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Dawud Walid, the director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), shared a video on his YouTube channel on April 9, 2024 in which he spoke about the backlash to the viral MEMRI TV clip showing protestors chanting "death to America" at an Al-Quds Day rally in Dearborn, Michigan. Walid said that it was only one individual who started the chant, adding: "[I'm] not saying anyone who was involved in this is an informant or agent provocateur but in times like this education and knowledge is needed." He elaborated: "We have to be aware of informants that are in our midst and agents provocateurs in the Muslim community." He also stated that he does not like the slogan and that he thinks it is despicable and counterproductive.
Dawud Walid: "I would like to address something in regards to media stories that have come about regarding a rally in Dearborn, Michigan just this past Friday, in which there was a person in attendance who began to shout a chant – 'Death to America' – that was said in Arabic. Then after his chant, there was MEMRI, which is a Zionist organization, [which] took the video, circulated the video, which received millions of views now. Fox News has picked it up.
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"I'm not saying that any person who has been involved in this is an informant or provocateur, but in times like this, education and knowledge is needed.
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"Without going into names, I spoke to the people that were involved with this particular day, and what I was told, from eyewitnesses – eye and ear witnesses – there were taunts going on, and there was this individual, a male, a white male, in the audience, who started actually saying the chant, or the slogan, in Arabic.
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"The people told [me] that they actually had one of the organizers from the committee who actually went to the guy and told him: 'Stop doing that. That's not welcome here.' But then of course the video was captured by MEMRI, put online, and Fox News got ahold of it, and it was spun as if there was this big protest that was going on in Dearborn, Michigan, by so-called jihadists or extremists that were calling for the death of America, meaning Americans, and death for Israel, meaning Jewish people.
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"We have to be aware. I'm not saying this individual – this category. But generally speaking, we have to be aware of informers that are amidst [us] and agent provocateurs in the Muslim community. People who may try to get us to say things and rile up people in order to collect information to give to a government, be it this government or a foreign government, or can be use to entrap people.
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"The 'death to America' chant – this is something that did not start in America. This is something that started in the so-called Middle East. [It] is not talking about death to all Americans , but death to what is perceived to be American oppression and American war crimes. I don't like the slogan. I think it is despicable. I think it is counterproductive.
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