Bloomfield Hills church cancels Islamophobic 9/11 event after backlash
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Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church canceled an anti-Muslim event scheduled for the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks after drawing condemnation from Michigan lawmakers. The church announced the move in a one-sentence email, according to The Detroit Free Press.
The two-day event — titled "9/11 forgotten? Is Michigan surrendering to Islam?" — was originally scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The event was to host speakers Shahram Hadian, pastor and founder of the Truth in Love Project Ministry, and Jim Simpson, who has been labeled an "extremist" blogger by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Michigan lawmakers swiftly denounced the event, including statements from state Reps. Abdullah Hammoud and Mari Manoogian, and U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell and Andy Levin.
In 2016, Simpson was the keynote speaker at the Oakland County Business Roundtable, where he was introduced by former Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson — part of a year that saw a spike in Islamophobia in metro Detroit following the ugly presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
The church's pastor Donald McKay defended the event to Fox 2, telling the station, "I am an Islamophobe, I wear that badge proudly."
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Leyland “Lee” DeVito is the editor in chief of Detroit Metro Times since 2016. His writing has also been published in CREEM, VICE, In These Times, and New City. He once asked porn star Stormy Daniels to spank him with an issue of Metro Times. She obliged.
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