Catholic journalist sues Michigan city over alleged taxpayer-funded promotion of Islam, discrimination against Christians and Jews

Catholic journalist and Dearborn, Michigan, resident Margot Cleveland filed a federal lawsuit Sept. 17 alleging that her city and its mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, spent thousands of taxpayer dollars to promote Islam while denying Christians and Jews equal recognition.

The 42-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accuses city officials of violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments through religious favoritism and retaliation after Cleveland criticized the city’s policies. 

“For too long, the City of Dearborn has been a hostile place for Christians and Jews,” the suit states. “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.”

Cleveland, a senior legal correspondent for The Federalist who has lived in Dearborn since 2007, is represented by the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC).

According to the complaint, Cleveland first contacted city officials in April 2025 after noticing “Ramadan Kareem” banners — an Arabic greeting that means “Generous Ramadan” — and a large illuminated crescent moon display, an Islamic religious symbol, on public property in a municipal park. 

Records obtained through a Michigan Freedom of Information Act request later showed that the city spent about $1,500 on the banners and $5,000 on the crescent moon display, according to the complaint. 

The lawsuit also alleges that the Dearborn Police Department produced and sold Ramadan-themed shirts bearing the department’s official emblem and that the city spent $360 on signs and printing for an iftar, the evening meal at which Muslims break their daily Ramadan fast, promoted through Hammoud’s government email.

At the time Cleveland noticed the hung banners, Lent was in its fourth week, Easter was about two weeks away, and Passover was less than a week away. Yet, the city displayed no comparable recognition of those Christian and Jewish observances, according to the complaint. Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer commemorating the revelation of the Quran.

“The City’s promotion and support of Ramadan constitute a governmental endorsement and promotion of the Islamic faith,” the complaint argues.

With Easter approaching, Cleveland emailed then-City Attorney Jeremy Romer in April to ask whether Dearborn would display Easter and Passover signs along with Christian and Jewish symbols to ensure equal treatment of the three faiths. She received no response, according to the filing.

In September 2025, the AFLC sent a letter on her behalf to Hammoud and the city attorney proposing that the city display banners recognizing Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. The complaint alleges that neither official responded.

Dearborn expanded its Ramadan decorations in 2026, installing crescent-moon-and-star lights on municipal streets in February, according to the complaint. Hammoud said at the time that the initiative “reflects who we are as a city,” the lawsuit states.

“The clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that the government may not prefer one religion over another,” AFLC co-founder and senior counsel Robert Muise said in a Sept. 17 statement.

The complaint further alleges that after Cleveland raised the matter at city council meetings and contacted council members, the city attorney instructed them, acting at the mayor's direction, not to communicate with her. The council later passed its annual budget without allocating funds for Easter or Passover banners or a menorah, despite having a surplus, according to the suit.

The lawsuit also cites a September 2025 city council meeting at which Hammoud allegedly told Ted Barham, a Christian pastor who opposed a street renaming, “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… because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.”

Barham spoke at the meeting in opposition to the city’s decision to give part of Warren Avenue the honorary name “Osama Siblani,” whom the complaint described as a public supporter of groups that the U.S. government has designated as terrorist organizations. Barham told the city council the signage was “quite inappropriate” and said he wanted to “encourage peace.”

“[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,” the mayor allegedly told Barham. “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.”

The lawsuit asserts three claims: retaliation in violation of the First Amendment, denial of equal protection under the 14th Amendment, and violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

Cleveland is asking the court to declare that the city and Hammoud violated her constitutional rights and to block policies that allegedly favor Muslims over Christians and Jews. She also seeks nominal damages, attorneys’ fees, and court costs.

Muise said the city’s actions are a “straightforward Establishment Clause violation, and the retaliation our client faced for speaking up about it only compounds the constitutional harm.”