Life in America’s Most Islamic Cities: New at Reason

In Reason‘s October issue, Shikha Dalmia explores the actual lives of—instead of fearful stereotypes about—Muslim citizens living in the communities of Hamtramck, and Dearborn, Michigan:

The standard rap against Muslims is that they are fundamentally incapable of embracing liberal democratic values because Shariah—Islamic religious law—rejects the separation of religion and state and imposes regressive sexual norms, especially on women. Therefore, the argument goes, towns like Hamtramck and Dearborn will always be in tension with American values, incubating terrorists in the middle of the United States. In this view, Dearborn will become another Molenbeek, the Belgian city where many jihadi attacks have been hatched, including the recent ones in Brussels and Paris.

But if you set aside the lens of Molenbeek and look at life as it is actually lived in Hamtramck and Dearborn, an entirely different picture emerges. Molenbeek is the second-poorest borough in Brussels. It has been caught in a downward spiral of poor education, high crime, and nonexistent social mobility. In 2014, 27 percent of Molenbeek’s working-age population, close to 50 percent of which is Muslim, was unemployed. The opposite cycle is unfolding in Hamtramck and Dearborn even though, remarkably enough, they are ensconced right next to Detroit, the closest thing to Molenbeek’s depressive economy in America.

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