Dearborn Mayor on Anderson Cooper 360 show (CNN)

Dearborn Mayor on Anderson Cooper 360 show (CNN)

The Dearborn Mayor made an appearance on Anderson Cooper’s 360 show yesterday to respond to comments made by Sharron Angle–who is running for Harry Reid’s seat in the Senate–about Sharia law in Dearborn, Michigan. In the course of his interview, Cooper played a very small portion of the YouTube video by Acts 17 Apologetics from the Arab International Festival last year (2009). Here’s the video:
A couple of major concerns that I have about this interview:
1) You can see that a woman (the voice) is being hit by male security guards. What I want to know is why neither Cooper or O’Reilly seem concerned that a woman is being hit in the video. Mayor O’Reilly has never expressed concern or care for the fact that the first time I attended his city’s major annual festival I was smacked around by the security guards. The guards did this while I was lawfully partaking of the festival. Yet here is another interview in which the mayor expresses his ill-regard for what he thinks about our motives. So the message the mayor appears to be implicitly sending is that if he disagrees with your reasons for being at his city’s festival–even if he doesn’t take the time to reasonably understand your motives (personally contacting the individuals involved would be a good place to start)–he does not concern himself when your safety is compromised. Not only this, but he apparently feels justified to publicly slander you. This is not a good message to send whether intended or unintended.
2) “This is not a city-sponsored event…it’s facilitated by the city because it’s in our town.” What is the mayor implying in this statement? Does he mean to say that he is not responsible if people get assaulted at the festival spanning fourteen blocks of his city?
3) “They suggest that Christians aren’t allowed at the festival.”
Nope. The video from last year, as well as follow-ups to the video, have all stated that we felt we weren’t allowed to freely ask a question at the Islam Q&A booth while videoing the interaction (due to the security guards); nothing like “Christians aren’t allowed at the festival.” We know Christians are allowed there, but we also know Christians weren’t allowed to walk around and hand out Christian literature (court decision for 2009, see here and follow-up here). We also felt that security was abusing the court decision against leaf-letting (relevant to the scene shown in the CNN clip). The Acts 17 guys have specifically countered O’Reilly’s statement above, but it just doesn’t seem to matter to him. Plus, this year, four Christians with Acts 17 were arrested for….? Remember, Mayor O’Reilly, the jury did not find them guilty of the cause of arrest. Isn’t that four false arrests? But in his original response letter to this incident, Mayor O’Reilly said, “They were not handing out flyers but were aggressively engaging passers-by in confrontational debate when they were arrested and cited for Breach of the Peace and Failure to Obey the Lawful Order of a Police Officer.” Well, the jury doesn’t agree with you, Mayor, that this incident was unlawful; and it was the video evidence (from 2010) that exonerated them.*
4) There was no apology for the false arrest of these law-abiding citizens in Dearborn. The mayor had a chance on national television to say, “It was unfortunate that these citizens were falsely arrested while at Dearborn’s festival. I’m doing everything I can to make sure all Americans feel welcome at the festival.”
5) Look at the differences here between 2009 and 2010:
  • In 2009, when three citizens are hit and threatened by the security guards at the festival, no one gets arrested…even though the raw video footage is right there at the time of the incident for police review.
  • In 2010, when four citizens are walking around videoing interaction with people who first approach them, all four get arrested…even though the raw video footage is right there at the time of the incident for police review.
The actions of the Dearborn police and city officials speak louder than the mayor’s words.
MJ
*It must be noted that the Failure to Obey charge was on one person, who was found guilty. However, since the jury established the defendant’s activity was lawful, there will be an appeal on this verdict, since the officer had no reason to arrest her.
** Also, please remember that Mayor O’Reilly does not represent all American citizens living in the Dearborn area. There are people in Dearborn who are concerned about what happened both years. This post is not meant as an attempt to slander the city of Dearborn, but to inform readers with a response to Mayor O’Reilly’s charges.
Dearborn 4 Found NOT GUILTY!

Dearborn 4 Found NOT GUILTY!

All four found NOT GUILTY in the Dearborn trial except for Negeen’s”disobeying the lawful order of a police officer” (which is now on appeal). THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

Continue to pray for David Wood, Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla, & Negeen Mayel.

Roger

UPDATE: Answering Muslims post. Click HERE.

The Mayor of Dearborn Responds

The Mayor of Dearborn Responds

In a letter posted to the city of Dearborn’s website, the mayor of Dearborn, John B. O’Reilly Jr., responded to the events of the last two years at the Arab International Festival.

This is my response to his letter:
A Response to the Dearborn Mayor’s Letter “Please Consider the Following Before Condemning Us” It is appreciated that the Dearborn Mayor took time to write a response to the events of the last two years at the Arab festival in Dearborn. I understand that these events, and the subsequent bad press surrounding the events, have placed the mayor in a position of answering to his constituents and to the general American community for what appears to be a violation of four citizens First Amendment rights. The accusation is a grave one. Therefore, I would expect the mayor to be well-informed of the events having made an attempt to speak with those persons individually who upon visiting his city experienced these problems. I would expect such an elected American official to investigate these claims thoroughly in order to best protect people within his community, understanding his responsibility to uphold their constitutional rights. Unfortunately, this letter demonstrates Mayor O’Reilly attempted no such activity and only further instills a sense of distrust of his leadership in me. I will explain why in a systematic approach to his letter. I feel I am aptly qualified to comment as I have personally interviewed all four individuals about the events surrounding the arrests. I also have experienced first-hand the Dearborn Arab Festival as can be witnessed in the video I filmed last year (“Arab Festival 2009: Sharia in the US” on YouTube). 1) Financial gain The mayor pointed out that Acts 17 did this video in order to fundraise for their ministry. This is pure conjecture and ad hominem. It is conjecture because he has provided no documentation as to the funds raised by Acts 17’s activities in Dearborn. It is ad hominem because it seeks to attack their character by suggesting their interests in Dearborn are solely financial. He also fails to recognize the facts of who stands to lose or make more money concerning this festival: Dearborn or the ministry of Acts 17. I would like to see a comparison of dollar amounts between Dearborn’s “economic boost”[1] received by the festival and of donations to Acts 17 in which the donations are based on the festival activity of this ministry. I can safely say the discrepancy between the two would be staggering. The city stands to lose much more money if this festival should be portrayed in anyway as negative: sponsors such as Wal-Mart, Ford, AT&T, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations would be affected by negative press. Therefore, it appears to be in the festival’s best interest to protect their investment; which makes common sense. However, this should not be at the cost of the truth, which appears to be happening. 2) Groups paying a modest fee and being assigned a place to preach the Word of God This is a public festival and while I’m no law expert, I do not believe the average American citizen has to pay a fee to go to a free public festival and proclaim their religious (or anti-religious) views. Acts 17 is not a large or medium-sized organization as are the other Christian groups at the festival; it is comprised of a few American citizens. Therefore, they do not have the funding of the other groups to purchase a booth. Yes, they could do a fundraiser. However, this does not address the problem with just being able to walk around a public festival, record video, and talk to people about beliefs without fear of being arrested. 3) Acts 17 failed to mention the activity of the other organizations in all materials presented by the organization. In a blog dated June 23rd, 2010, entitled, “Responses to Common Questions,” David Wood addressed this question, “How can you say that you were harassed and persecuted when other Christian groups, such as Josh McDowell’s, were not harassed and persecuted?” He mentioned three responses to Dearborn’s policy of public safety by various Christian organizations in accordance with their actions at the festival. Some did exactly what the festival said to do, some did not. This doesn’t address the constitutionality of the festival’s rules or how those rules were being enforced. 4) The festival has a free speech zone I need to see a definition of a “free speech zone” at a public festival in America. Who were the two groups utilizing this space? What were they saying? Is there any evidence for this claim? 5) They lead you to believe they were arrested I’m trying to figure out if the mayor is considerably misinformed or is telling an untruth of which he is aware. Although the press and some television news shows are reporting the arrest in an incorrect manner, I have personally corrected this on two radio shows myself: the Richard Land Live show and Southwest Radio Ministries show. Nabeel has corrected this on a radio program as well. The arrests were not reported incorrectly on the video by Acts 17 posted on Saturday, June 19th on their blog (watch here). This seems an easy enough fact to check for falsification. Why the misleading statement? 6) On Saturday, June 18th, they were behaving differently…aggressively engaging passers-by in confrontational debate Here is another statement that is considerably misinformed or a blatant untruth. The report by David, Nabeel, Negeen, and Paul is that they were only engaging people who first spoke with them. They were diffusing hostile language and arguments with the gospel message of love for all people. They even purchased lemonade and elephant ears for some teenagers before their arrest. So who is telling the truth? The only way to know is to release their video to the public so the public can judge for themselves. If you think Acts 17 is lying, release the footage in its entirety: un-damaged and un-edited for a public review. At least, release the footage to the defense attorneys for these American citizens. 7) Acts 17 is well aware of the public safety policy This statement is true in that we asked the Dearborn police last year if we were doing anything unlawful by videoing questions and interaction with the question and answer booth people. The police said we were doing what was lawful. The only way to know if Acts 17 was participating lawfully in the festival this year is through the video evidence that is being held by the police. 8) They are in an area controlled to protect public safety during the event Generally, this statement means that Dearborn was not allowing pamphlets to be handed out or public preaching just anywhere at the festival because it could cause a crowd to gather which in turn could jeopardize public safety. However, Acts 17 stated that on their video is some footage which demonstrates Muslims were handing out pamphlets, not at an assigned booth, without security altercations. So it seems that the problem only relates to Christians and their activities. If so, that would be discrimination against one religion. 9) Balancing personal freedom and protecting the public This is certainly understood and appreciated. I know that this is a difficult task, which is probably a fine line to walk sometimes. I would want to err on the side of protecting personal freedom, which is hard to regain once lost. 10) “At the time he was arrested on Friday, June 18, Mr. Wood had gathered a large crowd around him” This is another problematic statement as worded in the letter. In this sentence, the reader is led to think that David Wood encouraged a gathering of some kind around himself, which is untrue. A proper way of stating the actual events: “A large crowd gathered around Mr. Wood.” This reveals the event as it happened instead of using a touch of rhetoric to imply intention. Again, the public needs to see the video footage in order to come to a proper understanding. Perhaps a better response by the police would have been to disperse the crowd, rather than arrest the people around which the crowd was gathering. 11) “because they wanted to be arrested” Did the mayor speak with these gentlemen? Did he ask them about their intentions? By this sort of reasoning, I could say this about the investigation so far: “The reason the police department has not released the video footage of the event, undamaged and in its entirety, is because they want people to believe that Acts 17 did something wrong, instead of actively pursuing what is the truth according to the objective eye of the video camera.” However, this is would be conjecture, again. Please, Mayor, make good and reasoned arguments. You are possibly wrong and have possibly violated citizens’ rights. We need the video and we need more objectivity. 12) It makes a good news story….the real violation of First Amendment rights This is just ad hominem. The statement does nothing to instill confidence in the mayor’s endeavor to make sure justice is served for all people involved. The ‘real violation of rights’ statement appears to have no more value then to turn the tide on the victims. The problem is that the statement makes no real sense. Also, it appears a bit flippant concerning the investigation of civil rights. I’m looking for something along the lines of, “Understanding that this nation has shed much blood and fought many battles to ensure the protection of our citizen’s personal freedoms, we, the city of Dearborn, are taking the events surrounding the Arab Festival this year into serious consideration. We are progressively working with all four citizens’ lawyers to make sure all evidence available is reviewed for a full and accurate account of the incident.” After making this statement or something similar, I would then look for actions to confirm that this is indeed the mayor’s true concern. 13) Dearborn Area Ministerial Association (DAMA)… They were unsuccessful in getting a response from Acts 17. This ministerial organization apparently met with the chief of police and the mayor in September of 2009 and somehow no one thought to invite us, the people who were being accused. So they wrote up a letter of condemnation and signed it. After doing so, in as far as I am aware, one pastor mentioned that we should be contacted before they made the letter public. One pastor. If this is a great conclave of churches in the area, why is it that only one person thought to contact the fellow Christians who were accused? So no one else there thought to use the New Testament pattern of discipline or admonishment amongst the believers in Christ? Perhaps someone else did, but I am unaware due to the lack of communication. This is one of the most disappointing aspects of the whole situation. Some members of the Church are willing to publicly condemn others in the body of Christ without contacting them first. It appears they were willing to do so in order to protect and propagate their own ministries (I don’t condemn the aspect of either protecting or propagating any of these ministries, just the manner in which it was done with regard to our situation). I do not see this as a good testimony to the Muslim community. My notification concerning this organization was through Nabeel Qureshi in November 2009. I don’t want to sound accusatory because we all keep busy schedules; especially in ministry and especially David, Nabeel, and me. However, my first personal interaction was nearly six months after the festival and three months after the meeting (December 2009). Yet, the Detroit Free Press reported on me in an article shortly after the incident. My point being: contact with those persons involved should have been before the first meeting of Dearborn area ministries and local officials.
* I do not wish to create any heir of disrespect for the ministerial activities and the difficulties they face ministering in the Dearborn area. That was why I agreed to speak with the one pastor who contacted me, and it was a major reason for why I didn’t press criminal charges last year. I am responding to the mayor’s portrayal of the events associated with this group to show the imbalance of his reporting. I am also demonstrating how he does not interact with the people involved.Our response There was a huge response from us that is unreported in the above statement. We agreed to drop the charges of assault and battery on the security guards at the festival in order to aid the reconciliation process of the ministries to their community. That was our response. We would not agree to publicly condemn ourselves, which is the “response” of which they were asking. I know from one area pastor that the chief of police was pleased to hear of our decision to drop the charges. Turning us into the bad guys Also, I find it disturbing that four people were arrested this year for “disturbing the peace” but the security guards who hit our cameras last year and harassed us where not arrested. Why? These security guards were certainly disturbing the peace. We asked the police to ensure that none of the security guards involved in last year’s incident be allowed to return to the festival for the safety of the public. Unfortunately, one of them returned according to the reports of two of those arrested. 14) “People who would promote hatred and lies to get others to act in ways” Acts 17 have been very open and public about their intentions and actions. They have already responded to this type of ad hominem attack. This appears to be a clever rhetorical device to get people to think a certain way about Acts 17. However, rhetoric does not fill the void of justice surrounding this incident. If the mayor sincerely cares about his community, American citizens, and protecting constitutional rights, then prove it with action and not with words. Call for the release of the video, Mayor, in its entirety and undamaged, so the truth can be known. You should have nothing to fear from that video if you are telling the truth. However, the police department continues to hold onto the actual video footage which would exonerate or condemn these citizens without a public statement as to why they will not release the footage. Remember, the PD has not even given the footage over to the defense lawyers so they can begin to build their case, even though the defense lawyers requested the footage as of Monday, June 21st. If that video is damaged or lost or erased, my distrust in your office and the police department will skyrocket. Hopefully, others will join me in this sentiment. A couple parting thoughts If this festival is completely family oriented and friendly to differing faiths, then I highly recommend a response to the booth that was selling t-shirts of a cartoon character urinating on the flag of Israel from the 2009 festival, which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ot6EDFS998. This is clear racism and “hate-language” towards a people group, nation, and religion. The flag represents real people, not just a chunk of land. Imagine if the flag were the American flag or a Palestinian flag? The Jewish star represents one of the three major monotheistic religions in the world. This is outrageous and highly intolerant. It creates an atmosphere that says one ethnicity and one faith is not welcome at this festival by plastering it on a shirt for raising funds. The booth was the “Free Palestine” booth. David, Nabeel, Negeen, and Paul have done nothing hateful, yet the mayor felt a need to respond to them. It appears as though clear hatred of a particular people group, if veiled from media-attention, is allowable at the Dearborn festival (thus the t-shirts). However, if private citizens feel as though they are experiencing injustice, hateful attitudes, and threats, and they make this public via the internet, the mayor will not only allow the injustice, but also ridicule the private citizens involved. Again, Mr. O’Reilly’s actions have done nothing to prove his intention to create a safe, peaceful, civil-law respecting community in Dearborn. In conclusionThere was no evidence to substantiate allegations in this letter, but lots of conjecture. There were mistakes that were easily falsifiable by a person making an honest attempt to understand the situation. There is still the problem of the video footage seizure and holding by the police, which is the raw evidence to what happened. This appears as a great abuse of the elected position with which the mayor has been entrusted. Notice, there was no remorse, at all, in the letter for the experience of these citizens. None. Instead, the letter was devoted to an attempt to discredit their integrity, without providing solid evidence for the attack. Respectfully, Mary Jo Sharp

[1] As described by the website for the Arab Chamber of Commerce

Four Christians Arrested at ArabFest in Dearborn

Four Christians Arrested at ArabFest in Dearborn

This first video is the guys over at Acts 17 Apologetics discussing what happened on Friday, June 18th at the ArabFest in Dearborn, MI. Plus, there’s some footage of the arrest by another person at the festival. For more updates go to their blog: www.answeringmuslims.com

This next video shows what happened on Sunday, June 20th at the festival:

And this final video is some coverage from Fox News. The story isn’t quite accurate in this segment. They were not arrested while passing out material. They were arrested on Friday evening while walking around the festival. They were not passing out material. They were not approaching people. They were not talking with anyone who didn’t first approach them. That’s when they were arrested.

Free Speech or Breach of Peace?

Watch the latest news video at video.foxnews.com


I was interviewed concerning the arrests by Dr. Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission on his live radio program. You can listen to it here.

The video footage they shot at the festival would help defend them against the charges of “breaching the peace.” However, all of their equipment has been confiscated by the Dearborn police. It has been over a week and the video equipment hasn’t been released to David or Nabeel or to their lawyer. Nor have the police made an official statement as to: 1) why they confiscated the equipment and 2) why they will not release the video footage.

The guys are receiving many questions about this incident from Christians, Muslims, atheists, etc. So they have posted some responses to these questions available here.

Again for more updates, go to their blog: www.answeringmuslims.com

Thanks,
MJ

Debate Overview #1

Debate Overview #1

This weekend, Acts 17 Apologetics held a series of debates with Osama Abdallah and Farhan Qureshi. I moderated the debates, but was able to take some notes as well. So here are some general comments.

Osama Abdallah vs. Nabeel Qureshi
“Is the Qur’an Miraculous?”

Abdallah’s entire opening argument centered on the scientific accuracy of the Qur’an as evidence of the Qur’an’s miraculous nature. Generally, his argument flowed as such:
1) The Prophet Muhammad was not a scientist
2) The Prophet Muhammad made scientifically accurate statements in the Qur’an
3) The Prophet could not have known these scientific facts well before these facts were confirmed by scientific investigation
4) Therefore, the Qur’an is a miraculous book

He proceeded to give various examples of these scientific facts from the Qur’an: reduction of the earth to dust, the big bang (Surah 21: 30), a coming “cosmic crunch” (Surah 21:104), the moon reflecting the sun’s light (Surah 10:5) and the moon having cracked (Surah 54:1), the earth as spherical (Surah 79:30), and etc.

Qureshi’s opening statement included much background information on the formation of the Qur’an. He utilized a medical diagnosis analogy to “diagnosis” the Qur’an as not a perfect revelation of God. Also, Qureshi argued that the seven ahruf mentioned in Sahih Al-Bukhari amounted to an escape clause for problematic textual variants. His focus here was refuting the claim that the Qur’an had been “perfectly preserved.” He then challenged the Muslim arguments from literary excellence, mathematical marvels, and scientific accuracy. In responding to the argument from scientific accuracy, Qureshi commented that these “facts” found in the Qur’an were either 1) taken out of the context of the Qur’an, or 2) blatantly scientifically inaccurate, or 3) obvious to the average person (not valid as evidence to the miraculous nature of the Qur’an).

Abdallah compared Qureshi’s sources for Islam to a Muslim utilizing the Nag Hammadi or Gnostic sources for Christianity. However, Qureshi’s sources were early and trusted Hadith (such as Sahih Al-Bukhari). Abdallah, though, referenced the Gospel of Judas; in other words, he seems to demand one methodology for approaching Islam and another for approaching Christianity. He then committed the tu quoque fallacy by arguing along the lines of “so what if the Prophet did things that falsify his prophethood, so did the Biblical prophets…are you going to reject them too?” Abdallah’s actual statement was, “how do you know none of the other prophets had a similar experience [to Muhammad]?” This kind of statement does not answer the problem for the prophet Muhammad. Instead, it diverts the same argument to another focal point, the Biblical prophets; thus, the tu quoque fallacy. His Biblical prophet example, however, was King Solomon. He then pointed to an apparent contradiction in 2 Chronicles 22:42 and 2 Kings 8:26 on the age of King Hezekiah when he became ruler (22 years old versus 42 years old), but left out the source and explanation of the problematic variant; which is important for textual criticism.

In Qureshi’s rebuttals, he re-emphasized his earlier refutation of the argument from scientific accuracy, addressing Abdallah’s “facts” one by one. Plus, Qureshi pointed out more evidence that the Prophet Muhammad does not fit the criteria for a prophet. For example, Muhammad used black magic to remove a spell on him. (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 4, Book 54, Num. 490).

Generally, Osama Abdallah’s presentation centered on the argument from scientific accuracy and Nabeel Qureshi answered each of Abdallah’s points, demonstrating that this argument is indeed not strong for the miraculous nature of the Qur’an. Further, Qureshi’s arguments that remained unanswered were 1) Muhammad’s original reaction to this revelation (thoughts of demon possession), 2) the problematic historical transmission of the Qur’an, 3) the apparent mathematical marvels, which can be found anywhere if one is looking for them, and 4) the challenge from literary excellence, which has already been met several times over.

The debate is posted on www.answeringmuslims.com, under “Is the Qur’an Miraculous?”

MJ

Muslim-Christian Debates this Weekend

Muslim-Christian Debates this Weekend

This weekend, Acts 17, the ministry of David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi will be hosting a series of four Muslim-Christian debates in Virginia Beach. David and Nabeel are two friends who debated the validity of Islam for four years while Nabeel looked into the truth of Christianity. Both are well-researched in Islam, having debated and spoken on the religion all over the country. You can find more biographical information here (click the “About Us” tab). They are also enjoyable to watch as they always provide a rigorous debate!

I will be the moderator this weekend at all four debates. If you are in the area, I would love to see you there! Please find the specific information on the debates below:

Debates:

  • Saturday’s Debates Will Take Place on the Glenwood Campus of Coastal Community Church
  • 05.09.09 3:00-5:45 PM Osama Abdallah vs. Nabeel Qureshi: “Is The Qur’an Miraculous?”
  • 05.09.09 7:00-9:00 PM David Wood vs. Osama Abdallah “Was Jesus Crucified?”
  • Sunday’s Debates Will Take Place at Jackson Memorial Baptist Church
  • 05.10.09 3:00-5:45 PM Farhan Qureshi vs. David Wood: “Who Was Muhammad?”
  • 05.10.09 7:00-9:00 PM Nabeel Qureshi vs. Farhan Qureshi: “Who Was Jesus?

For the Acts 17 website, click here.
For more debate information click here.

MJ

Easter Debates Update

Easter Debates Update

The Easter Debates were a great time of discussion and fellowship. I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the weekend and to make some new Muslim acquaintances (thanks especially to David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi of Acts 17 Apologetics).

James White has posted the first debate of the weekend between Nadir Ahmed and himself on his Alpha and Omega Ministries website. View the debate series here.

MJ