Born in a Refugee Camp, Raised in Dearborn Heights: Mohammed Almawla Joins the City Council
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. — The Dearborn Heights City Council voted 4-2 on Tuesday to appoint Mohammed Almawla to its vacant seat, choosing the local video production business owner over former Councilman Ray Muscat after a monthslong process that drew seven applicants and five finalists.
Councilwoman Denise Malinowski-Maxwell, Councilwoman Margaret King, Council Chair Hassan Saab, and Council Chair Pro Tem Bob Constan voted for Almawla, while Councilman Tom Wencel and Councilwoman Nancy Bryer backed Muscat. The seat had been open since City Council Chairman Hassan Ahmad was appointed to the Wayne County Commission earlier this year, triggering a vacancy that the city formally opened for applications in September before holding interviews on Oct. 6 and a final vote on Oct. 13.
Almawla's path to the council runs through a refugee camp. Born in 1992 in Saudi Arabia, where his family had fled after leaving Saddam Hussein's Iraq, he arrived in the United States in 1995 and has spent the decades since building a life in Dearborn Heights, where he now raises his own daughter with his wife. He is the founder of Visual Lion LLC, a Dearborn-based video production and digital marketing company he has run since 2009, producing videos, animation and campaign work for small businesses, nonprofits and satellite channels across the U.S. and abroad — a biography independently confirmed through business registries and his professional profile.
Almawla's resume extends beyond the camera. He has served as a special assistant to the director of the Department of Defense's Office of Small Business Programs, volunteered with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department as a reserve deputy on its Community Emergency Response Team, and helped connect the Dearborn Heights Fire Department with Dialed and Defend, a nonprofit focused on firefighter health, on a sauna donation and training opportunities tied to the city's new fire station.
In his interview with the council, Almawla framed public service as a connector's job. "I believe public service often means identifying an opportunity, bringing the right people together and following through to turn it into something useful for the community," he said, adding that he would come to meetings prepared, "review proposals and expenditures carefully, ask questions and listen to residents," while staying "even-keeled and objective."
He listed his priorities as long-term flood mitigation along Ecorse Creek — a perennial concern in a city that has weathered repeated basement flooding — along with careful stewardship of city finances, public safety, more transparent communication between city hall and residents, and an environment that makes it easier for small businesses to start and grow.
Almawla's appointment keeps intact a council seat long associated with Arab American representation in Dearborn Heights, a city of roughly 56,000 where Arab Americans make up a substantial share of residents and have increasingly moved into elected and appointed leadership, from the mayor's office to the county commission. His term runs until the seat is filled by election; the appointment expires upon certification of the November 2027 general election, with the full elected term running through the end of 2029.
For a council that has cycled through several vacancy appointments this year alone — a byproduct of members moving up to higher office — Almawla's addition rounds out a body now split between longtime officials and newer appointees navigating the city's infrastructure and growth challenges together.