A Detroit pastor accused Dearborn of being “up under Sharia law” during a contentious City Council meeting Tuesday as hundreds demonstrated outside and police made 22 arrests.
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church confronted council members directly, telling them the city had strayed from American law.
“You are only 1% of this nation. We are not a nation of Muslims,” Mr. Sewell said, according to Fox News.
The council meeting itself proceeded as planned and concluded without incident, according to ClickOnDetroit. The unrest was confined to the demonstration outside, where organizers had promoted a “Christian Crusader March on Dearborn” in the days beforehand, according to Fox News and Detroit Public Radio.
Mr. Sewell’s remarks capped weeks of tension in Dearborn, where 54.5% of residents reported Middle Eastern or North African ancestry in 2020 census data, making Dearborn the first U.S. city widely identified as having an Arab American majority.
Mr. Sewell’s Sharia law claim does not refer to any actual ordinance or legislation. Rather, he and other critics have pointed to what they see as uneven law enforcement toward Muslim residents, citing a physical altercation earlier this month involving Jake Lang, an activist who has organized protests against Muslim public prayer.
Mr. Lang was among the demonstrators outside Dearborn’s Arbaeen March, an annual religious commemoration, on Aug. 2, according to Fox News. Dearborn police said in a statement that the march was met by a group of agitators who verbally engaged marchers, leading to a physical altercation that officers broke up. Police arrested one person and sought the public’s help identifying others involved in assaults or other unlawful conduct during the march.
The dispute escalated ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting, which was relocated to the Henry Ford Centennial Library in anticipation of large crowds, Detroit Public Radio reported. Riot police moved in as the crowd pressed to enter the building.
Dearborn police arrested 22 people during the demonstration, ranging in age from 18 to 64 and hailing from as far away as New York and Tennessee, on charges including breach of peace and disorderly conduct. No injuries were reported. Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin credited officers with balancing public safety and free-speech rights during “a challenging and rapidly evolving situation.”
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud rejected the characterization of his city as overtaken by any one faith.
“Ultimately, they’re attacking something much larger than any one faith or community,” Mr. Hammoud said at the meeting, adding that the protests target the idea that all Americans can belong equally.
Mr. Lang was escorted out of the meeting after his allotted public-comment time expired and he refused to yield the floor, according to Detroit Public Radio.
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