Following a heated city council meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, last week, a local pastor and other religious freedom advocates are accusing the Muslim-majority city council of favoring Islamic Sharia law over pursuing justice for Christian protestors who were attacked during a recent local event.
Dearborn, just west of Detroit, is one of Michigan’s largest cities, and has one of the largest concentrations of Arabs outside the Middle East, according to The Detroit News. The 2020 U.S. Census puts the majority-Arab population at about 54.5%. The city has five Muslim public prayers a day, in accordance with Sharia Law, and boasts the largest mosque in North America.
The issue of Sharia Law has become part of political rhetoric in recent years and last October was the target of legislation proposed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) that would, in effect, ban Sharia Law from the United States.
What happened at the city council meeting?
The issue came to a head in Dearborn during the Aug. 18 city council meeting, when Lorenzo Sewell, pastor of 180 Church in Detroit, demanded that Dearborn City Council members publicly denounce Sharia Law. The meeting drew hundreds of people to Dearborn’s city offices, many waving flags and chanting “USA!” The tension-filled meeting, which resulted in 22 arrests, had to relocate to the Henry Ford Centennial Library, according to reporting from the News.
Sewell pointed to an incident earlier this month where self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang had come to the city to protest Dearborn’s annual Arbaeen of Ashura march, which honors Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The march, the largest of its kind in the United States, drew 40,000 people.
According to The Christian Post, opposition to Lang’s presence became physical, with counterprotesters chasing him to his car and throwing rocks at him. Only one person was arrested in connection with the altercation.
Sewell and Lang, who is also a former Florida Republican U.S. Senate candidate and a Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendant, called the police response weak and announced plans to press the city on bending to Sharia law.
“You are not up under American law,” Sewell told the council. “You are up under Sharia law. That is the reason why you have made no [more] arrests.”
Then he made a broader claim to the entire country: “America, we have lost this city.” And to the council specifically: “You’re only 1% of this nation. We are not a nation of Muslims. Enough is enough.”
Concerns Over Support For Hezbollah
Also attending the Aug. 18 meeting was Pastor Ted Barham, a Dearborn resident and preacher with the Evangelical Plymouth Brethren denomination. Barham attributes the current tension in Dearborn to a clash he had with City Council at a September 2025, which he attended to express concern over a street sign that bears the name of Osama Siblani, an Arab American leader widely known for praising Hezbollah.
At the 2025 meeting, the mayor reportedly lashed out at Barham, calling him a bigot, a racist and an Islamophobe and demanded he leave the city. Tension has brewed since, including at least two anti-Islamic protests. On Aug. 18, Barham expressed his concerns about the city’s overall unrest and support for the Iranian regime, including Hezbollah.
“These are valid concerns,” he told the city council. “Hezbollah bombed to death hundreds of Americans in Beirut. That’s not just an isolated incident. … Imams and the biggest mosques in Dearborn praise the Iranian regime, which has caused so much death and destruction.”
In a related interview with The Christian Post, Barham said he prays for the mayor and the city of Dearborn.
“I continue to actually pray for a change of heart for the mayor,” he told The Post. “Not just for the mayor, but for Dearborn as a whole.”
Barham called on Christians to stand firm in truth while continuing to love their Muslim neighbors.
“The Lord said to love your neighbor,” he said. “The Lord Jesus was persecuted from the beginning. The early Christians were persecuted from the beginning. I encourage Christians to continue to love Muslim people and try to win them over.”
