A federal lawsuit filed Thursday claims Dearborn used thousands of taxpayer dollars on public displays honoring Muslim holidays while disregarding a Christian resident’s repeated requests to recognize Easter and Passover.
Margot Cleveland, a journalist for The Federalist, filed the civil rights case with the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) against the city of Dearborn and Democratic Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. The lawsuit alleges violations of her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, including protections related to religious establishment, free speech and equal protection.
“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,” Robert J. Muise, AFLC co-founder and senior counsel, said in a statement. “That is a straightforward Establishment Clause violation, and the retaliation our client faced for speaking up about it only compounds the constitutional harm.”
Dearborn has one of the largest Arab American populations in the United States. The city recorded 109,976 residents in the 2020 Census, with 54.5% identifying as having Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Arabic-language signs and restaurants serving Middle Eastern food line Michigan Avenue, Dearborn’s main thoroughfare. An online directory lists 10 mosques within the city.
Hammoud was elected mayor in November 2021, becoming the first Muslim and Arab American to lead Dearborn.
“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,” David Yerushalmi, an attorney involved in the case, said. “Our client is simply asking the City to treat Christians and Jews as equal citizens.”
Cleveland’s attorneys cited a September confrontation between Hammoud and Christian pastor Ted Barham as evidence of what they characterize as anti-Christian hostility by city officials. Barham had spoken at a City Council meeting about the decision to rename a street for Usama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, who has made statements expressing support for Hezbollah.
During the exchange, Hammoud called Barham a “bigot” and an “Islamophobe.”
“And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here,” Hammoud told the pastor. “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… because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.”
According to Cleveland’s lawsuit, she began requesting equal recognition for Christian and Jewish holidays after seeing “Ramadan Kareem” banners and large crescent moons installed throughout Dearborn in spring 2025. A Freedom of Information Act request showed the city spent $1,500 on Ramadan banners and $5,000 on the crescent-moon display. The Dearborn Police Department also sold T-shirts featuring Ramadan themes.
In emails to city officials, Cleveland said she was not asking Dearborn to end its recognition of Muslim holidays. Instead, she requested comparable acknowledgment of Christian and Jewish holy days.
“I much prefer to ensure equality of faith traditions, as opposed to a challenge to the display,” Cleveland wrote in an email.
The lawsuit says the city not only failed to respond to Cleveland’s requests but expanded its Ramadan decorations in February 2026. Officials commissioned crescent-and-star lights that were installed on municipal streetlights across Dearborn.
“This initiative reflects who we are as a city,” Hammoud said in a statement.
The dispute escalated again in April, when Cleveland says she was told she could attend a community meeting as a resident but not in her capacity as a journalist. The lawsuit further alleges that Hammoud made what it calls a “snide comment” about residents who criticize the city on social media and monetize their posts.
The complaint also reiterates that Dearborn expanded its Ramadan displays in February 2026 by commissioning crescent-and-star lights for municipal streetlights throughout the city.
Cleveland responded, according to the lawsuit, that she was merely “a concerned resident who was ignored when I asked for the City to treat Christians and Jews equally.”
“Despite the repeated requests, they treated her as if she were an outsider and not a full member of the political community,” Muise told Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit was filed as Michigan’s closely watched 2026 U.S. Senate race takes shape. Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim and the son of Egyptian immigrants, is facing Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the contest for the state’s open Senate seat. Religion and antisemitism have emerged as issues in the campaign, with Republicans and some Democrats criticizing El-Sayed over his association with streamer Hasan Piker. Piker said the United States was worse than al Qaeda “pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths,” while arguing that U.S. military operations resulting in civilian deaths can constitute terrorism.
El-Sayed and his supporters, meanwhile, have accused his opponents of using anti-Muslim rhetoric against him.
Fox News Digital reached out to Hammoud’s office and Cleveland’s attorneys for comment.
