Sectarian Shite - Sunni Violence Rearing It's Head in Michigan?
Damage to businesses and mosques in Detroit raises wider fears:
Was it Hussein-connected retaliation, local Shi'ites ask
January 9, 2007
BY CECIL ANGEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
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.
Was it Hussein-connected retaliation, local Shi'ites ask
January 9, 2007
BY CECIL ANGEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
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.
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Another story here:
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"People are scared to come here. It's very dangerous, this place," - Inaam Alkhafaji.
"No, sweetie, it's not the place... it's the people." - jillosophy
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Vandals hit Shi'a stores
Muslim leaders cite Saddam's execution in Detroit damage
Darren A. Nichols and Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
Muslim leaders cite Saddam's execution in Detroit damage
Darren A. Nichols and Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
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While Shi'a Iraqis took to the streets of Dearborn to celebrate (Saddm's execution), many other Muslims viewed the timing of the execution as an insult. Realizing the tension in the local community, some clergymen were considering meeting this week to take action.
Shattered glass remained inside a cardboard box outside of Alkhafaji's store on Warren Avenue Monday. Next door, the window of the Al-Akhasi restaurant was boarded up -- it, too, had been smashed. A person called the restaurant earlier that day and made a threat that an incident would occur.
The incidents follow similar acts of vandalism at stores along Seven Mile near Woodward, Arab leaders say.
"It smacks close to it and that's the concern. That's what makes it different," said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Shattered glass remained inside a cardboard box outside of Alkhafaji's store on Warren Avenue Monday. Next door, the window of the Al-Akhasi restaurant was boarded up -- it, too, had been smashed. A person called the restaurant earlier that day and made a threat that an incident would occur.
The incidents follow similar acts of vandalism at stores along Seven Mile near Woodward, Arab leaders say.
"It smacks close to it and that's the concern. That's what makes it different," said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
posted by jillosophy at 1/10/2007 07:38:00 PM
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