Crime & Safety

Man Disenchanted with Islam Confesses to Dearborn Qur'an Burnings

Ali Hassan Al-Asadi claims he's burned about a dozen Islamic holy books because a local Muslim defrauded him of a large sum of money and "belittled, humiliated and hit (him) with shoes" when confronted.

A Detroit man has claimed responsibility for a spate of Qur’an burnings in Dearborn said he did so because of his growing disenchantment with local Muslims, who he claimed refused to help him with financial difficulties.

Ali Hassan Al-Asadi, 51, a native of Iraq, was arrested last month outside the Karbalaa Islamic Center in Dearborn, burning the holy book while also holding a wooden club, the Detroit Free Press reports.

In a news release, the Dearborn Police Department said Qur’an burnings were reported on June 10 and twice on June 25. Two of the burnings occurred at the mosque, located at 15332 Warren, and a third occurred on Chase south of Tireman,

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Officers who responded to one of the June 25 events described Al-Asadi was “very upset” and said witnesses were able to distract him long enough to extinguish the fire.

Al-Asadi confessed to burning the Qur’an “because he was upset with the imams and Muslims at local mosques who refused to help him with several financial problems he was facing.”

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Dearborn Police Lt. Douglas Topolski told the Free Press that Al-Asadi claimed “a high-ranking official in the mosque defrauded him out of a large sum of money, and when he asked for it, he was belittled, humiliated and hit with shoes.”

Al-Asadi, a trained physician who claims to have developed “severe psychological trauma anxiety” disorder while treating Iraqi soldiers in the Iran-Iraq wars of the 1980s, is on disability. He came to the U.S. as a political refugee in the 1990s and has converted to Christianity, he told the Free Press.

He told the newspaper he had burned about a dozen Qur’ans at various locations.

The June 10 burning occurred four days before Qur’an burning pastor Terry Jones of Florid was scheduled to visit Dearborn at a rally to protest what he and others in his anti-Islamic group, Stand Up America Now, believe is the implementation of Sharia Law in the United States.

City leaders implored local Muslims and others to ignore Jones and Gov. Rick Snyder praised the city’s “calm response” to the events two days later, and also said the residents set a tone in dealing with conflict that should be modeled around the state.

Al-Asadi pled guilty to charges of littering and the release of soot, both misdemeanors. He was released on $300 cash bond, police said in the news release, and will be sentenced at 8 a.m. on Aug. 5 in 19th District Court.


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