The scene at a recent Dearborn city council meeting was as ugly as it was revealing: a Christian resident, Edward “Ted” Barham, stood up to question why Wayne County had placed honorary street signs for longtime Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani and was met not with answers but with the mayor’s dismissal that he was “not welcome” in the city. Voters who cherish free speech and civil debate should be outraged when an elected official tells a constituent to leave rather than explain a controversial decision.
Barham did what citizens are supposed to do — he raised concerns about symbolism in public spaces and tied those concerns to statements Siblani has reportedly made praising militant groups. City officials scrambled to distance themselves by noting the signs were placed by Wayne County on a county road, but that dodge doesn’t erase the real consequence: the honorific signs sit in Dearborn and send a message to neighbors.
The reason people were alarmed is not invented; Osama Siblani has a recorded history of comments that many understandably view as sympathetic to Hezbollah and Hamas, including praise for so-called martyrs and rhetoric that blurs the line between journalism and political advocacy. Honoring someone with that track record in municipal space is provocative, and citizens have the right to ask whether their tax-funded communities should be doubling as platforms for those views.
Instead of addressing these legitimate worries, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud chose to weaponize identity politics — branding Barham an Islamophobe and instructing him to move away, a chilling rebuke to civic engagement that reeks of intolerance for dissent. This isn’t leadership; this is the kind of tribalism that corrodes trust in government and tells residents the only acceptable opinion is the one that aligns with the mayor’s tribe.
Make no mistake: local leaders have a duty to protect all citizens’ right to speak and to ensure public honors reflect community values, not ideological loyalty or the politics of favor. Wayne County and the Dearborn council should answer direct questions: who authorized these signs, why was a controversial figure chosen for recognition, and will this administration commit to a transparent review? Citizens deserve straight answers, not sneers and exile threats.
This episode also carries political weight beyond Dearborn’s borders — Mayor Hammoud has not been shy about injecting national issues into local politics, and his posture here signals a growing trend where left-leaning officials defend questionable symbolism while silencing critics. Conservatives who value free speech, religious liberty, and respect for victims of terror must push back hard against the normalization of rhetoric that excuses or celebrates groups that threaten American allies.
If Dearborn wants to remain a thriving, unified community, its leaders must drop the partisan pieties and restore common-sense civility: rescind or review honors that divide, apologize to residents who were dismissed, and recommit to protecting the right of every citizen to question without being branded un-American. Otherwise this city will be remembered not for its immigrant success stories but for a mayor who told a neighbor to leave when he asked a simple question — a bitter lesson about what happens when politicians choose tribal loyalty over principled leadership.
