DEARBORN, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Once upon a time, Dearborn’s Warren Avenue stood as a tribute to General Joseph Warren – a Revolutionary War hero killed at Bunker Hill in 1775. The kind of figure you’d think every American city would be proud to honor.

Fast forward to 2025, and part of that very street now salutes Osama Siblani, the publisher of The Arab American News, and also a man critics say has praised Hezbollah, called jihadi fighters “heroes,” and told Israeli Jews to “go back to Poland.” Quite the résumé for a man who has his own honorary street signs named after him.

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As reported by Michigan News Source this week, at the unveiling of the new signs, Wayne County officials and a Whitmer representative hailed Siblani as a community icon. His fans call him a tireless advocate for immigrants. His detractors call him something a lot less polite. Either way, the symbolism is impossible to miss: a Revolutionary hero partly replaced by a figure linked, fairly or not, to America’s enemies.

City Hall or culture clash?

The renaming of Warren Avenue erupted at a recent Dearborn City Council meeting when resident Ted Barham dared to suggest that naming a street after someone many consider to be a Hezbollah sympathizer might be a bit inappropriate. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud fired back by branding Barham an “Islamophobe” and declaring, “You are not welcome here.” The mayor even promised a parade when Barham finally leaves the city.

Dearborn Heights joins the show.

Not to be outdone, neighboring Dearborn Heights tried its own experiment in cultural branding in early September by floating a police patch featuring Arabic script. Instead of bringing harmony, the proposal blew up like a badly wired firecracker. The patch was shelved, but the message lingered: in these suburbs, “diversity” can feel less like a melting pot and more like a boiling point.

No succession yet.

Let’s be clear: Dearborn hasn’t officially seceded. The U.S. dollar still works at Habib’s Cuisine, and American law still governs City Hall. But between the Arabic storefronts, massive religious processions drawing tens of thousands, and street signs honoring men accused of cheering for terror groups, it’s easy to see why American citizens wonder if their zip code quietly got swapped for a foreign country.

Hamtramck too.

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Hamtramck isn’t far behind Dearborn in shifting its demographics. The once-Polish stronghold is now run entirely by Muslim officials, with storefronts and signs that make the southeast Michigan city look

more like Damascus. Critics say these cities aren’t blending into America but rather building micro- nations inside American cities.

As we reported in September, in Hamtramck Public Schools, 62% of the 2,907 students were English Learners in 2023-24, meaning English was not their native language and they had difficulties understanding it. In the city of Hamtramck, 71.6% of the people at home speak a language other than English.

Michigan’s micro-nations.

To some, Dearborn and other parts of southeast Michigan are proof of the American dream – immigrants rising, building institutions, and celebrating their heritage loudly and unapologetically. To others, it looks more like a parallel society, with its own rules, heroes, and red lines drawn by a group of people who appear unwilling to assimilate into American culture.

Dearborn and its southeastern neighbors haven’t filed secession papers yet, but the optics tell another story. When Revolutionary heroes are swapped out for men accused of siding with America’s enemies, when English fades from storefronts and classrooms, and when dissenters get told to leave town by their own mayor, it doesn’t look like unity. It looks like a different country taking root in the middle of Michigan.