Loading ...In largest Arab community in US, political resolve mixes with dread - The Boston Globe
Imam Hassan Qazwini spoke to a congregation about the upcoming presidential primary in Michigan.
By Tracy Jan GLOBE STAFF MARCH 07, 2016
DEARBORN, Mich. — The imam’s words poured out in slow, deliberate English, his message as clear as the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the green-domed mosque.
Vote, he told the congregation populated mostly by Iraqi Muslims. It is their “moral duty” to be heard in Michigan’s presidential primary Tuesday, said the cleric during last Friday’s afternoon prayer service.
He did not specify for whom — other than “not a Republican,” least of all, Donald Trump.
The large Muslim community in this diverse Detroit suburb, home to Ford Motor Co. headquarters, has grown increasingly alarmed amid rising Islamophobia many here attribute to Trump’s divisive rhetoric. The GOP front-runner has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, the surveillance and shuttering of mosques, and the registration of Muslims living in America.
Interviews in recent days with Muslim residents of Dearborn — and participants at a Trump rally a short distance away — showed the deep chasms and resentments that are fueling emotions in this presidential election. Trump has a lead in polls of Michigan Republican primary voters, and Muslims like Hassan Qazwini, the visiting imam at the Az-Zahra Islamic Center just outside Dearborn, are fearful about the message another victory for the businessman would send.
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“Not only Muslims should be alarmed,” Qazwini said. “All these freedom-fighting democracy-loving people should be alarmed by the rise of a man like Donald Trump.”
The 52-year-old cleric knows that his words, videotaped to be posted later on YouTube, will echo far beyond the 300 men and women kneeling before him on the plush red carpet. As leader of Dearborn’s Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in the country, until last year, he has had an audience with Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. His opinions matter.
Qazwini compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and accused him of “brainwashing” people with “an agenda based on hatred and bigotry.”
“Inshallah,” he said, using the Arabic term for “God willing,” “I hope the people of this country will heed this warning.”
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