DEARBORN — What was supposed to be a quiet, traditional Easter egg hunt taking place on Saturday, April 12 at the Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church has now turned into a national media frenzy, after a local parent complained about flyers being distributed at local public schools.

The chain of events began last Thursday, when the Detroit Free Press published an article titled “Muslim parents upset over flyer promoting church’s Easter egg hunt,” written by Niraj Warikoo. However, the article only featured one parent complaining about the flyer; Majed Moughni, a local lawyer and administrator of the Facebook page “Dearborn Area Community Members.”

In the article, Moughni said his children were distraught over the flyers being distributed to promote the church’s “Eggstravaganza” event, stressing the doctrine of separation of church and state. 

“It really bothered my two kids,” Moughni told the Detroit Free Press. “My son was like, ‘Dad, I really don’t feel comfortable getting these flyers, telling me to go to church. I thought churches are not supposed to mix with schools.’”

The story received heavy backlash from a wide spectrum of internet users. Hundreds of negative comments were directed towards Moughni and the Detroit Free Press by local Arab Americans, with most of them pointing out that the article was alarmingly misleading. Debates and attacks ensued on Moughni’s Facebook page in the days following its publication.

Under the comments section on the Detroit Free Press article, dozens of hurtful comments were directed towards the local Muslim community. Many local Muslim Americans also pointed the finger at Warikoo, suggesting that he may have had an ulterior motive to shine a negative light on the community. 

Internet users pointed out that Warikoo has displayed questionable behavior as a reporter at the Detroit Free Press previously. Civil rights leaders in the past have written a letter to the publisher of the newspaper out of concerns that Warikoo was intentionally misrepresenting the local Arab and Muslim community. 

Warikoo has also made concerning comments targeting the community via his Twitter account. 

“The writer Niraj is a bigger disaster than this disaster Mr. Moughni. Niraj is notorious for fueling anger at our community,” said one Facebook user. 

Warikoo did not return calls made by The Arab American News, but his article has since been modified, replacing the word ‘parents’ with ‘parent.’ 

However, by Saturday evening, the original version of the story had caught the attention of national media outlets, with Fox News and Yahoo! falsely reporting that multiple parents had launched complaints against the church.   

Community leaders organized a gathering outside of the Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning to show solidarity between local Muslims and Christians. 

Those in attendance included The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani, as well as representatives from The Arab Civil Rights League (ACRL), the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC-MI), the Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC), the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC), local business leaders, religious and political activists, and Dearborn Board of Trustees President Hussein Berry, among others.  

“We’re here to support the church as Muslims and Arabs,” said Siblani, standing next to church pastor Neeta Nichols. “We believe the church is doing the right thing bringing the community together, bringing our children together so we can understand each other and love each other.”

Nichols told reporters that she was taken aback by Moughni’s complaints and the slew of publicly that has since put a spotlight on the church.

“It’s designed to be an opportunity to invite the community to come for a day of activity. There is not a religious component to this event,” said Nichols. “Part of our ministry in Dearborn is to invite the community to let them know we’re here. We’re offering various kinds of programming, fun opportunities, so that we can be engaged with the community.”

Samer Jafer, a local Arab American parent who brought three of his children to the church on Sunday, told The Arab American News that he was disappointed with the media’s spin on the story. 

“It’s a shame that the media will latch on to this individual’s opinion. Muslims are not against Easter egg hunts or the celebration of Easter. All my family, friends and the community members that I have spoken to completely disagree with his (Moughni’s) stance,” Jafer stated. “We are here in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters. This country is supposed to be the land of the free, you can believe what you want and celebrate what you want.” 

On Monday, in perhaps what was perceived as the worst set back of the week by many, Moughni appeared on the FOX News program ‘Hannity,’ hosted by Sean Hannity. Along with commentator Bob Beckel, the three strayed away from the topic of the flyer and instead engaged in a heated debate about the perception of Muslim Americans in the national media.

Many Facebook users felt that Moughni’s appearance on the show was a trap set up by the network and Moughni had fallen for the bait.  Facebook users pointed out that Moughni did not stand up for the community when Beckel had made malicious and untrue accusations. 

Amal Hammoud Berry, a local resident and frequent commenter on Moughni’s Facebook page, told The Arab American News that she believes Moughni’s actions in the last week have set the community back an entire decade. 

She notes that it was hypocritical for Moughni to claim separation of state and church when Dearborn Public Schools have modified their system to accommodate the local Muslim community in recent years.

“They aren’t required to give us Halal food and three days off for the Eid just because we can’t decide which day to celebrate. They don’t have to change Christmas vacation and call it ‘winter break’ or call Easter vacation ‘spring break’ just so they aren’t offending anyone,” Berry says. “He took it upon himself to speak for an entire community. It wasn’t a well thought out plan and he underestimated the backlash that happened.”

Berry says that she will be taking her two children to the church’s event on Saturday. She says Easter egg hunts have always been a common traditional practice for her Muslim family and friends. 

“It was something we did as children in my family and something I do with my kids. I look at it more as a culture thing. Like Santa is for Christmas, the bunny is for Easter. It’s nothing more than an activity for the kids to have fun with. There is nothing religious about it at all,” Berry adds.

Imam Mohammad Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom (IHW) in Dearborn Heights told The Arab American News that he was frustrated with many aspects of the events that transpired in the last week. 

IHW has been a staple in promoting interfaith community events. Just this week, they held a day-long conference at the mosque that included a turnout from both the Christian and Jewish communities.

“Although I disagree with the church and school passing out the flyer, I disagree even more with the way some individuals reacted to the matter. That has hurt our community, our faith and our image,” Elahi says. “The reason why we have interfaith is to discuss how to deal with controversial matters like this. We can solve the problem in a dignified way and turn the challenge into an opportunity for the Muslim community to improve our image.”

Elahi says that his mosque has done outreach with multiple congregations in the Detroit metro area and he would be interested in collaborating with the Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church as well. Elahi and other interfaith leaders have already discussed bringing all parties involved in the controversy together for a meeting.

Throughout the week, local Muslim and Arab American leaders appeared on several media outlets in attempts to reverse the media’s spin on the story and counteract Moughni’s stance. Siblani and other leaders spoke with WXYZ, WJR Radio, the Detroit News and M-Live.   

The leaders encouraged local parents to bring their children to the Easter egg hunt taking place on Saturday, April 12. Pastor Nichols welcomed the entire community to participate, but expressed concerns that there might not be enough Easter eggs for the children. Since then, a total of $500 has been donated to the church by local community leaders to help purchase more eggs.

Parents who are interested in participating in the Easter egg hunt on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. can call the church to RSVP at 313.563.4800 or email office@cherryhillchurch.org.