I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Detroiters had their Christmas Day festivities interrupted in a most unwelcome way when news of the near-catastrophe aboard a Detroit-bound commercial plane hit TV screens around the world. I happened to be 400 miles away as the news broke but, of course, couldn’t avoid the frightening headlines even if I wanted to.
As we all know by now, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is the 23-year-old Nigerian national charged on Saturday with trying to detonate some kind of explosive device on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas. Abdulmutallab apparently told federal officials he was acting on orders from Al Qaeda based out of Yemen.
Among those who know that the Detroit metro area is home to a very large and diverse Muslim community, there was an obvious question as the holiday news trickled out: Did Abdulmutallab have any local Detroit connections? At least, that’s where my mind went.
The answer — according to a story in Sunday’s Free Press — is apparently not.
The story quotes Imam Kazeem Agboola, head of the Muslim Community Center-Detroit, telling Free Press staff writer Niraj Warikoo the following:
Agboola said that he and other local Nigerians he has talked to know nothing about the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23.
“We don’t know this individual,” Agboola said. “We don’t know about his mission.”
Agboola said that Abdulmutallab has nothing to do with their religion. “He does not represent the goal of Islam, the mission of Islam,” Agboola said.
According to Warikoo, the congregation of Agboola’s mosque is predominantly Nigerian and part of a growing community of Muslims from West Africa relocating to Michigan.
In a related development, there’s a Dearborn-based community group using Facebook to organize a protest early next month to coincide with the day Abdulmutallab is set to appear in federal court. The protest is aimed at denouncing the would-be terrorist. According to a story in today’s Free Press:
Majed Moughni, a Dearborn attorney, said Sunday afternoon that Muslims need to let the world know that those who would commit terrorism do not represent Islam.
“It’s very frustrating to know that these guys are using Islam and committing terror,” he said. “Islam stands for peace.”
His Facebook group, Dearborn Area Community Members, is calling for local Muslims to hold a protest during the scheduled Jan. 8 hearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
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