A Dearborn, Michigan resident is suing the city over its refusal to publicly acknowledge Christian and Jewish holidays while facilitating Ramadan festivities.

Margot Cleveland, a senior legal correspondent at The Federalist and resident of Dearborn, is suing Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud in conjunction with the city for being “a hostile place for Christians and Jews,” saying it violates the First Amendment by showing Muslim symbols in public displays but not Christian or Jewish equivalents. 

Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand that the state of Dearborn is devastating. “It’s the result of mass migration of Muslims and how that slowly transforms a society. The city of Dearborn went from displaying a nativity scene, to removing the nativity scene, to paying for Mayor Abdullah Hammoud’s Ramadan celebrations and displaying ‘Ramadan Kareem’ banners on its lightposts. It is beyond scandalous for an American city to give Islam overt preferential treatment. This is another reminder of why elections matter.”

Cleveland reports having seen “Ramadan Kareem” banners spread throughout the city in April 2025, leading up to the Easter holiday. “I was picking up pizza in downtown Dearborn. When I went down the boulevard, up and down the street were ‘Ramadan Kareem’ (generous Ramadan) banners, which is the equivalent of a happy or blessed Ramadan,” Cleveland told Fox News Digital. “This was the fourth week of Lent. We had Easter coming up in two weeks, and Passover was a week away. I was shocked, and then I saw the display all by itself — again, the crescent moon.”

The constitutional lawyer turned reporter inquired with Dearborn officials at the time if the city planned to put up symbols for the holidays of other faiths as well. She did not get a response.

Cleveland described the installation of the banners as the “most blatant move by Mayor Hammoud to declare Islam the city’s preferred religion,” in a piece last week appearing in Independent Women’s Features.

Through later submitting multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Cleveland uncovered something alarming. “Behind the scenes, Mayor Hammoud advanced his goals by using city resources and his Dearborn email account to invite select members of the community to an Iftar celebration, documents revealed. Observing and engaging in Iftar is an Islamic religious exercise: Iftar symbolizes obedience to Allah’s command. Muslims refrain from food, drink, and other physical needs from dawn until sunset, and Iftar is the moment when this fast ends for the day,” Cleveland continued.

“Other FOIA documents revealed that the police department planned to sell Ramadan t-shirts, embossed with the Dearborn police shield, a crescent moon, and the words ‘Ramadan Kareem,’” she added. 

Cleveland attended a city council meeting in May 2025 to request the city put up banners to celebrate Jewish and Christian holidays. She says she was ignored but observed it looked like the city put up more Ramadan décor.

“I have not asked the city not to celebrate Ramadan,” she told Fox. “What I’ve asked is that the city treat Christians and Jews equally. Put up Passover banners, Easter banners, put up a Star of David, put up a cross, do something. And throw in some patriotic symbols to show we are one Dearborn, one country where all faiths are represented equally. That has not been done,” Cleveland said.

While the mayor, city attorney, and councilmembers further refused to respond to Cleveland’s attempts to get in touch, there was one person the mayor was inclined to reply to: Ted Baram, a Christian pastor who had spoken out against renaming a street in Dearborn after Osama Siblani, a public supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. 

“[T]he best suggestion I have for you is to not drive on Warren Avenue or to close your eyes while you’re doing it. ... I think it’s quite hypocritical [that] you’re approaching this podium when you yourself have videos on YouTube standing in front of my mosque saying the cruelest of things about Muslims, about the religion of Islam, because you are a bigot and you are a racist and you are an Islamophobe,” Hammoud said in response to Baram. “And although you live here, 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.”

On September 17, 2026, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed its lawsuit against the city and mayor of Dearborn, with Cleveland listed as a plaintiff. 

Del Turco added that it is imperative Americans do not continue to platform the leadership of those like Hammoud. “Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a State Department video for International Religious Freedom Day, highlighting the United States’ unique call to spread the gospel and our heritage of religious freedom,” Del Turco explained, illustrating the cabinet member’s example. “We must not elect those who don’t share these values but rather diminish Christianity in the public square while putting Islam front and center. America needs more political leadership like Rubio’s, and less like Mayor Hammoud. American Christians should pay attention to what’s happening and get involved politically.”