The Chaldean resident who said all Muslims are killers

It was a parade of bigotry. Resident after resident piled insults on Islam and Muslims to voice opposition to the building of a mosque in Sterling Heights. And the one speaker who reminded the crowd at the city council meeting last week of the First and 14th Amendments was booed by the fanatic audience. 

The complaints ranged from blunt irrational fear of Islam to zoning grievances about the mosque’s location and structure. But all in all, it was a thinly veiled fest of xenophobia and White supremacy. That is why it was shocking that some Chaldeans stood in front of city leaders to argue against approving the mosque. 

Chaldean Islamophobia 

Not all Chaldeans share the view of the bigots protesting the mosque. At the same time, Islamophobia is not a fringe sentiment in the Chaldean community. It needs to be addressed.

If some of our Chaldean brothers and sisters think they can rid themselves of being associated with Arabs and Muslims by joining the rank of Islamophobic White supremacists, they are mistaken.

At the same meeting where some Chaldean Americans argued against the mosque, other residents complained about businesses that have “non-English names.” Those businesses are mostly owned by Chaldeans, not Muslims.

The plight of Iraqi Christians is a tragedy. But the same terrorists who are murdering and driving people out of their homes in the name of Islam have killed more Muslims than Christians. In southern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, it was Muslims who cared for Iraqi refugees of all faiths.

Here in Metro Detroit, Muslims and Chaldeans have co-existed and cooperated for decades. The Arab (Christian and Muslim) and Chaldean communities share common goals. But some of our Chaldean brothers and sisters have opted to side with bigots who hate them and hate us because of blind rage and dubious claims of ethnic superiority to other Iraqis.

This prejudice by Chaldeans is shortsighted. Today, the bigots are coming out against building mosques; tomorrow they will oppose building Chaldean churches.

Nothing new

Prejudice runs deep in America. Even the local media dubbed the mosque “controversial.” In a story published in the Advisor and Source Newspapers, which cover the northern suburbs, the reporter focused on residents’ concerns about parking and traffic, without bothering to mention the obvious ulterior motives of anti-Muslim bigotry. 

Explicit negative comments against Islam were prevalent at the planning commission and city council meetings when the mosque was discussed.

At the Aug. 18 meeting, one resident describes Muslims as killers on food stamps, but that was not worth reporting by the newspaper.

Halting the construction of houses of worship under the premise of zoning issues is nothing new in the United States. 

“The right to build, buy or lease a place to assemble for worship is an indispensable part of religious freedom,” reads a 2015 report on religious freedoms by the U.S. Justice Department. “For many faith groups, the same is true of schools for religious instruction. Religious groups simply cannot exercise their faiths without facilities adequate for their needs.”

However, according to the report, houses of worships and religious schools often face discrimination from municipal zoning boards. 

Congress has found “massive evidence” of discrimination against building houses of worship for minority religions, the report says.

“For example, Congress found that while Jews make up only 2 percent of the U.S. population, 20 percent of recorded [disputed] cases involved synagogues,” the report continues. “Faith groups constituting 9 percent of the population made up 50 percent of reported court cases involving zoning disputes.”

Jewish Americans continue to face the same struggle as Muslims when trying to erect religious buildings. The report cites 10 cases where municipalities prevented building synagogues, Sikh temples and mosques.

The rise of Islamophobia cannot be isolated from the general xenophobia and sense of White-Christian supremacy that are overtaking this country. Albeit, Muslims are the easiest target of bigotry within the confines of political correctness. 

“My own city”

“I refuse to be chased out of my own city and my country,” one lady told the Sterling Heights city council last Tuesday, referring to the planned mosque.

This statement is a doorway into the mentality of demographically anxious Americans. 

The Sterling Heights resident does not mean that she owns that city, herself. What she is trying to say is that Sterling Heights belongs to people who look like her; the United States belongs to White folks. Hence, she called the city and the country her own, implying that people of different faiths and skin color are trying to chase her out.

“This is suspicious… They are building a mosque but they are only going to be in there on Fridays? Newsflash… Muslims pray six or seven times a day,” the woman added.

Newsflash… Muslims pray five times a day, and they do not have to go to a mosque. Newsflash… Sterling Heights and the United States, as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, belong to us, all of us. You do not have special claims over this country. 

Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhist, Hindus, Sun worshippers, atheists, people of all faiths and backgrounds are equal in the eyes of the law. The First Amendment of the Constitution grants all Americans freedom of religion and the 14th Amendment grants equal protection under the law to every single person in this land.

The problem of these xenophobes is not with Islam or Muslims; it is with the U.S. Constitution. If they don’t like it, they should not ask others to leave. They, themselves, should leave to a place where there is no law to maintain equality.