Dearborn — Self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang said he expects trouble when he and his supporters come to Dearborn next week for a planned rally and pig roast — a dig at Muslims, whose religion eschews eating pork.
“Does the sun rise in the east?” Lang said during a telephone interview with The Detroit News when asked if he expects violence at the planned 6 p.m. rally Tuesday outside City Hall before the 7 p.m. City Council meeting, where Lang plans to speak.
“The Muslims are going to freak out on us,” said Lang, 31, a former U.S. Senate candidate from Florida, and participant in the 2021 Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, for which he served four years in prison before being pardoned by President Donald Trump. “They attacked me (during an Aug. 2 religious celebration in Dearborn, an incident that resulted in three arrests), and I expect them to do it again (Tuesday).”
Dearborn police and city officials said they hope Lang is instead greeted with silence. For security reasons, city officials have moved the City Council meeting from City Hall to the Henry Ford Centennial Library, away from the planned rally site about a half-mile west of the library.
The scheduled visit is part of an ongoing anti-Muslim campaign by Lang, who has had previous run-ins in Dearborn, including an incident last year in which competing groups of protesters clashed. Following the fracas, Lang said he’d filed a federal lawsuit against the city, mayor and police chief, claiming they’d failed to protect him..
Multiple Dearborn stakeholders are pleading with people to refrain from engaging with the self-professed anti-Muslim activist when he makes his scheduled visit Tuesday.
“Please stay home,” Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin said in a video posted to Facebook Wednesday night, which was accompanied by a written message in English and Arabic urging people to steer clear of the rally and council meeting unless they had business there.
“We’re aware that individuals and groups from outside our community may come to the Dearborn City Council meeting,” Shahin said. “We’ve been monitoring the situation closely, and coordinating with our state and federal partners. We have a plan in place, and you’ll see an enhanced presence of police officers.
“But here’s my direct ask of our residents: Please stay home,” Shahin said. “These groups that are coming here are coming for one reason, and that’s to provoke a reaction and generate attention. If nobody shows up to react, they have nothing. The most powerful thing that this community can do is refuse to give them an audience.”
The chief added that people who have business before the City Council should feel free to attend, adding: “You’ll be safe. We’ll make sure of it. But if you’re thinking of coming down just to confront these people, don’t. That’s exactly what they want, and it puts you at risk.”
Lang vows to bring ‘private security’ to Dearborn
Lang said he feels he and his supporters will be in danger during the rally and is preparing for it.
“I’ll have private security — 20 armed men to protect us,” he said.
Lang said he wasn’t surprised that he was attacked during an Aug. 2 religious celebration honoring the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in battle. The incident, captured on video and posted to social media, showed Lang standing on Greenfield Road during the event shouting into his bullhorn: “We support ICE. We do not want these illegal immigrants here. … I speak the name of Jesus.”
According to one video, a man walked up to Lang and punched him from behind. A group of men then chased Lang through a lot, some pummeling him with stones, before police officers pushed him into a cruiser and told the crowd to disperse, according to the videos.
Dearborn Police have arrested three people in connection with the beating: two 25-year-old men, one from Detroit, the other from Dearborn; and 57-year-old Dearborn resident Abbas Abdoush, 57, who is “a criminal illegal alien from Iraq,” according to ICE officials.
In 1992, Abdoush was admitted into the United States as a lawful permanent resident after emigrating from Iraq, making him a non-U.S. citizen with legal permission to live and work here, according to ICE. But Abdoush violated that status when he was convicted in 1999 for second-degree murder, the federal agency said. According to a 2005 Michigan Court of Appeals filing, on Jan. 25, 1998, Abdoush intentionally hit a woman with a borrowed van in southwest Detroit. The victim later died.
Abdoush was charged Aug. 5 in Dearborn’s 19th District Court with assault and battery and malicious destruction of property, with a hearing scheduled for Sept. 21. Abdoush did not have an attorney listed Friday in online 19th District Court documents.
After Abdoush was released with a GPS tether, federal agents took him into custody. He is in ICE custody at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, awaiting a hearing before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Lang said the other two other men arrested in connection with the incident, who have not been named by police, attacked his cameraman.
“I wish what happened wasn’t surprising,” Lang said. “I wish my news feed wasn’t flooded with violent third-world invaders who have crossed our borders to steal our wealth and destroy our culture. But this is all too common.”
Dearborn youth counselor: Ignore Jake Lang
Dearborn resident William Ali, a longtime youth counselor in the city’s school system, said Lang is an “idiot” who should be ignored.
That’s the advice Ali, 59, said he gave to students when anti-Muslim activist Rev. Terry Jones, who was known for burning Qurans, demonstrated outside Edsel Ford High School in October 2012. It was one of multiple rallies Jones and his supporters held in Dearborn, although once city officials stopped trying to quash his events, the attention given to them eventually dwindled.
“The best thing you can do with people like that is to ignore them,” said Ali, a Muslim whose father, also a Muslim, emigrated from Yemen and married his mother, a White Christian. “I was very upset that those guys attacked him at the march. I understand what he’s saying is annoying and offensive, but that’s the country we live in. People have the right to act like fools, as long as they’re not threatening anyone.
“When Terry Jones came, I told the students, ‘Don’t engage him because that’s exactly what he wants.’ They ignored him, and he came, had his little rally and went,” Ali said. “I think the police chief is doing the right thing by telling people to stay home.”
Ali said Lang’s message is “just stupid.”
“In my own family, half of us are Christian, half Muslim; we have women with no hijabs, women who wear them,” he said. “What he’s saying is ridiculous. Nobody’s trying to bring Sharia Law to Dearborn. I invite anyone who’s buying into this crap to come and visit our city and see for themselves. There’s no Islamic takeover here.
“As far as the pig roast goes, more power to him,” Ali said of Lang. “That whole pig thing is dumb; Muslims don’t hate pigs, because God made them, and we’re supposed to love everything God made. We just don’t eat them because they’re unclean. So, let him have a pig roast. Who cares?”
While Ali said he finds some of Lang’s claims somewhat comical, he said he fears “some nut” might take them seriously.
“It worries me that you’ll have someone with mental issues who’ll come here and do something terrible,” Ali said.
Former Dearborn police chief: Learn from Terry Jones experience
Ronald Haddad, who served as Dearborn police chief from 2008-21, said he learned during Rev. Jones’ 10 visits to Dearborn that ignoring him caused his appeal to dwindle.
“We had 10,000 people out here during his first rally,” Haddad said. “At his last one, there were literally four.”
Haddad said city officials learned how to deal with anti-Muslim protesters through trial and error, after losing in court.
In 2011, Jones was arrested by Dearborn police for failing to pay a 19th District Court-mandated $1 “peace bond” before protesting outside the Islamic Center of America. The court also ordered Jones to stay away from the mosque for three years. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled the bond and ban were violations of Jones’ constitutional rights.
The next year, Jones visited Dearborn twice, protesting in front of the mosque in April and outside Edsel Ford High School in October. Prior to the April 2012 rally, Jones and fellow demonstrator Wayne Sapp were ordered by police to sign an indemnification agreement before being allowed to speak. A federal judge ruled the order unconstitutional.
In 2010, Dearborn police arrested four members of the Christian group Acts 17 Apologetics who came to the festival to debate Muslims. The organization sued the city, and Dearborn was ordered to pay a $300,000 settlement and post an apology on the city’s website.
Two years later, members of the Bible Believers group showed up to the Arab festival carrying a pig’s head and telling Muslims they would “burn in hell.” They were pelted with bottles and rocks, and ordered to leave the festival by Wayne County sheriff’s deputies.
The Bible Believers sued the city, claiming their right to assembly was violated when they were evicted from the festival. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled against the group, although the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 overturned the ruling, concluding the evangelicals’ rights had been violated. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Lang said he’ll have adequate security and isn’t afraid of possible violence.
“Fear doesn’t live in the heart of a patriot,” he said.
Ali said he hopes Lang gets the opportunity to speak his mind freely.
“All he’s going to do is make himself look silly,” he said.
ghunter@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2134
@GeorgeHunter_DN
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Jake Lang expects trouble during Dearborn visit. Don’t engage, police say
Reporting by George Hunter, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By George Hunter, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
