As Islamic groups continue launching terror attacks around the world, and demonstrating violently against the Pope’s call for dialog, Agence France Presse invites us all to a Ramadan pity party in the most radical Muslim community in America: US Muslims celebrate Ramadan with heavy hearts. (Hat tip: Amy.)

DEARBORN, United States (AFP) - During what should be a joyous time of fellowship, worship and reflection, many Muslims streamed into the Islamic Center of America on the first night of Ramadan with heavy hearts.

Sick of the suspicious glances, slurs and false accusations of being terrorists, they feel like second-class citizens in their own country.

“I feel comfortable at home but once I leave there, and leave my community, I feel like I’m in a whole different atmosphere right now,” 18-year-old Zeinab Zahreldin, a freshman at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, told AFP late Saturday. “It’s not at all comfortable.”

UPDATE at 9/25/06 8:13:44 am:

I feel for young Zeinab. It must be very uncomfortable indeed to be around infidels who don’t want Israel destroyed, and who think Hizballah is a terrorist gang: Lebanese-Americans Are Angry and Anxious.

Daily protests occur in Dearborn. At one recent demonstration, organized by the Congress of Arab-Americans, about 1,000 people attended. College-age men asked, in call and response fashion, “Who is your army?” Protestors responded: “Hezbollah.” “Who is your leader?” they were asked. “Nasrallah,” the chanters responded. Many carried placards of the Hezbollah leader. A few days earlier at an even larger demonstration, more than 15,000 turned out, about half of Dearborn’s Arab community.

Those who regularly attend the demonstrations tend to be the most strident.

“Oh, Jews, remember Khaibar,” the marchers chant. “The army of the Prophet will return.”

The line is a reference to Khaibar, a Jewish town north of Medina that, according to Islamic tradition, was overtaken by the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. Once defeated, the surviving Jews of Khaibar were forced into serfdom. Two decades later, they were expelled from the Arabian peninsula.

Abed Hammoud came to Dearborn from southern Lebanon in 1990. His hometown is just a few miles from the Israeli border. His day job is assistant county prosecutor, but his passion is advocating on behalf of the Congress of Arab-American organizations.

Hammoud regards Israeli airstrikes as “war crimes and atrocities” — attacks he does not hesitate to compare with Nazi Germany.