The city of Dearborn, Michigan, is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that officials used taxpayer resources to recognize the Islamic holy month of Ramadan while refusing requests to provide comparable recognition for Christian and Jewish holidays.

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The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed the lawsuit on behalf of Dearborn resident and journalist Margot Cleveland against the city and Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. The complaint alleges violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, including the Establishment Clause, Free Speech Clause, and Equal Protection Clause.

According to the lawsuit, Dearborn spent public money on Ramadan-themed banners and a large illuminated crescent moon display on public property. Cleveland reportedly began raising concerns in April 2025, asking city officials whether Easter and Passover would receive similar recognition. Her request went unanswered, according to AFLC.

The dispute continued into 2026, when Dearborn installed new crescent moon and star displays on municipal streetlights for Ramadan. Cleveland and her attorneys also sought recognition for holidays including Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. AFLC says neither Hammoud nor the city attorney responded to that request.

“The City of Dearborn spent taxpayer money to light up its streets and parks for Ramadan while stonewalling a resident who simply asked that Easter, Passover, and other Christian and Jewish holy days be treated the same way,” AFLC senior counsel Robert Muise said. He argues that the alleged disparity amounts to an Establishment Clause violation.

The lawsuit also alleges that Cleveland faced retaliation after continuing to raise the issue. According to AFLC, after she addressed the Dearborn City Council and contacted council members individually, the city attorney instructed council members not to communicate with her because she was represented by counsel—even after Cleveland and her attorneys clarified that council members could speak with her directly.

The controversy comes amid an already heated debate over religious expression in Dearborn. In 2025, Hammoud publicly clashed with a Christian pastor during a city council meeting, calling him a bigot and Islamophobe before telling him he was “not welcome” in the city. The exchange occurred after the pastor objected to the naming of intersections after Osama Siblani, whom the pastor accused of supporting terrorist organizations.

Dearborn has faced previous litigation concerning Christian religious expression. In one case stemming from the 2010 Arab International Festival, Christian missionaries were arrested while evangelizing. They were later acquitted, and Dearborn subsequently settled the civil rights litigation, apologized, and agreed to pay $300,000.

The controversy is particularly noteworthy given Dearborn’s demographics. The city is home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States, as well as a substantial Arab-American population. Against that backdrop, the lawsuit raises questions about whether city officials crossed the constitutional line from recognizing the religious traditions of a significant portion of the community to favoring Islam over Christianity and Judaism.

The lawsuit has not established that Dearborn violated the Constitution; those allegations will now be considered through the federal court process. At issue is a fundamental constitutional question: when a government chooses to recognize religious observances using public property or taxpayer resources, it must operate within the First Amendment’s requirements concerning religion and government.

For intercessors, this case offers another reason to pray for the protection of religious liberty and equal treatment under the law. Our increasingly diverse communities will inevitably contain deep religious differences, making it all the more important that government officials respect the constitutional rights of every citizen. Let’s pray that the truth would emerge through this case and that public officials across the nation would govern with wisdom, impartiality, and respect for religious freedom.

Share your prayers for religious liberty and equal treatment in the comments.

(Info taken from The National Pulse. Photo Credit: DNY59/Getty Images)