Sterling Heights residents, gathered against the mosque, Sept. 10 – Archive

“The Muslim religion is not a religion; it’s a cult. It’s a political,” said Sterling Heights City Council candidate Moira Smith at an election forum last month. Her husband, Paul Smith, who was running for mayor, advocated for denying mosques on technicalities to avoid appearing discriminatory. Council candidate Jackie Ryan said immigrants must accept that the United States was founded by one God, “not Allah”, or stay in their own countries.

These xenophobes and their entire slate lost by a huge margin on Tuesday. The incumbent mayor and Council members were reelected.

However, it was the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-everything-that-is-not-White rationale that dominated social media and community gatherings over the past few months.

In September, the Sterling Heights Zoning Board unanimously rejected a proposed mosque on 15 Mile Road, following Islamophobic protests that went as far as booing and attacking Muslims and saying, “they’re all killers.”

The anti-Muslim mob bullied the city’s bureaucrats and politicians into rejecting the mosque and tainted Sterling Heights with the image of a hostile community.

But Tuesday’s vote proved the bigots are a minority in the city, albeit a vocal one.

“Frogs may bellow louder than bulls, but they cannot drag the plough in the field nor turn the wheel of the winepress; and of their skins you cannot make shoes,” said Lebanese American philosopher Kahlil Gibran.

While Sterling Heights’ loud frogs did not achieve anything productive, they did stop the mosque; they demonized Muslims and drove a wedge between the Arab and Chaldean communities.

They were able to wreak havoc because as they screamed, the majority remained silent.

The Smiths and their friends attacked Muslims and ran a campaign based on hatred; and Council members did not retort.

During City Council meetings this past summer, when ignorantly fearful residents came up to bash Islam, city leaders did not defend their Muslim constituents.

Mayor Michael Taylor not only remained silent; he flirted with Islamophobia when he declared his opposition to the mosque before later changing his position.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said.

Our “friends”, who proclaimed Sterling Heights a welcoming city, were reelected. But we cannot rely on them.

We renew our call to the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate the zoning board’s decision to reject the mosque.

The Justice Department is suing Pittsfield Township for denying an Islamic academy. Sterling Heights should be next.

Hamtramck braces for sharia

For lack of better terms, the media is “freaking out” because Hamtramck elected a Muslim-majority City Council.

At the turn of the year, four out of the city’s six-member Council will be of Muslim faith. But this is not shocking because the majority of the city’s residents are Muslim.

Surprisingly enough, Muslim citizens can vote and run for office. Their faith does not require them to impose sharia law on anybody. 

As explained in previous editorials, sharia becomes a personal lifestyle in secular democracies such as ours.

Although Hamtramck now has a Muslim-majority Council, it will still be governed by its city charter, the Michigan Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.

Muslim elected officials have repeatedly asserted that their allegiance is to the Law of the Land and the people they serve, not anything or anybody else. 

Arab victories

Arab American candidates Dave Abdallah and Saad Almasmari won seats on the Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck City Councils, respectively. We wish them the best of luck in serving their municipalities.

The growing Arab presence in the civic sphere can empower the community and help the entire region because diversity leads to better solutions.

We urge our community members to continue to vote for qualified candidates and form partnerships with other groups. Serving our cities, state and country is the best response to racism.