Members of the Dearborn police department watch over a protest as anti muslim activist Jake Lang left holds a pound of bacon in Dearborn.

On November 18, Jake Lang, a pardoned January 6 insurrectionist and U.S. Senate candidate from Florida, led an “Anti-Muslim” protest in front of Dearborn City Hall. Lang posted anti-Muslim beliefs on social media platforms in the lead-up to and during the protest. The “Anti-Muslim” protest met with friction from an overwhelming number of local counter-protesters. The Dearborn police were present to prevent the protest and counter-protest from escalating to violence.

Michigan gubernatorial candidate, Republican Anthony Hudson, held a separate protest in Dearborn on the same day, which he called a “Christian Crusade on Dearborn.”

Residents of Dearborn organized an opposing protest, which took place in response to the “Anti-Muslim” protestors. The pro-Muslim counter protest was significantly larger in number, came together swiftly, and brought together the diverse Dearborn community, including Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to condemn Lang’s actions. The counterprotests chanted: “MAGA, you racist clowns, you are not welcome in this town!”

In response to the chant, anti-Muslim protestors shouted hate speech towards the pro-Muslim counter-protestors, leading to finger-pointing, aggressively shoving and pushing the growing crowd of counter-protestors as tensions rose.

Lang, with the clear intention of aggravating the opposing protesters, took a copy of the Quran that he had brought, made an attempt to burn it by pouring lighter fluid on it, but was unable to complete the task as the opposing protestors stopped him. To further taunt the crowd after his failed attempt at burning the holy Quran, Lang threw bacon on it, intentionally mocking the religious rule that prohibits Muslims from consuming pork.

Lang’s actions went viral on the Internet and on several social media platforms. Many on social media included numerous Christian residents in Dearborn who denounced Lang’s actions.

In the video that Lang posted on TikTok, he and his anti-Muslim group can be seen marching in front of a Christian nativity scene at a church that is next to a mosque, illustrating how Christians and Muslims have lived and worshipped together in Dearborn for decades, respecting each others’ faiths.

CAIR National, a prominent Muslim American group based in Washington, D.C., posted on Instagram in response to the event that took place on November 18. “The Anti-Muslim march in Dearborn was nothing more than a transparent and failed attempt to divide communities in our State. The Muslim community in Dearborn, and indeed all Muslim communities across Michigan and the whole of our nation, will not be intimidated or baited by low-rent bigots. Actions like those taken by the protestors in Dearborn will always fail.”

On the day of the event, Ziyad Abdulaziz was on his way to the Henry Ford College M-TEC campus in Dearborn Heights. “I was on my way to my class on the M-TEC campus, and as I turned onto Schafer, I was stunned in confusion at what I saw. I vaguely remembered that my brother had informed me of the protests before I left the house, but I hadn’t paid much attention until I saw the event actually happening. On one end, there was a large group of people protesting with American flags, and another group protesting with Palestinian flags. When I witnessed it, there hadn’t been any violence or destruction, but you could tell there was rising tension just seeing two opposing parties protesting against each other that close. Later, I was further informed on the details of the event through social media coverage, mainly on the Dearborn Instagram page.”

Moreover, Abdulaziz further spoke, “It was weird seeing how these people had clearly never really interacted with Arabs or many Muslims before and didn’t know much about them to begin with, but that they already had their beliefs so strong and their opinions on who we are and that that was enough to travel the country and go through with such an act.”

Abdulaziz argued, “And if the roles were reversed, the entire country would be aware and tell us to go back to our countries, and it would give Americans, but because it was white Americans, no one aside from people in Dearborn have raised any awareness of the event.”

HFC Honors student, Victory Shane, who is a devoted Christian, said, “This is not like Christ. This is not the way that Jesus said that we are to behave. As Christians, we are taught to love our neighbors and to love others regardless of their religious beliefs. Another thing I want to mention is that as a Christian, I also do not eat pork. This is talked about in the Bible, towards the last days, there will be people who will say that they are Christians and they will profess that they follow Jesus, but then not actually follow Him or His words and will be hypocrites.”

Shane explains further, “It makes me so sick. I remember watching a documentary in our HON-151 class about how Muslims and hijabis were being treated by white people. That these people were labelling Muslims as terrorists and then go raid their mosques with guns, doing the very thing they accused innocent Muslims of doing. It made me so mad because they do the very same things to Black people and literally any other race, but use different excuses to make it seem okay. When you take religion out of the equation, you can really see it is just about race.”

The anti-Muslim protestors had clearly ignored the fact that there is a dense population of thousands of Arab Christians residing in Dearborn. In fact, the earliest Arabs to immigrate to the metro Detroit area in the early 1900s were Lebanese Christians.

“It’s just hate.” Shane expressed in grief, “All it does is spread hate and divide us for no reason besides their own agendas against any race that they deem a threat, without providing any real reasoning for such actions.”

Maryam Ardaini, who had been following the protest on social media as the event unfolded, agrees. “By doing something like this, they made themselves look like the very thing they were trying to protest against, and instead it showed everyone the peace and unity that the pro-Palestinian protestors displayed during a time when they were being attacked.”

As reported by Tom Perkins of The Guardian, Dawud Walid, director of CAIR-Michigan, said, “Anti-Muslim bigotry is the only acceptable form of overt bigotry in America, and it can reward people monetarily,” Walid told Perkins. “People can monetize anti-Muslim bigotry through clicks and donations, so it’s not just something that is an issue of hate – hating Muslims pays financial dividends.”

According to Perkins, during the protest, “Lang called people of color ‘chimps,’ a teen counter-protester punched Lang, and scuffles broke out between those at the rally.” Perkins reported that “Some agitators used those encounters to claim that Dearborn was a violent place, and they were victims of assault.” Perkins observed that “They carried out what local leaders say is a classic right-wing provocateur ploy – goad locals into a confrontation, then claim victimhood.”

Mayor of Dearborn, Abdullah Hammoud, condemned Lang’s actions, stating, “Hate is not welcome in Dearborn.” During a press conference, Hammoud said, “Dearborn did what Dearborn always does. We stood tall.”

The mayor highlighted the city’s diverse population and its historical reputation of coexistence. “The violent and hateful rhetoric witnessed in Dearborn is not deserved. Hatemongers will never overcome the shared humanity.”

Hammoud proclaimed, “Dearborn’s future will not be written by outsiders with torches of fear. It will be written by the people of this city, by all of us, standing here collectively, working together, living together, and moving forward together.”