church suicide bombing in Pakistan. Another friend’s brother was killed after becoming a Christian in Pakistan. Both fled here to America. I have met about five different missionary men who were captives of the Taliban – one of them was murdered. Even the comparatively lenient Lebanon rarely allows the privilege of citizenship to foreign residents. I know a gentle missionary who was expelled from Lebanon after 35 years. Immigration, citizenship and societal influence are a one-way street. It needs to become a two-way street.

Mayor Abdullah Hammoud has been a highly capable, inspiring and accomplished mayor in many ways. These include some very impressive parks and playgrounds. (In one of these, the mayor pushed my happy young son on a roundabout, whom the mayor had met the week before when visiting the Christian pre-school.)

My sincere hope is that Mr Hammoud, and Mr Siblani, will add to their accomplishments by achieving global reputations for promoting, not oppression and hostility, but freedom of faith and peace.

I urgently hope that Dearborn’s example will reverse the trend of closing doors – that the doors of peace and freedom will be opened starting here, continuing back into other western nations, and then out towards oppressed Christian minorities in Islamic countries around the world.