Jones’ Jesus stunt and his inadvertent supporters

DawudWalid 2 Comments

From yesterday’s shenanigans in which Terry Jones was detained for a few hours after refusing to pay a $1 peace bond given after a trial by a jury of his peers, Jones is now stating that the verdict against him is proof that shari’ah is in Dearborn.

Wait one minute!  Terry Jones stood trial in a court in Wayne County being judged by an ordinance within the state of Michigan by a Christian judge and by a jury which consisted of no Muslims, yet he’s crying that  the verdict against him is due to shari’ah in Dearborn?!

As I stated on “Let It Rip” on FOX 2 last night (see the 1st video of the 3 segments), Jones wanted to get arrested.  I forecasted weeks ago that his coming on “Good Friday” was a ploy to paint himself as being oppressed by the so-called “pro-shari’ah” Dearborn government as Jesus Christ was oppressed by the Roman occupational government in Palestine.  It would have been better for his fundraising if he would have stay until Sunday in police custody then arose from jail as Christianity teaches Christ was resurrected.

As Jones is an ignoramus and a charlatan of a pastor, I still affirm that much of the hoopla could have been averted if Jones would have been allowed to protest in front of the Islamic Center of America.  Having been defended via an ACLU brief, he’s now fashioned himself as a 1st Amendment martyr.  Jones’ plan to come back to Dearborn to protest in front of the Islamic Center of America next week could have been averted.

I continue to say that Wayne County Prosecutor’s office raised Jones’ profile with the legal injunction against him.  Furthermore, the Prosecutor’s argument that a riot would have broken out in Dearborn ala the Afghanistan United Nation office tragedy was a diss to Metro Detroit Muslims.  The ACTS 17 group came to Dearborn without being harmed and the radical Westboro Baptist Church protested recently in front of the same mosque without incident.  The Imams Council of this area, which I am a part of, intentionally coordinated interfaith activities with Christians to divert the chance of confrontation.  The only persons who were extremely rowdy yet non-violent relating to Jones being in Dearborn were from BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), and they are not Muslims!

Also the argument that there could have been a dangerous situation and that he shouldn’t speak in front of the mosque because of a potential riot is bogus from another perspective.  If anyone speaks and is not planning violence against persons or structures, he/she should not be blocked simply because of the potential that someone may harm them.  His carrying a gun is a non-issue though the klutz  discharged his firearm Thursday night at the FOX 2 parking lot in a car.  The liability of potential violence is not upon the speaker if he is not telling people to be violent.  Any violent acts would be the criminality of the perpetrators of violence.  Most public figures, who take controversial stances including myself, have received death threats.   Should other speakers be barred because they may say something politically incorrect in front of particular locations to reinforce their points?  I don’t think so.

So though I despise the burning of the Torah, Psalms, Gospel and Qur’an and I believe that it is wrong to protest in front of houses of worship from a spiritual perspective, I also think that we can go down a dangerous path when we begin blocking persons from speaking on public property at any location.  It’s Jones today, and it could be you and me tomorrow.

So now Jones will come back to Dearborn, he will probably take some sort of legal action against Wayne County and Dearborn.  Instead of this mess going away, it’s going to continue to put him in the news, which is what he wants.  Perhaps this all could have been behind us in Michigan regarding Jones, but this seems like it was only round 1.

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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