Dearborn divisions over LGBTQ books spur national debate as candidates compete for votes

Conflict in Dearborn over LGBTQ books in public schools has drawn national attention among Muslims as liberals and conservatives clash over differing views on religion while political candidates in Michigan campaign in the diverse Detroit suburb.

Amid concern about negative perceptions of the city, Dearborn City Council voted 5-1 Tuesday night to approve a resolution introduced by Councilman Mustapha Hammoud affirming that Dearborn is a welcoming place open to all and does not discriminate against anyone, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Councilman Ken Paris opposed the resolution, calling it repetitive. Also last week, a liberal Islamic group, Muslims for Progressive Values, issued a statement expressing support for queer Muslims in Dearborn and criticizing another Muslim group that's more socially conservative, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Michigan, for supporting the protesters.

"My goal is always to affirm that the city of Dearborn welcomes everyone and will not stand for discrimination against any groups or people," Hammoud told the Free Press. "This moment was important based on the national and international media coverage, to show our community will always uphold state and federal laws."

Over the past month, there have been three events in Dearborn where protesters, many expressing anti-gay views with signs and remarks, demonstrated against Dearborn Public Schools for not banning certain books and LGBTQ materials in classrooms. About 1,000 jammed Stout Middle School for an Oct. 13 board meeting during which LGBTQ speakers were jeered. Most of the protesters were Arab American Muslims, joined by some white conservative Christians who have helped initiate the movement. So far, the district has pulled six books for review, several of which have LGBTQ themes.

Protest leaders have become increasingly outspoken this month, telling Dearborn residents to vote Republican and attacking Democrats who oppose the protests, such as Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, who is running to represent Dearborn. A video posted Oct. 21 by one of the protest leaders, Hassan Chami, urging people not to vote for Tlaib has been retweeted thousands of times. There have been concerns expressed by longtime Arab American leaders that the GOP is stirring up religious extremism and promoting far right preachers in Dearborn; Republicans and the protesters counter that they're about protecting the children and are not targeting gay people.

Statewide Democratic and Republican candidates have flocked to Dearborn over the past couple of weeks to speak to Arab American voters. The city is about 47% Arab American, census data shows. On Thursday night, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both of whom have been criticized by the protesters, spoke in Dearborn at the annual dinner of the Arab American American Political Action Committee (AAPAC). The Republican nominee for Attorney General Matthew DePerno and Republican nominee for Secretary of State Kristina Karamo have also visited Dearborn over the past week trying to win over voters upset with Democrats. Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon plans to rally Sunday in Dearborn at Fairlane Banquet Center along with former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

Last Friday, a group of Muslim voters from Dearborn attended a rally for Dixon in Flat Rock. One of them, Khalil Othman, declared to the crowd that he has switched from Democrat to Republican over the books issue.

"It's all due to the the sexually explicit books and content in our schools," Othman, a father of five, told the Free Press. "The whole Democratic establishment and leadership stayed silent and quiet and left the parents alone, fighting the issue. ... That was a red line for me."

Dixon and Whitmer clashed over the books issue during their debate last week.

"Parents have risen up," Dixon said, praising protesters against books they see as explicit.

Whitmer responded by saying parents have the right to opt out their children from certain materials, but also added that all students have a right to feel safe.

"It is with a really heavy heart that I see politicians try to wedge communities against one another," Whitmer said. "It is dangerous and it is selfish. ... We need to bring down the temperature."

The discussion in Dearborn has taken an ugly turn at times, with some making threats and posting derogatory cartoons at established Arab American leaders if they support Democrats. Osama Siblani, a longtime leader with AAPAC and publisher of The Arab American News in Dearborn, has been targeted in recent weeks by protest leaders. One of them recently posted a cartoon depicting Siblani being whipped by Nessel as a rickshaw driver while behind her a drag queen appears to buy something from three Islamic clerics at a lemonade stand for 25 cents, a sign above them reading: "For Sale: The Muslim Vote."

Nessel, who is a lesbian, first became well-known as an attorney representing a lesbian couple seeking to adopt children in a case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage.

Siblani is standing firm.

"If there is any doubt out there with anyone where I stand in this election, I would like to clear it out once and for all, especially to the sick, crazy and homophobic people out there," Siblani wrote on Facebook. "I stand strongly and firmly with our Attorney General Dana Nessel."

Conservatives and clerics praise protesters

The protesters in Dearborn who stormed a school board meeting Oct. 10 and shut it down — the first time in recent memory a meeting of elected officials in Dearborn was ended by a show of force — are now being applauded across the U.S. and around the world by some conservative Islamic clerics, but criticized by progressive Muslims.

At the same time, the protesters are being hailed by a wide range of conservative Christian writers, including some who have been known previously for attacking Islam. Some of the prominent commentators on the right who have publicly praised the Muslim demonstrators in Dearborn include Christopher Rufo, Dinesh D'Souza, Steve Bannon and Rod Dreher, who previously has been critical of conservative movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood. A number of conservative media outlets, including Fox News, Newsmax and Breitbart, have run stories sympathetic to the protesters. And on social media, accounts with far-right views expressed solidarity with those in the Muslim community who have similar views about LGBTQ educational materials.

"Something very interesting is going on in Dearborn," conservative writer D'Souza said in a five-minute video supporting the protesters that was titled "Muslim parents rise up against gay indoctrination."

"The Biden administration has been pushing all this explicit gay activist literature on the schools. This is horrific."

He said "the Muslims have taken the lead" in fighting back.

In the Muslim world, clerics with Salafi, Deobandi and other right-wing schools of thought have also praised the protesters.

"Muslims of Dearborn, Michigan Standing Firm for the Protection of our Children: Islam Vs. The Secular LGBTQ Agenda," read the title of a news release from Hizb ut-Tahrir America, a branch of a religious group that has been banned in several nations, including Russia, Egypt and Turkey. "All eyes are on Dearborn, Michigan — home to the largest concentrated Arab-American population in the country — as parents, primarily by Muslim parents, en masse protest the circulation of elicit LGBTQ books across the city’s public-school system."

The group, which calls for a caliphate system to rule the world, hailed the Dearborn protests as "a visible first for the Muslim community in America."

Mufti Yasir Nadeem, a Chicago cleric with 1.9 million followers on Facebook who was educated at a Deobandi school and is founder and director of Darul Uloom Online, wrote on Twitter: "The Dearborn school incident is a strong message by Muslims to their own "social justice warriors" who have sold the community to the leftists. A political alliance with the liberal left is an alliance with a bigger Satan. Disown all such contractors!"

Siraaj Muhammad, the acting executive director of Muslim Matters, a conservative religious site, also praised the Muslim protesters in Dearborn.

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More:Protesters shut down Dearborn school board meeting over LGBTQ books

"The country is looking at Dearborn, Michigan because they found something in the Muslims they haven't seen elsewhere in socially conservative circles in a long time — backbone," Muhammad wrote on Facebook. "It is when we stand up, forcefully, confidently, relentlessly, unflinchingly, that we gain respect."

Yasir Qadhi, a Dallas-based preacher who is a popular conservative Islamic cleric in the U.S., linked to a video of the protests at the Oct. 10 board meeting, writing on Twitter: "People of all different faiths coming together to stop indoctrination of children in schools. Conservative Christians and Jews need to understand that Muslims are their allies in wanting a purer and morally upright society."

Progressives support LGBTQ community in Dearborn

But others in the Muslim community have differing views.

Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) said in its statement that it stands in "solidarity with the Queer Muslim community in Dearborn, Michigan, across the United States, and across the greater Muslim world."

"For 15 years," the group said, "MPV has been devoted to promoting the rights of Queer people both within and outside the Muslim community in accordance with God’s command to celebrate the diversity in their creation and to follow the way of love and acceptance of all their creations."

The group, which is based in Washington D.C., also took at aim at CAIR Michigan for backing the protesters and pushing what they said was hatred. Leaders with CAIR have been active in alerting parents about the books, visiting mosques and warning them their religious rights may be threatened by certain LGBTQ materials. At the Oct. 10 board meeting, a woman handed out CAIR Michigan flyers that expressed their concerns and offered assistance.

"With the recent pamphlet distributed by CAIR Michigan, we recognize the limitations that 15 years of grassroots advocacy and education has on such a virulent and unfounded hatred that has been allowed to persist within the American Muslim community for far too long," said Muslims for Progressive Values. "We condemn the pamphlet distributed by the Michigan Chapter of CAIR at a local school board meeting in Dearborn, Michigan as inhumane and un-Islamic in a multitude of ways. To attempt to restrict knowledge and ban books is to disregard the Islamic right to freedom of expression and the promotion of critical thinking. ... We want to remind Queer Muslims everywhere to know their rights in the face of such hatred and gross misuse of faith. Remember that your rights come, not from otherhumans, but from God. Therefore no one on this earth can take away your rights."

After facing some criticism, CAIR has reiterated its support of the protesters. CAIR's national communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, posted a statement explaining why CAIR Michigan stands with Dearborn parents that claims the books were pornographic. An op-ed by CAIR Michigan's executive director echoing that statement was later published.

The school district has removed for review six books from circulation: "Push" by Sapphire, "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson, "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell, "Red, White and Royal Blue" by Casey McQuiston and "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson.

Arabic-language abortion flyers draw concerns

Another concern among Democrats in the Arab American community is an Arabic-language flyer that has been circulating online, opposing an upcoming statewide ballot proposal. Abortion rights advocates say the flyer, which some of the protest leaders have posted to their social media accounts, presents inaccurate information about Proposal 3, which would protect abortion and other reproductive rights if passed in Michigan's Nov. 8 election.

"There is an organized campaign against the (Proposal) 3 targeting our Arab community ... full of scandalous lies and claims that are not connected to reality," said Abed Hammoud, a Dearborn attorney and former federal prosecutor who helped found AAPAC, on Facebook.

The Arabic flyer is titled "The Assembly of the people of Dearborn for civil and principled participation," Hammoud said. The flyer makes the inaccurate claim the proposal will allow sexual assaults of children, he said.

More:Michigan doctor's mom died during childbirth after she couldn't get an abortion

"Be careful of the misinformation campaign surrounding Proposal 3, especially through Arabic flyers full of outright lies," Hammoud said. "Do your research and make your decision after reading the proposal in English or Arabic."

Reproductive Freedom for All has been placing Arabic-language ads supporting Proposal 3 aimed at Arab American voters. And they recently released a video featuring Dr. Yahya Basha, a Royal Oak doctor whose mother died decades ago in Syria after not being able to get an abortion.

Below is a copy of the resolution introduced by Councilman Mustapha Hammoud passed by Dearborn City Council on Oct. 25 that reaffirms the city is open to all and doesn’t discriminate against any group, including because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or Twitter @nwarikoo.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dearborn LQBTQ books spur national debate among Muslims, conservatives