Margot Cleveland, Senior Legal Correspondent at The Federalist, is suing the city of Dearborn, Michigan and the city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, for violating the First Amendment by displaying exclusively Muslim symbols in public displays, accusing the city of being "a hostile place for Christians and Jews." Cleveland alleges the city put up banners celebrating the Islamic holiday of Ramadan and a display of crescent moons while refusing to showcase equivalent Christian or Jewish iconography. "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 in an exclusive interview.
"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," she said.
Cleveland wrote to Dearborn’s city attorney, asking if the city planned to reciprocate the displays for the other Abrahamic faiths, but did not get a response, she told Fox News Digital. SUPREME COURT SHOWDOWN LOOMS OVER ST MICHAEL STATUE BLOCKED FROM PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING Cleveland submitted a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out the cost of the displays, which, according to her lawsuit and in an interview with Fox News Digital, is where she allegedly learned that the city had also integrated Islamic iconography in other official capacities. "The police department was selling — with the police department's seal — Ramadan t-shirts.
It had the police department seal and a crescent moon, and I believe it said Ramadan," " Cleveland said. CONNECTICUT BARS NATIVITY DISPLAY IN STATE CAPITOL BECAUSE IT'S 'RELIGIOUS,' LAWSUIT THREAT SAYS The Dearborn Police Department did not respond to a Fox News Digital inquiry regarding the alleged t-shirts. After repeated attempts to try and contact city officials, Cleveland still received no response, until one city councilor told her that the council had been instructed not to engage with her.
TRUMP DOJ EXPANDS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PROTECTIONS AFTER MAJOR SUPREME COURT RULINGS "I reached out to city council, every individual, both their public email and a secondary one. Received no response," she shared. "But on LinkedIn, one of the council members responded and said, ‘Hey, we were told we can't talk to you,’" Cleveland told Fox News Digital.
Cleveland then attended an open city council meeting in May. She asked that the councilors, who she explained control the city’s purse strings, use an ongoing budget surplus to purchase banners celebrating Jewish and Christian holidays. GOP LAWMAKERS URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRENGTHEN FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS FOR STREET PREACHERS "I have not asked the city not to celebrate Ramadan," she said.
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