The Deal With Dearborn
How Ford’s birthplace became a center of Islamic life
Unless you’re completely checked out, you’ve been bombarded with news and videos of protests, marches, and political commentary about Dearborn. In the run up to a general election year, and in the wake of the Oct. 7 Israel-Gaza war, the city has become a hotbed of controversy.
Democrat consultants on the national level obsess over Dearborn voters: Arab Muslim Americans. The Biden Administration, the Democrat consultant class, and the corporate media seem to think that Dearborn voters are the key to unlocking the state’s electoral votes and that kowtowing to this demographic will placate white liberal and Democratic voters statewide. I’m not so sure this is the case.
As an investigator working mostly in southeastern Michigan, I’ve spent considerable time on the streets of Dearborn, neighboring Dearborn Heights, and the eastern quadrant of Dearborn that bleeds into Mexicantown. So, let’s get into it. What is Dearborn?
The city is a large inner-ring suburb bordering Detroit’s lower west side. It is the seventh-largest city in Michigan and the historical birthplace of Henry Ford, with the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Company calling the city home to this day. The city’s residents were mostly European until the late 20th century, when an immigration boom brought a large Arab influx. This has accelerated in recent years, and, as of today, Metro Detroit has the largest Arab Muslim population of any American metro—estimated at 400,000. A historically fast population shift has resulted in an interesting cultural aesthetic. Churches, mostly Catholic, dot the urban landscape, but now every city block has a mosque. The largest mosque in America, the Islamic Center of America, is here.
Working in Dearborn is tough for a professional investigator. Culturally, linguistically, racially—it’s a hard area for a big ugly white guy to remain discreet.
The Shia/Sunni divide defines Dearborn. Shia Muslims tend to assimilate more easily into Western society. They typically earn higher incomes, are well-educated, and the women are more liberalized. Sunnis tend to be lower income, less assimilated, and have fundamentalist rules for female conduct.
The Shia attend the more affluent Islamic Center of America, where men, women, and children enter together through a main entrance and women can dress in western apparel with their faces uncovered. Sunni attend the less affluent Dearborn Mosque, where men and women enter separately and where women often dress in full burka. This mosque is noteworthy for being the first to broadcast its daily call to prayer on loudspeakers, which can be heard for miles.
