DETROIT – The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), a local chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, recently announced a settlement has been reached with the city of Detroit for the discriminatory arrest of three Muslim men in 2020.

In 2021, CAIR-MI filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan alleging that two Detroit Police officers falsely arrested three Muslim men after making bigoted and Islamophobic comments about Muslims.

In the lawsuit, CAIR-MI alleged that one of the Detroit Police officers was heard on body camera footage claiming that “Muslim’s lie a lot”, that “Muslim men are pedophiles” and making other comments indicating that Muslim men were controlling of women before saying that he was going to arrest the three men and allow someone else to figure out what was going on.

Prior to their arrest, the men had called 911 to seek assistance from the Detroit Police and Detroit EMS with a woman who was believed to be having a mental health crisis and had become violent, but instead were arrested with what appears to be no probable cause. After their arrest, the three men spent three days in the Detroit Detention Center awaiting a charging decision from the prosecutor’s office. In the end, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office refused to bring charges against any of the three men and they were released.

“CAIR-MI is happy to announce that it has reached a full and satisfactory settlement with the city of Detroit for the wrongful arrest of these Muslim men that includes monetary compensation,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid.