Michigan: Christians banned from delivering tracts on sidewalk

A very interesting post from www.jihadwatch.org.

June 20, 2009
Michigan: Christians banned from delivering tracts on sidewalk
After all, Dearborn is 30% Muslim, and they don't go for that sort of thing. "It's ironic that while Americans are applauding the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn is restricting free speech rights Christians are attempting to exercise on the city's public sidewalks." An update on this story.
"Faith under fire:City corrals Christians at weekend Arab fest, judge won't let ministry deliver tracts on sidewalks," by Bob Unruh for WND, June 19 (thanks to Philip):
A federal judge has upheld a decision by festival organizers in Dearborn, Mich., which is about 30 percent Muslim, to ban a Christian ministry from handing out religious information on public sidewalks.
The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmonds and affects this weekend's celebration but will not affect the free speech lawsuit over the event, filed by the Thomas More Law Center and the Becker Law Firm.
The case is being brought on behalf of the Arabic Christian Perspective, a Christian group that ministers to Muslims. According to the Thomas More Law Center, Pastor George Saieg and scores of his volunteers have visited Dearborn for the city's Arab International Festival to hand out religious information several times.
At estimated 30,000 of Dearborn's nearly 100,000 residents are Muslim.
While there never has been a disruption of the public peace during the five years the ministry has been attending, this year Dearborn police warned Saieg he and his group would not be allowed to walk the public sidewalks to hand out information and instead would be confined to a specific spot, the lawsuit said.
After negotiations in Dearborn failed to restore the Christians' rights, the lawsuit was filed.
"It's ironic that while Americans are applauding the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn is restricting free speech rights Christians are attempting to exercise on the city's public sidewalks," said Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center...

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