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“If Democracy Matters, We’re The Majority”: Muslims In Michigan Protest Against Use Of LGBTQ Books In Schools

October 14, 2022
The Commune

A school-board meeting in Dearborn, Michigan was shut down earlier this week by hundreds of protesters opposing the circulation of LGBTQ books across the city’s public-school system.

Viral videos of members of the Muslim community protesting against LGBTQ books in state-run public schools, have been circulating on Twitter.

Many of the protesters carried signs in English and Arabic: “Keep your dirty books in the closet,”, “If democracy matters, we’re the majority”, “Stop grooming our kids,” and “Homosexuality big sin.”

Dearborn is a city in the U.S state of Michigan. It is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States per capita. It is also home to the largest mosque in the United States. The town elected its first Arab-American Mayor in 2021 with the support of the community’s support.

One of the community’s prominent religious leaders, Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini urged followers to attend the school-board meeting during his Friday sermon. “Some of those books are completely inappropriate for our children to read,” Al-Qazwini said. “Some of those books promote pornography. Some of them promote homosexuality. We don’t need this.”

The Dearborn incident is reminiscent of similar British Muslim protests against same-sex education. Weeks of protests wracked Birmingham when local schools sought to teach “LBGT-inclusive content” to young students. At one point, LGBT campaigners and their children were pelted with eggs by protesters, and about half the school’s students were voluntarily withdrawn from classes by parents.

This incident has brought attention to the changing demographics of the US. Over the last two decades, some states in the continental US have been turning into non-white majority populations according to Census bureau reports – New Mexico, California, Texas, Nevada, and Maryland.

Immigrants of all races and religions continue to make efforts to live or work in the USA. This includes large numbers of Indian immigrants as well.

There wasn’t much noise about the published statistics on the changing demographics, in most circles and the general American reaction to the changing demographics was a muted one. Sections of Americans are now beginning to take notice of the rise in Muslim populations, in certain neighborhoods.

The latest Pew Readeach numbers from 2015 show the country is home to an estimated 3.3 million Muslims of all ages — about 1.1 percent of the total US population. But by 2050, Pew researchers estimate Islam will supplant Judaism as the second-most popular religion in the US with Muslims ultimately making up 2.1 percent of the future population. According to reports, Islam is the fastest growing religion, in the US. Currently, the state of Michigan of which Dearborn is a part of, stands at 6th place with 1218 Muslims per 100 K residents.

Many Americans are anxious about “liberal”, left-wing organizations like ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) consistently questioning America and Americans on alleged discrimination against Muslims.

With the Dearborn incident , many concerned Americans are asking left wing media, left-liberal political parties or sections of such parties like the Democratic Party, if they are in support of such protests.

Citizens have expressed concern that conservative Islam and Sharia Law go against the fundamental idea of what the U.S stands for and the type of freedom and values it espouses.

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