Dearborn Leaders Spent Taxpayer Funds to Promote Islam While Discriminating Against Christians and Jews, Lawsuit Alleges

A new lawsuit against the city of Dearborn, Mich., and its mayor alleges city officials have used public funds and city property to celebrate Ramadan, while refusing requests from residents to similarly recognize Christian and Jewish holidays.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Freedom Law Center on behalf of Dearborn resident Margot Cleveland, alleges that not only did Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and other city officials ignore her requests for equality, but they also retaliated against her for speaking out. 

Cleveland, who is a senior legal correspondent for The Federalist, first brought the issue to the attention of local officials in April 2025 after the city displayed “Ramadan Kareem” banners and a “large, lighted crescent moon” on public property. Meanwhile, no displays were erected for Lent, Passover or Easter. 

Cleveland emailed the Dearborn city attorney on April 6, 2025, asking whether Easter and Passover would be given equal recognition, but she received no response.

She later filed a Freedom of Information Act request and found 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.

Several months later, Hammoud lashed out at a Christian pastor who raised concerns during a city council meeting about the planned 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,” Hammoud told the pastor, according to the lawsuit. “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.”

The incident led AFLC to send a letter to Hammoud and the city attorney on Cleveland’s behalf, arguing that “the City of Dearborn has become a hostile place for Christians and Jews.”

The letter asked the city to display banners recognizing Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur alongside its Ramadan banners. But once again, the request went unanswered. 

However, in February 2026, the city unveiled new crescent-moon-and-star light displays on municipal street lights for Ramadan. Hammoud claimed at the time that the display “reflects who we are as a city.” Once again, city officials failed to sponsor a comparable display for any Christian or Jewish holidays.

Cleveland attempted to raise the issue at several city council meetings and in emails to each individual council member. However, the city attorney, apparently acting on the advice of the mayor, told council members not to communicate with her because she was being represented by counsel, the suit alleges. 

Despite her requests, the city council passed its annual budget without allocating any funds for Easter or Passover banners or a menorah, despite a budget surplus. Cleveland tells National Review the city council never explained why.

“In fact, they refused to speak with me, even though I agreed to speak with them without my lawyer and either individually or with the City Attorney (or a private attorney). And I only went to the City Council after my initial request went ignored for months,” she said.

The city of Dearborn’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from National Review.

Cleveland says she is not asking Dearborn to remove its Ramadan banners or religious display, and notes she stressed that point in her initial email to the city.

“I wish my Muslim neighbors a blessed Ramadan, and merely seek equal treatment for Christians and Jews,” she said.

After she first spoke at a city council meeting about the issue, Cleveland says other residents reached out to express similar concerns. One woman told Cleveland she, too, had contacted the city after the banners first appeared and that they “basically ignored her.”

The lawsuit accuses the city’s leaders of violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It further accuses city officials of retaliating against Cleveland in violation of the First Amendment’s free speech clause.

“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.”

That retaliation includes “authorizing the additional installation of lighted Ramadan signs as a direct affront to Plaintiff’s request for Christian and Jewish displays; directing the City Attorney to not communicate with Plaintiff; directing the Chief of Police to not communicate with Plaintiff; directing City Council members not to communicate with Plaintiff, even though they are her representatives in the government; opposing funding for Christian and Jewish religious displays; and excluding Plaintiff from additional Community Meetings,” according to the lawsuit.

Cleveland’s attorneys note the city has faced legal action on several other occasions for its treatment of Christians. A court previously struck down the city’s restriction on a Christian pastor’s distribution of religious literature at a local Arab festival. In another case, the city paid a $300,000 settlement to Christians who were unlawfully arrested for evangelizing at the same festival.

Dearborn is the first and largest Arab-majority city in the U.S. In 2020, 54.5 percent of the population reported Middle Eastern or North African ancestry.

“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.”