In April 2024, Dearborn, Michigan hosted a Quds Day rally whose details—investigated and published by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)—have raised pressing questions among U.S. officials and Jewish community leaders about Iranian soft power, extremism, and the limits of free speech. The annual Quds Day commemorations, conceived in 1979 by Iran’s founding Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, serve as state-directed platforms for condemning Israel and promoting the Islamic Republic’s ideological campaign against the West. Traditionally, these events are marked by anti-Israel and anti-Western rhetoric across Iran and wherever its proxies operate.
MEMRI’s comprehensive report, released days after the event, documented that this year’s rally in Dearborn unfolded away from major media scrutiny. The rally’s lower visibility coincided with increased political and law enforcement attention on extremist gatherings since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel and following President Donald Trump’s renewed crackdown on foreign-linked hate activity in the U.S. Despite the discreet nature of the event, the report revealed that participants openly displayed banners such as “the Zionist entity has no right to exist” and “final victory—the end of Zionism,” and featured speakers with long records of calling for Israel’s destruction.
The central speaker, Osama AbdulGhani, is an influential American figure educated in Iran, whose statements have included calls for annihilating Israel and encouraging others to “finish the job” after the mass killings perpetrated by Hamas in October 2023. AbdulGhani’s speech and rally footage reflected an alignment with Iran’s ideological agenda and communications emanating from leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and regime-backed terror organizations.
Quds Day itself is not merely an occasion for protest against Israeli policies, but a state-endorsed international event designed to promote rejection of Israel’s legitimacy and mobilize activism against Western alliances, notably the United States. In Iran, such rallies are often accompanied by government-orchestrated spectacles—including chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” the burning of flags, and the public glorification of terror organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC. These events have been systematically exported to Iranian-affiliated communities abroad, including select U.S. cities.
Dearborn, home to one of America’s largest Arab populations, has in recent years seen a small but active minority organize pro-Iran events that are at odds with the broader local commitment to coexistence and peace. The majority of residents condemn extremism, but MEMRI’s findings detail how Quds Day events and similar gatherings offer a platform to fringe activists to amplify messages that mirror those found in the town squares of Tehran or Beirut.
The 2024 event was more clandestine than previous years, possibly because of tightening government scrutiny and after the global outcry over the October 7 Hamas massacre—the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust—which saw more than one thousand Israeli civilians killed and scores abducted by the Iranian-backed terror group. The dispersal or concealment of publicity points to fears of exposure and legal risk, as U.S. law permits broad freedom of expression but strictly prohibits material support for terror entities or direct incitement to imminent violence.
MEMRI’s investigation, and growing concerns from Jewish advocacy organizations, have prompted renewed calls for authorities to assess the boundaries between protected speech and criminal incitement—especially where public statements glorify terror attacks that constitute crimes against humanity, or encourage the destruction of Israel, a key U.S. ally.
Security experts and law enforcement have cited Quds Day rallies as a tactic in Iran’s global strategy. By fostering ideological communities on U.S. soil, the Iranian regime and its proxies seek to delegitimize Israel, recruit sympathizers, and potentially facilitate operational support for terror groups. Such mobilization, while often couched as anti-Israel political protest, in practice recycles explicit calls for genocide and violence against Jews—core components of regime ideology in Tehran and a principal feature of IRGC-aligned propaganda.
The October 7 massacre—which Israel responded to with a military campaign to eliminate Hamas infrastructure in Gaza—served as a rallying point not only for Israel’s enemies in the Middle East but also for radical activists abroad. At the Dearborn rally, as detailed in MEMRI’s reporting, speakers and attendees celebrated acts that international law and U.S. policy unequivocally define as terror atrocities, including mass murder, abduction, and torture of civilians. This starkly exposes the ideological and practical linkages between radical activism in America and the objectives of Iranian-backed terror networks.
American Jewish organizations, including community security groups and pro-Israel advocacy bodies, have strongly denounced the event. They stress that such gatherings do not represent legitimate civil discourse but rather echo genocidal rhetoric and incitement that endanger both Jewish and wider communities. Calls have been issued for more proactive monitoring and, where relevant, criminal prosecution of event organizers or participants proven to cross from advocacy into operational support for terrorism.
Officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have reaffirmed their commitment to investigating foreign influence, hate crimes, and illegal support for terror operations. Law enforcement continues to face challenges in delineating between protected speech and actionable incitement, and must balance constitutional freedoms against public safety imperatives. U.S.-Israel intelligence-sharing has played an increasing role in uncovering attempts by the IRGC and its affiliates to coordinate activities in North America.
Analysts agree that Quds Day activity in U.S. cities is part of a wider ideological offensive by Iran and its Axis of Resistance, encompassing Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and certain Iraqi and Syrian militias. The Dearborn incident underscores the ongoing battle not only over territory and security in the Middle East, but also over hearts, minds, and the truth in Western democratic countries.
Moving forward, community leaders and national policymakers are urged to strengthen educational initiatives about Iranian regime tactics, clarify the criminal code around incitement and terror support, and encourage partnerships between law enforcement, civil society, and at-risk community groups.
As Israel persists in a war of self-defense imposed upon it by Iran’s proxies, the international community must reckon with the consequences of permitting open incitement and support for extremism within democratic societies. The Quds Day rally in Dearborn, as revealed by MEMRI, stands as a warning of the broader reach of antisemitic violence and the need for vigilance, clarity, and principled defense of truth and justice wherever such threats appear.
