Michigan Islamic centers receiving government funds spewed anti-American, anti-Jewish rhetoric

Many Michigan Islamic centers have for years preached anti-American and anti-Jewish rhetoric while collectively receiving more than $47 million in federal funding. Videotaped sermons and speeches reveal the deep-seated hatred. 

The videos and federal records regarding taxpayer funds were compiled by the Middle East Forum, which has raised concerns about the “Islamist pulpits” that “preach hatred” in Michigan. 

Just the News reported about some of these Islamic centers on Thursday, including the Islamic Center of Detroit, whose imams and guest speakers called America the “the House of Shaitan [Satan]” and urged Allah to “take the worst revenge upon” Zionists. 

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed visited the mosque earlier this year and was allowed to use it to seek signatures to qualify for his party’s primary, and received a full-throated endorsement from the Islamic imams and scholars associated with it. 

Dozens of politicians attend events

The Islamic Center of Detroit — whose webpage describes itself as a 501(c)(3) charity — was by far the largest recipient of government funds that the Middle East Forum documents, taking in $45 million. The vast majority came through sub-awards from the Department of Agriculture as part of the national school lunch program. 

“We found $45 million in taxpayer funding that went to nine of these institutions that we identified,” Greg Roman, the executive director of the Middle East Forum, told Just the News on Thursday. “And we also were able to find 41 officials from local, county, state, and even the federal government who went to community events at these centers.” 

Roman added, “So one day they're hosting the mayor of Dearborn; the next, the speaker's calling for killing Jews. It's just a juxtaposition that shouldn't work in our democracy.” 

The Islamic Center of Detroit did not respond to questions submitted by Just the News to its online contact portal.

Awarded tens of millions for refugee resettlement, lunch costs 

The Middle East Forum's database catalogs 928 statements from 36 Michigan mosques and Islamic organizations, each tied to a timestamped video. At 16 of those institutions, speakers prayed for victory for the "mujahideen" or called for jihad.

According to the forum's funding tally, drawn largely from federal award records on USAspending.gov, 12 of the institutions took in $47.4 million in public money. The Agriculture Department accounted for $43.7 million, the Department of Homeland Security for $2.4 million and the Department of Health and Human Services for $1 million.

The school lunch money is not a direct federal grant, but the Agriculture Department reimburses states for qualifying meals, and the Michigan Department of Education passes those dollars to participating institutions as sub-awards. The single largest payment to the Islamic Center of Detroit, $31 million, was reported in 2022.

The Detroit center also received two $500,000 refugee resettlement sub-awards from HHS in 2025 and 2026, through Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, as well as about $239,000 from Homeland Security's Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which pays to protect houses of worship from attack.

"Kill them individually, leaving none of them"

During a May 2025 Friday sermon featuring Dr. Muhannad Hakeem, the closing prayer posted on the center's YouTube channel took aim at Israel's prime minister and its people. 

“O Allah, deal with Netanyahu, his soldiers, and his minions, for they cannot escape You. O Allah, count them one by one and kill them individually, leaving none of them,” the prayer said, according to the video and the forum's translation of the Arabic.

One January 2025 sermon closed with a call for God to "destroy the Zionists utterly," and in the same month, Dr. Zulfiqar Shah, an Islamic scholar, told the congregation that as Muslims in the United States they were living in the “House of Shaitan,” or House of Satan. 

“So my respected brothers and sisters, I request you, as Muslims living here in America, in the house of Shaitan [...]” Dr. Shah said, before urging them to “reclaim the narrative” and show how the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were ultimately based on Islamic tradition. 

Public officials have nonetheless honored the center. Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist presented a 25th anniversary tribute last December, the same month that Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell sponsored a resolution recognizing the milestone. 

Similar rhetoric at other centers that received taxpayer funds

The Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights received a $331,155 federal disaster assistance grant in 2024. At a July 2024 program, a speaker defended the Lebanese Hezbollah, a designated terrorist group and proxy of Iran. “Hezbollah is actually not bad. Hezbollah is a very good thing,” the speaker said. That group is also a registered 501(c)(3) and received only 2 out of 5 stars from Charity Navigator.

At the Islamic Center of East Lansing, which received a $46,899 Federal Communications Commission internet grant in both 2023 and 2024, a leader prayed during a March 2025 Ramadan service: “O Allah, deal with the aggressor Jews. O Allah, count them in number and kill them dispersed, and leave not one of them.” That organization is also a registered 501(c)(3) but unrated by charity watchdogs.

The video has since been made private, but the forum retained a copy. 

The Islamic Organization of North America in Warren received $450,000 in Homeland Security nonprofit security grants in 2023. A lecture posted to its channel in 2013 predicted the “final annihilation of Jews at the hands of Hazrat Masih, Hazrat Mahdi, and Muslims, final extermination. They will be exterminated.” That organization is also a registered 501(c)(3) but unrated by charity watchdogs.

The Islamic Association of Greater Detroit in Rochester Hills likewise collected $450,000 in nonprofit security grants. In an Urdu-language lecture, a speaker said that married adulterers and anyone who “apostatizes from the religion” face death, according to the forum's translation. Gilchrist and then-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan attended a 2024 ribbon-cutting for its expanded mosque. That mosque/community center is also a tax-exempt entity, and is listed but not rated by Charity Navigator.