Stand up for our Constitution. Do not permit Sharia to become the norm

Lawmaker calls for probe of arrests of pamphleters at Arab International Fest

DEARBORN -- A Michigan lawmaker is asking the Attorney General’s Office to investigate an incident involving four Christian missionaries who were arrested June 18 at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn after talking to festival-goers about religion.

“Both the Constitution of Michigan and the United States guarantee the right of every person to enjoy free speech and practice their religion freely, just as these men were doing,” said Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. “Those rights can't be just pushed aside for political correctness or to accommodate certain circumstances or locations.”

McMillin has been in touch with the “Dearborn Four” and has agreed to attend their arraignment tomorrow in 19^th District Court as a show of solidarity.

“These men should not be punished for exercising their inalienable rights,” McMillin said.

But authorities say Negeen Mayel, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla and David Wood were arrested after they were said to be causing disruptive behavior at the festival.

“They did cause a stir,” Police Chief Ronald Haddad said in an earlier interview.

The four were later released on bail and described the arrest on the Acts 17 blog at www.answeringmuslims.com.

“It cannot be said that we were arrested for causing a disturbance, because we did not approach anyone, rather everyone with whom we spoke first approached us,” Wood said in the online blog. “It cannot be said that we were harassing anyone, because the moment anyone said ‘stop talking to me’, we would stop talking to them. And it cannot be said that we were spreading hate speech, because we said virtually nothing about Islam at all.”

At the time, Haddad said wasn’t taking sides in the dispute, adding that police officers were there to keep the peace at the festival.

Officials with the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said they support the Dearborn police in their decision to arrest the men, who were passing out Christian missionary literature.

“Had those persons who were arrested in Dearborn been passing out their materials at a paid booth or in a public area outside of the festival area, which was corded for specific usage, we would defend them in this matter,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-MI. “Being that they did not play by the rules however, we support the Dearborn Police as it relates to this particular action.”

Another Christian group, which had rented a booth, was permitted to distribute its materials at the festival and apparently caused no problems.

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan is representing all of the Christian missionaries. Because District Judge Mark W. Somers required that all four defendants personally appear before him for the arraignment, the Law Center assisted with the costs of their travel from different parts of the country.

“It’s evident that the Dearborn Police department was more interested in placating Muslims than obeying our Constitution,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center. “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.”

Robert Muise, senior trial counsel with the Law Center, will represent the Christian missionaries at the arraignment tomorrow.