SAY WHAT? — PART I

We’re pretty sure we heard state House Rep. Christine Greig (D-Farmington, Farmington Hills), who is also the House Minority Leader, audibly gasp. Greig is term-limited this election go-round, in which three Democrats who served together on the city council fought to represent their party to fill her seat, with Samantha Steckloff the primary victor. Her general election opponent, Republican Mitch Swoboda, just made an uphill battle even tougher for himself in the traditionally Democratic district (the three Dems had a combined total of 18,456 primary votes to Swoboda’s 6,680), by posting on Facebook on August 29 that “2300 years ago, long before Islam, Arabs discovered that forcing people to cover their nose and mouths, broke their will and individuality and depersonalized them...The mask is the beginning of deleting individuality,” with a photo of a blonde woman wearing a mask with a lock and chain attached. The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) condemned Swoboda’s post. “We are extremely concerned that during the global pandemic of COVID-19, in which our nation has suffered the greatest amount of deaths, that Swoboda is sharing Islamophobic information about Muslims to make a political statement against wearing face masks,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid.