Docs Show How Dearborn’s Muslim Leaders Make It A ‘Hostile Place For Christians And Jews’: After Dearborn Michigan’s Mayor Told a Christian Minister He is ‘not welcome,’ Docs Obtained by The Federalist Suggest Unequal Treatment.

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Docs Show How Dearborn’s Muslim Leaders Make It A ‘Hostile Place For Christians And Jews’

After Dearborn Michigan’s mayor told a Christian minister he is ‘not welcome,’ docs obtained by The Federalist suggest unequal treatment.

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.

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. --->READ MORE HERE

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