Dearborn Does the Right Thing
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.
June 20th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
A lot of talking, and what ends up happening? Nothing. Just some adverse publicity. I guess their mission was accompolished.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
What bothers me most about this is the inconsistency in matters of religion versus state. Why is it legal for taxpayers to finance footbaths for Muslim/Moslem students at University of Michigan/Dearborn, but illegal for Christians to circulate and pass out flyers at a taxpayer-financed event such as the Arab American Festival?
For the record, I believe both situations clearly violate separation of church and state.
June 20th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
School Mom: I think you have your facts a bit mixed up. The Arab Festival is not funded by taxpayer dollars. Taxpayer dollars fund the Dearborn Homecoming. So that might be the wrong comparison.
No one religious group is being afforded ‘rights’ that are being denied by another.
This is a group of borderline Christian fanatics. Let’s shed a bit of light on this group, shall we?
Arabic Christian Perspective was founded in 2003 by a California minister. According to a Washington Post article, the group believes that Islam is not a religion of peace and that suicide bombers, quote “are not fringe fanatics on the outskirts of Islam, they are actually the faithful and true who obey the teachings of Islam.” That is according to the group’s own press release. I have a real problem with Arabic Christian Perspective painting an entire religion this way. That’s like saying people like Timothy McVeigh or David Koresh are not fringe fanatics but represent the teachings of Christianity. Let’s change the people involved in this and make it a Jewish or an Islamic group trying to do the same at an Italian or Polish festival and let’s see what the reaction would be. This group seems to be only looking for trouble. But maybe that is just me.
J.R.
June 21st, 2009 at 10:10 am
In theory, Mr. Deep, I agree with you. However, I am seriously troubled by the fact that there are often organized protests/ celebrations in East Dearborn which the police must respond to and for which the groups pay none of the requisite fees nor follow the requisite rules. These are rules which are promulgated for the safety of all citizens. However in this case, the festival organizers are insisting that the City follow the rules, so they are using it as a sword. Does that sound fair to you? I have a lot of problems with the way the City has allowed many of these groups to do exactly as they want and then not suffer the consequences. I think this should and could have been handled much differently, and again, Dearborn shows its biases and favoritism.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:26 am
J.R. Who is footing the bill for the police, fire, recreation and other city employees needed for the festival? Who is paying for the closure of the streets and the rerouting of traffic on major roadways? Has the city relaxed the parking up and down the side-streets, or are cars still allowed to park on lawns, across driveways and sidewalks without being ticketed (revenues). If these thing are being address then it is publicly finanace at least partially. Oh and I didn’t ask this, are the people running for office this year being restricted as well? if not, why not?
June 21st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
My reference to taxpayer funding of the Arab-American Festival was stated best by Milwood Fordson. Thank you.
June 21st, 2009 at 7:39 pm
for the record, im not of arabic decent, but if it were a polish, german or italian festival, no one would give 2 shits on the “mind consuming” closure of streets, parking and so-called taxpayer costs associated with this event.
June 21st, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Dearborn #1
I would, I also think that homecoming should be privatly funded completely including city services provided. We do not need to be spending taxpayer money like this when our economy and budjet is so tight. Just my opinion, thanks for putting up with it.
June 21st, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Even some of the Arab-American business owners on Warren Avenue are less than thrilled with the street fair, much like the non-Arab-American business owners along Woodward Avenue who suffer through the Dream Cruise every summer. Why? They lose money.
Birmingham and other cities pulled out of the Dream Cruise last year because their taxpayers/residents were sick and tired of the costs (police/fire/etc) and hassle of having thousands of people and cars cloggging their streets and neighborhoods.
The issue of public/taxpayer funding of such events is major now because of the terrible economy in Michigan. It has nothing to do with ethnicity/nationality/race.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 am
I always find this argument of spendng taxpayer money so strange.
If this is “our” money, then ideally their shouldn’t be a deficit and/ or a surplus
It should be approproiated right to budget and spent!
City government isn’t a business or company. Why anyone gets a hard-on over looking at a budget surplus of a city makes zero sense.
Its the false illusion of walking around saying “we have a surplus. we have a surplus!!”……..yeah………and your point is?????
Further more, when was the last time anyone has had a reason to go the east dearborn?? other than passing through michigan ave to get a hooker in detroit or jump on I94??
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:06 am
Milwood (and others) — local poll about the Homecoming funding issue you are referencing:
http://ww
w./polls.html
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Dearborn#1, your name is ironic, considering your opinion of east Dearborn.
And for your info, people do spend time on the east side of town, and do appreciate all it has to offer. I just went to Famous Hamburgers this past weekend…in east Dearborn. You need to go to City Hall? Try east Dearborn. I would suggest checking out Super Greenland Market for some amazing deals on produce this Wednesday…in east Dearborn. Here are a number of events from this past weekend that took place…in east Dearborn http://ww
s.php?viewStory=126
And just because *you’re* racing through east Dearborn to pick up a hooker in Detroit or hop on I-94 doesn’t mean others are. Might I suggest you take your blinders off once in a while.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
steve,
I can see noticing humor in my posts isn’t one of your strong points.
Its 2009, unless one is 70 yrs old, the need to walk into city hall is much like the need to go inside a post office or better yet, a bank.
east dearborn does win in the battle vs. west dearborn for more vacant store fronts, cell phone stores and nail salons though. Maybe we can throw a festival for that?
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:35 am
dearborn #1, it is 2009 and some of us that have reached the age of 70 do not have the need to walk into city hall, post office or even the big bad bank. You see even at our age some of us have managed to learn how turn on this big bad puter and take care of all our business with just a few clicks. Please don’t count us out yet.
June 24th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
I don’t know if the city funds the Homecoming or the Arab American Festival and what both might cost the city in police protection. However I did read in the Detroit News today that the City of Detroit gives free police protection to all events at Joe Louis Arena, the home of the Detroit Red Wings.
The City of Detroit recognizes what Joe Louis Arena and the Red Wings contribute to Detroit. Why shouldn’t the City of Dearborn be allowed to offer the same free police protection to the Homecoming and Arab American Festival, since both contribute to Dearborn? Both Dearborn businesses and homeowners pay taxes to the City and many of the participants in both events are Dearborn residents and business owners. Since it is the taxpayers money, not the city’s money, I see nothing wrong with the City offering free police protection at both events.
I understand that this is a tough budget time for cities, but events like these bring people together to have some healthy entertainment and fun, which are even more crucial to the health of a city during tough times like this.
I attended last years Homecoming and this year’s Arab American Festival and I thought both were wonderful events that I would recommend to anyone and everyone…
June 25th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
The City of Dearborn does charge groups to have special events if they require City services such as police, fire, DPW, etc. except for City sponsored events like Homecoming, Memorial Day Parade, etc. To my knowledge, The Arab Festival is charged by the City for services, it is not a City sponsored event.
What does cause problems is when protests or demonstations take place with little or no notice, and without applying for a permit and obtaining a City Council resolution. The City had to change their ordinances to allow organizers to provide shorter notice to the City when an event like this occurs. This change resulted from a suit against the City a few years ago when organizers were ticketed for holding marches without permits or advance notice down Warren and Schaefer roads to City Hall. It used to be 30 day notice, but now under cerrtain circumstances can be a day or two and usually 15 days or less upon application of a permit, unless determined by the Chief of Police that no harm or hinderance to public sidewalks or streets is directly impacted. See City Ordinance Article II, Chapter 17, Sections 17-32. It amazes me that whenever something occurs overseas that may be a concern to some of our citizens, that certain segments of our City have to demonstrate or protest with a miles long march to City Hall, blocking sidewalks and streets to make their voices or concerns heard. This could easily be accomplished by holding these “events” at a large City Park or one of the many event halls in the City. Media could be invited and interview groups or persons of their concerns instead of being a hinderance to vehicles, pedestrians, businesses and citizens in the area of these marches. These marches, especially on short notice, create a great hardship and expense on our police department and other City services, that could be better allocated elsewhere.
June 25th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Why not charge the march organizers for city services?