Whitmer blasts 'cruel and ignorant' WSJ column on Dearborn

(Detroit Free Press) GRAND RAPIDS — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday decried a recent opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, saying the piece's characterization of Dearborn was a "total misrepresentation of an important city."

An opinion article published Friday in the WSJ called Dearborn, a community of more than 100,000 residents and one of the largest Arab American communities in the U.S., "America's Jihad Capital." The story drew widespread rebukes from officials both in Dearborn and throughout Michigan, with Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud calling for an increased number of police patrols in places of worship after its publication.

The opinion piece was published amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Some in Dearborn and elsewhere in Michigan have called for a cease-fire. Since the start of the war, the Palestinian death toll has reached 27,478, according to the Associated Press.

....(snip)....

"I thought that that opinion article was incredibly cruel and ignorant, and a total misrepresentation of an important city full of a lot of beautiful people who are Michiganders, and are our neighbors and our extended family," Whitmer said. ............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2024/02/05/whitmer-wsj-dearborn-jihad-opinion/72481474007/