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Dearborn, Michigan Shi'ite Islamic Scholar Usama Abdulghani Calls For Increased Attendance At Quds Day Rally: The Enemy Is Measuring Our Response – Remember Last Year, When They Said Dearborn Was The 'Jihad Capital Of America'?

Dearborn, Michigan Shi'ite Islamic Scholar Usama Abdulghani Calls For Increased Attendance At Quds Day Rally: The Enemy Is Measuring Our Response – Remember Last Year, When They Said Dearborn Was The 'Jihad Capital Of America'?

Memri25-03-2025
In a video posted on the Instagram account of Light of Guidance on March 22, 2025, Michigan Shi'ite Islamic scholar Usama Abdulghani called for increased attendance at the upcoming Iranian International Quds Day rally in Dearborn. He stated that the "enemy" would be observing the 2025 Quds Day rally to determine whether President Trump's policies had caused fear that resulted in lower attendance. He reminded his listeners of the op-ed by MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky in the Wall Street Journal, which referred to Dearborn as the "Capital of Jihad." It is worth noting that in the April 2024 Quds Day protest in Dearborn, Michigan, in which Abdulghani spoke, a protester led the crowd in the chant: "Death to America!" This video was compiled from a speech delivered by Abdulghani at the Hadi Institute on March 18, 2025, with added graphics, including a screenshot of Stalinsky's Wall Street Journal piece and student anti-Israel protests on university campuses.
Usama Abdulghani: "Brothers and sisters, for the Day of Quds this year, it's different. The enemy is measuring the response. You and I remember last year, when the word that they put out was that Dearborn is the Jihad capital.
"They're watching our protests this year. Is it going to be the case that Trump was able to put the fear of God in the believers, when the enemy is actually weaker, when the university students are not intimidated, when they're actually having emergency rallies already for Palestine.
"Do we start to fail? What you and I need to keep in mind is this iron fist of the empire is not a sign of strength. This is weakness. This is not that the empire is so strong, we better back down, we better not show our faces. Israel is now weaker than they have ever been. Militarily, how is Israel? Can they bring up military reserves? What is their economy like? What is their world standing like? Can things ever go back to like how they were before October 7th? So inshallah brothers and sisters, tonight, the night of Qadr, because Allah can see your hearts, make that firm intention that in addition to worshipping, you're going to have that stance."
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