BREAKING: Lawsuit Filed against City of Dearborn and Mayor for Promoting Islam while Discriminating Against Christians and Jews

(September 17, 2026 – Dearborn, Michigan) – Today, the American Freedom Law Center filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of Margot Cleveland, a Dearborn resident and Senior Legal Correspondent for The Federalist, against the City of Dearborn and its Mayor, Abdullah H. Hammoud.

The lawsuit alleges that City officials spent public funds and used City property to promote and celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan while refusing Cleveland’s repeated requests that the City extend the same recognition to Christian and Jewish holidays — and that Mayor Hammoud and other City officials retaliated against Cleveland for speaking out about the disparity.

According to the Complaint, Cleveland first raised the issue in April 2025, after the City erected “Ramadan Kareem” banners and a large, lighted crescent moon on public property, while no comparable recognition was given to Lent or the approaching Passover and Easter holidays. A subsequent FOIA request revealed that the City had spent public funds on the Ramadan banners and crescent moon display and that the Dearborn Police Department had produced and sold Ramadan-themed shirts bearing the department’s official emblem. Cleveland’s April 6, 2025 email asking the City Attorney to confirm that Easter and Passover would receive equal recognition went unanswered.

The Complaint further alleges that at a September 9, 2025 City Council meeting, Mayor Hammoud told a Christian pastor, who had raised concerns about the renaming of a street in Dearborn in honor of Osama Siblani—a public supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas: “Although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city.”

Days later, AFLC sent a letter to Mayor Hammoud and the City Attorney on Cleveland’s behalf, warning that “the City of Dearborn has become a hostile place for Christians and Jews” and asking the City to display banners recognizing Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur alongside its Ramadan banners. Neither the Mayor nor the City Attorney ever responded. Instead, in February 2026, the City unveiled new crescent-moon-and-star light displays on municipal street lights for Ramadan — with Mayor Hammoud quoted as saying the display “reflects who we are as a city” — while never sponsoring a comparable display for any Christian or Jewish observance.

The Complaint also details months of efforts by Cleveland to raise the issue directly with the Dearborn City Council, which has independent budgetary authority under the City Charter to fund religious-holiday displays. Cleveland alleges that after she raised the issue at City Council meetings and emailed each Council member individually, the City Attorney, at the behest of the Mayor, directed Council members not to communicate with her because she was represented by counsel — even after Cleveland and her attorneys confirmed in writing that Council members were free to speak with her directly. The City Council ultimately passed its annual budget without allocating any funds for Easter or Passover banners or a menorah, despite a budget surplus.

The lawsuit notes that this is not the first time the City of Dearborn’s treatment of non-Muslims has drawn judicial scrutiny. AFLC’s Complaint cites Saieg v. City of Dearborn, 641 F.3d 727 (6th Cir. 2011), in which the Sixth Circuit struck down the City’s restriction on a Christian pastor’s distribution of religious literature at the City’s Arab festival; Acts 17 Apologetics v. City of Dearborn, in which the City ultimately apologized and paid $300,000 to settle claims that Christians were unlawfully arrested for evangelizing at the same festival; and Bible Believers v. Wayne County, 805 F.3d 228 (6th Cir. 2015) (en banc), in which the Sixth Circuit, sitting en banc, held that law enforcement violated the constitutional rights of Christians at the festival.

“The clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that the government may not prefer one religion over another,” said Robert J. Muise, AFLC co-founder and senior counsel. “The City of Dearborn spent taxpayer money to light up its streets and parks for Ramadan while stonewalling a resident who simply asked that Easter, Passover, and other Christian and Jewish holy days be treated the same way. That is a straightforward Establishment Clause violation, and the retaliation our client faced for speaking up about it only compounds the constitutional harm.”

“Dearborn has been down this road before, and it has lost every time,” said David Yerushalmi, AFLC co-founder and senior counsel. “What makes this case especially troubling is that City officials, up to and including the Mayor, responded to a citizen’s respectful request for equal treatment with silence, stonewalling, and outright hostility — including the Mayor’s own words telling a Christian resident he is ‘not welcome’ in his own city. Our client is simply asking the City to treat Christians and Jews as equal citizens.”

The Complaint asserts three claims for relief: retaliation in violation of the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause; a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Cleveland seeks a declaratory judgment that Defendants violated her constitutional rights; a permanent injunction enjoining Defendants’ policy of favoring Muslims and discriminating against Christians and Jews; nominal damages; and an award of attorneys’ fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1988.

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