Thousands of Muslims gathered on the lawn outside Dearborn’s civic center for what organizers described as the largest Eid al-Adha prayer in Michigan, later followed by a march for Lebanon in Dearborn to bring attention to victims of Israeli attacks. The two events were organized by different groups, but linked together with the spirit of the Islamic holiday and its ideas about justice and religious obligations.
The massive crowd of worshippers the morning of Wednesday, May 27, at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center was organized by a coalition of mosques in metro Detroit called the Masajids Coordination Board and featured a nationally known Muslim leader from Washington, DC, Imam Suhaib Webb, who called for unity among Muslim groups and denominations. Muslims arrived from across Michigan and other states to the Dearborn center, where blue tarp was rolled out for people to sit on during the religious ceremonies, with two large video screens broadcasting the event for those who couldn’t see the stage. Many brought prayer rugs and dressed up in traditional Islamic or cultural garb; Eid al-Adha is a time when many wear new clothes as they greet friends and family.
“It’s a great opportunity for unity,” Muthana Al-Hanooti, with the Islamic Center of Detroit, one of the mosques that helped organize the Eid prayer, told the Free Press. “To show unity in this community.”
Eid al-Adha means the “Festival of Sacrifice,” remembering Abraham’s obedience to God when he attempted to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, after God told him to. God intervened, sending a ram to be sacrificed in Ishmael’s place, according to Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures. Eid al-Adha also marks the end of the hajj pilgrimage that’s one of the pillars of Islam. The idea of sacrifice was mentioned by Webb, a White convert to Islam, in his sermon as he urged Muslims to not give into lust and instead focus on helping others and their country by fighting for social justice issues such as immigrant and Black rights.
“Stand up for justice in this country,” Webb, who previously led a large Boston mosque, told the crowd. “We have to stand up for immigrants that are being picked up by ICE, Black people that lost their agency to vote,” he said referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has ramped up deportations, and the recent Supreme Court decision against the Voting Rights Act.
“Am I willing to sacrifice that cowardice and that neglect in the spirit of the sacrifice of Ibrahim (Abraham)?” Webb asked the crowd.
The gathering was sponsored by Life For Relief & Development, a Southfield charity that helps the needy in Muslim areas around the world, and was organized by leaders with several Sunni mosques: the Islamic Center of Detroit; American Moslem Society, a mosque in the south end of Dearborn; Al-Huda Islamic Association, a Dearborn mosque; SAFE, a Southfield mosque; and Al-Furqan Mosque in Detroit.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud sat in the front row of the gathering, next to Abbas Alawieh, a state Senate candidate from Dearborn. Informational stands with campaign fliers for Alawieh and U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed were on the side of the event along with booths for the AlKitab Foundation, a Michigan group that spreads the message of the Quran, and Life for Relief and Development.
The event started at 8 a.m. with Takbeerat, when Muslims proclaim in Arabic that God is the greatest, “Allahu Akbar,” followed by prayers. There was a heavy police and security presence, as Dearborn officers blocked off traffic along Michigan Avenue, which runs in front of the center. The attack this month at a San Diego mosque that killed three Muslims has sparked fears among local Muslims and so security was a concern, organizers said. There were shuttle buses from Dearborn City Hall and two local mosques to help accommodate the large numbers of worshippers. A group of Christian pastors from Dearborn and other cities attended the prayers to show solidarity.
Rally for Lebanon in Dearborn
A couple of hours after the Eid prayers, Lebanese Americans and others gathered at the same location for a rally in support of Lebanon, where Israel continues to attack areas that have close ties to thousands of residents in Wayne County. Waving American and Lebanese flags, they held up posters that read “Israel Murdered This Child” above photos of children who died in Lebanon in recent Israeli strikes. They walked quietly together east on Michigan Avenue to the Arab American National Museum near Schaefer Road and then walked back to the civic center. Imam Baqir Berry, of the Islamic Institute of Knowledge, and the Rev. Halim Shukair, priest at Mother of the Savior Episcopal Church in Dearborn, both of Lebanese descent, were among the faith leaders who took part in the rally for Lebanon.
“I’m here for all my Muslim brothers and sisters, I wish you a blessed Eid,” Shukair said. “And I hope … we remember all our brothers and sisters in Lebanon, and we stand against all the violence and the deaths that’s happening there. It’s unjust what’s happening in Lebanon and in Palestine.”
Since March 2, more than 3,200 have been killed in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Some of the victims are related to residents of Dearborn and other cities in metro Detroit, which has a sizable Lebanese American population. In the days leading up to Eid, Israel intensified attacks in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley; Israel maintains it’s fighting against Hezbollah, a group it and the U.S. labels as a terrorist organization. The protesters feel their voices have not been heard.
“This aggression is continuing to escalate and it seems to be getting worse,” said Lina Saad, a Dearborn pharmacist who helped organize the rally for Lebanon. “We just needed some visibility, to allow our voices to reach our local representatives, state representatives, and federal representatives in Congress and in the White House. We don’t agree with the lack of empathy and the lack of compassion to the loss of human life.”
Saad linked the idea of sacrifice in Eid al-Adha, remembering when God stopped the killing of a son, to the deaths in Lebanon.
“The day of Eid is very important in the Muslim world,” Saad said. “It’s also an important day in the Abrahamic faiths. … We don’t want the human life to be sacrificed on a regular basis … for no reason at all. No life should ever be sacrificed, any human life, in any religion, in any culture, anywhere around the world, so this specific day is very important.”
Ibrahim Duhaini, a medical physicist who works in metro Detroit on cancer treatments, said it’s painful for Lebanese Americans to see their tax dollars being used, through aid to Israel, to attack family members in Lebanon.
“All of the community here have images of their homes being destroyed in front of their eyes with bombings, with explosives,” said Duhaini, of Lebanese descent. “Why is our tax money paying for that? We pay taxes, we work here, we’ve been here hundreds of years in this country. We are good citizens. We are patriotic … to defend our country whenever there is war, but unfortunately our government is taking our tax money and giving it to Israel to destroy and demolish our houses … killing our families back home.”
Duhaini noted that Donald Trump came to Dearborn a few days before the election in November 2024 to meet with Lebanese Americans, promising peace and no more wars.
“The whole essence of our march is to express our sorrow and grief to our government, to our president, because when he came here to Dearborn … he gave us a promise, and we gave him our votes,” he said.
Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn and a longtime community advocate, said he lost 24 members of his extended family in Israeli attacks in the Beqaa Valley last year. A couple of days before Eid, a mother from the village of Mashghara in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon traveled to Dearborn to attend a wedding of her daughter who lives in the United States. While in Dearborn, the woman’s husband and other family members were killed in Mashghara in Israeli strikes, Siblani said. The wedding was canceled. A dozen people, including several from the same family, were killed in Mashghara in Israeli strikes, the Associated Press reported.
“Every day, we wake up to a new crime committed,” Siblani said. He added he’s disappointed elected officials outside of Dearborn are not speaking up for its residents affected by the deaths in Lebanon and the burning of a Quran in Dearborn on May 11.
“It seems like they don’t care, they don’t give a damn about what happened to us,” Siblani said.
In his sermon, Webb said that people who attack Muslims don’t distinguish between their different groups, and so the community should not be divided.
“Bombs and draconian laws, and being stopped at airports, and being picked up by ICE, none of them asking us if we’re Sunni or Shia, none of them asking us if we’re Salafi or Shafi’i (schools of thought),” Webb said. “They don’t care. Those bombs actually understand the unity of the Muslim ummah (community) more than we understand the unity of the Muslim ummah.”
USA Today reporter Melina Khan contributed to this report.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thousands celebrate Eid al-Adha in Dearborn and rally for Lebanon
Reporting by Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
