Dearborn, Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud insists the Detroit suburb is a “city that welcomes and embraces everyone.” He said as much after telling a Christian minister earlier this month that he wasn’t welcome in the city that Henry Ford called home — a city described by a Jewish leader as “America’s Jihad Capital.” 

An investigation by The Federalist finds the Arab-majority city has been extremely accommodating to Muslims, but not so much to minority Christians and Jews — particularly when it comes to the city’s involvement in celebrating religious holidays. 

“The bottom line is that the City of Dearborn has become a hostile place for Christians and Jews,” civil rights attorneys Robert J. Muise and David Yerushalmi wrote in a letter of concern to Hammoud sent Friday and exclusively obtained by The Federalist.

City Attorney Jeremy Romer is copied. 

Romer and Hammoud should be familiar with Muise and Yerushalmi. The attorneys have won some high-profile cases and hefty judgments against Dearborn for violating the religious civil rights of Christian clients. 

For now, the attorneys’ American Freedom Law Center, a nonprofit Judeo-Christian law firm “Fighting for Faith & Freedom,” is reminding the mayor and the city that the Arab-majority city can’t play favorites with religious displays. 

“While all of the residents of the City do not share the same faith, they do share the same rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution,” the attorneys’ reminder letter notes. 

The letter requests the city equally recognize the holy days of Christians and Jews, including Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. 

‘A Preference for Islam’

As the law firm’s letter notes, there have been several instances in which city officials, particularly the mayor, have shown a “preference for Islam over other faiths.” The attorneys assert the city has failed to represent religious displays for Christians and Jews, with the exception of “secular” displays, but has erected banners for the Muslim month-long religious observance of Ramadan. 

Documents obtained by The Federalist show taxpayers paid thousands of dollars for the Ramadan displays and other items. One double-sided banner cost $1,512. The city paid $825 for another sign, according to city invoices. 

A Dec. 26 email from Jonathan Golich of Dearborn’s Parks and Recreation Department notes festive lights and displays would be left up “through Ramadan.” 

“They [the contractor] also will be adding crescent moon to Peace Park west in February that will remain through Ramadan as well,” Golich wrote, noting the symbol Muslims use to honor and celebrate Ramadan and the feast that follows the month-long fasting. City emails include the crescent moon design and the greeting, “Ramadan Kareem” (Generous Ramadan) Downtown Dearborn,” in English and Arabic. 

Source: Submitted Image

Dearborn’s police and fire departments also sold in fundraising drives shirts displaying religious Ramadan messages with official government emblems representing the departments. They did not provide similar opportunities for Christians and Jews to purchase clothing “with messages appropriate to their faith traditions,” the attorneys assert in the letter to Hammoud. 

“I made a few adjustments to the design and I had Fatima El-Zein help me with the arabic [sic] writing so it was spelled correctly,” Dearborn Police Sgt. James Wade wrote to Police Chief Issa Shahin in a Feb. 6 email with the subject line, “Re: Dearborn Police Ramadan Shirt.”

“Idea would be the attached badge on the front in silver with 1929 as the badge number with the crescent moon behind it with Ramadan Mubarak around it similar to the FD logo,” Wade continued. “On the back: ديربورن – Dearborn in gold at the top arch / circle دائرة الشرطة – Police Department in white at the bottom arch / circle.”

Clearly city time and staff resources were involved in the production. 

Earlier this month, the nearby Dearborn Heights Police Department took a lot of heat nationally for its proposed uniform patch design spelling out the name of the department in English and Arabic. The department proudly pushed out the controversial design on social media. Bill Bazzi, mayor of the Detroit-area city located about six miles northwest of Dearborn, has said the design was just a prototype not ready for public viewing. 

Muise and Yerushalmi call out Hammoud directly in the letter, noting he “made an invitation as the Mayor on your government email to celebrate an Iftar meal for Ramadan, but made no similar outreach efforts to celebrate a Passover or Easter.” In the March 4 email, Hammoud asks an area physician to join him and his family for a “Community Iftar” (a sundown meal to break the daily fast) at a Dearborn banquet hall. 

Source: City of Dearborn

‘Resulted in Litigation’

The letter notes that the city “has a long history of discriminating against individuals, specifically Christians, who do not share the Islamic faith, and this has often resulted in litigation” that the city has lost. Dearborn taxpayers have paid plenty in settlement costs. The city ultimately ended its annual Arab International Festival after losing anti-discrimination lawsuits.

In 2013, the city apologized to four Christian missionaries who police arrested and detained after praying and preaching the Gospel at the festival in 2010. The city paid $300,000 to the four members of members of Acts 17 Apologetics, according to Dearborn’s Press and Guide newspaper, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the information. The public apology stated that Dearborn police officers arrested the missionaries “while they were engaging in peaceful dialogue about their Christian faith with several festival attendees.”

“Through this apology and its acceptance by David Wood, Nabeel Qureshi and Paul Rezkalla, the parties seek to build a bridge and to confirm to the community that members of all faiths are welcome in Dearborn to peacefully share their views and to engage in religious discussions,” the statement said. 

But it would appear the city hasn’t kept up its end of the bargain. 

‘Your Are Not Welcome Here’

At the Sept. 9 city council meeting, Hammoud lashed out at Dearborn resident Ted Barham after the Christian minister calmly explained his concerns about street signs named in honor of Osama Siblani, who has openly supported the work of Middle East terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, endorsing them as “freedom fighters.” 

“I feel like having that sign up there is almost like naming a street Hezbollah Street or Hamas Street. I mean Hezbollah bombed the [U.S.] embassy in Beirut, killing many Americans,” Barham said. “I just feel that’s quite inappropriate.” 

Hammoud called Barham a “bigot” and a “racist” and “an Islamaphobe.” 

“I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. 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,” the mayor unloaded on Barham.

The minister responded, “I just want to say, God bless you, mayor.” 

“You also say that I’m an apostate. I’m going to hell. … If I were you, I would stay silent,” Hammoud shot back. 

The mayor defended Siblani, saying he’s done a lot for Dearborn. The Arab America News publisher, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, has done much to exalt and promote the terrorist group that brutally murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and seized more than 250 hostages in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. 

Siblani blessed the blood of jihadi martyrs “that irrigates the land of Palestine,” according to the pro-Israel organization that monitors extremism in the Middle East. Siblani said in 2022: “We are the Arabs who are going to lift Palestinians all the way to victory, whether we are in Michigan and whether we are in Jenin. Believe me, everyone should fight within his means. They will fight with stones, others will fight with guns, others will fight with planes, drones, and rockets, others will fight with their voices, and others will fight with their hands and say: ‘Free, free Palestine!’”

In 2003, Siblani told The Washington Post, “Mr. Bush believes Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions are terrorists, but we believe they are freedom fighters.” 

Siblani has taken a lot of pictures with supporters from Michigan’s Democrat elite, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

‘Put His Claims to the Test’

The American Freedom Law Center’s letter to Hammoud reminds the mayor that “the fixed star in our constitutional constellation” is that government officials cannot “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion. . . .”

Hammoud, who is running for a second term in an election just 40 days away, did not return The Federalist’s request for comment. At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, the mayor did address his comments to Barham, which he said has generated “sensationalized headlines.”  He was unapologetic.

“Across every background, every faith, every identity, we have built a city that is not only strong but truly an example for the rest of this nation,” Hammoud said.  “And as you’ve heard tonight, those who call Dearborn home know who we are, a city that welcomes and embraces everyone. It is our hope that one day the unity you actually find in Dearborn amongst its residents, is the same unity and coexistence that you see across our entire nation. That is an America we all can pray for.”

Muise said Dearborn’s record of religious discrimination contradicts the mayor’s rosy view of his city. 

“Dearborn has a long history of discriminating against Christians. We have successfully sued them on multiple occasions,” the attorney said. “After this recent altercation between the mayor and a Christian pastor, the mayor recently stated that Dearborn is a welcoming city; our letter to the mayor will put his claims to the test.”