Another year, another Arab Fest in Dearborn...

[Galatians220]

...leads to the arrest of Christians outside the area of the festival:

YouTube - Christians Arrested for Proselytising near Muslim gathering in USA (Dearborn Michigan)

They were doing something really seditious: they were trying to pass out copies of the Gospel of John in Arabic.



The legion of cops was slow in descending upon the Christians this year. Took 'em a whole three minutes to surround and arrest them. I guess that a night spent in the Dearborn lock-up is better than getting one's head bashed in, after all.

(I live about 15 miles due west of these street scenes.)

Margaret

 

[Scottish Lass]

One of the gentlemen arrested will be on ABN tonight ABN LIVE at 10:30 p.m. Eastern.

 

[Montanablue]

This always astounds me.

 

[SolaScriptura]

This is a travesty.

 

[yeutter]

An interesting discussion of this issue was started on the What's Wrong With the World web site. Here

 

[Curt]

Sad. Does nobody (besides us!) see what has happened?

 

[SolaScriptura]

Sad. Does nobody (besides us!) see what has happened?

Of course not. Too many people - including Christians - think, "If I don't see it on the news then it isn't happening."

 

[Curt]

People like the ones i saw today. I have to drive two hours to ge to the VA hospital, so I was on the road today. First I saw a car with a bumper sticker that read, "don't panic, God's in charge." Hanging from the mirror was a very large crystal. Next I saw a "Christian" bumper sticker of som sort which I don't remember. On that mirror was a Navajo Dream catcher. This kind of syncretism is being taught in churches and giving "Christians" permission to be "accepting" of all things anti-Christ.

 

[fredtgreco]

Sad. Does nobody (besides us!) see what has happened?

Of course not. Too many people - including Christians - think, "If I don't see it on the news then it isn't happening."

Too many people are falling over backwards to blame anyone but the Muslims. Islam is a wicked religion of the devil, and is the single most dangerous ideology/force against both Christianity and the West.

 

[kvanlaan]

Is there any way to put pressure on Dearborn in any way for this complete disregard for the law? (Letters to congressmen, etc.) Anything?

---------- Post added at 11:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:05 AM ----------

They should go to the ACLU!

 

[VictorBravo]

[/COLOR]They should go to the ACLU!

Actually, not a bad idea:

Ban on Anti-Islam T-Shirts in Alachua County Schools Prompts ACLU Lawsuit

 

[yeutter]

[/COLOR]They should go to the ACLU!

Actually I think a Roman Catholic legal defense group has taken up their case.

 

[Galatians220]

[/COLOR]They should go to the ACLU!

Actually I think a Roman Catholic legal defense group has taken up their case.

Yes, the Catholic defense group is the Thomas More Center for Law and Justice: Thomas More Law Center - Home Page.

Sorry to say, there is no way to put pressure on Dearborn for this. There are over 40,000 Muslims living there, at least that they know of... As one drives east on Warren Rd. (shown in the video), after passing the Southfield Freeway, you're suddenly *in a different country.* You see fewer and fewer signs in English until you're just past Greenfield Ave., where there are nothing but Arabic signs, shops, lawyers' and doctors' offices, restaurants, gas stations, etc. It's literally as though you've just stepped into Beirut. Most women on the streets and in cars are dressed in burqas or at least hijabs. As an "infidel," I no longer even think of going into east Dearborn, for it wouldn't be safe. There are major mosques and Muslim "academies" all over Dearborn. As much as those 3,500 acres in Arizona have been ceded to the Mexican drug cartels, so has Dearborn been ceded to Muslim control. And I think that's the greater danger, to have the city that was once "the arsenal of democracy" - and so close to a border that's easily crossed - claimed by radical Islam. But that's what's happened.

Margaret

 

[Scottish Lass]

Margaret, why do you feel it's not safe? I only ask because I didn't notice anything dangerous when we were there last year (and I was alone a couple of times in the neighborhood on food runs.

 

[Covenant Joel]

While I agree that there are serious problems here in terms of what the cops did, etc., I'm also not a fan of the approach the group in the video is taking. The name of their organization is Acts 17 Apologetics. They have debates with M*slims regularly. If they really want to have a positive effect on Dearborn and that community, perhaps they should go build relationships with the people there rather than just trying to get arrested on video so as to enrage us all as to what's happening in America.

 

[yeutter]

why do you feel it's not safe?

The Christian Arabs, don't feel it is safe. Both Coptics and Orthodox are moving out of Dearborn.
Another thread on this topic has been started at the Whats Wrong With The World web site.

 

[Galatians220]

Margaret, why do you feel it's not safe? I only ask because I didn't notice anything dangerous when we were there last year (and I was alone a couple of times in the neighborhood on food runs.

Well, it does border southwest Detroit, and that's out of control. I know you and Tim were there, Anna; I don't want to scare you in case you come back, but -- maybe I'm too much of a suburbanite now (having grown up in Detroit and having been in my teens during the riot), but I wouldn't go to, for example, Fairlane alone now. I did that a lot when the mall opened. I tend to be able to *smell* danger, and the truth is, I feel and I think I am much safer on filing trips to the courts in downtown Detroit than when I'm in east Dearborn. I feel safer riding the People Mover around the edge of downtown Det. than I do when I have to go to a particular funeral home on Warren in Dbn. I'm talking about situations where I'm alone (not with the church group that we used to go to the restaurant C*******d with), and I'm the only non-Arab around. I just don't like it; not comfortable. There was often conflict with the Chaldeans (eastern rite Catholics) who attended our school in the '50s and '60s who didn't care much for us Roman rite, predominantly Irish types. There were many more of us... Maybe the memories of that are the problem. Another problem: I'm just getting old!

Margaret

 

[C. M. Sheffield]

Wow. I'm in awe. We will all face the gallows before long. May God give us strong faith, clear words and a desire for a place beneath the altar of heaven (Rev.6:9).

 

[yeutter]

The Answering Muslims Web site provides an update to this outrage. http://www.anweringmuslims.com

---------- Post added at 10:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------

Lydia McGrew has provided multiple insightful updates on this on the Whats Wrong With the World web site. What's Wrong with the World

 

[Beoga]

While I agree that there are serious problems here in terms of what the cops did, etc., I'm also not a fan of the approach the group in the video is taking. The name of their organization is Acts 17 Apologetics. They have debates with M*slims regularly. If they really want to have a positive effect on Dearborn and that community, perhaps they should go build relationships with the people there rather than just trying to get arrested on video so as to enrage us all as to what's happening in America.

I am sorry, but I don't think it was their plan "to get arrested on video so as to enrage us all as to what's happening in America." I believe that their intention was to proclaim the gospel to these Muslims. I could be wrong though. Where did you hear them say that all along they were trying to get arrested?

 

[kvanlaan]

I truly don't believe that they wanted to get arrested, they would rather have simply spread the gospel. And they were doing just that in a very unintrusive, LEGAL way, but a corrupt police department arrested them for their legal actions. They knew this would likely happen so they recorded it to defend themselves.

 

[Scottish Lass]

I truly don't believe that they wanted to get arrested, they would rather have simply spread the gospel. And they were doing just that in a very unintrusive, LEGAL way, but a corrupt police department arrested them for their legal actions. They knew this would likely happen so they recorded it to defend themselves.

There was also, I believe, an (unlawful) ordinance passed that also banned the distribution of printed materials that was clearly aimed at non-Muslim (read: Christian) groups.

 

[Galatians220]

After last year's scuffle, the Christians were told to stay a given distance away from the Arab Fest to distribute their Gospel of John booklets and to attempt to evangelize. This year, they carefully fulfilled that instruction, staying exactly where they were told to stay, but they were arrested anyway. That's the problem here.

I will write more about this when it's not the Lord's Day.

Margaret