Pastor Challenges Dearborn Council to Denounce Sharia Law as Arab-Americans Make Up 54.5%
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 20
Pastor Challenges Dearborn Council to Denounce Sharia Law as Arab-Americans Make Up 54.5%
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 20
Summary
Tuesday’s Dearborn city council meeting turned confrontational when Pastor Lorenzo Sewell declared the city was operating under Sharia law and demanded officials publicly reject Muslim religious code.
Sewell tied the accusation to an earlier altercation involving activist Jake Lang, arguing police had gone too easy on Muslim counterprotesters after Lang was punched, chased and targeted with rocks during the city’s Arbaeen March.
Dearborn police said one person was arrested and held without bond while investigators sought to identify others involved, undercutting claims that authorities took no action.
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud rejected portrayals of Dearborn as overtaken by Muslims, saying such attacks erase the city’s Christian and other faith communities as well as its broader civic identity.
Dearborn’s tensions carry national resonance because the Michigan city has the highest concentration of Arab-Americans in the U.S.; the 2020 census put residents reporting Middle Eastern or North African ancestry at 54.5%.