Trump with supporters in Novi.

NOVI — Donald Trump met with Christian activists who included Lebanese and Chaldean residents, during his visit in Metro Detroit last week. 

The group of 15 community  members also included a then little-known Shi’a Muslim man named Sheikh Mohamad Al Haj Hassan.  His  meet and greet with Trump caused national  headlines.

The Iraqi American Christians said they spoke about the struggle of Christian minorities in Iraq because of ISIS and other terrorist groups. 

“I talked to him about the plight of the Christians and how they’ve been tortured and persecuted and displaced in Iraq,” Joseph Kassab, head of the Iraqi Christians Advocacy and Empowerment Institute in West Bloomfield, said. “I said to him, ‘Please save them from extinction’ and he looked at me and nodded his head. He thought it was horrible what’s happening to them, the Iraqi Christians.”

He also said he gave Trump’s consultants a paper that requests help for Iraq’s Christians by providing international safety and developing a province in the Nineveh Plains for them. He admired Trump for discussing the
persecution of Christians.

However, he said he is also willing to speak with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton because all he wants is to help his people and choose the one who will do the same.

The rest of the Arab leaders included businessman Sam Yono; Sheikh Mohamad Al Hajj Hassan, leader of the Free Shia movement in Lebanon; John Akouri, president and CEO of the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce; Saad Abbo chairman of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce; Milad Zohrob, Chaldean-American leader Zina Asmar-Salem; Armenian American attorney Ed Haroutunian of Bingham Farms, Christian Lebanese businessman Milad Zoureb and Rev. Anthony Kathawa of St. Thomas Chaldean Church in West Bloomfield. 

Kassab said Paul ElHindi— a local leader working for the American-MidEast Coalition for Donald Trump, a union trying to escalate support for Trump in Middle Eastern communities— planned the meetings.

John Akouri spoke before Trump at the rally and criticized Hillary Clinton.

“The places where our families are from are being destroyed and ripped apart as a direct result of your weak, politically-correct foreign policy,” he said.

Rev. Kathawa and Sheikh Hassan sat right behind Trump as he spoke. Hassan even waved and smiled at Trump during the broadcast.

Hassan is a controversial Lebanese Shi’a scholar among Shi’a Muslims. He is part of the Free Shia Movement, a group that criticizes Hezbollah, Amal and the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.