Mr. Lang took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and was indicted on charges of assaulting police officers with a bat, among other things. He was released from federal custody last year after the president issued sweeping clemency to all Jan. 6 participants. Since then, he has shown up in Minneapolis, where he said he had hoped to burn a Quran to protest Somali immigrants, and in New York City, where his protest outside Gracie Mansion attracted counterprotesters, including one who threw a homemade bomb that failed to detonate.
In November, he visited Dearborn, where, according to a student newspaper, he tried to burn a Quran but was thwarted by counterprotesters. He returned in May and succeeded in burning a copy of the Muslim holy book, according to The Arab American News, a local paper. During a third visit earlier this month, he was punched in the face and had rocks thrown at him. Local police arrested three men after the attacks, including an Iraqi man who was detained by immigration authorities.
Dearborn, home to Ford Motor Company’s global headquarters, is a city of wide avenues and a preponderance of car dealerships befitting one of the world’s great auto industry hubs. It saw an early wave of Arab workers come to staff the assembly lines in the 1920s.
In recent decades the Arab community has swelled, as immigrants from Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Yemen fled war and instability. Now there are halal meat markets, shawarma shops and coffeehouses scented with cardamom. The Great Commoner, an upscale lunch spot, sells B.L.T.s, but only with turkey or beef bacon.
Many residents — Muslim, Christian and otherwise — describe a city that has generally weathered the demographic changes gracefully. Some Muslim and non-Muslim locals have taken to wearing a T-shirt that says, “I follow shawarma law,” a nod to the city’s vibrant restaurant scene, and a play on right-wing fears that the city has been overtaken by Muslim religious rules known as Shariah.
