By: Leo Hohmann
One call to suburban mayor results in removal of volunteer deemed too ‘Islamophobic’ to serve her city.
When Muslim activist Dawud Walid speaks, Michigan’s political leaders do not ask many questions.
Almost reflexively, they jump to fulfill his demands.
The last thing they seem to want is to get into a public debate with the leader of the state’s powerful chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which claims to speak for all Michigan Muslims.
In a fresh example of just how big of a stick Walid carries as executive director of CAIR-Michigan, he was able to get a low-level mayoral appointee removed from office last week in the city of Warren, a suburb of Detroit. The woman had committed the unpardonable sin of criticizing Islam on her private Facebook page. Though she publicly apologized and expressed deep remorse for “offending” Muslims, that wasn’t enough. She still had to resign in disgrace.
Diane Deliso Kozlowski, 71, was appointed by the mayor in 2015 to a seven-year term on the six-member Warren Elected Officials Compensation Commission, which is a voluntary, unpaid position that advises the mayor and council on salaries to be paid to city officials. She posted on Facebook that “Islam is hate” in reaction to someone else’s post about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a report in the local newspaper, The Macomb Daily.
Someone alerted CAIR about the post, and CAIR placed Kozlowski’s entire Facebook account under its version of extreme vetting, looking for not only the reported offensive comment but others which might be deemed unfriendly to Muslims or Islam. By the time the smoke had cleared, CAIR had declared Kozlowski an Islamophobe, contacted Warren Mayor James Fouts and demanded that he cleanse city hall of her presence.
Within hours of Walid approaching the mayor and council with his demand, Kozlowski resigned and issued a detailed statement of apology, as follows:
“I apologize for offending anyone, including Muslims, my post was referring to terrorists, NOT Muslims. I understand that terrorists come from all backgrounds and all religions and for me to refer to Muslims was wrong. I apologize to Muslims who are as much against terrorism as are other religions in the United States. I was wrong and as a result I am resigning.”
She is now said to be terrified of a violent reprisal from the Muslim community and will not return calls on the issue of her Facebook comments.
The local newspaper, the Macomb Daily, cheered Kozlowski’s resignation in a May 24 article in which Walid was given space for a lengthy lecture about what is permitted and what is not permitted in terms of free speech in Macomb County.
The newspaper all but admitted that Walid threatened the city with protests if it did not bow to his demand that Kozlowski be removed from her position. The paper reported:
“Had Deliso Kozlowski not resigned, the organization [CAIR] was prepared to further its demand in a public manner on city government property.”
In the city of Warren, citizens apparently check their First Amendment rights at the door when they accept any city position, even if it’s only on a volunteer basis.
Why must they be subjected to such close scrutiny? Because Walid says so.
“The important thing is she is no longer in her position,” Walid told the Macomb Daily. “We’re glad that the results were swift and we did not have to go on June 12 to the next City Council meeting to raise our concerns.”
“We believe that all Americans in general have a right to freedom of speech and can say hateful things,” Walid continued. “The problem becomes, when someone in an official capacity of a government in which they are involved in the allocation of taxpayer dollars. That’s where it becomes problematic.
“The Muslin community is a fast-growing segment in the city of Warren. We don’t think it’s proper a city official can go around making hateful comments about any group of people that they’re supposed to be working on behalf of residents and constituents.”
Walid is not being completely truthful when he says hateful comments are to be tolerated outside of government office-holders. The truth is, CAIR has been on a nationwide crusade, some call it a witch hunt, since the election of President Donald Trump to identify and weed out so-called “Islamophobes” from not just public office but all aspects of public life. That is why Roseann Barr had her sitcom canceled by ABC last week, not because she made a racist comment against blacks but because her comment included a mocking of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Islamic sensitivity training for city officials
While Kozlowski has been an outspoken advocate for Mayor Fouts in the past, applauding him for his accomplishments in the city of Warren, Fouts did not lift a finger to defend her against the attacks from CAIR. He immediately caved to Walid’s demands.
In fact, Fouts and the City Council went a step further. He told the Detroit News that the city’s “diversity coordinator” contacted the Islamic Society of North America in Warren and plans to start sensitivity training for all commissioners.
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but in the future we want to make sure everybody has proper training and is aware of sensitivity and the importance of diversity, and everything that goes with it,” the News quoted Fouts as saying.
Macomb County resident Tom Mitchell told LeoHohmann.com it is astonishing the amount of power Walid and CAIR wield in Michigan.
“It seems to me they have a complete hold over Warren and Sterling Heights and Macomb County,” he said.
Mitchell said Muslim migrants are expanding their presence in metro Detroit’s suburbs, coming up from Dearborn and Hamtramck. The city of Dearborn is 46 percent Arab and Hamtramck became the first American city to have a Muslim-majority city council in 2016.
They have now penetrated Sterling Heights, which approved a controversial mega-mosque last year over the protests of the vast majority of its citizens.
“That’s the corridor they’re coming up from,” Mitchell said. “It’s unnerving to see all this happening and how fearful the politicians are of Mr. Walid and the voting bloc he represents.”
This is the same Dawud Walid that told C-SPAN a couple of years ago that the most dangerous terrorists in America are not Islamic jihadists but “white men.”
SEE VIDEO of Walid telling C-SPAN on Nov. 22, 2015 that “the number-one perpetrators of terrorism here in the United States of America are not Muslims; they actually are white men.”
In that same interview with C-SPAN Walid rejected the notion that immigrants should try to assimilate into American society.
“I really think it speaks to to the greater fear that a lot of Americans have that there are changing demographics in America and within the next few decades America is going to become a majority-minority nation, meaning there will be more people of color in America than white Americans, and I think this really scares the mess out of people, so they say we shouldn’t speak Arabic or need to change our dress. I think it all comes from a Euro-centric, white-privilege mentality and I do not accept this at all.”
During the same week that Kozlowski was forced to resign for criticizing Islam on Facebook, anti-Sharia activists with Secure Michigan were hosting a visit to Michigan from British activist/journalist Katie Hopkins.
Hopkins sees direct parallels to what is happening in Michigan to the advancing Sharia in her country, where a majority of the cities around London now have Muslim mayors and the media is forbidden from covering the trials of Muslim rape gangs.
“She saw a lot here in Michigan,” Mitchell said.
WATCH Katie Hopkins video below explaining the “template” used for the Islamization of British cities and how a similar model appears to be playing out in Michigan. It starts with immigration and eventually leads to the election of Muslim politicians.
Michigan is in the middle of its primary season in which the nation’s first Muslim candidate for governor, Dr. Abdul al-Sayed, is on the Democrat ballot.
Michigan is also the scene of the nation’s first federal trial of a doctor accused of practicing female genital mutilation.
“We are experiencing creeping Sharia starting in the governor’s contest, the local contest, city contests, most people who live here don’t even know how deeply ingrained the Islamic presence is and how much sway they hold over our politicians,” Mitchell said. “If they don’t know they can’t do anything about it. I live in Sterling Heights and they know I don’t have any fear. I’m here to stay and fight this.”
Mitchell, a U.S. military veteran, said he has absolutely no doubt that if a member of a city board had posted to Facebook that “Christianity is hate,” the remark would have managed to avoid even a snippet of attention from CAIR, the mayor, city council, or local newspaper.
“Absolutely not. I have not a sliver of doubt in my mind,” Mitchell said.
Indeed, one could argue that Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul al-Sayed set the tone for Kozlowski’s post, “Islam is hate.” Sayed said at a debate just a few weeks ago that Muslims “definitely hate” his GOP counterpart, state Sen. Patrick Colbeck.
Colbeck is the only candidate, Republican or Democrat, in the Michigan gubernatorial primary race that has spoken out about the consequences of Islamic non-assimilation in Michigan and the role of CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood offshoots in fostering an attitude of isolation and civilizational jihad. [See Secure Michigan’s questionnaire showing candidates views on Sharia]
Sayed’s expression of Muslim hatred for Colbeck, and ostensibly for every Michigan citizen who supports Colbeck for governor, was virtually ignored by the Detroit media and he suffered no consequences. [Imagine the media uproar of it had been the other way around and the Republican Colbeck had told Dr. Abdul that “Christians definitely hate you!”]
So, what is acceptable speech for a Muslim gubernatorial candidate in Michigan is not acceptable for a Republican candidate. Nor is it acceptable for a non-Muslim woman who sits on a low-level government panel to speak critically of the Islamic religion.
This is a state where it is proven once again that there are two very different standards for what is acceptable speech, one for Republicans and another for liberal Democrats and Muslims.
And what’s worse is that CAIR and Walid, complete with their dubious reputations, have successfully established themselves as the arbiter of what is acceptable public speech in Michigan.
According to the FBI’s own documented evidence, CAIR is the U.S. affiliate of Hamas, which the U.S. State Department lists as a designated foreign terrorist organization. CAIR was one of several unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 federal case, U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation, that sent five Muslim Brotherhood operatives to prison for illegally funneling money to Hamas.
Yet, the Macomb Daily closes its article about Kozlowski’s resignation by singing CAIR’s praises, taking verbiage directly from a CAIR press release that states:
“CAIR-MI is a nonprofit civil rights and advocacy group. It is affiliated with the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Islamic civil liberties group in the United States. The organization’s mission is “to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding through education, mediation, media and the law.”
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Leo Hohmann is a veteran journalist and author of the 2017 book “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.” If you appreciate this type of original, fact-based and independent reporting, please consider a donation of any size to this website. We accept no advertising and are beholden to no one.
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