I urge the
Atlasian Journal to verify these latest reports. 1600 jihadists in Dearborn? According to
a report by the Brookings Institution there are 400 pro-ISIL accounts on Twitter belonging to users in the US, which, even if we multiply that by four, is not enough to get that many jihadists
shooting at police in a single place. Most Arabs and other people of Middle Eastern descent in Metro Detroit, are, in fact, Maronite, Chaldean, Orthodox, or other denominations of Christianity. According to a 2004 report by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
125-200,000 Muslims are registered with mosques in Metro Detroit, only 8% of which can be described as Salafi/Wahabi. These figures, if true would require over 1% of all Muslims in Metro Detroit-- 2.5% of all Muslim males-- to be armed jihadists in insurrection against the government.
Only the most myopic view of American Islam would regard the above scenario as plausible. If the described events have indeed taken place, it is
highly likely that the number of participants has been overstated by initial reports.
However, there would be a potential leader in
the radical Dearborn-based cleric Musa Ahmed Jibril, a well-known preacher of intolerance towards non-Muslims and supporter of ISIL, who spent six years in prison for tax evasion and money laundering. While Jibril was expelled from a mosque for his hateful rhetoric, is now on probation,
and is facing new investigations, he remains active on social media and his followers continue to circulate his messages. Perhaps his role should be investigated, and, if necessary, he and other radical Salafi/Wahabi preachers should be taken into preventive detention until their role in recent events can be fully ascertained, or, to quote a certain non-Atlasian demagogue, "until we can figure out what's going on."
Regardless, I must seriously question the veracity of these latest initial reports.
