Word: dearborn
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...week and a day after the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, there's a palpable sense of unease among the 400 men and women gathered for Friday prayers at the American Muslim Center in Dearborn, Mich., 1,350 miles away. In his sermon, lay preacher Hani Ayyad is careful not to mention Major Nidal Malik Hasan by name but repeatedly inveighs against "those who try to hijack our deen [faith], who distort, tarnish and darken it." Worshippers know exactly who he means...
Muslims across the country fear that the massacre, which left 12 of Hasan's fellow soldiers and one civilian dead, has increased what they say is widespread hostility toward their community. But it is surprising that Muslims in Dearborn should be fearful. After all, it's hard to imagine an American town where Muslims could feel less threatened: Dearborn (pop. 100,000) has 10 mosques in the area, more than any other city of comparable size. Muslims have had a presence in the Detroit area since the 1920s, when Henry Ford brought over thousands of workers from the Middle East...
Equally, the American Muslim Center could hardly be less threatening. The imam, Mohamed Mardini, is a moderate cleric with strong ties to city and state officials; when the CIA hosted a dinner in Dearborn recently, he sat at the head table with Director Leon Panetta. Mardini invites non-Muslims to drop by and observe prayers and holds interfaith discussions in his office. His mosque doesn't even look out of place among the suburban homes along Outer Drive: the building used to be a Bible church...
...these things help to reduce the culture shock that a new immigrant may feel in America," says Imam Hassan Qazwini, who leads the Islamic Center of America, Dearborn's biggest mosque. "In Dearborn, you don't feel like a stranger...
...Aljanabys have both found jobs and moved into their own Dearborn home. In her spare time, Wasan does volunteer work at an agency that helps newly arrived refugees. "It's my turn to help," she says...