Right before 1pm, dozens of men trickle into the Islamic Centre of Detroit, remove their shoes and enter the prayer room. A few minutes later, Imam Imran Salha arrives to convene afternoon prayers.
The young and outspoken Imam Salha joined the centre a year ago. His charisma and active social media presence has made him popular among Dearborn’s Arab and Muslim-American residents.
And he is now part of a community-led effort in Dearborn called “Abandon Biden” – a campaign aimed at punishing President Joe Biden and ensuring he loses his re-election bid due to his handling of the Israel-Gaza war.
“It was very organic in the way that it grew because the reality is, human beings can't just allow for something to happen to their loved ones without a response,” Imam Salha tells The National. He adds that at least 10 Palestinian families from among his congregation have lost relatives in Gaza.
Following an attack by Hamas on October 7, Israel launched a punishing military campaign on Gaza. Mr Biden has routinely expressed his solid support of Israel.
The Hamas attack killed nearly 1,140 people in Israel, according to Israeli authorities. In the more than four months of bombardments, about 28,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to local health authorities.
Throughout it all, Mr Biden has steadfastly refused to call for a ceasefire.
He has also bypassed Congress twice to approve emergency weapons sales to Israel and has questioned the number of Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza.
Dearborn’s Muslim and Arab-American residents, most of whom supported Mr Biden four years ago in their battleground state to vote out Donald Trump, now say not only will they not be voting for him this election – they want to ensure he loses.
“We can literally correlate his loss in the next election with what he did to the Palestinians,” Imam Salha says.
“This is our goal and we want it to be tied to his name, that he was a one-term president.”
Dearborn, the Capital of Arab America, is a sprawling suburb located on the outskirts of Detroit. The city, and with it the wider Wayne County, is home to the highest concentration of Arabs and people of Arab descent in the US.
Restaurants and shops with signs in Arabic and in English line both sides of the main street, and the city is home to the only Arab-American museum in the country. Dearborn has an Arab mayor and an Arab chief of police.
It also has an Arabic and English weekly newspaper, The Arab American News.
Osama Siblani, the paper’s publisher, says every edition since October 7 has featured events in Israel-Palestine on its cover.
A November issue ran with the headline: “Local Muslims and Arabs pledge to drive Biden out of office in 2024.”
But in addition to its stance on Israel and Palestine, Mr Siblani says, the Biden administration also did not keep other campaign promises, including reducing profiling of Arab and Muslim Americans at US borders and better representation in his cabinet.
None of the President's senior cabinet members are Arab American.
“They do not care about us. We don't count,” Mr Siblani told The National. “They took our votes and they gave us the middle finger – that's literally what they did.
“He promised us a seat at the table, [but] we don't even have a person in the building where the table is.”
In 2020, Mr Biden ran on a campaign promise to embrace diversity and overturn the legacy of his predecessor, Mr Trump, the former president who passed legislation banning citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
Muslim and Arab Americans, who make up about 5 per cent of Michigan voters, overwhelmingly voted for Mr Biden, helping him clinch victory in the critical battleground state. He won the state by 3 percentage points.
Mr Trump, who is likely to be the one to face Mr Biden again in November, has vowed to reintroduce his Muslim ban if re-elected.
“They are telling us, if you think Biden is genocidal, wait till you see Trump,” Amer Zahr, a comedian and political activist who has been at the forefront of the Abandon Biden campaign, says.
Campaign organisers say many voters plan on writing in their own messages on the ballot, and in the Democratic primaries in Michigan on February 27, will vote “uncommitted”.
Imam Salha contends that his community has been presented with a dilemma and that some Dearborn residents may vote for either candidate, out of a lack of better options.
“The goal is to abandon Biden – will people vote for Trump? I think some will,” he says. “Will some of them vote Democrat? Yes, that is a possibility.
“But we need to teach the authorities and those in power that we are not going to allow them to take us for granted to the extent that they will kill our people and we will just remain silent and maintain the status quo.”
Destroyer
Director: Karyn Kusama
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Sebastian Stan
Rating: 3/5
UAE release: January 31
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Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
MATCH INFO
Iceland 0 England 1 (Sterling pen 90 1)
Man of the match Kari Arnason (Iceland)
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
The%20specs
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The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
UAE gold medallists:
Omar Al Suweidi (46kg), Khaled Al Shehhi (50kg), Khalifa Humaid Al Kaabi (60kg), Omar Al Fadhli (62kg), Mohammed Ali Al Suweidi (66kg), Omar Ahmed Al Hosani (73), all in the U18’s, and Khalid Eskandar Al Blooshi (56kg) in the U21s.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
