Officials with the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations are calling for an end to what they describe as anti-Muslim hate speech after receiving death threats at its Canton Township office.
CAIR-MI said in a release Monday that its office regularly receives harassing emails and social media messages, often multiple times a day. But the harassment escalated last week when the group received three death threats on three consecutive days, shortly after anti-Muslim activist Jake Lang appeared in Dearborn, according to the release.
The local chapter of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization said the threats were reported to Canton Township police and the matter is under investigation.
CAIR did not provide additional details. Township police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Officials noted the threats coincided with what the Washington Post reported was a wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric online following Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's victory in the Aug. 4 primary.
"Death threats directed at a civil rights organization are an unacceptable, and inevitable, result of manufactured anti-Muslim hate," said Amy Doukoure, CAIR-MI lead staff attorney, in the release.
"Political disagreements and public debate must never be used to justify threats of violence against Muslims, Muslim institutions, or those who defend the rights of American Muslims. We urge elected officials, community leaders, media figures and members of the public to reject inflammatory rhetoric and make clear that hate and intimidation have no place in Michigan or anywhere in our nation."
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CAIR's most recent civil rights report documented 8,683 anti-Muslim bias complaints nationwide in 2025, the highest number the group has recorded since it began publishing such reports in 1996.
CAIR-MI urged law enforcement authorities to investigate any credible threats and called on public officials as well as community leaders to condemn anti-Muslim rhetoric and efforts to intimidate Muslim Americans and their advocates.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan Muslim group reports death threats