The Pantheon Club, located on Michigan Ave. next to La Shish.

DEARBORN — The city is the capital of Arab America, but it is also home to several venues that feature topless dancers.

Inside Dearborn’s strip clubs, among the loud party music, dim lighting and topless dancers, Arab American customers and entertainers can be seen reveling in the erotic atmosphere, even while eating halal food.

The relationship between these clubs and the Arab American population is complex. While some people consider such establishment sinful and harmful to the city, many appreciate their entertainment value.

Arabs in strip clubs

For their safety and privacy, the names of all club patrons interviewed below have been changed at their request. 

Kareem, a local businessman, said he regularly visits strip clubs because they’re places he can go with the intention of only looking at women in a sexual manner and which they permit. 

“I feel it’s an appropriate place for someone to see this form of erotic art without any guilt,” he said. 

He said he is always in fear of being discovered at one of the clubs. Before taking a seat at the club, he said he and his friends scan the place for anyone they might know, as he said it is highly shameful for Arabs to be seen in such places.

Kareem said local strip clubs thrive from an Arab customer base, because he knows many in the community who enjoy going there – a testament to the tolerance of Arab Americans and the absurdity of the claim that Sharia law exists in Dearborn. 

For many, Kareem said, these clubs offers an avenue for them to satisfy their sexual desires without the social hassles and complications of building a relationship.

He pointed out that despite a taboo on viewing pornography, the Arab world has a one of the highest rates of pornography related searches in the world, according to Google Trends data.

Likewise, “there is a duality on sexual desire in the community,” Kareem said. “Publically, we denounce strip clubs, but we make these clubs thrive.”

Sarah, a local college student, said although it is a contradiction in Islam, she and her female friends regularly visit strip clubs.

“We tend to drink, eat, just have a little fun and talk to each other and just to be entertained,” Sarah said.

She said she does not view topless performers as disgraceful, but as women who are trying to put food on the table and pay for their college tuitions. 

“Some people think its degrading that they’re going up there and dancing like that, but for me it’s kind of empowering in a way,” she added.

Sarah said she has even bought a few private dances with the performers and one of them turned out to be a Muslim.

When Sarah asked her what her parents would do if they knew of her profession, the dancer replied, ” ‘it’s haram. They would kill us,'” Sarah said. 

Mike, an Arab American bank teller, said he likes going to strip clubs with his friends, not necessarily for the topless dancers, but for the drinks and the food.

He said when they order off the menu, they order halal food.

Mike said the option of halal food is important to them, because of their upbringing and health risks associated with non-halal meat.

He added that he would feel guilty if he saw someone who knew him at the club.

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, said strip clubs cause a moral crisis in the community. 

Elahi condemned such establishments and said they distract youth and waste their time, instead of encouraging them to do something more constructive.

“It creates moral chaos in the character of the individual,” Elahi said.

The imam said club goers might receive temporary pleasure, but may become more stressed and depressed in the long run. 

As for the gentlemen club owners, Elahi advised that just making money is not enough to make a business a good one.

“What is the price of preying on people for money?” Elahi asked.

“Sanctuary”

An NBA player was allegedly caught with a loaded gun outside a Dearborn strip club this week.  

As owners of these entertainment venues grapple with the stigma of running a taboo establishment that often invites criminal behavior and invites eagle eyed policing, they constantly strive to uphold their reputations and enhance experiences for customers, staff and neighboring businesses.

A manager at The Pantheon Club on Michigan Avenue, who wished to remain anonymous, said the role of strip clubs has evolved to cater to a more mainstream clientele. 

In association with La Shish Restaurant, The Pantheon offers a halal menu, catering to an Arab and Muslim customer base. 

The club serves about 30 orders a week of halal food, he added.

The manager said that nowadays, club goers desire a fine dining experience, focused more on having a good time, rather than the topless performers. 

He said the gentleman’s club not only diversifies and enriches surrounding businesses, but also drives La Shish’s sales, because many patrons eat at the restaurant after partying. 

Nadeem Faranso, owner of BT’s Executive Club, a few blocks away from The Pantheon, said his company, employing 180 staff, plays a crucial role in the community in providing entertainment and jobs.

“You know how many girls are on the streets and I save them?” Faranso asked.

He said that after joining his team, the performers “find sanctuary here.”

He said many of the men who visit the club are lonely and that the topless women offer solace and prevent them from lusting after women outside the venue’s walls.

“Yeah, they’re naked, but they’re safe,” Faranso said, touting the heightened safety measures and exceptional treatment the staff gets.

To naysayers, he notes that his customers are required to be 21-years-old to enter the strip club, but any 10-year-old can view pornography on the Internet.

Faranso added that thinking of strip clubs as harmful places is “cartoonish” and that most people go there with the “intention of having good fun and to make it home safe to families.”

Good neighbors

Chris Simons, owner of Toy Chest, a Detroit strip club on Dearborn’s border, said his establishment strives to uphold good relationships with the community. 

Nicole Pugh, waitress and staff manager at Toy Chest, said she engages with many of the customers and that most of the business comes from local Arabs.

“[Arabs] come in all time,” Pugh said. “They get drinks, they talk to us and they say they respect our business.”

Simons said Toy Chest has a reputation for being the only gentleman’s club that closely follows Detroit’s stricter laws. 

“All your girls with criminal records can’t get a license to work in Detroit, so they work at your Pantheons and your BT’s,” Simons said.

He said his establishment employs women with no criminal records and is one of the few clubs that doesn’t have illegal private rooms or curtains.

Simons said the Toy Chest, which is part of Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship (ACE), an organization that promotes collaboration between businesses, often contributes to the community by hosting a variety of functions, such as feeding the homeless and sponsoring other local events. 

He added that three years ago, Toy Chest won an award for the best small clubs in Midwest America, based on community relationships.

Simons said people always hear of the horror stories about strip clubs, but the reality is that they frequently engage with surrounding businesses to be good neighbors. 

Next door is a pizza restaurant that uses halal-only toppings.

“It’s a business,” Simons said. “We all have to help one another in the community.” 

“It doesn’t matter if I have a gentlemen’s club or we have a regular bar or a car dealership, you have an obligation to try and work with the city.”