(Wall Street Journal) Steven Stalinsky - Thousands march in support of Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran. Protesters, many with kaffiyehs covering their faces, shout "Intifada, intifada," "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," and "America is a terrorist state." Local imams give fiery antisemitic sermons. This is the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Mich. Immediately after Oct. 7, and long before Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, people were celebrating the horrific events of that day in pro-Hamas rallies and marches throughout Dearborn. A local headline describing an Oct. 10 event at the Ford Performing Arts Center read, "Michigan rally cheers Hamas attack." The Hadi Institute held a "Commemoration of the Martyrs" on Jan. 5 to honor Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, leader of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. Both were killed in a U.S. airstrike on Jan. 3, 2020. At the event, Imam Abdulghani expressed his "warmest congratulations" to "our very special leader, Imam Khamenei" - essentially declaring allegiance to the Iranian ayatollah who regularly calls for the destruction of the U.S. From his home in Dearborn, Ahmad Musa Jibril promotes holy war to his tens of thousands of followers on Twitter and Telegram. On Oct. 7, his Twitter account retweeted a post that said, "The hearts haven't been overjoyed like this in so long." The writer is executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
2024-02-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive