I was born in Michigan and it is true, there is a very large presence of Muslims living in Michigan, it is very beautiful to see such a clear shift from the ethnic norm emerge nearly out of nowhere. To be immersed into a cultural collage of non-domestic origins is truly beautiful, in my opinion. While looking up some things concerning my birthplace Michigan, I found an NPR article suggesting that there has been an influx of “vandalism” in the Muslim majority city of Dearborn, MI:

“In Dearborn, Mich., the nation’s largest Arab-American community, Shia and Sunnis have long lived together mostly peacefully. But it appears that some of Iraq’s sectarian violence is being mirrored in the Detroit area, particularly in recent months. As the Muslim communities have grown and prospered, more mosques have been built and some of the divides between these sects have been brought into sharper focus.” (C. Corley, NPR)

However, I noticed that in the radio editorial, NPR journalist Robert Siegal, appears to suggest that Iraqi-Americans and Iraqi immigrants are crossing Middle-Eastern cultural conflicts into Muslim communities here in the U.S.. But if you listen closely to an immigrant brother named Karim Al-Mayhi he expresses that,

“We don’t have trouble like that, the trouble like that… is over there in the Middle East.”

Likewise, Imam Eide Alawan clearly states that the vandalism and graffiti being spray painted does not appear to be Muslim at all, reading (according to Alawan):

“…Muslims go home…”

Alawan suggests, that it was a non-Muslim doing it because of the frustrations over Iraq. I am writing on this story because it may be indicative of the kind of slanted arguments against Muslims we may see in the future. These arguments if implied in the media could attempt to further feature Muslims as a civic threat, despite the civil reality of our communities. This article is simply a heads-up to my fellow Muslims and a “wagging finger” to media hounds and pundits contemplating an expansion on Siegal’s take of the issue.