11/25/2025
Jake Lang, a far-right activist who traveled from Florida to Dearborn and tried to burn a copy of the Quran during an anti-Islam march, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than $200 million from the City of Dearborn and its leaders.
In a post on X, Lang claimed he had filed a “$200+ MILLION DOLLAR FEDERAL HATE CRIME LAWSUIT” against the Dearborn Police Department, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, the City Council and unnamed officers. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, accuses officials of violating his civil rights, failing to protect him from counter-protesters and allegedly ordering a “stand-down” as tensions flared, according to the complaint language visible in court documents he posted online.
Lang led a small group of anti-Islam demonstrators through Dearborn on Nov. 18, carrying banners such as “Americans Against Islamification.” Multiple outlets report he attempted to set a Quran on fire during the march while holding what appeared to be lighter fluid, before a counter-protester grabbed the holy book away.
Days later, Dearborn leaders and state officials held a unity event, with Mayor Hammoud stressing that “Dearborn’s future will not be written by outsiders with torches of fear; it will be written by the people of this city.”
Lang is no stranger to national controversy. He was arrested after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and charged in an 11-count federal indictment that included multiple felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers—some involving a bat and a riot shield—as well as civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. 
He spent roughly four years in custody while his case moved through the courts before receiving a sweeping pardon from President Donald Trump in January 2025, which wiped out the pending charges.
While Lang now portrays himself as the victim in a massive federal lawsuit, many in Dearborn see the episode very differently: as an out-of-town agitator choosing their city, their streets and their holy book as a stage for provocation.
