A resident of Dearborn, Michigan, accused the city of promoting Islam with city funds while discriminating against other religions.
The city funded decorations for the Islamic religious celebration of Ramadan while ignoring requests for equal recognition for Christian and Jewish holidays, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday. Additionally, the suit accused the city and Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat, of violating the constitutional rights of non-Muslims.
“By selectively permitting and promoting religious expression for Muslims but denying similar expression for Christians and Jews, as set forth in this Complaint, Defendants have conveyed and effected governmental preference for one faith tradition over another,” argues the lawsuit filed by Margot Cleveland, a Dearborn resident and senior legal correspondent for The Federalist.
Dearborn is home to the largest per capita Muslim population in the United States and more than 50% of its residents have roots in the Middle East or North Africa. Over the weekend, federal agents arrested a former intelligence officer under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who was hiding out in the city.
Cleveland’s lawsuit, filed by the American Freedom Law Center, said that she was in downtown Dearborn in April 2025 when she noticed city-sponsored banners celebrating Ramadan and a crescent moon display erected in a public park.
Through subsequent public records requests, Cleveland found that the city spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on the religious decorations and created Ramadan-themed T-shirts for the police department. Cleveland said the decorations constituted “a governmental endorsement and promotion of the Islamic faith.”
Other records revealed that Hammoud held a private religious event paid for by city funds.
Cleveland’s suit said the city “has never commissioned a comparable City-sponsored street light, banner, or park display program to mark Easter, Passover, Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or any other Christian or Jewish observance.”
The lawsuit also said that Hammoud was openly hostile to Christians. It quoted one viral exchange where the mayor told a Christian pastor who spoke in opposition to naming a street in the city after a supporter of designated terrorist organizations that he was not welcome in the city.
“And 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 . . . because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence,” Hammoud said.
Cleveland’s suit claims Hammoud violated her First Amendment speech rights by directing city officials not to speak with her and by not providing equal recognition for Christian or Jewish holidays. The Daily Wire reached out to the city for comment.
Islam’s growing presence in Michigan has become more established in recent years and has become a focus with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s bid to be the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.
Last month, the sheik of a mosque in Dearborn Heights declared that Islam and the Shiite faith are “coming to America” and said its adherents would help “build America.”
“We will build America on the basis of moral civilization and Islam,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Yassine. “What they have is no civilization. It is nothing but worldly life, nothing but technology. For them, civilization means killing nations and plundering their resources, even if it means killing all the people.”
