OPINION:
Dearborn, Michigan, has a well-deserved reputation as the most Muslim city in America. According to community estimates, roughly 40% to 50% of its population is Muslim.
The city uses public funds to celebrate Ramadan but not Christian or Jewish holidays. You would think that the American Civil Liberties Union would have something to say about that. It does not.
A lawsuit by Margot Cleveland, senior legal correspondent for The Federalist, notes that in 2025, the city spent $1,500 on Ramadan banners reading “Ramadan Kareem” (“Generous Ramadan”) and $5,000 on a large, illuminated crescent moon display at a city park.
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The city ignored Ms. Cleveland’s requests for comparable recognition of Easter and Passover.
This year, the city expanded its Ramadan displays, commissioning crescent-and-star lights that were displayed on municipal streetlights across the city. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat, said the displays promoting Islam reflect “who we are as a city,” but do they reflect what America is as a country founded on the Judeo-Christian ethic?
Dearborn’s reputation goes far beyond municipal displays.
An opinion column in the Feb. 2, 2024, Wall Street Journal was headlined “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital.” The piece, by Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, charged, “Imams and politicians in the Michigan city side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the U.S.”
The column noted that shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, which left 1,200 dead, rallies in Dearborn were held celebrating the actions.
The imam of the Islamic Center of Detroit told a cheering crowd that Israel’s past actions put “a fire in our hearts that will burn that state — Israel — until its demise.” In 2022, the mosque received a $150,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration.
A 2001 assessment by the Michigan State Police described Dearborn as “a major financial support center” and a “recruiting area and potential support base” for international terrorist groups, including possible sleeper cells.
This phenomenon is not isolated to Michigan. In Texas, for example, plans have been introduced to build a Muslim-centric community across 402 acres in Collin and Hunt counties, roughly 40 miles northeast of downtown Dallas, featuring more than 1,000 residential units, along with a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, a community college and commercial shopping facilities.
Ms. Cleveland is not asking Dearborn to stop celebrating Ramadan, but for some equality with other faiths. Yet Dearborn’s problems go far beyond Ramadan banners and crescent moon displays. Dearborn may be physically located in the United States, but in a sense, it has ceased to be an American city.
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