Local religious leaders urged Muslims not to engage with protestors, to be friendly, to ignore unkind words. Self-policing was intense, as mosque leaders did their best to monitor the behavior of "the shabab " (young men). City leaders feared that local Muslims would overreact, that Jones had to be muzzled to protect the community from its own worst impulses, and that if someone killed Jones (this possibility was widely discussed), it would do great harm to the reputation of Dearborn, Detroit, and Muslims in the United States.

XREF: Connects to broader patterns of how communities manage external provocations and self-police to protect group reputation.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 677