WALL STREET JOURNAL: Imams and politicians in the Michigan city side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the U.S.

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Dearborn, Mich. Thousands march in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Protesters, many with kaffiyehs covering their faces, shout “Intifada, intifada,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “America is a terrorist state.” Local imams give fiery antisemitic sermons. This isn’t the Middle East. It’s the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Mich.

Almost immediately after Oct. 7, and long before Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, people were celebrating the horrific events of that day in pro-Hamas rallies and marches throughout Dearborn. A local headline describing an Oct. 10 event at the Ford Performing Arts Center read “Michigan rally cheers Hamas attack.”

Local enthusiasm for jihad against Israel and the West extends beyond celebration of Hamas.

The Islamic Center of America, a leading Dearborn mosque, held a memorial service on Dec. 30 for a Hezbollah operative killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Hadi Institute, which runs an Islamic Montessori school and bills itself as a youth community center, held a “Commemoration of the Martyrs” on Jan. 5.

This event honored Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, leader of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. Both men were on the U.S. list of designated terrorists when they were killed in a U.S. airstrike on Jan. 3, 2020.

The commemoration included poetry and praise, along with claims about ISIS being operated by both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mossad. Imam Abdulghani used his remarks to express his “warmest congratulations” to “our very special leader, Imam Khamenei”—essentially declaring allegiance to the Iranian ayatollah who regularly calls for the destruction of the U.S.

Support for terrorism in southern Michigan has long been a concern for U.S. counterterrorism officials. A 2001 Michigan State Police assessment submitted to the Justice Department after 9/11 called Dearborn “a major financial support center” and a “recruiting area and potential support base” for international terror groups, including possible sleeper cells. The assessment noted that most of the 28 State Department-identified terror groups were represented in Michigan. Many current or onetime Dearborn residents have been convicted of terror-related crimes in recent years.

Dearborn’s radical politics are complicating Mr. Biden’s path to re-election.

Michigan is a must-win state for Democrats, and the president’s campaign strategists are clearly worried that virulent anti-Israel and anti-American sentiment could hurt him in November. The AP reported Jan. 26 that local leaders gave Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez the cold shoulder during a recent visit to the Detroit area.

Open support for Hamas is spreading. Since Oct. 7, similar protests have occurred in major American cities featuring pro-jihadist imagery, chants and slogans. Rallies are now also expressing support for the Iran-backed Houthis, who are lobbing missiles at Israel and trying to sink commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

What’s happening in Dearborn isn’t simply a political problem for Democrats. It’s potentially a national-security issue affecting all Americans. Counterterrorism agencies at all levels should pay close attention.

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