CAIRO – American Muslims have urged public to ignore an inciting rally planned today at Dearborn City Hall by controversial Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones who revealed new plans to rally for constitutional rights and against Islamic law.

“The best response is no response,” Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told The Detroit Free Press on Friday, April 29.

“He wants to incite hostility and is looking for someone to respond to him.”

Arriving at Dearborn on Thursday, controversial anti-Quran pastor Terry Jones said he was planning to rally about guarding the first amendment against Islamic shari`ah.

Last week, Jones as well as his associate, Wayne Sapp, were sent to jail for harming peace after refusing to post a $1 peace bond before his rally in front of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, which was scheduled for last Friday.

Recalling inciting events last month, the ruling judge also ordered both Jones and Sapp to stay away from the mosque and adjacent property for three years.

Jones, a 58-year-old pastor and the head of a small fringe church in Gainesville, Florida, burnt the Qur’an last month in front of a crowd of about 50 people on March 20 in what he called “International Judge the Qur’an Day”.

Video posted on the website of his church showed a kerosene-soaked book going up in bright flames, sending thousands of angry Afghans into the streets in deadly protests that left scores of people dead.  

The rally would be held at Dearborn City Hall instead.

Despite court ruling that foiled his planned demonstration outside the Islamic Center of America, Jones said he will return to protest one day in front of the mosque.

“Sooner or later, we will come back to protest in front of the mosque,” said Jones. “Our First Amendment rights were violated,” Jones said as he arrived Thursday as Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“We were jailed without cause.”

Meanwhile, Jones said he also is planning to criticize President Barack Obama at his demonstration.

“Our nation can’t endure another four years of this administration,” he said.

Disagreement

Though disagreeing with Jones’ controversial message, the Islamic Center of America and Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan released a joint statement Thursday supporting Jones’ right to speak.

“Peaceful demonstration and freedom of speech are cornerstones of freedoms we enjoy … even in those times when it may be uncomfortable to do so,” the statement read.

As the Islamic center was known for decades as a moderate center whose leader has consistently criticized extremist groups, Dearborn Mayor confirmed that the whole community disagrees with Jones’ message.

Yet, he said that they cannot deny him the right of free speech.

“The best thing is let him come and go,” Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly, told The Detroit News on Friday.

“We want him not to be harmed or anyone else, and then we’ll go on with our lives.”

Osama Siblani with the Congress of Arab-American Organizations agrees.

“All our community disagree with his message, but he has a right to deliver it,” Siblani said.

“So, let him deliver it. Let him deliver it and then go home.”

But, such approach was criticized by some groups who said that Dearborn city should not ignore the hate message Jones intends to spread.

Among these groups came By Any Means Necessary which declared its plan to protest.

“You just embolden racists like Jones by allowing them to spread their racist message with no opposition,” said Donna Stern, national coordinator for BAMN.

Since 9/11, US Muslims, estimated between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was stigmatizing their faith.

There have been 800 incidents of violence, threats and vandalism against Muslims since 2001. Estimates show that 14 percent of religious discrimination is reported against Muslims.

Texas evangelical Bob Roberts, Jr., believes Christians should distance themselves from anti-Sharia legislation because such bills send the message that evangelicals are scared and would rather drive Muslims into isolation than trust God to protect them.

Roberts urges Christians supporting anti-Sharia laws to put their faith in God rather than in legislation. Fear, he said, is the driving force behind state Sharia (Islamic law) bans.

“When we fear to that degree, then we start pushing laws because somebody else’s beliefs make us nervous,” said the Texas pastor.

Several states, including those in the “Bible Belt,” are considering Sharia bans. Lawmakers in South Carolina, Wyoming, Texas and Georgia have introduced anti-Sharia bills in their state legislatures.

In Tennessee, House lawmakers gave their preliminary approval to a Sharia ban during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.

Called the Material Support Act, the proposed bill gives the state’s governor the power to label certain groups as a “domestic terrorist entity.”

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It also stipulates that Sharia – “the Path” in Arabic – law be recognized as “a political doctrine” that “support[s] the replacement of America’s constitutional republic … with a political system based upon Sharia.”

Anyone knowingly adhering to Sharia is then “in support of the overthrow of the United States government and the government of this state,” the bill states.

State Rep. Rick Womick (R-Rockvale), a supporter of the Tennessee legislation, testified that the bill was not about religion, but warned of the ominous impact the Islamic code could have on basic American freedoms.

“With Islam,” he stated, “there is no freedom of religion allowed within or outside of Islam. There is no freedom of speech or thought, no freedom of artistic expression, no freedom of the press, no equality of peoples, because non-Muslims are never equal to Muslims.”

Roberts rebuffed rationales for anti-Sharia laws, asserting that America’s existing laws and Constitution already provides enough regulation on how American Muslims practice Sharia.

However, the bill’s sponsor, Tennessee House Speaker Pro Tempore Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the bill is vital “to protect Tennesseans, to empower local law enforcement, to preempt terrorist attacks so we don’t have to pick up body parts after an event.”

While Roberts also expressed concern about honor killings, mutilation and other abuses imposed in some Middle Eastern countries to enforce strict adherence to Sharia, he asserted that these behaviors are already illegal under U.S. law.

“We’re just banning what’s illegal,” he said.

State lawmakers passed the bill by a 12-8 vote after references to Sharia and Muslims were removed.

Dr. Bill Wagner, author of How Islam Plans to Change the World, told CP last year that he believes that Sharia bans like the one passed in Oklahoma last year are premature. However, he warned that the Islamic code viewed by Muslims as the key to a utopian life will become a problem as the American Muslim population continues to grow.

“I feel that once the Muslims get a majority in some areas it will become a major issue,” said Wagner. When that occurs, Christians must be prepared to take a stand.

Roberts, a traveled church planter, has a different view. He believes that Christians must trust God’s ability to change things and convict minds through His spirit. Roberts also encourages Christians to follow Jesus’ Great Commission to go into all the world and to all peoples.

As pastor of NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas, Roberts said he has invited Muslims to his church to witness how they fellowship. He also has held question and answer sessions with Muslims who are curious about Christianity.

Some Muslims change their minds about Christianity and some don’t, he noted. Roberts said he extended these invitations not to convert Muslims, but to create relationships. These relationships are vital, he stressed, to spreading the Gospel near and far.

“With what’s going on in the Middle East [and] realizing there’s 1.3 billion Muslims in the world, this is the time that we need to engage them because they’re not going away and we aren’t either,” he said.

By Bernie Woodall

DEARBORN, Michigan |
Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:25pm EDT

DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) – A controversial Florida pastor banned last week from protesting at a Detroit-area mosque on Friday cut short a demonstration at a city hall largely drowned out by counter-protesters.

Terry Jones, 59, had vowed to return this week, saying that his ban on demonstrating in front of the landmark Islamic Center of America in heavily muslim Dearborn had violated free speech protections of the Constitution.

“We are here today to speak out on issues that pertain to all American citizens,” Jones said, using a wireless microphone at a podium set up at the top of the city hall steps.

Separate barricaded zones were created for Jones’ protest on the steps of city hall and for counter-protesters across Michigan Avenue, a busy four-lane street. Jones’ 75 supporters were outnumbered by about five-to-one.

Police were a visible presence on both sides of the street and on two rooftops across the street from city hall.

About an hour into his protest, Jones walked down the steps of city hall and approached Michigan Avenue, raising his arms as he continued his speech. About 150 people broke past a barrier and approached Jones and his group.

Some 30 police wearing helmets and protective gear stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the street in front of city hall and the event ended about 15 minutes later.

Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly Jr. told reporters afterward that the event was stopped for security reasons.

“They asked him not to step toward the barricade and he did,” O’Reilly said. “Our job is to serve and protect our community and that’s what we did.”

Three people were taken into custody and are expected to face misdemeanor charges, a Dearborn Police sergeant said.

Jones had scheduled three hours for the demonstration, but it ended after about 75 minutes and he was escorted by police to a waiting car. Dearborn Police had also picked Jones up at Detroit Metro Airport on Thursday.

Jones told reporters as he left he would return to Dearborn. He also said he had wanted the counter-protesters to join him in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Counter-demonstrators chanted “Terry Jones go home” and as Jones began speaking the driver of a large truck stopped in traffic on Michigan Avenue sounded its foghorn, setting off a cacophony of car horns that drowned out Jones’ speech.

A largely unknown pastor until he courted publicity last year with threats to burn the Koran at his tiny fundamentalist church in Gainesville, Florida, Jones had said his planned protest last week was aimed at “radical Islam.”

In March, Jones and Wayne Sapp, 42, staged and videotaped a mock “trial” for the Koran and burned a copy of the holy book, a gesture that prompted riots in Afghanistan and widespread condemnation in the U.S. and around the world.

On April 22, Jones and Sapp were jailed briefly after they refused to pay a $1 bond as ordered by District Court Judge Mark Somers. Somers also barred them from the vicinity of the Islamic Center mosque for three years.

Police in Dearborn denied Jones a permit to protest in front of the Islamic Center. He was tried under an obscure Michigan law dating to 1846 requiring people judged to present a risk to public order to post a “peace bond.”

Dearborn’s city hall was one of a handful of “free speech zones” where city officials indicated they would allow Jones to hold events. It is more than four miles from the Islamic Center, the largest mosque in the United States.

He has appealed the court’s ruling and is represented in litigation by attorneys from the Thomas More Law Center, which is “dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life,” according to its web site.

The conservative law center has also represented Christian missionaries who were arrested in Dearborn last year.

(Additional reporting by Teri Murphy; Writing by David Bailey. Editing by Peter Bohan)

March 18, 2011 – Comments by Graham in an article by Newsmax.com

“The Muslim Brotherhood is very strong and active here in our country,” Graham told Newsmax. “We have these people advising our military and State Department. We’ve brought in Muslims to tell us how to make policy toward Muslim countries.”

“It’s like a farmer asking a fox, ‘How do I protect my hen house?’”

The group is fomenting much of the rebellion and the deteriorating social order roiling in the Middle East, forcing millions of Christians to flee for their lives, Graham said, according to the report.

“Under [Egypt's Hosni] Mubarek and [Jordan's] King Hussein and other moderate leaders, Christians had been protected,” Graham said. Eleven million Christians live in Egypt and I fear for them, because if the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, you’re going to see a great exodus of Christians. Same thing in Tunisia and Lebanon. I fear for the church because the Muslim Brotherhood is going to be a very terrible thing.”

April 24, 2011 -Excerpts of Franklin Graham on ABC’s This Week with Christianne Amanpour

AMANPOUR: You have traveled to Haiti with Sarah Palin.

GRAHAM: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Is she the kind of candidate you would like to see run for election? Would she be your candidate of choice?

GRAHAM: I don’t think Sarah’s going to — I don’t think she likes politics. I think she likes speaking on the issues, and I agree with many of the issues that she brings up, but I believe — I don’t see her as running for president.

AMANPOUR: If she did, would you support her? Would she be your candidate?

GRAHAM: It depends on who the other candidates are.

AMANPOUR: So, that’s not a yes.

GRAHAM: No. I mean, we’re so early. But I do like Sarah.

AMANPOUR: Well, there are people in right now. Would you support Mitt Romney, would you support –

GRAHAM: I’ve met –

AMANPOUR: — Donald Trump?

GRAHAM: I’ve met Mitt Romney. No question he is a — he’s a very capable person, he’s proven himself. Donald Trump, when I first saw that he was getting in, I thought, well, this has got to be a joke. But the more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, you know? Maybe the guy’s right. So, there’s a –

AMANPOUR: So, he might be your candidate of choice?

GRAHAM: Sure, yes, sure.

——-

AMANPOUR: Does it bother you that people like Donald Trump for instance right now, are making another huge big deal about birth certificates and whether he’s a Muslim or a Christian and where he was born?

GRAHAM: Well, the president, I know, has some issues to deal with here. He can solve this whole birth certificate issue pretty quickly. I don’t — I was born in a hospital in Ashville, North Carolina, and I know that my records are there. You can probably even go and find out what room my mother was in when I was born.

I don’t know why he can’t produce that. So, I’m not — I don’t know, but it’s an issue that looks like he could answer pretty quickly.

As it relates to Muslim, there are many people that do wonder where he really stands on that. Now, he has told me that he is a Christian. But the debate comes, what is a Christian?

For him, going to church means he’s a Christian. For me, the definition of a Christian is whether we have given our life to Christ and are following him in faith, and we have trusted him as our Lord and Savior.

That’s the definition of a Christian, it’s not as to what church you’re a member of. A membership doesn’t make you a Christian.

AMANPOUR: Do you believe him when he tells you he’s a Christian?

GRAHAM: Well, when he says that, of course. I can’t — I’m not going to say, “Well, no, you’re not.” God is the only one who knows his heart.

April 25, 2011 – White House Transcript of Spokesman Jay Carney’s Response to Reporter’s Question on Graham

Q Thanks, Jay. Another religious question. Yesterday, Franklin Graham said that the President has some issues to deal with when it comes to proving he was born in the United States. And last month the Reverend Graham said also, “The Muslim Brotherhood is very strong and active in our country. It’s infiltrated every level of our government,” meaning your administration. So I want to know if the White House is concerned that a top religious figure is making charges of this nature about the President and his administration.

MR. CARNEY: David, I would just say I think it’s unfortunate that a religious leader would choose Easter Sunday to make preposterous charges. And I’ll leave it at that.

April 26, 2011 – Excerpts of Franklin Graham Interview With Christianity Today

Q: How would you respond to the White House spokesperson who said, “I would just say I think it’s unfortunate that a religious leader would choose Easter Sunday to make preposterous charges”?

A: First of all, they made a point that I would choose Easter to make these statements. I didn’t make these statements on Easter. I taped that a week prior, on Monday that week. It was ABC that [broadcast] this on Easter. I responded to a question. I’m not going out making speeches about where the President was born. I could care less. But when asked, I told Christiane Amanpour that the President has a problem that he could probably address by answering that. How come he doesn’t come out at a news conference and hold up his birth certificate? I don’t know. I’m only responding to what she asked me. She asked me about Donald Trump. When I first heard about him entering, I thought it was a joke. The more I listen to him, the more I say, “Maybe he’s right.” She asked, “Could you vote for him?” Vote for him as compared to what? Depends on who else is running. Certainly, America needs somebody like a Donald Trump who’s got business experience to get us out of the mess that Republicans and Democrats alike have gotten us into.

Q: Richard Land says that the idea that Obama is a Muslim or is not born in the U.S. is “flat nuts”? How would you respond to his comments?

A: There are two issues. I do not believe for an instant that Obama is a Muslim. He has said he’s not a Muslim. I take him at his word. People say he’s not born in the United States. I take it on the word that they properly vetted him before they swore him into office. I’m sure somebody had to look at his credentials. I’m not saying the President is a Muslim, never said he’s a Muslim. He says he’s a Christian.

There is the issue of his birth. Under Shari’ah law, Islamic law, which is not legal in the United States, he was born a Muslim because his father is a Muslim. That’s why [Muammar al-Gaddafi] calls him “my son.” The President has renounced Islam. He says he believes in Jesus Christ. To the Muslim world that’s under Shari’ah law, which we’re not, they see him as a lost son. They see him as a wayward child. Shari’ah law is not legal in the United States. You cannot beat your wife. If you think your daughter has been immoral, you cannot kill her. Shari’ah law is the law of Islam and it is not recognized in this country.

Q: You’re saying he was born a Muslim because his father is a Muslim?

A: All throughout the Muslim world, every person whose father is a Muslim is recognized under Islamic law as a Muslim.

Q: Obama said his father was a confirmed atheist by the time he was born.

A: That has nothing to do with it. I’m just saying how the Islamic world sees it. I’m not talking about facts. That’s how they interpret it. It’s not how I interpret it. It goes by birth in the Islamic world. You’re considered a Muslim if your father is a Muslim. If your father was a Christian and your mother was an Arab who was born a Muslim, her children would not be considered Islamic because the father was a Christian.

Q: President Obama talks about his faith often. It sounds like you believe he’s Christian.

A: I was with President Obama when he was Senator Obama. I asked him, “How did you come to faith in Christ? What is your testimony?” He said, “I was organizing a community in the South Side of Chicago. The community said, ‘What church do you go to?’ I told them I didn’t go to church. If you’re going to organize a community, you’re going to have to join a church.” So he joined Jeremiah Wright’s church. That’s the testimony he told me, word for word.

The point is, nobody knows. I don’t know if you’re a Christian. God knows your heart. I’m not your judge. I’m not President Obama’s judge. He has to stand before God one day. I’m going to have to stand before God. Only God knows a person’s heart. For millions of Americans, being a Christian is being a member of a church. When I read the Bible, Jesus says, “There will be many in the last day who say ‘Lord, Lord,’ but I will say, ‘Away from me, I knew you not.’” A Christian is a person who identifies himself with Christ, has confessed sin and received Christ into his heart and is following him in obedience. Church membership cannot save you.

Q: On the question of his birthplace, it sounds like you’re interested in the President’s strategy for dispelling rumors.

A: I don’t know. I’ve never brought that up. It was Christiane Amanpour who brought it up. It was Donald Trump who’s bringing it up. I have never brought up his birth certificate as an issue. Like you asking me a question, I will give you a comment. The President could do himself a favor and put it to bed. I don’t care. I don’t care if he was born in Kansas, if he was born in Hawaii.

Q: Before you go, I wanted to ask you about your comments about Donald Trump. You said, “The more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, ‘You know? Maybe the guy’s right.’”

 

A: Not on the birth issue. I’m talking about the economic issues, how to get our country out of the economic mess we’re in.

Q: In terms of the interview we’ve been talking about, is there anything in the interview that you wish you hadn’t said?

A: No. I’m going to try as best as I can to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with all audiences. Christiane Amanpour said she wanted to talk about Easter. I think she asked me one question about Easter. The rest of it was about other things. I want to make every effort I can to reach out to the world and let the world know about a God that loves them, who sent his son Jesus Christ. There is no other way to God. I’m going on Hannity tonight, and I’ll be with Greta next week [on Fox News]. I’ll continue to answer reporters’ questions.

April 27, 2011 – Franklin Graham on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel Program

Q: Let me ask you, you said that Obama — we’ve been talking a lot about this church that he went to on Easter. The comments of the pastor that we played, do they bother you?

A: Well, does it bother me? No, it doesn’t bother me. I regret that my comments had been misunderstood by the White House. Sean, when I talked about Donald Trump, when Christiane Amanpour asked me about Donald Trump, you know, I find the man a very interesting man and he’s got a lot of good ideas and I think he may be right.

Not right about the birth certificate. I wasn’t referring to that. I think that’s what the White House interpreted. What I was talking about is his ideas about what it is going to take to get the economy of this nation back on track. I believe he does have some good ideas.

I think we ought to listen to some of these ideas. I think the White House would do itself a great favor by asking Donald Trump to come and give them some advice. We are in trouble as a nation. And I just grieve for where the direction we are going.

We’ve turned our back on God and our government, in our schools and our nation is suffering for it. I think our nation needs to turn back to God. We need to repent as a nation and turn again to the God of our fathers and put our faith and trust in him.

Q: Reverend, you said on the issue, you met with and you prayed with President Obama. And you said for him, going to church means he’s a Christian. You have a very different view. Some have interpreted that, that you were questioning his Christian faith. Your reaction?

A: Well, first of all, Sean, for millions of Americans, they may not go to church. They may not have any faith, but because their mother was a Christian or their father was a Christian, they would say, well, I’m a Christian.

So I think for millions of Americans, what church they belong to, for them the definition, well that makes me a Christian. But the Bible has a very clear definition as to a follower of Christ. For me as a minister, I want to — I’m an evangelist. I want to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believe in him shouldn’t perish, but have everlasting life.

I want people to know how they can have eternal life and that’s through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have that assurance at heaven. We can be sure that our sins are forgiven.

I’ll go out on a limb and say liberal academia will whitewash the true nature of Sharia law.

MONTANA — Earlier this semester, Jeff Renz, a law professor at The University of Montana, appeared on a conservative radio show to discuss the myths and realities of Islamic law. Accompanying him to Missoula’s KVGO studio were UM professor Mehrdad Kia and Robert Seidenschwarz, president of the World Affairs Council of Montana.

According to Renz, the talk stirred up a fair amount of debate.

“It was an interesting conversation,” he said. “A lot of the myths were repeated and we talked about those as well as a lot of the accuracies that are negative.”

The appearance was a launching pad for Renz, who plans to expand the conversation this fall semester by teaching an Islamic law class at UM.

This development adds UM to the growing number of American universities offering classes on Islamic law, ranging from the University of Minnesota to Yale. Islamic law, also known as Shariah law, guides the daily behavior and actions of Muslims while influencing the legal code of Islamic countries.

The three-credit class, ANTY 491, will meet three times a week and is open to UM undergraduate, graduate and law students. Renz said the course will examine the development of Islam along with the four principles of Islamic jurisprudence and will address the challenges of applying Sharia law in the 21st century.

Renz said Shariah law is not monolithic and that legal codes vary from one Muslim country to another and are often intertwined with tribal law.

“The most important thing they’ll learn is that what people perceive to be Islamic law is really local and national law rationalized, and falsely rationalized, by reference to the Quran,” he said.

HT: Daniel D.

Posted by ZIP on Thursday, April 28, 2011, at 8:37 pm |