With Dearborn’s 14th annual Arab International Festival now smoothly underway this weekend, we thought it might be worth reflecting for a moment on the media controversy unnecessarily created about our city by an evangelical Christian group from Anaheim, California.

Websites and newspapers across the country carried the story about the Christian group’s lawsuit against Dearborn, alleging the city violated its rights by restricting access to the annual festival that draws some 300,000 people.

Dearborn, however, did not violate anyone’s rights. This was never about an Arab festival or a city having issues with the group, Arabic Christian Perspective. It was simply about maintaining safety and crowd control, which is the city’s job.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds agreed, denying the group permission to hand out literature on the sidewalks. “It appears to be a legitimate governmental interest for crowd control and safety,” Edmunds said in denying the request. “The festival area is more akin to a fair than a normal city street.”

As it is, the city of Dearborn, which does not run the festival, is allowing the group to hand out literate at the entrance to the festival this weekend.

The reality is that Arabic Christian Perspective was trying to make this something it was not — a violation of free speech rights. This wasn’t about being denied the right to convert Muslims to Christianity. This was about grabbing headlines and creating controversy. On those two fronts, the group can claim success.

One simple fact seemingly lost by most media outlets was that this group could have simply purchased space to be at the festival for just $150, the same amount three other Christian groups and some 137 other organizations paid to be inside the festival area.

If this were simply about proselytizing efforts, the group, which claims to have spent $50,000 on printed materials for use in Dearborn, surely could have afforded an additional $150 to have a booth at the festival. We wonder what the group would have done if festival organizers simply paid the booth fee for them and told them to come for free.

We hope the group will respect Dearborn’s laws in the future. And, next time, simply get a table.