Dearborn Mayor Urges Residents to Ignore Jones
Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. is urging everyone who cares about Dearborn to ignore the words of people who plan to target this weekend’s Arab International Festival to misrepresent who we are in this city to serve their personal agenda.
Mayor O’Reilly’s open letter to our community begins below:
Dear residents and friends of Dearborn,
Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr.
This weekend we will again be visited by persons who want to use our community for their own ends. This time their target will be the Arab International Festival which has been part of our community for almost two decades. These visitors are not interested in the Festival or learning about and celebrating Arab culture. They are coming here to promote the concept that Islam is a false faith and that Muslims by teaching and nature are violent.
We know that there is no substance to their message – their goal is to promote fear and hatred in others. More than a month ago in Dearborn, faith leaders of all religions from all over Metropolitan Detroit rejected their message by standing together arm in arm and proclaiming that Islam is a legitimate faith and Muslims are an important part of our greater faith community.
Nowhere was the dishonesty of those using Dearborn to attack Islam more clear than when Terry Jones stood on the steps of our City Hall and recited the Pledge of Allegiance over as if we in Dearborn had never heard it. In his ignorance he failed to recognize that we recite the Pledge of Allegiance at events all over our City no matter who is the sponsor because we always stand together as Americans.
I sincerely ask everyone that cares about our City to wish these people peace and God’s forgiveness and then ignore them and their empty words. Their goal is to bait and anger us so that they can then misrepresent who we are in order to serve their personal agenda. Debating them and confronting them at this event or in our City can produce no positive result for us. We know we are people of peace but we are also people. All humans take exception to those who wrongly accuse us or suggest that our deepest beliefs are false and evil. It is human to become angry but it is divine to forgive. As all of our religions teach us we must rise above our human instincts and follow God’s instructions to be agents of peace and forgiveness. We must also encourage others to do the same.
We must be true to our collective goals of promoting a safe and positive environment for all of our residents and guests to be successful and enjoy their lives. We are a positive example of the ideals and goals of America to be a place of opportunity for everyone and a nation that respects everyone’s rights to their own beliefs. If we will stand for peace and tolerance, we will stand for America and Freedom.
June 16th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Cliff notes version.. ” I really screwed things up for us last time… dont make it worse.”
June 16th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Philup u r so rite, even though the big fella tries to tell us how to act, who does he think he is. We aren’t ignorant people, we r educated people by and large, and don’tneed to be told how to act in public. He forgets in his hippie days, he had to be told how to act, however, we don’t. Let us enjoy ourselves, and talk that way to your flunkies.
June 16th, 2011 at 5:49 pm
Why does he have to bring this up again – somehow the city will end up getting sued again. Is the mayor looking for publicity once again?
June 16th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
The current pleas to “not touch the hot stove” will be about as effective in keeping our friends, neighbors and train wreck gawkers away as saying “Free stuff at Michigan and Schaefer tomorrow!”
June 17th, 2011 at 2:23 am
O’Reilly is really giving these people more credit than they deserve. The purpose for these people coming to Dearborn is not religious. It is simply a desire for attention and an attempt to file a lawsuit. The mayor should simply use his own advice and ignore them. This is not a Dearborn problem this is an Arab Festival problem. Let the Arab Festival deal with their problem, and let Terry Jones deal with his problem, an angry mob. Ten to one, without police protection this guy does not have the faith to walk in the valley of Warren Ave. Furthermore don’t reduce our services because this fool’s rights were violated.
June 17th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
We all need to stay away from this insanity and go to the festival for a weekend of fun.
This man should not get any protection at all. Others who demonstrate causes on the steps of City Hall do it by themselves without police presence.
He wants protection? He is as stupid as someone who wants to jump into a lion cage with raw meat and then expects the zoo keeper to protect him.
Let him say what he wants. Ignore him and don’t protect him at tax-payers expense.
If we didn’t protect him, I wonder if he would have the guts to act the fool that he is.
June 17th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Word has it that the Mayor has even skipped town so that he can avoid all the commotion. Isn’t that special? If he really cared as much as he claims, he would be here as a true leader would. When does this crap ever end? He and his legal department have cost this City so much money that we might as well write a check to Bozo Pastor Terry, as well.
June 17th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
When things get hot, leave town Big Boy. Thats so typical of u.
June 18th, 2011 at 2:22 am
The Mayor needs to write a letter to himself. The gist of the letter would be to remember that Dearborn is an American city, and that American civil rights should be respected here. The Mayor led an attack on American civil rights at the last two Arab Festivals, and has only recently been told by the US Appeals Court that they won’t let him get away with it. Muslims have been shaping his actions…if you re-read the interviews with the Muslim spokeswoman from 2009 you will see that she states the banning of Christians from the festival was because ‘Muslims didn’t want them talking to their kids.’ Well, Mayor, and spokeswoman, this is America, and on a public street others have rights, too. THAT HISTORY of using the Dearborn police force to trample on the rights of Christians, at the behest of Muslims, is why Terry Jones is here to speak against sharia law. Terry Jones is easy to dislike. His basic message this week, that ‘sharia law’ is creeping up on us, is still accurate.
June 18th, 2011 at 2:26 am
I was 100% correct. Terry Jones never made it to Warren Ave. Guess his faith was not as strong as the angry mob. Terry Jones should embarrassed, if he truly believed in his cause he would have had the courage to at least make it to Hemlock.
June 18th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
To Dearborn Citizen,
You are 100% right. Very well written. Have you thought about running for office in Dearborn?
June 18th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Heard the mayors speech on memorial day where he mentions outsides coming to to dearborn and up setting our way of life and our democracythat all those have paid an ultimate price for. Hey Mayor United States is not a democracy if it was then that mob would have taken care of Terry Jones on Friday we are a nation of Laws called a republic, being a lawyer I though you knew that. in the pledge it states “and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands,” we need to loose this democracy idea, all that is is mob rule and throughout history it has never worked.
June 19th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Yes we are a REPUBLIC!
June 20th, 2011 at 3:46 am
First Dearborn has completely gone off the rails. First O’Reilly was going to close all the libraries, pools, the DISC, and Dearborn Hills, then the DISC was off the table and only closing one library and two pools. Now we have lawsuits from these pathetic reactionary Christians, and possibly Terry Jones, but certainly one from our district court judge. Dearborn is the laughing stock of America and every city festival and cultural event we will be overrun by Marxists protesting the fascists. Next year we will have to rehash the whole pool ordeal again, and the debt will get even bigger. I understand the entire “who is going to replace O’Reilly argument”. However it is clear that he is unable to manage this city. Sometimes a boss has to fire an employee before a replacement is lined up. That is exactly where are we now. If you thought Arab Festival was bad with the mob just wait till Homecoming and there is three times as many people and half of them our drunk. This mayor proves he is simply not up to the task. What more do we as citizens need to see to prove our mayor is bush league.
June 20th, 2011 at 3:46 am
First Dearborn has completely gone off the rails. First O’Reilly was going to close all the libraries, pools, the DISC, and Dearborn Hills, then the DISC was off the table and only closing one library and two pools. Now we have lawsuits from these pathetic reactionary Christians, and possibly Terry Jones, but certainly one from our district court judge. Dearborn is the laughing stock of America and every city festival and cultural event we will be overrun by Marxists protesting the fascists. Next year we will have to rehash the whole pool ordeal again, and the debt will get even bigger. I understand the entire “who is going to replace O’Reilly argument”. However it is clear that he is unable to manage this city. Sometimes a boss has to fire an employee before a replacement is lined up. That is exactly where are we now. If you thought Arab Festival was bad with the mob just wait till Homecoming and there is three times as many people and half of them our drunk. This mayor proves he is simply not up to the task. What more do we as citizens need to see to prove our mayor is bush league.
June 20th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
It would e nice if the mayor would just be quiet–no talking–no writing.
June 20th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Here is a question that I have not heard yet. After all these years of existence for the Arab Festival, and other large events in this City, we have had our own Dearborn Police taking care of security by having a police presence. How did it come about that Wayne County Sheriff provided security for the Arab Festival this year? I know that the City has stated that the Arab Chamber of Commerce needed to come up with the $60,000 for security this year, since the City budget no longer provide the police expense in providing security for this “non-City sponsored” event. Why did Wayne County Sheriff provide this “security service?” They can afford to pay their officers for working this event? Is there a political motive by removing Deaborn PD from the Arab Festival other than the expense? Maybe the knowledge that the Cristian group from previous years would again be present, and that Reverend Jones would try to make an appearance? Is this a way of avoiding contact between these individuals and Dearborn Police to avoid further lawsuits? In all my years living in Dearborn, I have never seen another police agency providing a police presence at an event other than Presidential visits that used Secret Service, MSP, Wayne County Sheriff (motorcycles) and Dearborn Police for the President of The United States. The only other situations are emergencies where Mutual Aid from other cities may have been used. Again, why were Wayne County Sheriff’s used for this event?
June 24th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Homegrown, the Dearborn Police used to provide security at Camp Dearborn. In the ’90’s, the Oakland County Sheriff Dept took that over. In this present situation, it would seem that the County must have charged less for their officers…but I am not going to discount your suggestion that it might just be so Dearborn Police can avoid bad PR and avoid any possibility of another lawsuit. Did anyone else notice that no arrests of the BAMN people took place when they were harassing Terry Jones and his group? The police took Jones and at least one other away in their cars to protect them from the crowd – who were refusing to let Jones walk down the sidewalk – but arrested none of those troublemakers.
June 26th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Correction to my input above. According to the Dearborn Press&Guide, several of the BAMN people were arrested when scuffling with Terry Jones’ people. As it should be.