After the Sterling Heights City Council agreed to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department and allow a third mosque to be built in the city, this time right in the midst of a neighborhood populated by Christian refugees who escaped persecution from Islam, some residents said they planned to move out of the city. Sterling Heights, Michigan, is home to the nation’s second largest community of Chaldean and Assyrian Christians, many of them coming directly from Iraq
where their families were the victims of a genocide by ISIS, al-Qaida and other Islamic militants over the past 50 years. While understandable, picking up and moving in the wake of a mosque approval is exactly the wrong response, say Michigan activists. “This is our city and our country and our community,” said Tom Mitchell, a 52-year resident of Sterling Heights who says the council’s vote gave him renewed determination to help support his Chaldean neighbors. READ MORE
