Dearborn

Several people have contacted us asking for summaries of the events in Dearborn. Since we didn't have a post with a complete summary, I thought it would be good to put one together.

I. ARAB FESTIVAL 2008
I attended the 2008 Dearborn Arab Festival, along with many other Christians. I stood on the public sidewalk and offered passersby Christian DVDs and copies of the Gospel of John. Some Muslims asked us about our beliefs, and we got into some good conversations. As far as I know, no one's Constitutional rights were violated, and I saw nothing that I would complain about.

II. MOSQUE OUTREACH 2008
While no one violated our rights at the festival, Dearborn Police did violate our rights outside a nearby mosque, raising some initial concerns as to the motives of police. Several hours before the festival began, I went with a group to one of the local mosques. We stood on the public sidewalks (deliberately avoiding mosque property) in order to distribute DVDs and New Testaments as Muslims were leaving the mosque after their prayers.

One of the mosque leaders called the police, which was fine with us, since back then we liked having police around. The Dearborn Police who responded to the call, however, were like nothing I'd ever seen. One of the officers got out of his car, gathered the Christians together, and made us stand there while he asked us questions. When we told him that we have a right to distribute materials on public sidewalks, he replied, "Yes, you have a right, but you could decide to be respectful towards other religions instead. Anyone who knows anything about Islam knows that Muslims respect all religions."

Then he ordered us to stay where we were, and he walked over to the mosque leaders and started having a discussion with them in Arabic! After he talked with them in Arabic for a few minutes, he came back and ordered us all to give him our IDs. He stood there with us for the next fifteen minutes or so, writing down all of our names and addresses (pretty intimidating since he seemed to be friends with the imam).

As the officer was writing down our information, the mosque leaders were telling the Muslims to leave the area. By the time the police let us go, all of the Muslims were gone.

Obviously, the plan was to keep us occupied until the mosque leaders could get rid of the Muslims, preventing us from distributing our materials, or from preaching the Gospel. (At the time the police showed up, I was discussing Christianity with a group of teenagers. Sadly, we never got to finish our discussion.)

III. ARAB FESTIVAL 2009
Prior to the 2009 Arab Festival, we were informed of a rule change. We would no longer be allowed to freely distribute tracts, DVDs, Bibles, etc., at the festival. Anyone who wanted to share materials (even if it was on a public sidewalk) would have to rent a booth. Since we didn't want to pay a fee in order to exercise our Constitutional rights, we had little interest in traveling all the way to Michigan to attend the Arab Festival. However, Nabeel and I went to Michigan anyway to take part in a series of moderated Christian-Muslim debates. Since we were there, we decided to visit the festival. On the first day of the festival, we got into a discussion with some Muslims at a booth. We mostly listened to their claims and accepted the materials they were distributing (which included both pro-Islam and anti-Christian pamphlets and CDs).

Later that day, we began hearing horror stories of Christians whose rights had been violated. The Muslim security guards (one of whom had "Hezbollah" tattooed down his arm) were using the no-distribution rule to harass and persecute certain Christians. Instead of merely stopping these Christians from distributing items, security guards were entrapping Christians who weren't distributing anything but were only attempting to evangelize. Again and again, a plain-clothes security guard would walk up to a Christian and say, "Hey, I see you've got a pocket Bible. Can I see it? I want to look something up." Then, as soon as the Christian attempted to hand the Bible over, security would take a picture and escort the Christian to police for violating festival rules. Thus, Muslim security guards were getting Christians into trouble for breaking the rules, even when Christians weren't breaking the rules. The goal was to keep certain Christian evangelists from witnessing to Muslims. (Note: This even happened to me at the festival. I had a pamphlet in my pocket, and a plain-clothes security guard asked me for it. Since I had already heard about this security guard using the same tactic to get Christians in trouble, I didn't fall for it. When I refused, I was told that I had better not talk to anyone about Christianity. These were the sorts of things leading up to our encounter with security.)

IV. HATE MESSAGES IN DEARBORN
After finishing our debates on Sunday, we returned for the final day of the festival. We were disturbed when we again noticed an inconsistency. Christians were being targeted and harassed for evangelizing, yet Muslims were free to distribute t-shirts with a boy peeing on an Israeli flag.



V. SHARIA IN THE U.S.
Shortly after we recorded the "Hate Messages" clip, Nabeel tried to ask a question at a booth that invited us to ask questions. The Muslims gave us permission to record the conversation (a fact which has been almost completely ignored by our critics). Ironically, Nabeel was asking a question about Surah 9:29 of the Qur'an, which calls for the subjugation of non-Muslims. Muslim security guards gave us their answer, by conspiring against us and physically assaulting us. Notice that they also assaulted Mary Jo Sharp, who was simply holding a camera.



VI. DEARBORN POLICE ASSURE US THAT THE NEXT FESTIVAL WOULD BE SAFER FOR US
After the 2009 Arab Festival, Mary Jo Sharp and I discussed the incident with a detective at the Dearborn Police Department. The detective watched the video footage with us and concluded that charges could be made against three of the Muslims who attacked us. He gave us three options: (1) We could press charges against the three Muslims; (2) He could arrange a meeting with the three Muslims, so that we could all discuss what happened; (3) He could make sure that the three Muslims did not return to future Arab festivals. We ultimately decided to go with option (3). We thought that we were being generous by not pressing charges, and we foolishly believed that this might serve as an olive branch towards those who had assaulted us.

VII. ARAB FESTIVAL 2010
We returned to the Arab Festival in 2010. Since (a) security had attacked us the previous year, (b) security had tried to set us up the previous year, and (c) Muslims had threatened to harm/kill us if we returned, we knew that we had better keep cameras rolling the entire time. Our group was to consist of Nabeel, Paul, a friend named Josh, and me. Nabeel and I would do the talking, with Josh filming a few feet away. Paul would be filming from a distance, in case anyone tried to harm us or later made false claims about our actions. I would have a camera in my bag as a backup. We decided that we would only talk to people who first approached us, so that no one would be able to accuse us of harassing people at the festival.

Just before we were leaving for the festival, Josh got food poisoning. Thus, Paul would have to be our close-range videographer. We knew from last year, however, that we needed someone filming from farther away. We tried to find someone, but people were extremely reluctant to enter a situation where we had been threatened. In the end, the only person willing to enter a crowd of thousands of Muslims with us was, ironically, a 4'11 recent convert from Islam to Christianity--Negeen Mayel. Since we knew that someone might attack us, we didn't want Negeen too close to us. Hence, we instructed Negeen (a) not to talk to us or associate with us at the festival, (b) to stay far away from us at all times, and (c) to come get us if there's trouble, in which case we would leave.

VIII. DAVID AND NABEEL ENTER THE FESTIVAL
Nabeel and I entered the Arab Festival around 7:00 P.M. on Friday. We spent the first fifteen minutes or so explaining our reasons for returning to the festival.





Although we had planned that Nabeel and I would do most of the talking for our group, I noticed very quickly that young Muslims were far more interested in talking to Nabeel (since he was a former Muslim and was featured more prominently in our "Sharia in the U.S." video). Thus, for later discussions, I took a backseat and focused on recording.

IX. SECURITY CONSPIRES AGAINST US
When festival security guards (who had been embarrassed by our YouTube video demonstrating their thug tactics) realized we had returned to the festival, they began conspiring to have us kicked out. Leading the conspiracy was the Arab Chamber of Commerce's Norma Haidous, the Muslim woman who had assaulted Mary Jo at last year's festival (and one of the three individuals police had assured us would be banned from the festival). How do we know about the plot? Security revealed their plan to an Arab Christian, whom they mistakenly thought was a Muslim (due to his Arab garb). This Arab Christian later informed us of the plot against us. Additionally, a New York police sergeant who was visiting the festival overheard the plotting of festival security, and he also informed us of what was going on. Indeed, the New York police sergeant even contacted Dearborn Police Sergeant Mrowka to let him know that security was attempting to set us up. Sergeant Mrowka, however, refused to intervene. (Sergeant Mrowka later gave the order to arrest us. Was he in on the plot from the beginning?)

X. DOUBLE STANDARDS IN DEARBORN
The double standards at the festival were quite disturbing. Officially, people were only free to distribute materials at their booths. However, since Muslim security guards were in charge of enforcing this rule, it was applied selectively. As we walked through the festival, we saw numerous people distributing items outside of booths. Yet, if a Christian (assuming he hadn't earned the favor of the Arab Chamber of Commerce) were to hand out a tract or pamphlet, he would be harassed, bullied, and taken to police.



XI. ROGER WILLIAMS: DEARBORN'S DHIMMI
The volunteer who had taken Luke to police was a man named Roger Williams, a member of a Christian organization called "Impact International." Apparently, Impact International believes that the best approach for winning the favor of Muslims is to help Muslims rid the Dearborn Arab Festival of unwanted Christians. Thus, members of Impact went around the festival searching for Christians who were distributing materials, ultimately taking them to police for questioning.

We knew that Roger had harassed Luke. Thus, when we saw Roger talking to Luke again, we wanted to make sure everything was okay.



Roger testified in court that, after this brief encounter, security (yes, the same security guards who were looking for an opportunity to get us kicked out of the festival) convinced him to bring the matter to police. Roger was all too happy to comply, since in his mind this was the best way to befriend Muslims. In his effort to please security, Roger went so far as to falsify a police report (you can view Roger's shockingly deceptive report here).

Some of our critics have erroneously tried to exonerate the Dearborn Police Department by claiming that police arrested us based on the information they had, even though the information they had was inaccurate. (That is, Roger Williams gave them false information; the police acted on that information; hence, Roger Williams, rather than the Dearborn Police Department, is to be blamed.) This is incorrect, however. Dearborn Police testified at our trial that we weren't arrested based on our encounter with Roger. Instead, the Roger incident led police to come question us. It was our actions when police arrived, they claimed at our trial, that led to our arrests. (As the video footage will show, however, Nabeel was simply answering questions when police came and arrested him. The rest of us were recording. This explains the need to invent all kinds of false claims about us in order to justify our arrests.)

XII. NABEEL'S DIALOGUE WITH HAKEEM
Since we didn't know Negeen had been arrested, we kept walking through the tent we were in. A young Muslim approached us with our cameras rolling, and then said he was going to sue us for recording him. (Strange, since he walked in front of our cameras.) Nabeel engaged him in dialogue, and everything was going smoothly within a few minutes. Police can even be seen actually doing their job in the video, when they told Muslims to take a step back from Nabeel. As we now know, however, they were already plotting to arrest us, and were just looking for an excuse.



XIII. POLICE TELL US WE'RE FINE
According to Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly, police ordered us to break up our conversation, but we refused. We also deliberately blocked a tent exit in order to cause a scene. These were supposedly the reasons for our arrest. These are interesting claims, since Mayor O'Reilly watched the video footage of our arrests, and since the video footage proves that the mayor's claims are false. I asked police if we should move, and they said, "No, you're fine." I don't speak Dearbornese, so I didn't realize that "You're fine" means "Leave now or we'll arrest you."



XIV. DAVID'S ARREST
It seems that holding a camera in Dearborn is unofficially illegal. That's the only possible justification for having Paul and me arrested, since we were simply holding video cameras. Later, of course, the Mayor realized that there are no laws on the books against filming a dialogue, so he had to invent a story about me blocking a tent entrance in order to justify my arrest. But those pesky video cameras of ours just don't lie.



XV. PAUL AND NABEEL'S ARREST
After police arrested me, they went for Paul and Nabeel. Notice how peacefully Nabeel was responding to the questions of Muslims, and how peacefully he reacted when police put him in handcuffs. This is quite different from the Nabeel we read about in the police report and Mayor's letter (i.e. the Nabeel who was screaming at a crowd and grew louder when police took him into custody).



XVI. OUR NIGHT IN JAIL
After being arrested, we were taken to the Dearborn City Jail. We began our stay by singing some hymns. Later, we even preached the Gospel. We were in different cells, so we couldn't see each other or other inmates. We eventually began the following discussion:
NABEEL: "Yo Wood, are there other people back here?"
ME: "Yes, and you're probably keeping them up by yelling to me."
NABEEL: "Maybe we should preach the Gospel."
ME: "The Gospel? What's that?"
NABEEL: "It's a message about . . ." [Nabeel explains the Gospel]
ME: "But Nabeel, there are lots of religions out there. Why should I believe this 'Gospel'?"
At this point, Nabeel gave a basic apologetics presentation. Interestingly, a few days later, one of the inmates sent us an email, thanking Nabeel for helping him get over some anger issues.

On a horrifying note, one of the police officers in the jail told us that there are honor killings in Dearborn but that they get covered up by the police department. He said that he had walked into houses where girls had been beheaded or had had their throats slit. (But check the local newspapers. You won't find any mention of these crimes.) The officer told us that some of the officers in the department support what we're doing.

XVII. OUR POST-ARREST VIDEO
Shortly after we were released from jail, we recorded a video explaining what had happened. Many Muslims were rejoicing at our arrests and spreading all kinds of false accusations (more on this later). Nabeel made an important claim in this video, namely, that our stories would not change, while the stories of our critics would have to change in light of video footage. Apart from some minor details (e.g. Negeen seems to me to be less than 100 feet away, and we seem to have blurred the last two dialogues together in our minds--simple memory problems due to our cameras being taken way), our story is exactly the same. We were engaging in peaceful dialogue with Muslims when police arrested us. But what about the stories of our critics? What of all the claims that we were screaming at the crowd, that we were harassing Muslims, that we were inciting a riot, etc.? These stories changed over and over again as we released video footage, just as we said they would.



XVIII. POLICE TAKE US INTO CUSTODY FOR HANDING OUT THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Two days after our arrest, Paul, Negeen, and I returned to the Arab Festival, along with our friends Antonio and Josh. Paul, Josh, and Antonio were distributing copies of the Gospel of John (outside of the festival) for less than three minutes when eight police officers surrounded them. Police also seized my camera (illegally) and took all of us into custody. When Antonio tried to call his pastor, police seized his phone. They took us to their portable police station, photographed us, and wrote down all of our information. They told us that we would have to walk five blocks away from the festival if we wanted to distribute copies of the Gospel. If we dared hand anything out again within five blocks of the festival, we would be taken to jail.



This video doesn't tell the whole story, for a crucial detail is left out. While we were at the festival, police illegally forced us to erase some of our video footage. There was absolutely no respect for our civil rights.

XIX. DEARBORN POLICE REFUSE TO RETURN OUR VIDEO CAMERAS FOR NEARLY FOUR WEEKS
Dearborn Police illegally seized our video cameras on June 18th. Obviously, they didn't want us posting what really happened on YouTube. On June 21st, the Thomas More Law Center faxed a letter to Chief Haddad demanding the immediate return of our illegally seized video equipment. Also on June 21st, Judge Mark Somers (the judge who would later try our case) issued a warrant for police to examine the video footage. On June 22nd, the Dearborn Police Department made a copy of all our video footage. Since they had a copy of all our footage, there was no reason to keep our cameras. Nevertheless, the Police Department refused to return our video cameras until July 14th (after being ordered by the court to return them). It seems the police wanted to keep us from posting footage that would prove our innocence.

XX. THE CITY OF DEARBORN AND MAYOR O'REILLY LAUNCH A CAMPAIGN OF DECEPTION
The City of Dearborn received thousands of complaints about our arrests. The city saved the contact info of the people who complained. The city later used this contact info to spread numerous lies about us, through the letter of Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly. The city further misled people through its website.

According to the City of Dearborn's official website:
Public safety became an issue for both members of Acts 17 Apologetics and the gathering crowd. The four (4) members of Acts 17 Apologetics chose to escalate their behavior, which appeared well-orchestrated and deliberate, and chose not to follow the directions being given to them by the responding officers. The behavior of these individuals drew and incited a large crowd to a point where they were in violation of City of Dearborn Misdemeanor Ordinances of Breach of Peace and Failure to Obey the Lawful Order of a Police Officer. They were arrested. Upon their arrest, the crowd dispersed without further action being needed.
Mayor O'Reilly's letter distorts the facts even more:
At the time he was arrested on Friday, June 18, Mr. Wood had gathered a large crowd around him, blocking a key access point between the tents. The crowd was forced to grow bigger solely because people could not pass. Those who created this public danger did so with the knowledge that they were violating the laws because they wanted to be arrested while their cohorts were actively recording the event for posting on the web. They knew that they could inflame the passions of viewers who would be taken in by their misrepresentation of what was really going on.
The video footage clearly refutes these absurd claims, which is precisely why the Police Department refused to return our cameras. Dearborn's leaders wanted to attack us, but didn't want the public to learn the truth.

XXI. IN VIOLATION OF CITY POLICY, DEARBORN DISTRIBUTES MY HOME ADDRESS
Nabeel and I receive death threats fairly regularly, but after Mayor O'Reilly falsely claimed (a) that we travel to Muslim events in order to disrupt them, (b) that we hate Muslims, and (c) that we break the law in an effort to attack Muslims, the death threats suddenly seemed a bit more credible.

For instance, a Muslim posted the following threat as a comment on one of our YouTube videos:


"Al Sayef Al Maslool Liman Sab Al-Rasoul" can be translated either as "A drawn sword for him who left the prophet" (in which case it would obviously be directed towards Nabeel) or as "A drawn sword for him who cursed the prophet" (in which case it could refer to either of us, since we argue against the prophethood of Muhammad). Either way, the comment calls for Muslims to "track these guys down" and "deal with the case," which refers to both of us.

Since our lives were being threatened, one would expect city officials to protect our personal information, especially our home addresses. Through the Freedom of Information Act, anyone can request our police reports. Before releasing our reports, however, police are supposed to block out our personal information. But this is Dearborn. When the city distributed copies of our police reports, Nabeel's address, Negeen's address, and Paul's address had all been taken out. My full name and home address, however, were prominently displayed on page six of the report! This is disturbing, as I know that Muslims now have access to the report.

Why would police include my personal information in the report being sent to the public? If you recall, I'm the one who made a video publicly rebuking Police Chief Haddad. Is this deliberate retaliation from Dearborn Police, or a mere oversight? Either way, police have endangered my family. I fully accept that I'm in a risky ministry, and that Muslims may kill me one day. But I try to make sure my family is safe, and Dearborn drew a map for Muslims who want to invade my home.

XXII. NABEEL RESPONDS TO MAYOR O'REILLY
Since we didn't have our video footage, Nabeel made a video refuting claims that could be exposed without our video footage. As you can see, the mayor's letter was filled with false claims.



XXIII. CHRISTIANS GO ON THE OFFENSIVE . . . AGAINST US
The response we received from Muslims wasn't surprising. Some Muslims contacted us and said that they disagreed with the treatment we received, while others supported our arrests. The Christian response, however, was shocking. While many Christians spoke out in our defense (e.g. James White, Michigan State Representative Tom McMillin, and, yes, Chuck Norris), numerous attacks against us were launched, led by Pastor Haytham Abi-Haydar, Hussein Wario, David Cougle (a Christian lawyer), Ali ElHajj, and several others.

It's one thing for Christians to disagree with one another. It's something else entirely for Christians to make utterly false claims. For instance, Ali ElHajj said of us: "they're about as abrasive as they can be." If calmly answering questions about Christianity is the epitome of abrasiveness (as Ali seems to believe), I would hate to see his reaction to numerous New Testament texts, which often involve open rebuke and the condemnation of opposing views.

Shortly after the festival, a lawyer named David Cougle sent a message to thousands of Christians. (He didn't bother sending his accusation to me or Nabeel.) Cougle claimed that he had witnessed us harassing children:
"I was present when both David and Nabeel were arguing and harassing children, as they were right behind the table I was at. I watched them do it."
Since on no occasion did we harass or argue with any children, I was confused about Cougle's claim. I asked him if he could describe the encounter. When I finally figured out what he was talking about, I reviewed our video footage. Nabeel, Paul, and I were sitting against a wall. A group of children came up to us, mocked Jesus (note: Muslims aren't supposed to do this), and called Negeen a "whore." Despite their insults, Nabeel responded peacefully and changed the subject. (Paul and I kept our mouths closed.) We didn't argue with them at all, and we certainly didn't harass them. Later at the festival, Nabeel even bought treats for two of them at a concession stand. (One of them eventually asked me for a copy of the Gospel.) Hence, I was thoroughly confused by Cougle's confident assertion that we had harassed them. When I asked him about it, he changed his story radically. Instead of saying that he had witnessed us harassing children, he said that he overheard children complaining to police that we had harassed them. Quite a difference, don't you think? Yet Cougle refuses to correct his error or apologize to the Christians he misled with his false claim. Cougle wrote a report to police and was willing to testify against us, but apparently the prosecuting attorney knew that Cougle's testimony would be inadmissible hearsay.

The main force behind the misrepresentation of our work has been Pastor Haytham Abi-Haydar, who spread numerous false reports of our activities (e.g. that police ordered us to leave, but we refused, that police only removed us for our safety, etc.), constantly defended the City of Dearborn, testified against us in court, and even encouraged other Christians to testify against us. To this day, I have no clue what Haytham hopes to gain by attacking Christians and defending Dearborn.

These are the sorts of claims we've had to deal with, but the inaccuracies aren't merely the result of individual Christians. Both Christianity Today and Charisma distributed horribly inaccurate accounts of what happened in Dearborn.

There seems to be little concern for truth or accuracy among our critics.

XXIV. OUR WEEK-LONG TRIAL IN DEARBORN
Since the video footage obviously exonerated us, I expected the City of Dearborn to drop the ridiculous charges against us. But I had forgotten that this is Dearborn, a city all too willing to prosecute people for holding a video camera and answering questions. The trial began on Monday and lasted until Friday. Throughout the trial, prosecuting attorney William DeBiasi attempted to convince the jury that video footage isn't all that reliable, and that they should therefore accept the testimony of witnesses who completely contradicted what was clearly seen on the videos. I guess that's about the best you can do when all of the evidence favors the defendants.

DeBiasi was rather diabolical. In order to avoid the impression that the trial had anything to do with Islam, DeBiasi didn't call any Muslim witnesses to the stand. He did, however, call a number of Christians as witnesses, and he repeatedly referred to Josh McDowell's presence at the festival as proof that the City of Dearborn has no objections to free speech and no problem with Christian evangelism.

Although Judge Mark Somers allowed hearsay testimony reporting complaints about us, he refused to allow testimony of people who had heard security plotting to have us kicked out of the festival. He even refused to allow Negeen to argue that the order issued by Corporal Kapanowski was unlawful. This was quite strange, considering the fact that Kapanowski admitted, under oath, that Negeen hadn't even been accused of a crime when he approached her (in which case he had no right to order her to turn off her camera). There's more on this here.

The stories of Dearborn Police in court were quite different from what they wrote in their police reports, for they had to "argue around" the video evidence. Thus, Kapanowski argued that even though there weren't all that many Muslims surrounding Nabeel in the video footage, there was a massive crowd that wasn't picked up by the cameras (despite the fact that we had two cameras rolling, facing different directions). Kapanowski also claimed (contrary to the police report), that Nabeel only began yelling and inciting the crowd after our cameras were taken from us. Kapanowski even said that the crowd began to turn against the police! (If you watched the video of the crowd cheering as we were taken away in handcuffs, you know how absurd this claim is.)

In the end, we were found "not guilty" of breaching the peace. The video footage was simply too strong to ignore. Based on the judge's blunder, however, Negeen was found guilty of failing to obey the lawful order of a police officer (even though the order was unlawful). This faulty conviction is being appealed.

XXV. LOVING MUSLIMS, CHALLENGING ISLAM
Following our acquittals in Dearborn, Mayor John O'Reilly continued his barrage of false accusations against us. I responded to some of the mayor's deliberate misrepresentations of our views:



XXVI. SHARIA IN DEARBORN?
As is always the case, it's easy to misinterpret things when one hasn't carefully examined the facts. This happened when political candidate Sharron Angle claimed that Dearborn is under Sharia law. Due to this claim, Angle was repeatedly ridiculed by the media. To clear up the misunderstanding, consider the difference between the following claims:
CLAIM #1: Dearborn is under Sharia.
CLAIM #2: Someone enforced Sharia in Dearborn.
The first claim suggests that the city is officially governed by Sharia. The second simply claims that someone carried out some tenet of Islamic law. For instance, if someone in Dearborn steals a radio, and, in accordance with Islamic law, a Muslim chops off his hand, I would say that someone enforced Sharia in Dearborn.

As we have repeatedly stated on our blog, we are claiming that someone has enforced Sharia in Dearborn. When I find that I am not free to distribute materials outside of a booth, while numerous Muslims are free to distribute materials outside of their booths, and I learn that Muslim security guards are the ones behind this situation, I conclude that someone is implementing an element of Sharia. When Muslim security guards physically assault Christians for questioning Islam at a booth, I conclude that someone has enforced Sharia. When Christians get arrested while having a peaceful discussion with Muslims (and the Muslims don't get arrested), I conclude that someone has enforced Sharia. Does this mean that the entire city is governed by Sharia, or that the city has seceded from the United States? Not at all. It seems that many of our critics believe that there are only two possibilities: Either (1) a city is completely, totally, utterly governed by Sharia, or (2) Sharia has no impact at all. These alternatives, however, are incomplete. A third alternative is that Sharia has a limited impact in the city, and I would say that this is the case in Dearborn.

XXVII. LAWSUIT
On February 22, 2011, the Thomas More Law Center, with co-counsel David Yerushalmi, filed a massive 96-page lawsuit against the City of Dearborn.

You can read the entire Complaint here:



XXVIII. ASSESSMENT
What does this leave us with? If you see something wrong in Dearborn, you'd better be quiet about it. What happens in Dearborn stays in Dearborn. If you're willing to keep quiet about injustice, and if you're willing to defend the city, mayor, and police department regardless of what they do, you'll be a welcome visitor. If, on the other hand, you draw attention to wrongdoing, if you shine a spotlight on injustice, you will be attacked, both physically and verbally. You will be thrown in jail. Many Christians will condemn you (though they won't say a word against the city). The slander and libel will not cease. If the police department repeatedly lies in order to justify your arrests, the media will ignore it. If your rights are violated by police, the judge will rule in favor of the police. You will be thrashed by the media. You will be called a racist and a bigot. The city will do anything to send you a message: "Don't draw attention to what's going on here. . . . or else."

Sounds like a job for Acts 17. If we hear about Christians being harassed by a security guard with "Hezbollah" tattooed down his arm, we aren't going to ignore it. If we walk by a booth distributing "Pee on Israel" t-shirts, we're going to say something. If someone puts their hands on our Christian sisters, we're not going to praise security, or police, or the mayor. There is, of course, a penalty for our position. When we enter Dearborn, we have a police force, a prosecuting attorney's office, judges, the mayor, some Muslims, and even some Christians who are willing to do anything to silence us.

Welcome to Dearborn. "Nothing to see here."