Detroit Public Radio Claims Rise in ‘Islamophobia’

But there’s a catch. There always is.

Sam Corey of Detroit Public Radio, WDET, sees clouds on the horizon, and he is courageous enough to alert you to the danger that all too many would prefer to ignore. On Tuesday, he reported that “the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) logged 25% more complaints of Islamophobia this year.” WDET featured a “lead staff attorney of CAIR-Michigan,” Amy Doukoure, to discuss this growing problem.

Corey painted a grim picture of emboldened, aggressive “Islamophobes”: “A week ago, the Dearborn City Council moved its meeting to the public library because they expected a crowd. Police were outside in riot gear. Wayne County sent officers on horses. By the next morning, 22 people had been arrested from across Michigan, and from as far as New York and Tennessee.”

Meanwhile, “Islamophobes” are picking on poor Muslim elected officials. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud “told the council his own daughter didn’t go to daycare that day. Some businesses stayed closed. Sports practices were rescheduled.”

Even worse, “three weeks ago, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. Within hours, a sitting U.S. Senator called him a terrorist. A sitting congresswoman called every Muslim holding public office in America ‘a Trojan horse.’”

Corey wants us to know that Hammoud and El-Sayed are not even close to alone. “Last year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, logged over 8,600 complaints nationwide, more than in any year since the group started counting in 1996. In Michigan, the chapter recorded nearly 500 — also a record, up 25% from the year before. These are complaints people brought to an advocacy group, not hate crimes confirmed by police. But they’re climbing, and they have been for three years running.”

Luckily, however, CAIR is here to help: “Amy Doukoure is the lead staff attorney for CAIR-Michigan, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting anti-Muslim hate locally. She spoke with host Robyn Vincent about why anti-Muslim hate is rising, and what can be done to stop it.”

There is so much wrong with this one little news item that it’s positively breathtaking, but it’s a typical establishment media offering.

Corey, uses the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an authority without ever mentioning CAIR’s Hamas ties, or its unsavory record of opposing counterterror measures. In a sane world, citing CAIR as if it were an objective authority would be the end of career as a “journalist.” CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups.

Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman, Omar Ahmad, as well as its chief spokesman, Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper, have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.)

Even worse, CAIR chapters frequently distribute pamphlets telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager is an open supporter of Hamas.

When Hamas brutally massacred 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, Nihad Awad, CAIR’s cofounder and longtime executive director, expressed his happiness: “The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”

Corey takes Hamas-linked CAIR’s claims about “Islamophobia” at face value, and is likely unaware of and indifferent to the fact that CAIR has, over the years, touted numerous alleged “hate crimes” against Muslims that turned out to have been faked or wildly exaggerated, and that it counts dirty looks and unkind remarks as “Islamophobic hate crimes,” giving people the impression that discrimination against and harassment of innocent Muslims is much more widespread than it actually is.

Above all, Corey ignores the fact that Sharia is political, supremacist, expansionist, and violent, and that these are the reasons why people are suspicious of candidates such as El-Sayed. But like all establishment media “journalists,” Corey assumes that Sharia is entirely benign, and that only “racism” and “Islamophobia” fuel suspicion of Muslim candidates.

“Islamophobia” isn’t actually rising. What should be and is rising is distrust of the establishment media.