Dearborn officials say they will protect free speech rights at a planned anti-Muslim rally, but will strictly enforce laws and ordinances to protect public safety.
Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin said they have been working with local, state and federal law enforcement partners on preparing for what's described by organizers as a "Christian Crusader March” in Dearborn on Tuesday, Aug. 18, during a City Council meeting. The protest is being led by right-wing provocateur Jake Lang, who is making his fifth visit to Dearbornsince November, with the help of Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who hosted Lang at his church on Sunday. Lang's protests are part of a long history of anti-Muslim protests by some Christian extremists targeting the city over
the past 20 years.
Shahin said there will be a significant increase in police presence in Dearborn in the coming days, who will enforce laws and city ordinances to protect public safety. But he stressed that they will not be making arrests or taking other law enforcement actions based on the content of a person's speech, even if it's offensive and demeaning. Shahin and Dearborn City Council President Mike Sareini said they met on Saturday with the head of the Detroit FBI office about the planned protests.
"Every person has the right to speak, to assemble, and to petition their government, even when it's a message that our community finds offensive," Shahin said at a press conference on Monday afternoon with Christian faith leaders and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. "Our enforcement decisions will be based on conduct, not on content or a viewpoint or of anyone's expression. We will protect that right for everyone, without exception. What we will not tolerate is anyone turning a lawful gathering into a confrontation or a threat to public safety. If you assault someone, if you block emergency access, or you damage property, you will be arrested. Any such arrest will be based on probable cause that you violated a Michigan law or a local ordinance. It's not on what you said. That standard applies equally to outside demonstrators or to anyone from Dearborn."
Lang did not return a message Monday seeking comment about his planned protest. Sewell spoke with the Detroit Free Press, saying he's concerned about sharia, Islamic law, being practiced in the U.S. and the growing number of Muslim politicians, expressing anxiety about U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Sewell also noted that Lang was assaulted earlier this month in Dearborn, saying it shows Islam is violent and doesn't allow free speech. Three men have been charged in the alleged attacks against Lang, one of whom was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Sewell said he doesn't know everything Lang is planning, "but I do think he's going to do a pig roast." In 2012, another group of right-wing Christians came to an Arab American festival holding anti-Islam signs and a severed pig's head on a pole. In addition to the City Council protest that starts at 6 p..m at the Henry Ford Centennial Library, some bikers are planning to drive past at 5:30 p.m. the Islamic Center of America on Ford Road, where Lang burned a Quran earlier this year.
In the past, there have been complaints that the city of Dearborn does not allow Christians the right to promote their religion or express anti-Muslim views. But under the leadership of Shahin and Hammoud, both of whom are Muslim, the city has allowed at least two Quran-burnings in front of mosques and other anti-Islam events. Under the previous administration, when the mayor and police chief were Christian, the city faced lawsuits and complaints that they were overly aggressive in targeting Christians expressing their views.
"There's a large segment of this country for folks that want to frame what it's like to be a Christian in Dearborn," Shahin said. "So the mayor and I thought, who better to hear from what their experience is rather than some of the clergy here that represent a cross section of the churches in the city who live, worship, and visit our community."
Rick Neveu, a chaplain at St. Kateri Church in Dearborn, said the people attacking Dearborn are from outside the community, not its residents.
It's often "someone from the outside coming in to Dearborn and trying to tear us apart, trying to throw a wedge between us," Neveu said, but "it's just not going to work."
"We all love each other," the Christian chaplain added. "We live together. We get along together, and we work everything out together. So, all the rhetoric that comes from Dearborn is always from outside trying to come in and destroy our reputation. They can't do it. We won't let them do it.”
Sewell criticized the Christian leaders who attended Monday's press conference with Dearborn officials.
"Those are Christians that don't read the Bible," Sewell said.
Hammoud said that bigoted people attack Dearborn because it's a "proudly American" city, a model of cooperation among people of different backgrounds, a place where immigrants from around the world found new lives.
“Dearborn welcomes everybody, and to so many, that is a challenge to the perspective of America that they believe in — that you cannot be multi-ethnic, multi-faith, multi-generational; that you cannot speak multiple languages and still be as American as any other city," Hammoud said. "And I would challenge that notion.
"No outside agitator will be coming in through Tuesday who will change the circumstances of our life. They're here to try to instill fear and try to divide us, but that is the mission in which they will fail."
Differing views on hate speech
City officials have expressed in recent days differing views on the issue of hate speech. While Shahin said they will respect all speech, including hateful speech, others suggested that hate speech could be prosecuted.
Hammoud called upon Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to consider pressing hate crimes charges.
"I would take that question and actually channel it towards our attorney general to see what she may do with her hate crimes unit to see if there's anything that can be levied against these agitators and provocateurs that come to Dearborn time and time again," Hammoud said.
Sareini said in a video posted Saturday by What's Up, a media site, the city has moved the council meeting from the usual location at the Dearborn Administrative Center to the Henry Ford Centennial Library to accommodate larger crowds.
“People can say what they want," Sareini said in the video posted Saturday. "If it reaches the level of hate speech, we have a commitment from the FBI that they will prosecute if it comes to that level."
Dearborn Christians call for tolerance
Hammoud has faced criticism from some Christians for angrily berating a Christian minister last year during a council meeting, and some residents have complained about the call to Islamic prayer being too loud in their neighborhoods. But Hammoud said at the press conference that he respects Christianity, saying that "my eldest daughter is named Maria, named after the Virgin Mary."
Sewell said he doesn't hate Muslims, but worries about them being violent, saying that America is a Christian nation.
"We don't hate Islam, we don't hate Muslims," he said. "We just love America, and this is one nation under the God of the Bible. Period. The greatness of our nation is the Lord Jesus Christ, not Allah, not Muhammad. If you want to do that, go back to the Middle East."
The Christian speakers at the press conference had more tolerant views.
"We pray that people will move from intolerance to tolerance, from tolerance to respect, and to move even further from respect to love," said the Rev. Bob McCabe of Divine Child Catholic Church in Dearborn. "Dearborn is a place people can love and draw close to each other and to worship freely. I've experienced that as a Christian, as a Catholic, and I know that this is all common in this fine city of Dearborn, which I love."
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dearborn to protect free speech, but enforce laws at anti-Muslim rally
