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Welcome to IONA Masjid
Your place of worship and learning
IONA in the News
Religions Stand United
Christians, Jews Join Muslims (January 26, 2007)
Metro Religious Leaders Decry Mosque Vandalism, Attacks
DETROIT — In a striking display of determination to stand against hatred and bigotry, about 30
leaders of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in Metro Detroit gathered Thursday to
say that vandalism and other incidents at four mosques in the past month are attacks not only
against Islam, but against all faiths.
Religious, civic and law enforcement officials met at a former mosque, the old Islamic Center
of America, on Joy at Greenfield, to decry the vandalism that occurred there sometime Sunday
night, and at least four other incidents in Dearborn, Detroit and Warren since late December.
"We stand together with our Muslim sisters and brothers and point to the antidote to this
bigotry and vandalism: Our relationships and learning to care about each other," said Steve
Spreitzer, director of the interfaith division of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and
Inclusion, which helped to organize the event.
The religious leaders said they are concerned that the incidents may be a sign that hatred
directed at Muslims, especially since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, may be taking a
new, nasty turn in Metro Detroit. The region, home to about 125,000 to 200,000 Muslims of
mostly Arab and South Asian descent, has been largely immune from the vandalism against
mosques that has plagued other areas of the country, particularly in the two years after the
attacks, civil rights leaders and observers have said.
"I think it's important for all of us people of faith to stand together in solidarity when we're
attacked in physical ways like this," said Michael Hovey, assistant adviser in the Department of
Education, Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs for the Archdiocese of Detroit. "We had to stand
together as friends and allies to say that this is unacceptable to treat people of faith in this way."
There was an arrest in the incident last week in Warren, at the Islamic Organization of North
America, in which a man took a fallen tree limb to a sign at the mosque and later brandished it
against a Muslim leader. But other recent incidents in Dearborn and Detroit, at the Karbalaa
Islamic Education Center and the former Islamic Center of America, remain unsolved.
It was the second time in recent weeks that Muslims and Jews, in particular, joined to protest
religious bigotry. Earlier this month, Muslim leaders traveled to the Holocaust Memorial Center
in West Bloomfield to criticize an international conference on the Holocaust, called by the
Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
"This is an act that anyone of good faith has to condemn, no matter which group it is," said
Robert Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Community Council, an umbrella group of about
200 Jewish organizations in Metro Detroit. Gail Katz, a vice president of the council, Rabbi Josh
Bennett of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, and David Henig of the Michigan Board of Rabbis
also attended the session.
Police in Detroit and Dearborn said Thursday that they continue to investigate the series of
incidents.
"The Muslim community is grateful," said Victor Ghalib Begg of the Council of Islamic
Organizations of Michigan. "You are giving a clear message that defacing or destroying a facility
where the name of God is recited inside will not be tolerated."
Rabbi Josh Bennett, from second left, Imam M. Jowad Al-Ansari, Steve Mustapha Elturk and the Rev. Dan Appleyard are among 30 community leaders standing outside of the former Detroit mosque.
You can reach Gregg Krupa at (313) 222-2359 or gkrupa@detnews.com.
About IONA
IONA's objective is to help the Muslims of North America understand and fulfill their divinely ordained obligations, in order to please Allah (SWT) and thereby achieve success and salvation in the Hereafter.
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