A woman from Oregon who burned a Quran outside a Dearborn mosque says she plans to return to the city by the end of the summer to again burn the holy book for Muslims.
Sorbeah Almosa lit on fire a Quran at about 4 a.m. on July 13 on a sidewalk outside the Al-Huda Islamic Association, a mosque on Warren Avenue, as a protest against what she said was extremist statements made at rallies in Dearborn in recent months. Almosa is outspoken against Islam, claiming that Islamic law, sharia, poses a threat to the U.S. She has taken part in various conservative protests in Oregon in recent years.
“I will be back,” Almosa told the Free Press Wednesday. She said the next time she’s in Dearborn, she intends to protest against Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and again burn a Quran because he issued a public alert about her the day before she burned the Quran.
Her Quran-burning was the latest event in Dearborn over the past 15 years involving anti-Islam protesters targeting the city, which has the highest percentage of Arab Americans among all cities in the U.S. Most of the Arab American population in Dearborn are Muslim. In previous years, demonstrators against Islam were met with protests and the hurling of objects in a couple of cases, but there were none this time.
Almosa said that officers approached her when she was walking towards the mosque during the early morning hours of July 13. There were nine officers in five cars in total who eventually arrived, she said. A Dearborn officer spoke with her about her plans and then allowed her to burn the Quran she had with her.
“That’s protected First Amendment speech,” the officer said on a video Almosa recorded and posted on X. “If you burn like the Quran or Bible or American flag, that is First Amendment protected speech.”
The officer asked her if she had any accelerant with her, saying he wanted to make sure the fire didn’t spread and cause damage. Almosa said no, and then moments later, burned the book.
“I finally made it out to Dearborn, Michigan,” she said in a video, holding a Quran that was ablaze. “Got cop protection while I burn this Quran ouside of Al-Huda.”
She flew back to Portland a few hours later.
Almosa was not charged, arrested or given a ticket by police. In the past, Dearborn authorities have been more strict in dealing with anti-Islam protesters. In 2011, a Christian pastor from Florida known for burning Qurans, Terry Jones, was put on trial after trying to hold a rally in Dearborn, briefly jailed, and then ordered to not protest outside a Dearborn mosque, the Islamic Center of America, for three years. During his trial, then Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad testified that a Muslim cleric in Dearborn told him of his concern of the potential reaction of youth, saying that for some Muslims, burning a Quran is worse than a thousand deaths. In 2010, some Christian missionaries were arrested by Dearborn police at the Arab International Festival for disturbing the peace; after they filed a lawsuit, the city of Dearborn publicly apologized to them in 2013 and reached a settlement. In another case, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a California pastor whom the city tried to prevent from handing out pamphlets.
A city spokesman, Hassan Abbas, confirmed Almosa did burn the Quran at 4 a.m. and left shortly afterwards. Cpl. Dan Bartok of Dearborn police did not return messages seeking details about the incident.
After Almosa arrived in metro Detroit, she posted a video on X at about 6:30 p.m. July 12 of her driving outside Al Huda mosque and a mosque in the south end of Dearborn, the American Moslem Society. About an hour later, Mayor Hammoud issued a public alert on his Facebook account the evening of July 12 warning of her.
“Please be vigilant and report any sightings of the individual pictured below,” Hammoud wrote, with photos of her beneath. “She has recently arrived in Dearborn and expressed intent to burn Qurans. There have been reports of her driving around neighborhoods and surveilling religious institutions.”
Hammoud added that the city has increased police patrols at houses of worship.
“For your safety, please do not approach her. Instead, contact the Dearborn Police Department immediately if you have any information,” Hammoud wrote.
Almosa said she was not aware the mayor had put out an alert about her until she was back in Oregon.
“You’ve made it incredibly dangerous for me,” she said of Hammoud’s alert. “I was not aware of this. And he had notified the police and the police were at that particular location waiting for me. They were already there by the time I got there. And I don’t know how long they had been there because I told nobody what time I’d be going there.”
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Almosa said that when she walked on the sidewalk toward the mosque, a police officer approached, surprising her.
Almosa said she’s going to speak to an attorney and research Michigan laws before she returns to Dearborn to protest against Hammoud, whether outside City Hall or another address, and intends to burn the Quran while doing it.
“So long as I’m not on his property, I can stand on the sidewalk and yell at him, I can go to City Hall, I can go to where he works,” she said.
A message left with Al-Huda mosque was not returned. In a separate case in 2022, Ahmed Taqi, 37, of Dearborn, set fire to a part of the mosque and then was killed by police after he had fired first at them, police said. Taqi had mental health challenges, Hammoud said at the time. The FBI ruled out any ideological of sectarian motivations.
Contact Niraj Warikoo:nwarikoo@freepress.com or X @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oregon woman burns Quran in Dearborn, plans to return to protest again