DEARBORN — The city and Mayor Abdullah Hammoud face a federal lawsuit filed by a resident who alleges that public money was used to promote Islamic observances while Christian and Jewish holidays were ignored. Hammoud has categorically denied the allegations, affirming his administration’s commitment to treating all residents fairly regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.

The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed the lawsuit in federal court in Detroit on Thursday, September 17, on behalf of Margot Cleveland, a conservative writer and journalist for the online publication the Federalist.

The lawsuit accuses Dearborn of violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It asks the federal court to declare the disputed practices unconstitutional, require the city to comply with the Constitution and award damages in an unspecified amount.

According to the lawsuit, Cleveland, a conservative Catholic activist, asked city officials to recognize other religious holidays but claims she was repeatedly ignored. Her attorney at the AFLC has previously been involved in litigation against Dearborn during the administration of the late Mayor Jack O’Reilly.

Margot Cleveland, a conservative writer and journalist for the online publication the Federalist.

Cleveland says in the complaint that she did not ask the city to stop celebrating Islamic holidays. Rather, she asked that Christian and Jewish holidays receive similar treatment.

The lawsuit alleges that city officials spent public money promoting and celebrating Ramadan while repeatedly declining Cleveland’s requests to give Easter and Passover the same recognition.

It further alleges that the mayor and other city officials later “retaliated” against Cleveland for raising the issue, without specifying in that passage the nature of the alleged retaliation.

The complaint says Ramadan displays expanded in recent years, including the addition of crescent-and-star lights on city-owned lampposts.

According to the lawsuit, Dearborn spent approximately $6,500 in taxpayer money in April 2025 on Ramadan banners and a large crescent display in a city park. The sum included $1,500 for illuminated “Ramadan Kareem” banners and $5,000 for an illuminated crescent, it says. The complaint also points to the city police department’s production and sale of Ramadan-themed shirts bearing the department’s emblem.

The lawsuit argues that Dearborn violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by failing to treat adherents of other faiths equally. These are allegations made by the plaintiff, and the city disputes them.

The complaint says Cleveland repeatedly brought the issue before the City Council and sought funding for Christian and Jewish holiday observances, both through comments at public meetings and emails to Council members.

It also alleges that, at the mayor’s request, the city attorney instructed Council members not to communicate with Cleveland and that the City Council declined to allocate money for Easter despite a city budget surplus.

City rejects the allegations

Dearborn responded to Cleveland’s lawsuit in a statement issued the following Saturday. The city said it remained firmly committed to serving all residents with integrity and fairness, regardless of religion or ethnic or social background. It said Dearborn was facing increasing attacks because of its welcoming character and the diversity of the people who proudly call it home.

Such attacks “will not change who we are,” the statement read. The city pledged to protect every resident’s rights and dignity and to provide fairness, respect and equal protection under the law.

While the lawsuit alleges that Dearborn spends more on Islamic observances than on Christian or Jewish ones, city officials told The Arab American News that Dearborn spent approximately $400,000 on the 2025 and 2026 Christmas and New Year’s decorations, including lights, equipment, maintenance, a Christmas tree and a large Nativity display. By comparison, they said, the city spent no more than $6,500 on Ramadan decorations over the same period, including reusable banners.

Muslim residents welcome the celebration of Christian holidays in Dearborn, yet the Muslim-majority city has faced organized campaigns attempting to portray it as a center of extremism hostile to Christians. The city hosts a number of events and displays associated with Christian holidays, including Christmas decorations, a Christmas tree, an Easter egg hunt for children and the restoration of a Nativity display placed outside the former City Hall in east Dearborn, an area with a substantial Muslim population.

Dearborn has more than 30 churches and 12 mosques, contrary to claims that Islamic law governs the city. It has approximately 106,000 residents, with Arabs and Muslims accounting for about 55 percent.

An ongoing campaign against Dearborn

The lawsuit accusing Dearborn of favoring Muslim residents comes amid continuing efforts to demonize the city and portray its government as hostile to non-Muslims.

Cleveland’s complaint cites earlier legal disputes from the administration of the late Mayor Jack O’Reilly as examples of what it calls the city’s bias. They include a dispute over the distribution of Christian evangelical literature at the Arab American Festival in 2009 and a settlement under which the city apologized and paid $300,000 to resolve allegations that Christian evangelists had been improperly detained in 2010.

“The city of Dearborn spent taxpayer money to light up its streets and parks during Ramadan while simply ignoring a resident’s request that Easter, Passover and other Christian and Jewish holidays be treated equally,” Robert Muise, AFLC’s co-founder and senior counsel, said in a statement.

The lawsuit also cites remarks Hammoud made at a City Council meeting in September 2025 in response to Christian evangelist Ted Barham, who objected to the naming of two intersections of Wayne County’s Warren Avenue in east Dearborn after The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani. The city of Dearborn has no jurisdiction over Warren Ave., since it is designated as Wayne County road.

It should be noted that Siblani was inducted in the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame on April 23, 2013. He is the recipient of several international, national and local awards. He has been publishing weekly The Arab American News since its establishment on September 7, 1984.

“You are a bigot and an Islamophobe,” Hammoud told Barham at the time. “And as mayor, I am telling you that you are not welcome here. The day you leave, I will hold a parade to celebrate your departure.”

Hammoud’s comments were subsequently used widely to portray Dearborn as unwelcoming to Christians, including by the Islampophobic provocateur Jake Lang, who later organized several demonstrations in the city against what he falsely called the “Islamization of America.”

In later remarks, Hammoud objected to the portrayal of his comments, which he said were directed at “a person acting in bad faith,” as a statement about an entire religion. He said “everyone knows Dearborn is a city that welcomes everyone, whether Christian, Jewish or from any other background or faith.”