Evangelists Arrested at Michigan Arab Festival - July 19, 2010

Four Christian evangelists who were arrested June 18 at the Dearborn Michigan Arab International Festival and charged with disorderly conduct were arraigned in the 19^th District Court on July 12.  They had been handing out Christian literature at the time of their arrest.

Members of a group called “Acts 17 Apologetics,” the missionaries said that they only spoke to people who approached them and videotaped the encounter to protect themselves.  Nabeel Qureshi of Virginia, Negeen Mayel of California and Paul Rezkalla and David Wood of New York believe that the charges are a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech.

Qureshi spoke to reporters after the incident saying “We made sure that the only people we talked to were people who first approached us. And this was to limit accusations of instigation and disruption.  We knew people have a tendency to accuse us of being disruptive, of inciting, and instigating. So we wanted to make sure we did absolutely nothing of the sort.”

The four are being represented by lawyers from the Thomas More Law Center.  Lawyers entered a not guilty plea on behalf of the Christians, three of whom are converts from Islam.  Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, stated in a press release that “it’s evident that the Dearborn Police department was more interested in placating Muslims than obeying our Constitution.  These Christians were exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but apparently in a city where the Muslim population seems to dominate the political apparatus, sharia law trumps our Constitution.”

Thompson added “It’s apparent that these arrests were a retaliatory action over the embarrassing video of the strong arm tactics used last year by Festival Security Guards.  This time, the first thing police officers did before making the arrests was to confiscate the video cameras in order to prevent a recording of what was actually happening.”

According to the US Census Bureau, nearly one third of the population of Dearborn Michigan are Arabs.  So it didn’t surprise Richard Thompson that the mayor of Dearborn would support the police action.  Mayor O’Reilly issued a statement on the city’s website stating that he thinks the group’s intention was to disrupt the Arab festival.  The statement said “The real violation of First Amendment rights occurs with Acts 17 Apologetics trying to imply they were the victim when the real violation is their attack on the city of Dearborn for having tolerance for all religions, including believers in the Koran."

Meanwhile, Police Chief Ronald Haddad said in a statement on the city’s website “Our job is to provide public safety to all who choose to rally or demonstrate in the city of Dearborn and we will provide the same professional service regardless of the cause or views of the parties involved.”

The Thomas More Law Center responded to the statements on the city website with a press release.  It says that the mayor’s statement is “an unprecedented and astonishing development. The City of Dearborn, through its mayor and its official website, personally attacked the four Christian missionaries arrested at the annual Arab International Festival on June 18, 2010. The Mayor’s intrusion into the case destroyed whatever semblance remained of an unbiased and professional law enforcement action following the illegal seizure of video cameras to prevent recording of the events surrounding the arrests.”

The trial is scheduled to begin on September 20, 2010.

Share on

Latest Articles

• Bringing the World to Israel - September 2, 2010
• Group Traveling to Israel Explores Joppa - September 1, 2010
• UK Study Finds Decisions by Non-Religious Doctors May Hasten Death - August 31, 2010