What Do You Think?

[jerrys1960]

I would really like to find some more information on what all happened to get the police involved with this one.

Copied from:

http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2010/06/arrested-for-being-christian-preachers.html

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Arrested for Being Christian Preachers at Dearborn Arab Festival 2010

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. 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. On the contrary, we repeatedly affirmed our love for all Muslims. Whenever I was asked "Why would you love me?" I said "Because Jesus loves you, and he told me to love you."

No hating, no disturbing, no harassing... It remains only to be concluded that we were arrested simply for being Christian Preachers at the Arab Festival in Dearborn.


[ go to the web page to see the pictures ]
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2010/06/arrested-for-being-christian-preachers.html


Thanks to our friend Maria, we have much better footage and pictures of our arrest than we previously thought. You can now see more interesting footage of the arrest. I'm also going to add the new pictures below.


The chief of police said we were "Causing a stir"...

[jerrys1960]

More information about the case.

Copied from:
http://www.persecutionblog.com/christian_persecution/index.html


June 22, 2010
Religious Freedom: Does it still exist for the USA?

In my previous post you may note that I mentioned that we are still free here in America to practice our faith. For the most part, this is true - however times are changing and more stories like this are coming to surface. This is from Mission Network News and Todd Nettleton from VOM is quoted in the article.

USA (MNN) ― Four Christians were arrested last Friday after having open discussions about their faith with Muslims at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

The group of believers were from the group Acts 17 Apologetics and had apparently gone to the festival to begin conversations about Christ. Other mission groups, including volunteers from E3 Partners, Voice of the Martyrs, and Josh McDowell Ministries, were also at the 300,000-person convention, and several groups, including Acts 17, had been in the past.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says the believers in question were video taping as they engaged in faith discussions with people at the convention. None of the Muslims involved in the conversations appear to have called for police; instead, a nearby convention volunteer pointed police in that direction.

"No one was screamed at. No one was accused. There was not a disrespectful tone toward Islam. There were not verbal attacks against Islam, there were not verbal attacks against Mohammad," says Nettleton. "It was simply a theological discussion, which, in the United States, we should be free to do."

Police arrested Nabeel Qureshi and David Wood, the leaders of Acts 17, along with Paul Rezkalla and a woman named Nageen under the charge of "disorderly conduct." Police also took the group's videotape recording--the would-be evidence of merely a peaceful conversation taking place. The believers have been released on bail, but police so far have refused to return the video recording.

Nettleton says the purpose of going to the convention was to show love to the many Muslims participating and to have friendly conversation about their beliefs.

"It's hard to see how that desire to show love, that desire to discuss faith, can be construed as 'disorderly conduct,'" says Nettleton. The discussions were clearly fruitful as one Muslim had prayed to accept Christ just minutes before the alleged arrests. There has been no evidence that this conversion had anything to do with the arrest, but the situation should raise concern regardless.

"It should be a concern to Christians that being on a public street, talking about Jesus, can be construed as 'disorderly conduct,'" notes Nettleton.

Perhaps the most striking factor of the arrests, though, is not what happened, but where it happened--the the United States. The U.S. has held religious freedom as a constitutional ideal since it was written in 1776. Now, however, the very definition of religious freedom seems to be threatened.

"If this were Pakistan, or China, and someone on the street spoke about his faith, we would say, ‘Oh yeah, that happens,'" says Nettleton, who has dealt with many international cases of persecution throughout his work with VOM. "But this was in the United States; this was a country where we say we have religious freedom."

How should American believers react? Nettleton says Christians should not respond with anger or disbelief, but with revitalized passion to go into the world and make disciples.

"I think this is a challenge to the American church to be more bold in sharing our faith," notes Nettleton, explaining that we should continue to share the truth in love. "This is obviously something we need to pray about."

[jerrys1960]

Christians should expect more persecution


Posted: 22 June, 2010


Dr. Nabeel Qureshi with Acts 17 Apologetics was one of the four Christians arrested at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn, Michigican. (Acts 17 photo)

USA (MNN) ― While sharing their faith in street evangelism in Dearborn, Michigan, four Christians were arrested and accused of "disorderly conduct." What does this mean for the future of Christians in the United States?

Dearborn, the unofficial Muslim capital of the U.S., hosted the annual Arab International Festival this past weekend. Many Christians--some former Muslims--go to the festival and use it as an opportunity to share the good news about Christ with their Muslim brothers and sisters.

Though in past years there had been some confrontation between Christians and Muslims, this year all the Christians at the festival were peaceful in their interactions and simply wanted to converse with other attendees, said Tom Doyle of E3 Partners. E3 Partners had people at the festival, though none of them were arrested.

With these arrests, questions arise about the tolerance the U.S. proclaims and how Christians have been excluded. Doyle believes the arrests are predictions about the future: "Things like this are going to be happening more often, unfortunately." Doyle continues, "Even though we do live in a free country and we have freedom of religion, it does seem that [we], as Christians, are unfairly singled out".

Doyle said there is a double standard between Christians, and even Jews, and other religious groups such as Muslims.

Just recently, Doyle said another sign of this was apparent in Los Angeles, California, as angry Palestinians rallied to protest the Gaza flotilla blockade. In the midst of them, newscasters videotaped a lone 16-year-old Jewish boy walking, carrying an Israeli flag. The Muslim mob began shouting at him, threatening his life and demanding he put down the flag, well within earshot of police.

The boy said little, and when he did speak, he spoke calmly to the cameraman. While police stood by--and at one point stood between the mob and the boy--they made no move to stop what the Muslims were saying.

Because Doyle does not expect this double standard to change anytime soon, he said Christians should be prepared: "I think we should expect persecution."

Among Christians, methods of outreach traditionally have been debated; but Doyle says ministry should not stop--street evangelism or otherwise. "I don't want to stand and be critical of people who are willing to go into the arena and share the Gospel in a potentially-hostile environment like that."

Doyle asks everyone to pray: pray for teams and for protection in their continued street ministry. Pray for wisdom in the words they choose, and for U.S. laws to be upheld.

[jerrys1960]

Copied from:
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=169353


Posted: June 21, 2010
9:48 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily


Four Christians were arrested and thrown out of a public Arab festival in Michigan – and at least two people claim a crowd cheered "Allahu akbar!" while the Christians were led away in handcuffs for doing nothing more than engaging in peaceful dialogue and videotaping the event.

Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla and 18-year-old Negeen Mayel attended the 15th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival on June 18 in Dearborn, Mich., where an estimated 30,000 of the city's 98,000 residents are Muslim.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce announced the event was expected to draw "over 300,000 people from across the country, Canada and the Middle East." The festival covers 14 blocks and is free and open to the public.

Qureshi and Mayel are former Muslims who are now Christians. Mayel's parents emigrated from Afghanistan. Wood is a former atheist. All are from a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics.

In the following video after the arrest, Qureshi said his group took "extra precautions" to prevent disruptions by not handing out pamphlets and to speak only to people "who first approached us":

"This was to limit accusations of instigation and disruption," he explained. "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."

Qureshi said people at the festival recognized his group from its visit in 2009. Last year, the Acts 17 Apologetics team was escorted from the grounds while being allegedly assaulted by security personnel and several attendees. The following is the group's footage of the incident:

This year, Qureshi said some attendees who recognized them "would come up to us, accusing us, threatening us, saying we were racists, saying they were going to hurt us and yelling curses and insults at us."

However, he said his group was able to engage in civil conversations with many people who initiated discussion. But then the group was arrested by local police. Each of the four are now free on bond.

"Paul, David, Negeen and I went to the festival to see and comment on the situation," Qureshi wrote on his blog. "Thankfully, we recorded every second of our activity at the festival."

According to his post, the video footage was confiscated by police. Versions posted online had been removed at the time of this report.

"[W]e will post footage when the police give us back our cameras," he wrote.

Qureshi recounted his experience:

At one point, we came across a festival volunteer who seemed to take issue with us simply being at the festival. We could tell he had a problem with us, and so we asked, "What are we doing wrong?" He said, "Put the camera and microphone down, and I'll tell you." (By the way, there was more to this conversation, but when you see the footage, I think you'll see I'm being fair in my summary.) So I obliged, handing the microphone to David and asking him to not record the man. I then approached him and said, "No camera, no mic, tell me what we're doing wrong." He said, "Get away from me!" (or something to that effect). Again, I obliged, and walked away.

About 20 minutes later, to shouts and cheers of "Allahu akbar!" we were all being led away from the festival in handcuffs. From the brief description we were given by the police of why we were being arrested, it sounds like the festival volunteer said we surrounded him and didn't give him an opportunity to leave, thereby "breaching the peace." This is as blatantly false as an accusation can get.


Wood told Atlas Shrugs' Pamela Geller, "We followed the rules, and still got thrown in jail. They flat-out lied about us. We can prove they lied with the video footage (just like last year), but the police took our cameras and won't let us have the footage. There's major oppression of anyone who criticizes Islam."

Qureshi told Geller, "[W]e repeatedly affirmed our love for all Muslims. Whenever I was asked, 'Why would you love me?' I said, 'Because Jesus loves you, and he told me to love you.' No hating, no disturbing, no harassing. It remains only to be concluded that we were arrested simply for being Christian preachers at the Arab Festival in Dearborn."

One witness named Steven Atkins, a resident of Toronto, Canada, said, "I never thought I would see this in America."

"When Dr. Qureshi was arrested I heard people clapping and applauding, and some said 'Allahu akbar,'" he said. "It was an intense discussion, but it was not unruly. … There was no threat of violence."

Atkins added, "It's becoming more restrictive here than in Canada."


Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad, an officer who was recently appointed to serve on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, told the Detroit Free Press the four Christians were arrested for disorderly conduct.

"We did make four arrests for disorderly conduct," Haddad said. "They did cause a stir."

Haddad told the paper he's not taking sides, but he said officers must keep the peace at the event that draws 300,000 people over three days.

"Everyone's space should be respected," he said. "It's Father's Day weekend. ... People are here to have a good time, and it's our job to ensure security."

However, a blog called the Facts About Islam, dedicated to "clearing up falsehoods leveled at Islam," argued that the group had planned to get attention and stir up trouble prior to attending the festival.

"A lot of people may not know David Wood was planning this for a while. He was looking for trouble," the blogger said in a video reaction to the arrests. "His intention was to go there with his video camera, incite, provoke Muslims into inflammatory behavior so he could have his propaganda crew of video footage of Muslims behaving badly so he could feature this on his blog and get views. That's all he wanted. He got his sensational video footage. It's not the type of video footage he was after. Nevertheless, it's sensational."

He accused them of being "insincere" and "not looking to preach the gospel."

"He did this under the guise of preaching the gospel," the blogger said. "He was looking for trouble. He got his trouble."

He said before the 2010 event, Wood declared, "Muslims have threatened us with death if we return to the festival, so now we definitely have to show up," and, "We hope the dialogues at the Arab festival are peaceful, but we need cameras in case Muslims decide to kick our heads in."

The man said Wood and his crew were "causing trouble" at the 2009 festival and were "choked out."

"So this time, they top it by getting arrested," he said.

He added, "Christians need to wise up and stop allowing people – insincere people – to exploit their naivete and innocence."

In a separate case WND reported earlier, a federal appeals court granted an emergency motion allowing another Christian, Pastor George Saieg, to hand out information about his faith at the same festival.

A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the motion requested by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Saieg, a Sudanese Christian.

According to the law center, Judge Paul Borman had affirmed the city's ban on handing out Christian material near the festival. It was last year when Dearborn police threatened Saieg with arrest if he handed out information on Christianity near the event.

At that time, the Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the restriction. Saieg and his volunteers for many years had passed out literature in Dearborn without incident before the crackdown in recent years.

"It's ironic that while Americans recently applauded the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn was restricting the free-speech rights of Christians on the city's public streets and sidewalks," said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the center.

The appellate judges, in their announcement, stated, "The loss of a First Amendment right, 'for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.'"

"This factor weights in favor of injunctive relief for Saieg," the ruling said.

[janetyu]

I have a strange question . . . From what I understand the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it is a defender of ALL people’s civil rights in the USA. How come they are not jumping all over this case? It seems a fairly clear-cut case of several civil rights violations. So why is the group not making all kinds of noise about the civil rights violations of these people?

Or could it be because the people are Christian and not Muslim. I wonder how fast they (ACLU) would be involved if the situation were reversed a Muslim arrested for "Causing a stir" at a Christian event and how fast the person would have ACLU lawyers at their side?

But if the legal an justice system of Islam works the same as it does in other parts of the world. It would not surprise me a bit if the police suddenly started saying “what cameras?”, “what video?”, “I don’t remember you having any cameras.”

And unless they are lucky enough to have had someone else that wasn’t noticed by the cops all the alleged evidence mysteriously vanishes. Or is accidentally erased or any number of other things.

[joycesmith]

I thought you might like this follow up on this story.

(there are videos on the page that are talked about in this writeup)

Copied from:

http://aristophrenium.com/ryft/acts-17-apologetics-exonerated/

Acts 17 Apologetics exonerated
Posted by Ryft Jul

I am not sure what Tim Guthrie thinks ‘exonerated’ means, nor what Peter Lumpkins thinks ‘vindicated’ means, but the four Christians of Acts 17 Apologetics are definitely providing a very clear and frank example that Guthrie and Lumpkins could both learn from. Their video cameras and equipment, with their footage intact, were at long last returned to them by the Dearborn Police Department. It is at least embarrassing, if not almost hysterical, how completely erroneous the police, the mayor, and the Muslim and Christian critics have all been about the conduct of the Acts 17 Apologetics team. Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla, and Negeen Mayel were truly vindicated by the video evidence.

The official police report said that Qureshi was “screaming into the crowd” while the officers were present and, since the crowd had increased in agitation, the police officers handcuffed the four members of Acts 17 Apologetics and took them to the command post in order to “gain control of the situation and avoid a possible riotous crowd,” who were “yelling profanities” and calling security and police on the behavior of the four. The police arrived to find Qureshi “yelling” into the crowd and “inciting” them.

As you can see in the video, the crowd “increased in numbers” from about nine people up to around fourteen. And unless my hearing is somehow impervious, there was not a single person “yelling profanities” nor was Qureshi “screaming” or “yelling” into the crowd. And contrary to the Muslim and Christian critics, Qureshi was not denigrating Islam or insulting Muslims. His message was answering questions about Christianity and the gospel to people who first asked him. (I also want you to observe how graciously and calmly Qureshi defused the initially antagonistic questions, answering them in a manner that brought no reproach to the name of Christ. I have learned so much from Qureshi about how to share the gospel with people.)

But notice something even more interesting. Both David Wood and Paul Rezkalla were not doing anything but recording the experience on video. Not only that, but no one in the crowd was addressing either Wood or Rezkalla. All the conversation was centered on Qureshi alone, while the other two simply filmed. Remember, all four members of the Acts 17 Apologetics team were arrested for disturbing the peace. In what universe does video recording disturb the peace? In other words, what cause did the police have for arresting Wood and Rezkalla?

As mystifying as that is, it defies all sense and reason that Negeen Mayel was arrested along with them. In the video above, to the right of Qureshi you can see a tent in which various booths are set up. On the other side of that tent, perhaps sixty feet away from Qureshi, Wood, and Rezkalla, is the young Mayel also video recording them. And worse still, nothing had even happened yet. As you can see in the footage, Qureshi, Wood, and Rezkalla were simply walking around at this point; i.e., the so-called large and agitated crowd had not even formed around the gentlemen yet. According to Wood, Mayel was arrested about fifteen minutes prior to the others being arrested. Again, all four were arrested for disturbing the peace. And Mayel was simply standing there, filming. She was not engaging anyone, nobody was talking to her, etc.

Negeen Mayel arrested for simply filming.

It is illegal to simply stand there and film at the Dearborn Arab International Festival? How is that liable for disturbing the peace? There was no crowd around the other three gentlemen yet, and nobody was paying any attention to Mayel. Exactly what was the “criminal complaint” lodged against them that had the police begin arresting them, starting with Mayel? It cannot be some large, agitated crowd incited by the screaming and yelling of Qureshi, because he was not addressing any crowd yet. (And even when he was speaking to them, he was neither screaming or yelling.) So in the film above we can see Qureshi, Wood, and Rezkalla walking among the booths in the tent talking amongst themselves (about fifteen minutes prior to the events in the previous video) with Mayel outside the tent recording them on video. The police approach her, inform her of a criminal complaint, illegally confiscate her video camera and handcuff her, and begin arresting the rest of the Acts 17 Apologetics team.

For what?

Wood, Mayel, and Rezkalla were simply video recording. There was no crowd around them. Qureshi was neither leafleting nor attacking anyone; after praying with a fellow Christian, a small crowd gathered around him and started asking him questions. He answered them calmly and graciously, defusing the initially antagonistic questions down to where more substantive questions were being asked and answered. And in the background the police can be seen forcibly confiscating Wood’s video camera, which he was still holding high in his hand. Then they arrested Qureshi, taking his microphone. Then they arrested Rezkalla, confiscating his video camera. And these arrests began with Mayel fifteen minutes prior, due to some obscure “criminal complaint.”

With evidence like this, the accusations against them have to strain credibility to the breaking point. I challenge anyone to review the above footage and find something for which the Acts 17 Apologetics team can be legally or ethically liable. I may be speaking for more than just myself when I say that imagined suspicions are no substitute for clear video evidence.

On a related note, state Representative Tom McMillin issued a statement today that the events in Dearborn surrounding the Acts 17 Apologetics team has indeed garnered the interest of the state Attorney General Michael Cox. McMillin said that he was contacted today by the Attorney General’s office and assured that the developments of the Arab Festival incidents are being monitored by their office, that they are “very interested in seeing how the litigation unfolds” and “they’ve been in discussions with the defendants’ attorneys and it’s definitely on their radar screen.” McMillin said that whether it is by “the skills of the Thomas More Law Center or eventually the state Attorney General Mike Cox, [the] errant public officials in Dearborn will be held accountable for the apparent illegal activity that they engaged in when suppressing the four Christians’ freedom of speech.”