Tag Archives: Dearborn

MUST-SEE: Police arrest Christians for distributing the gospel in Dearborn

I first spotted this story at Hot Air.

Here’s the video:

And read the account by Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi of Acts 17 Apologetics:

Yes, you heard it here first, folks. David and I, along with Negeen and Paul Rezkalla, were arrested and spent last night in jail. It is a long story which we will elaborate in full detail when we can, and we will post footage when the police give us back our cameras.

But to take the edge off your curiosity, here are some basics: Paul, David, Negeen, and I went to the festival to see and comment on the situation. Thankfully, we recorded every second of our activity at the festival. 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.

Last year, security lied about us and we got kicked out of the festival. We had it all on tape, so we were able to vindicate ourselves. This year, a volunteer lied about us, and we got thrown into jail. But when we get our footage back, we’ll be able to vindicate ourselves again.

From Jihad Watch, we get Christian scholar David Wood’s report:

Muslims threatened to kill Nabeel and me if we showed up again at Arab Fest in Dearborn, so we went there yesterday. They didn’t kill us. Instead, police arrested us and we got to spend a night in jail (along with two others who were video recording us). Interesting city. I feel a documentary coming on. Title: “Welcome to Dearborn.”

More pictures here.

More eyewitness reports here.

More videos from Acts 17 apologetics.

Details on the planned lawsuit here.

Muslims in Michigan assault Christians for asking questions at Arabfest

UPDATE: Welcome readers from ProtoCatholic! Thanks for the link, Gretchen!

Watch this 10-minute video of Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi trying to engage Muslims in dialog in Dearborn, Michigan. (H/T ECM)

This is the same Nabeel who had the radio debate with the Muslim that I wrote about before.

About Nabeel:

Nabeel Qureshi is a convert from Islam to Christianity. He holds an MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University, and he is currently finishing his MD at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Nabeel debates Muslims and writes for the blog http://www.answeringmuslims.com/.

Now consider a different story from ArabFest about a different group of Christians distributing pamphlets.

This story is from the San Jose Mercury News. (H/T Clayton Cramer via ECM)

Excerpt:

A federal judge today denied an evangelical Christian group’s request for permission to hand out literature on sidewalks at an Arab festival in the heart of the Detroit area’s Middle Eastern community.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Anaheim, Calif.-based Arabic Christian Perspective’s request for a temporary restraining order.

The group describes itself in its court filing as “a national ministry established for the purpose of proclaiming the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims … (that) travels around the country attending and distributing Christian literature at Muslim festivals and mosques.”

There is a law banning the distribution of pamphlets, so these Christians were not being discriminated against. But lawyer Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy says that the law is unconstutional, in his opinion.