Donald Trump’s success a ‘wake-up call’ for Michigan’s Muslims

Does not bode well:

On Thursday, Muslim leaders in this Detroit suburb were saying that members of their community still felt safer here than they would in just about any other place in their country.

….The source of considerable angst and reflection was this past Tuesday’s Michigan presidential primary. In one of the most Muslim-heavy states in the country, Republican front-runner Donald Trump – a candidate so overtly playing to Islamophobia that he pronounced during a CNN interview this week that “Islam hates us” – cruised to victory with about 37 per cent of the Republican vote. And in Dearborn itself, where nearly half the city’s roughly 100,000 residents are Arab-American and many country- or state-wide Muslim or Arabic organizations are based, Mr. Trump’s percentage was a couple of points higher than that.

Unsurprisingly, most of his votes came from the half of Dearborn that’s not really a Muslim capital at all. While the vast majority of residents on the east side of town are of Arabic descent – with roots primarily in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories – the west side is primarily white. Of the 3,153 Dearbornians who voted for Mr. Trump, only about 500 live on the east side. (Christian Arabs, a small population here, may account for a few of those.)

But until recently, Dearborn seemed to be a success story of Muslims integrating into a city with a history of segregation, and a state that has seen more than its share of racial strife. Many have opened businesses on the west side, some have even moved there, and they are increasingly engaged civically, including on the city’s council. The town has attracted its share of attention from cranks: Right-wing bloggers have long propagated various bogus conspiracy theories, including that the city is under Sharia law, and the likes of Koran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones occasionally show up seeing attention. But even following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2011, there wasn’t the degree of backlash for which many of its immigrant families braced themselves.

Now, with thousands of people with whom they co-exist either embracing Mr. Trump’s Muslim-bashing or proving willing to overlook it, Muslim residents have been given a reality check about how they’re perceived – and how much Mr. Trump has helped bring to the fore something ugly that was lurking below the surface.

“I think what is most troubling about this election cycle is that in Michigan, you would assume there is a certain familiarity with Muslims,” says Rana Elmir, who grew up in Dearborn and is now deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. “And I don’t think what you’re seeing in those results reflects that familiarity and trust.”

Source: Donald Trump’s success a ‘wake-up call’ for Michigan’s Muslims – The Globe and Mail