Judge clears way for Jones protest outside Dearborn mosque

April 5, 2012 at 4:37 pm

Judge clears way for Jones protest outside Dearborn mosque

  • By Oralandar Brand-Williams
  • The Detroit News

Detroit — Controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones has been given the final green light to go ahead with a protest Saturday outside a Dearborn mosque.

U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood granted a motion for an emergency temporary restraining order against Dearborn, barring the city from requiring that Jones signs a “hold harmless” agreement before approving his permit to protest in front of the Islamic Center of America.

“This is clearly an unconstitutional clause which impedes plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to free speech and assembly,” said Hood in the order. “The ordinance requiring the indemnity agreement and the “Hold Harmless” presented to Plaintiffs are unconditional and violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as to Plaintiff and others who wish to exercise their rights to speak and assemble in the public fora.”

On Monday, Jones and his associate, Wayne Sapp, both founders of the Stand Up America organization, filed a two-count complaint against Dearborn and Police Chief Ronald Haddad in connection with the request for the permit.

Jones and Sapp filed a required special events application and request form with the city. Jones and Sapp are expecting 20-25 supporters to attend the event. They said they have not requested any services from the city in connection with their permit request.

As late as last week, the city was requiring the “hold harmless” provision, said Jones’ attorneys.

Last year, Jones and Sapp cited their free speech rights when they were denied a permit to protest outside the same mosque on Good Friday.

City officials said the two men would have to take out a “peace bond” if they wanted to protest outside the Islamic center. The pair refused and a two-day hearing was held and Jones and Sapp were jailed briefly for refusing to take out a peace bond.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which sought the restraining order on Jones’ behalf, said that minutes before Hood’s order was received, the city approved the application without the hold harmless agreement.

“Dearborn has a history of discriminating against Christians who want to speak out against the internal threat of Sharia law and Islam,” Thompson said.

“Every time the City attempts to curtail the Constitutional rights of Christians, we will confront them in a court of law,” he said in a news release Thursday. “There is no doubt in my mind that the City knew the Hold Harmless agreement they were trying to get Jones’s organization to sign was unconstitutional.”

Dearborn spokeswoman Mary Laundroche said city officials “thought the order was completely unnecessary because we had already agreed to accommodate Stand Up America Now without the requirement for the group to sign a hold harmless agreement.”

Local Muslim leaders say they will ignore Jones’ protest outside the mosque and encourage others to do the same. They say his visit is part of a continuing national trend of “Islamophobic” rhetoric.

“We respect the First Amendment right of freedom of speech and we also encourage community members not to meet his hateful speech with like speech,” said Dawud Walid, the executive director of CAIR-Michigan. “People in the community should simply ignore and allow him to say whatever he has to say all by his lonesome.”

bwilliams@detnews.com

 

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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