Jake Lang uses a megaphone during anti-Muslim rally outside Henry Ford Centennial Library ahead of a Dearborn City Council meeting in Dearborn, MI, Aug. 18, 2026. Photo by Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press.

DEARBORN, MI- During the Dearborn City Council meeting on Aug. 18, tensions rose as right-wing social media influencer and January 6 rioter Jake Lang’s viewpoints clashed with supporters from the local community. The meeting consisted of those backing Lang’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, while others felt his narrative did not represent the community.

While Lang drew a small crowd of supporters, those in support of the Arab and Muslim community outnumbered their counterparts.

Lang had previously held an “Anti-Muslim” protest in Dearborn on Nov. 18, 2025, gathering national media attention. Lang, who has amassed over 269,000 followers on Facebook, has also held protests against other Muslim leaders such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

During the Dearborn City Council meeting, speakers were allotted 30 minutes at the start of the meeting, and about an hour after the agenda was completed, with each individual allowed three minutes to express their concerns. Lang was the sixth person to speak, saying, “This is an invasion on all fronts.” He referred to his movement as a “Christian Crusade” and told Arabs and Muslims to “go home.” Lang labeled Muslims as “third-world mongrels.”

City locals and speakers from all over the country gathered for the meeting. Lang and his supporters rebuked city council members, while many others rose in support of Dearborn and its council. Among the sitting council members was Robert Abraham.

Abraham, also known as Bobby to his friends and colleagues, is a lifelong Dearborn resident. He graduated from Fordson High School, currently serves on the Henry Ford College Foundation Board of Directors, and was sworn in as a councilman in January of 2002. He is serving his sixth term. When reflecting on his decision to join Dearborn City Council, Abraham stated, “Well, the decision was two-fold. First and foremost, it was a form of community service to me. A way to give back to my community in a leadership role that would help me grow professionally and become a better leader in the community. Second, I was by profession a CPA. So I think on the individual side blended with kind of the company and business side in the Dearborn community. I got a lot of support and have been doing that ever since.”

Dearborn has had its fair share of visitors that share the same sentiment as Jake Lang. Lang’s goal, however, remains unclear to Abraham. “I honestly don’t know. He doesn’t really state his mission other than he’s a Christian Crusader, and that he puts a lot of false information out there about our community. He then tries to take credit for combating problems, issues, and false narratives that he creates.”

During Lang’s time, he asserted that Arabs and Muslims were “looking to destroy us, to outbreed us. The Muslim’s have not come here to assimilate.” However, the history of muslim presence in the city has been long and successful. Henry Ford famously hired many immigrant workers during the auto manufacturing boom in the early 20th century. After opening the River Rouge complex, immigrants from Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and many Chaldeans flocked to the area for the opportunity. Some Lebanese immigrants even arrived before Ford’s growth, tracing lineage back to the 1870s.

Abraham observes, “If you spent any time focused on American History and our constitution, I think it’s hypocritical and extremely ironic these groups of people, and I don’t even want to say his name to be honest, find shelter behind the constitution to come to Dearborn and exercise their right to demonstrate and be protected for freedom of speech.” Lang and his supporters emphasized their right to demonstrate in the city. During his first visit to Dearborn, his attempt to vandalize a copy of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, was stopped after he was assaulted. Police ultimately arrested four individuals, including others involved in street fights that occurred throughout the protest.

Abraham emphasized the separation of government and religion as “very important.” Many gathered at the meeting asked questions regarding his own personal faith, some even claiming that Sharia Law was taking over the city.

Abraham shared that three different Detroit news sources reached out for a comment regarding his beliefs. “When the news got a hold of that, the media, I got phone calls asking me about my religion and what beliefs I follow. I obviously refused to answer those questions, and I thought, you know, for me, I’ve been on the council for 25 years. If people don’t understand my religious beliefs and my religious faith, then I must be doing a pretty good job of separating them from how I govern and how I make decisions in the city.”

The council, along with Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, declared that people from every background are welcome in the city. Mayor Hammoud said, “Dearborn was built by people with different names, different accents, and different ways of worshipping god.” The mayor affirmed that the city will continue to “do what it’s always done by opening our doors, because one of the most powerful antidotes to fear is knowing one another.”