Dearborn, Michigan - Free Speech Controversy

Free Speech Controversy

Four members of the Christian group, Acts 17 Apologetics, were arrested and prosecuted for "breach of the peace" in 2010 because they were walking around the annual Arab-American Festival answering questions people had about Christianity. All the charges, except one of failure to obey a police order, were thrown out by a jury. During the festival, four other people from Apologetics were blocked from handing out Arabic-English copies of the Gospel of John on a public street. Police ordered them to stop filming the incident, to provide identification, and to move at least five blocks from the border of the fair.

A Tea Party Senatorial candidate in Nevada, Sharron Angle, accused the Arab-American festival of being "militant terrorist", and said the city was enforcing Islamic law. Angle was sharply criticized by the Mayor Jack O'Reilly, who called her comments "shameful." "He said they were based on distorted Tea Party accounts of the arrest of members of an anti-Islam group at an Arab festival." Angle was defeated in the election by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Preacher Terry Jones planned a protest in 2011 outside the Islamic Center of America. Local authorities required him either to post a $45,000 "peace bond" to cover Dearborn's cost if Jones was attacked by extremists or to go to trial. Jones contested that requirement, and the jury voted on April 22 to require the posting of a $1 "peace bond", but Jones and his co-pastor Wayne Sapp continued to refuse to pay. They were held briefly in jail, while claiming violation of First Amendment rights. That night Jones was released by the court. The ACLU filed an amicus brief in support of Jones's protest plans. On November 11, 2011, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Robert Ziolkowski vacated the “breach of peace” ruling against Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp on the grounds that they were denied due process.

Jones tried to speak at the annual Festival on June 18, 2011, but he was turned away by protesters when police said they did not have enough officers present to maintain safety. Christian missionaries accompanied Jones with their own signs of protest; they were alleged by festivalgoers and protesters to have yelled insults at Arabs, Muslims, Islam, and Catholics.