Written by Don Byrd
A yearly street festival in Dearborn, Michigan has celebrated Arab-American business and culture for the last 15 years. Recently, though it has been known for something else – clashes between Muslim attendees and Christian protestors. The disputes have led to arrests, a lawsuit, and widely circulated videos of backlash against the provocations of the protestors. Indeed, provoking an angry response would seem to be the only explanation for some of the anti-Muslim sentiment launched at the festival attendees.
The tensions escalated last year after a group called the Bible Believers brought a pig’s head mounted on a pole along with signs that denigrated Islam and its prophet, Mohammed, in explicit terms. Observant Muslims consider pigs to be dirty.
In response, some children got upset and a few hurled objects, including water bottles, at them.
[Dearborn Mayor Jack] O’Reilly said free speech must be respected, but he’s concerned that some groups were trying to provoke young children at the festival with outrageous words and signs.
“We’re not going to tolerate people insulting children, making gross statements … antagonizing children,” he said. “We’re going to make sure kids behave. But we’re also going to make sure that adults behave. Everybody’s got to behave.”
For this year, the June festival is moving to a public park, instead of a readily accessible public street. Organizers say they may even charge an entry fee to discourage trouble-makers. Here’s hoping it works. Unfortunately the vocal antipathy toward the Muslim community seems to be growing following the Boston Marathon bombings. I believe this is an important moment for religious liberty advocates to hold fast to our principles, which may be even more fragile than they were following September 11, 2001 – though that’s a post for another day.
