Lawsuit accuses Dearborn of favoring Muslim holidays over Christian and Jewish observances 

A Christian journalist has sued Dearborn, Michigan, saying the city spends taxpayer money and public resources on Muslim holidays while ignoring Christian and Jewish ones.

Margot Cleveland, a Dearborn resident and senior legal correspondent for The Federalist, filed the federal lawsuit on Sept. 17, suing the city and Mayor Abdullah Hammoud for alleged violations of her First and 14th Amendment rights. 

Cleveland first noticed the different treatment last year. Dearborn put “Ramadan Kareem” banners on public land and set up a large lighted crescent moon in Peace Park. Cleveland then made public records requests about those displays.

Taxpayers spent roughly $1,500 on the banners and $5,000 on the crescent moon, the lawsuit says. Dearborn police also sold Ramadan shirts with the department’s logo. Hammoud used his city email account to invite guests to an Iftar meal, which Muslims eat after fasting during Ramadan. The city spent $360 on signs and printing for the meal.

The city of about 110,000 residents – the majority of whom are of Middle Eastern or North African descent – didn’t have any similar displays for Lent, Easter or Passover, Cleveland says. She emailed the city attorney in April 2025, asking Dearborn to place Easter signs and crosses on public land. She also wanted Passover signs with a Star of David.

“I much prefer to ensure equality of faith traditions, as opposed to a challenge to the display,” Cleveland wrote.

Dearborn never answered her. Cleveland’s lawyers wrote to Hammoud and the city attorney five months later, asking the city to recognize Christian and Jewish holidays, like it did with Ramadan. Again, the city never responded.

Dearborn added more Ramadan displays in 2026, paying for crescent moon and star lights on public streetlights.

“This initiative reflects who we are as a city,” Hammoud said.

This past April, Cleveland asked the City Council to fund Easter and Passover banners and add a menorah to Peace Park. No council member answered her at the meeting, the suit says. She then emailed all seven members and didn’t get a response.

The lawsuit also mentions Hammoud’s treatment of Christian pastor Ted Barham. Barham criticized the city in September 2025 for naming a street after Osama Siblani, who has made public remarks in support of Hezbollah.

“Although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here,” Hammoud told Barham. “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.”

Cleveland says the city punished her for speaking out. Dearborn invited her to a community meeting in April but told her she could attend only as a resident and couldn’t report on it. She refused, and the city stopped inviting her to later meetings, the lawsuit says.

The city offered a short response to the lawsuit. 

“Our city has increasingly come under attack precisely because of its welcoming nature and the diversity of the people who proudly call Dearborn home,” the city said.

But the lawsuit claims that “the City of Dearborn has (long) been a hostile place for Christians and Jews,” adding that “Defendant Hammoud has taken this hostility to the next level, openly conveying the message that Christians and Jews are not welcome in the city and are, indeed, second-class citizens.”

(Image credit: Screenshot/Fox News)