Biden condemns spreading anti-Arab hate, Islamophobia after publication of controversial WSJ article

President Joe Biden on Sunday denounced anti-Arab rhetoric in response to a Wall Street Journal opinion piece targeting Dearborn, Michigan, that the mayor called “bigoted” and “Islamophobic.”

The WSJ published the piece on Friday headlined as “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital,” suggesting the city’s residents, including religious leaders and politicians, supported Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and extremism.

The column drew outrage from Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, as well as several US lawmakers and rights advocates from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee.  

The city has one of the highest percentages of Arab Americans among US cities, with census figures showing it is about 54 percent Arab American.