In Dearborn, provocateurs have held anti-Islam rallies, attempted to burn the Qur’an and rile residents for clickbait

White nationalist and rightwing agitators recently descended on Dearborn, Michigan, to hold an anti-Islam rally at which they attempted to burn a Qur’an and manufacture controversy over the city’s large Arab-American population. But the protest has been dismissed by local leaders as a cheap publicity stunt aimed at generating money and clicks for far-right influencers.

But there is little doubt the Michigan city has become a repeated target for the publicity-hungry far-right because it holds the US’s highest percentage of Arab-American residents. Similar provocateurs have marched with a pig’s head on a pole at an Arab-American fair. Meanwhile, Christian evangelists regularly attempt to convert Muslim children at parks or outside schools.

The latest group of Trump-allied influencers appears emboldened by the anti-Muslim current running through much of the president’s second administration. Popular conservative influencers like Cam Higby, Jake Lang, and members of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA partook in the 18 November rally at which some shouted racist abuse, unfurled a banner that read “Americans Against Islamification”, or smacked a Qur’an with a slab of bacon.