Dearborn leaders call for unity ahead of visit by anti-Muslim activist Jake Lang

Julia Cardi, The Detroit News on Aug 17, 2026

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DEARBORN, Mich. — Dearborn officials and faith leaders gathered Monday to try to head off confronations and point to the city's diversity ahead of a planned visit by self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang on Tuesday.

Leaders said Monday outsiders seek to sow hate and paint a picture of Dearborn as a divided city. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who is Muslim, said the city has been targeted by people who don't believe a city that spans ethnicities, religions and generations can embody America's ideals. He noted the city has more than 30 churches and over a dozen mosques.

"So often this is the starting point for so many immigrant communities: the Polish community, the Italian, the Irish community, the Yemeni, the Lebanese and the broader diaspora community. All have gotten starting points right here in our city," Hammoud said.

Dearborn is home to one of the largest concentrations of Muslims and Arabs in the United States. City officials, trying to invoke temperance during the visit, asked people not to show up to confront Lang and his supporters. Activists want to provoke a reaction, police Chief Issa Shahin said, and people shouldn't give them an audience.

"An empty audience is the worst outcome for people looking for confrontation on camera," he said.

Lang told The Detroit News last week he expects trouble and to be attacked when he's in Dearborn before a City Council meeting and a rally and pig roast — meant as an insult to Muslims, who don't eat pork according to their religion.

Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, came to Dearborn at least two times in the last year. He protested earlier this month during a religious procession in the city. Videos posted online appeared to show members of a crowd attacking Lang before Dearborn police officers hurried him into a squad car and ordered the crowd to disperse. The incident led to three arrests.

Shahin said law enforcement action Tuesday will be based on conduct, not the content of messages people express, he said.

Last November, Lang showed up at a rally in Dearborn organized by gubernatorial candidate Anthony Hudson, who claimed Americans needed to be "protected from Sharia law" but later posted a video apologizing on social media after the visit. The rally drew clashing groups of protesters.

President Donald Trump pardoned Lang and others charged for the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot on the first day of his second term.

Lang also led a protest in March outside Gracie Mansion, the New York City mayor's residence, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani lives with his wife, claiming an Islamic “takeover” of New York City and against public prayer by Muslims.

"What we are seeing right now is not love or respect for a neighbor," said Pastor Nathan Hayes of Dearborn's Solid Rock Church at Monday's news conference, referring to the planned rally and pig roast.

"It is trying to get attention and trying to prove a point. And there is no point to be proven. There is no attention to be gotten. It is simply this: Love your neighbor like you love yourself, and I have deep love and respect for my fellow people in this city."

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