DEARBORN, Mich. — Eighteen months after the nation's largest Arab American community helped propel Donald Trump to a second term as president, the prayers have not stopped.
In Dearborn, just outside of Detroit, families wait restlessly for word from relatives abroad, hoping they are safe, and mourning those already lost.
What began as anguish over the war in Gaza has widened. In a city with a large Lebanese American population, the expanding conflict in Lebanon has made the crisis even more personal. That anxiety is colliding with pressures at home, including heightened immigration enforcement, a strained economy and rising tensions after a recent attack on a synagogue.
“The community now sees that it could have got worse — and it did get worse,” said Nabih Ayad, founder of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “But the community was just so desperate.”
The national spotlight that once fixed on Dearborn during the 2024 election has faded. The mass protests have quieted. But inside mosques, at vigils and around family tables, conversations reveal a city still reeling, and one beginning to reckon with what comes next.
A community reckoning
Last week, Ayad joined other Arab American leaders for a meeting with The Associated Press. Many of them had been deeply involved in conversations with both Democrat Kamala Harris' and Trump's campaigns as each courted their vote during the last presidential race.
“We get this all the time by media, okay? It’s basically, ‘How’d that decision go? How’d that work out for you?’” Ayad said.
Among the nearly dozen leaders — ranging from county commissioner to state lawmakers to business owners — there was wide agreement that life had not improved since Trump was sworn into office.
But there was little regret. Many said Democrats did not offer a viable alternative because Harris, the vice president at the time, did not distance herself enough from President Joe Biden's support for Israel's war in Gaza.
Few of them plan to support Trump or Republicans in the future.
“I think November 3rd couldn’t come soon enough,” said Wayne County Commissioner Sam Baydoun, referring to the midterm elections.
War with Iran engulfs Lebanon
After the United States joined with Israel to attack Iran, the conflict widened to include Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.
A fragile, two-week ceasefire announced last week did not extend to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, meaning the violence continues there. The war has displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon and killed more than 2,000, including more than 500 women, children and medical workers. Lebanon and Israel held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington.
Michigan is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and nearly a quarter are of Lebanese descent. In Wayne County, which includes Detroit and Dearborn, about a third of the roughly 140,000 residents identified as Middle Eastern or North African in the 2020 Census are Lebanese.
For many, that means constant worry.
“I have family in Lebanon. I have an uncle with his wife and his kids and his grandkids. And to be honest with you, I’m just waiting for the call from overseas saying that he’s perished,” said Assad Turfe, a Wayne County official who was among the few Arab Americans to endorse Harris in 2024.
“This is the kind of environment that this community is living with every day,” he added. “That story is in the minds and the hearts of almost everyone that lives in this community.”
Inside mosques and outside vigils
On a Friday in Dearborn Heights, over a hundred worshippers packed into a mosque from the afternoon's prayer. An imam opened by talking about the conflict in the Middle East and deriding Trump's comments that a "whole civilization will die" if Iran did not agree to his terms.
“Political leaders are supposed to build the bridges, not promote scorched earth policies,” the imam said.
It was a reminder of how deeply the conflict has seeped into daily life, and how places of worship have become spaces not just for prayer.
That night, Peace Park in Dearborn filled with Lebanese flags as a vigil took over the main square.
Children sat on steps draped in American flags, holding photos of children killed in the war. Nearby, speakers took turns describing a conflict that has stretched across presidencies with little sign of easing.
“What we have witnessed is not just another headline. It is not distant. It is not abstract,” Suehaila Amen, a Lebanese American, said at the vigil.
“We are a community in mourning," she said, "and we have been mourning for a long, long time."
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