Sunni/Shi'ite jihad violence in Detroit?

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2007/01/014765print.html

January 09, 2007

Sunni/Shi'ite jihad violence in Detroit?

"This is bad because this would be a situation where people are bringing the tensions of the Middle East into metro Detroit." Yes -- for once I agree with CAIR. "Damage to businesses and mosques in Detroit raises wider fears," by Cecil Angel for the Detroit Free Press, with thanks to James:

As they repaired the broken windows of at least a dozen businesses and mosques along Warren Avenue in Detroit, many Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims wondered Monday if the vandalism was retaliation by local supporters of Saddam Hussein who resented that they celebrated the hanging of the Iraqi dictator.
Sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, someone vandalized at least nine businesses and three mosques, all but one Shi'ite, according to Ali Zwen, manager of the Kufa Cultural Forum, a mosque at Warren and Archdale that sustained $4,000 in damage.

Detroit police have not made an arrest for the vandalism that occurred between Greenfield and a few blocks west of the Southfield Freeway. Most of the area's businesses with Arabic script on their signs were undamaged.

Many of the spared businesses are owned by Iraqi-American Christians, Lebanese Americans and others with Middle Eastern roots. The evidence is largely circumstantial that Shi'ites were targeted, but some of the victims say it is too coincidental.

At the Alrafedain Shish Kabob restaurant, employee Summer Ahmed, 24, said she answered two phone calls Saturday -- one at 9:55 p.m. and the other at 10:09 p.m. -- from a man speaking both Arabic and English as he used foul language in threatening to harm the business.

Later, the restaurant was damaged.

Ahmed said, "Most of the stores that were vandalized ... they're happy for the execution of Saddam, so they're thinking it's somebody who was pro-Saddam," she said. "They picked which stores that are known for being anti-Saddam."

She fears more trouble will follow.

"You're worried if there aren't going to be copycats who are going to do the same thing," Ahmed said.

If the motivation for vandalism proves to be what she suspects, it could mark a turning point in metro Detroit's Middle Eastern community.

"This is bad because this would be a situation where people are bringing the tensions of the Middle East into metro Detroit," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.


Posted at January 9, 2007 01:23 PM
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