Free speech denied at Michigan Arab Festival

Visit our News page Christian Organization Denied Free Speech Rights At Arab International Festival Restrictions requested by Dearborn police upheld in court Dear Solstice, Imagine a large Christian festival being held on public streets in a major city. A Muslim organization dispatches volunteers to mix and mingle with festival attendees, handing out pro-Muslim leaflets. The local police, concerned about crowd control and possible violence, order the Muslim organization to confine its leafleting to a single street corner out of the way of most of the festival traffic. If this is hard to imagine it's because we all know that the outcry from the ACLU, CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations), and other Islamic organizations, would be deafening. Indeed, threats of lawsuits against the city by these organizations alleging unlawful infringement on free speech would likely prevent the city from ever issuing the order in the first place. Last Friday afternoon we received a phone call and email from one of our members in North Carolina about the issue described in the article below. A friend of his, another ACT! for America member, was in Dearborn, Michigan volunteering time with the Arabic Christian Perspective (ACP). For the past five years ACP has had a presence at the Dearborn Arab International Festival, reportedly without any problems or incidents. This year, however, for the first time, Dearborn police imposed on the ACP restrictions on where it could hand out leaflets at this free, open-to-the-public event. These restrictions were upheld by a judge on Friday, and over the weekend we received an unconfirmed report that a volunteer handing out leaflets to Muslims was arrested. Consider that in the past three months a Delray Beach Marriott abruptly and unilaterally canceled an event designed to educate people about the threat of radical Islam; the Loews Hotel in Nashville did the same thing; and now, after five years without problems, the ACP has its free speech rights denied. We occasionally receive emails asking us why we report frequently on threats to free speech and other attempts at intimidation aimed at those who are willing to confront radical Islam. As Great Britain has learned the hard way, one-sided accommodation of Islamic demands has not led to fewer terrorist threats, but more. Official recognition of Islamic shariah law has not led to less Islamic radicalization, but more. Suppression of free speech has not led to fewer demands by Islamists, but more. Thus, in the process of losing its freedoms Britain is also becoming less safe. This is why the official motto of ACT! for America is "Rising in defense of our security, our liberty and our values." Liberty and security are inextricably linked. And more such challenges to our liberty – and thus our security – are occurring every day. Thanks to each and every one of you, ACT! for America continues to grow on the path of fulfilling its mission – protecting you, your families, your communities, and our country – from suffering a fate similar to Great Britain's. Muslim Festival - Dearborn Lawsuit to Fight Islamic Supremacism http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/06/muslim-festival-dearborn-lawsuit-to-fight-islamic-supremacism.html Law enforcement has begun to cave to Islamic demands of supremacism in breach of our inalienable rights guaranteed to us in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Dearborn, Michigan, features the most highly concentrated population of Muslims in the nation. Arabic Christian Perspective (ACP), and Pastor George Saieg attend the annual Arab International street festival there every year handing out Christian material to Muslims. They do this along the public sidewalks that run along the street, where the festival is conducted. It is open to the public and admission is free. Business establishments along the street remain open during the festival. It is a bold thing to do, but in the five years ACP has been going there, it has never encountered any problems. Now, the Dearborn Police Department has asked ACP to stand on a single corner, where they will be unable to freely mingle with festival gatherers and unable to reach their intended audience. This is a violation of its First Amendment rights. Bill Becker has filed a lawsuit and the Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, is assisting in this matter. A copy of the complaint, which they filed today [June 16] is attached. Becker said: The relevance of our lawsuit is based on the idea that in Iran, we applaud what the people are doing to express their objection to the election, but in the U.S., police officials are restraining my clients' rights to practice its free speech liberty. UPDATE: A dhimmi judge has ruled against the Christians. Bill Becker, a lawyer for the Christian group, just sent me this: Today, a federal judge denied our request for a TRO (temporary restraining order), which would have allowed Arabic Christian Perspective to continue to distribute their literature along the public sidewalks adjacent to a street occupied by the annual Arab International Festival. The court reasoned that restrictions imposed by the City of Dearborn only on ACP were reasonable time, place and manner restrictions. We naturally disagree, inasmuch as no other citizen is ordered to restrict what he or she can say or hand to another person. This is content-based discrimination against a Christian group, whose mission is to peaceably bring the good news of salvation to people attending the Festival. Why would the judge find this to be anything but unconstitutionally content-based discrimination? We don't have a clue. ACP will now be treated as second-class citizens, forced to pass out their DVDs and booklets around the corner from the Festival, while other groups will be able to freely distribute their materials. Strangely, the Festival is allowing them to set up a booth and participate in the festival. It will be impracticable for ACP's 90-some volunteers to man the booth, so they will have to find another place to go. They are free to mingle along the Festival just as long as they don't pass out their free material. Our lawsuit will proceed, and we will seek an order permanently enjoining the city from violating ACP's First Amendment rights. To many people this controversy may seem minor, but as Spencer observed in his book, "Stealth Jihad", the OIC has made it clear that Muslims are to use the judicial process to eliminate criticism of Islam. In this case, we do not know whether the Festival had anything to do with the city's decision. And ACP is not there to criticize Muslims. They are there to do the good work of evangelizing, which might be perceived as threatening activity in a city boasting the highest per capita population of Muslims in the nation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACT for America P.O. Box 12765 Pensacola, FL 32591 www.actforamerica.org ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. Thank you for helping us make America safer and more secure. HOW CAN I TELL OTHERS ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION? Send a personalized version of this message to your friends. HOW CAN I SUPPORT YOUR ORGANIZATION? Click here to give an online donation.