DEARBORN, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A street once named to honor a Revolutionary War hero has now been partly rebranded for a man critics link to Hezbollah. That culture clash came to a boil not just on the pavement but inside Dearborn’s city hall on Wednesday, September 10 – where the mayor stunned residents by telling a local taxpayer he wasn’t welcome in his own hometown after the man criticized the renaming of a portion of Warren Avenue to honor a controversial figure in Arab-American culture, Osama Siblani.
From revolution to reputation.
According to the Superior Township website, Detroit historian Silas Farmer noted that Warren Avenue was renamed back in 1869 to honor General Joseph Warren, a hero of the Revolutionary War and someone who is described as a Founding Father of the United States. Similarly, a winter 1989 edition of The Dearborn Historian records that the avenue was named after General Warren, who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
Who is Joseph Warren?
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General Warren was a Boston physician turned patriot leader who became one of the earliest martyrs of the American Revolution. A vocal critic of British policies, he played a key role in organizing resistance in Massachusetts, authoring political papers, delivering fiery orations, and helping plan the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Elevated to Major General of the colonial militia in June 1775, Warren volunteered to fight as a soldier rather than command from the rear at the Battle of Bunker Hill. There, he was killed by British troops during the final assault, becoming a symbol of sacrifice for liberty. His death at just 34 years old helped to galvanize the revolutionary cause, and his name was later honored across the nation – including in Warren, Michigan – the state’s third-largest city, in Macomb County, which bears his name.
Portion of road renamed.
For generations, this busy artery in Dearborn stood as a tribute to General Warren’s sacrifice. But now, shiny new street signs mark a stretch of Warren Avenue, between Chase and Schaefer, with another name: Osama Siblani. A publisher of the bilingual newspaper, The Arab American News, and political insider, Siblani was celebrated recently by Wayne County officials and other leaders as a champion of immigrants during the naming of a section of Warren Avenue in Dearborn after him. His admirers say he built a platform for Arab Americans when few others would. But his critics see something far darker.
Who is Osama Siblani?
According to critics, including The Washington Free Beacon, Siblani has praised Hezbollah leaders as “heroes,” told Israeli Jews to go back to Poland, and at a 2024 rally promised that Hezbollah would “take care of the job” against Israel while the crowd chanted “death to Israel.” He’s also a close ally of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, having joined her on a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates. Depending on who you ask, his new street honor is either overdue recognition or an outright insult to American values.
City hall goes off the rails.
The renaming debate spilled into a Dearborn City Council meeting last week, according to Fox2 Detroit, when resident Ted Barham blasted the idea, saying it was like naming a road after Hamas or Hezbollah – terror groups with American blood on their hands.
His comments prompted Muslim Mayor Abdullah Hammoud to snap back saying, “You are an Islamophobe. And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here. And the day you move out of the city, will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city.”
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To some, the mayor’s comments were a righteous defense of Dearborn’s majority-Arab identity. To others, it sounded like an elected leader expelling a critic from civic life. Either way, it gave the impression that disagreement in Dearborn is not welcome at their city meetings.
Politicians and leaders line up to praise Siblani.
In the Arab American News, they reported on the street naming event calling it an “unprecedented milestone for the Arab American community in Michigan” and they say “the honorary sign highlights Siblani’s leadership in helping transform Arab Americans from a marginalized group in the 1980s into one of the most visible and influential ethnic communities in Michigan and across the United States.”
They go on to say that the unveiling followed a formal program where “speakers praised Siblani’s life journey and his extraordinary contributions to Arab Americans and other communities in Wayne County and Michigan.”
There were many political leaders in attendance, praising Siblani, including Wayne County Deputy Executive Assad Turfe, State Representative Alabas Farhat, Dearborn City Council President Mike Sareini, Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mariam Bazzi, Wayne County Under Sheriff Mike Jaafar, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and the governor’s representative Melanie Brown, who is a State Executive Ombudsman for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). She was there to speak for Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Brown said, “On behalf of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist and 50,000 state employees, I thank you, Osama. The governor considers you a close and trusted advisor. You have educated us all and continue to make Michigan a welcoming place for everyone.”
History meets headlines.
No one is tearing up Warren Avenue’s original nameplates. General Joseph Warren’s sacrifice at Bunker Hill still technically anchors the boulevard. But the new “Osama Siblani” markers now stand along with his, fusing Revolutionary history with today’s culture wars.
For longtime residents, that juxtaposition feels less like unity and more like rewriting the story of who – and what – Dearborn chooses to honor. And if city hall meetings are any guide, the battle over that story is only just beginning.
