Protests decry anti-Islam film

Fifteen hundred people packed the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, Mich., for a rally on Sept. 28 against Islamophobia. The largely Arab-American crowd was joined by representatives of community organizations, other religious groups and elected officials.

Delegations from five churches across Michigan traveled to stand in solidarity with this mass community outpouring against the recent anti-Islam film that has evoked mass demonstrations and uprisings around the world.

The opening guest speaker was David Sole from the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice. He told the crowd that “as a Jewish American who had family members exterminated in concentration camps by Hitler’s regime, I know personally the violent horrors that can grow out of religious and racial hatred.”

Sole got a round of applause when he exposed the forces behind anti-Islam bigotry and hate. “Who benefits from this? It is designed to create a public opinion that will allow the U.S. government, the Pentagon, the CIA, the giant oil companies and the Wall Street banks to control the Middle East and steal the huge oil wealth of that region.”

The next day, at the call of Muslims of South Asian descent, hundreds of area Muslims rallied and marched in the Detroit suburb of Canton, Mich. Two other protests were held Sept. 21 outside mosques and other sites in Dearborn against “The Innocence of Muslims” film and growing anti-Islam hate mongering.

Metro Detroit has the largest Arab-American population in the United States and the second largest Arab population outside of the Middle East.