‘Unlike 9/11, we’re fighting back’: Arab Americans in Dearborn are resilient in the face of Islamophobia

Lessons learned from anti-Arab attacks in the early 2000s help a new generation respond to hateful rhetoric and threats

On the main street of Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, it's common to see business signs in both Arabic and English script. A Lebanese grill sits across from a Yemeni coffee house, and next door a store sells hijabs. The Arab American National Museum, the only such institution in the US, is a half mile away from a playground and public elementary school in the third largest district in Michigan.

The Arab American presence touches every corner of Dearborn - more than half of its nearly 110,000 residents are of Middle Eastern or north African origin. And that unique cultural blend is what draws many to this growing city just 10 miles west of downtown Detroit.