'We have lost this city,' pastor says during fiery speech criticizing Sharia law in 'America's jihad capital'

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell speaking at a city council meeting in Dearborn, Michigan.

Video of a Michigan pastor went viral this week after he delivered a fiery speech at a city council meeting in which he railed against Sharia law and urged city council members to prove the community has not been put under Sharia law by renouncing the Islamic moral framework. 

Lorenzo Sewell, the pastor of 180 Church, lit into the apparent Muslim takeover of Dearborn, Michigan, during and explosive his speech this week. One by one, and calling them out by name, Sewell asked each city council each city council member to renounce Sharia law. None would do so. 

“America, we have lost this city. This is a city that is no longer up under American laws. We are up under Sharia law. We will not have it anymore,” Sewell thundered in response. “Enough is enough. You are only 1% of this nation. We are not a nation of Muslims,” Sewell said. At various points, Sewell received a round of applause from some of the people in attendance.

Recent videos posted on social media have made Dearborn look like a city in a Muslim nation. One video posted this week showed Muslim counterprotestors marching through a Dearborn street yelling "Allahu Akbar." The man recording the scene on his smartphone at one point turns the camera on himself and gleefully says, "Muslims took over Dearborn, baby!"

Tensions have been rising between Christians and Muslims in Dearborn for years now, and the Allahu Akbar outburst occurred at "Christian Crusade" rally held by Jake Lang, who has been pushing back against what he sees as a takeover. According to The New York Post, Dearborn is the first U.S. city to tally a predominantly Arab population. The 2020 census showed 54.5% of residents in Dearborn are Arab, tracing ancestral roots to the Middle East or North Africa. The population there is about 110,000. In 2024, an opinion writer for The Wall Street Journal denounced the city as "America's jihad capital" over large numbers of people vocally supporting Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack against Israel.

Below, watch Sewell's speech.