We drove to the largest mosque in Dearborn, which also serves as a community center.
We had no appointment, but a very nice lady in the office offered to take us around. She showed us the various meeting rooms, and we ended up in the large space where the faithful assemble for prayers. She couldn't have been more gracious.
Driving around that area, we were struck by the fact that unlike Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Mexican neighborhoods elsewhere in America, pretty much all the signs were in English - but most of the proprietors' names had a foreign tang.
We ate a somewhat exotic Middle Eastern lunch at Habib's Kitchen, where everyone was friendly. Service wasn't perfect but the restaurant was nicely decorated and spotless.
Nancy had found on the internet a market specializing in spices. The proprietor was from Yemen, had been in Dearborn for several years, and opened his market just several months ago. As in traditional Arab shops, he gave us sweet tea and dates and took us around his beautifully laid out shop. Since we were initially the only customer in the store, we bought a bit more than we wanted, including several intensely aromatic spices.
Our conclusion was that the Muslims of Dearborn are solidly assimilated and reasonably prosperous. It felt much more like bedrock America than the Hasidic town we visited a couple of weeks ago in upstate New York.
I wondered if all the city fathers of Dearborn were Muslim. Google told us that their mayor is named Jack O'Reilly, who I'm guessing is of a different faith - though at least some of the city council had Islamic-sounding names. Turns out that Muslims make up only about a third of the population of Dearborn - more Lebanese than anything else - and we just happened to be in their section of the city Regardless, this extremely diverse community seems to run very smoothly, with a low crime rate.
Our current campground is in the city of Frankenmuth, Michigan, where we're staying only one night on the way to Traverse City. Frankenmuth, which contains lots of German restaurants, bakeries, and tourist shops, advertises itself as a Bavarian village, and much of the architecture is in that style. To be honest, it's a bit kitschy, but we thought it was fun and overall, attractive.
We took a turn through a Frankenmuth museum and learned about the history of the community. It was founded in 1845 by German Lutheran missionaries looking to teach the faith to the local Indians. Over the years many immigrants from Germany settled there. I found it interesting that the buildings in Frankenmuth were all of standard English design until 1957, when the city government decided to reinvent itself as a Bavarian city - to spend a lot of money in changing its appearance. And what a good decision that was; Frankenmuth is now considered (by somebody) the number one tourist attraction in Michigan.
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