A Dearborn, Michigan, resident is suing the city and Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud in federal court, accusing officials of using taxpayer-funded resources to make the city "a hostile place for Christians and Jews," according to WND.
The plaintiff is Margot Cleveland, a senior legal correspondent at The Federalist who lives in Dearborn. The lawsuit, filed by the American Freedom Law Center in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges the city promoted Ramadan on public property while refusing her requests to recognize Christian and Jewish holidays.
Cleveland said she first noticed "Ramadan Kareem" banners lining the streets in the weeks before Easter 2025, with Passover only a week away. "I was picking up pizza in downtown Dearborn," she told Fox News Digital, describing banners "up and down the street."
"This was the fourth week of Lent," Cleveland said. "I was shocked, and then I saw the display all by itself again, the crescent moon."
According to the complaint, a public-records request showed the city spent public funds on the banners and a large lighted crescent moon display. It also alleges that the Dearborn Police Department produced and sold Ramadan-themed shirts bearing the department's official emblem.
Cleveland said the records also showed Hammoud used city resources and his Dearborn email account to invite select community members to an Iftar celebration, the meal that breaks the daily Ramadan fast. She has accused the mayor of making Islam the city's "preferred religion."
Her April 2025 email asking the city attorney to confirm Easter and Passover would receive equal recognition went unanswered, the complaint says. The law center said a follow-up letter asking for Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur banners also got no response, and in February 2026 the city unveiled new crescent-moon-and-star streetlight displays for Ramadan.
Cleveland told Fox she has not asked the city to stop celebrating Ramadan. "What I've asked is that the city treat Christians and Jews equally," she said.
The suit claims First Amendment retaliation, an Equal Protection violation and an Establishment Clause violation, alleging officials told City Council members not to communicate with her. It seeks a declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction against favoring one faith, nominal damages and attorney fees.
The city rejected the accusations in a statement after the suit was filed, saying it "has a longstanding commitment to serving all residents fairly and equitably, regardless of faith or background." The mayor's office did not respond to a Fox News request for comment, and the claims have not been tested in court.
Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, criticized the city's displays. "It is beyond scandalous for an American city to give Islam overt preferential treatment," she said, according to WND.
WND also pointed to a September 2025 clash at a City Council meeting, where Christian minister Ted Barham objected to Wayne County's honorary street signs for Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani. Hammoud told Barham, "Although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here."
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