February 5, 2012

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Dearborn Must Pay $103,401 Legal Fees in Free Speech Case

January 30, 2012 By 1 Comment
Robert Muise - Attorney

DETROIT, Michigan - On Friday, January 27th,  U.S. Magistrate Judge  R. Steven Whalen recommended that Robert J. Muise, the attorney for Christian Pastor George Saieg, be awarded $103,401 in fees and costs for successfully challenging the City of Dearborn’s restriction on the Christian’s right to freedom of speech at the 2009 Arab Festival held in the City. A blog post by the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) said:  "The City, not wanting to offend its large Muslim population, would not allow the Christian to hand out religious literature at the Festival." In the order, the … [Read more...]

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Salvation Army Launches $8.2 Million Red Kettle Campaign

November 9, 2011 By 3 Comments
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DETROIT, Michigan — The Salvation Army of Metro Detroit will launch its annual Red Kettle Campaign throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties on Friday, Nov. 11. This year’s goal is $8.2 million, a figure needed to ensure the organization can continue providing more than 3 million meals and nearly 700,000 nights of shelter each year to the less fortunate. The annual Red Kettle Campaign is launching on the heels of statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September, indicating Michigan’s poverty rate is 16.8 percent, the highest it has been in four decades, with median … [Read more...]

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Dearborn Officials Face Federal Court Lawsuit

February 25, 2011 By 5 Comments
Mural inside 19th District Court, Dearborn, Michigan

DEARBORN, Michigan – The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced  that the City of Dearborn,  Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Chief of Police Ronald Haddad, 17 City police officers, and two executives of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce were named as defendants in a ninety-six page federal civil rights lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court in Detroit on 22-Feb-2011. The lawsuit, brought by TMLC and co-counsel "Sharia law expert", David Yerushalmi, stems from two separate police actions at the June 2010 Dearborn, Michigan Annual … [Read more...]

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Top 10 Dearborn News Stories for 2010

December 29, 2010 By 2 Comments
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Dearborn, MI -- Newspaper editors around the nation follow a tradition each December - picking the top 10 news stories for the year.  The results are a great way of summarizing the big events of the year.  Among the top national and international stories, there are few surprises: Gulf Oil Disaster, Health Care Overhaul, Haiti Earthquake, Decline of the US Economy, Rise of the Tea Party, Chile Mine Rescue, and WikiLeaks ... although Vanity Fair claims several editors wanted to make "Sarah Palin Has a Grammatical Error on Her Facebook Page" the top headline of the year. Every publication … [Read more...]

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Acts-17 Group Acquitted of Inciting Crowd

September 25, 2010 By 6 Comments
Acts 17 Logo

DEARBORN, Michigan - Friday afternoon at the 19th District Court, four Christian missionaries affiliated with the Acts 17 apologetics group where acquitted of inciting a crowd at the local Arab Festival. The jury found them not guilty of the charges of "breach of peace".  Nabeel Qureshi of Virginia, Negeen Mayel of California and Paul Rezkalla and David Wood, both of New York, were acquitted (found not guilty) of breach of peace, according to reports from 19th District Court officials after the verdict. However, Mayel was found guilty of failure to obey a police officer's order. State … [Read more...]

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Amazing Grace Amid Profound Controversy

August 31, 2010 By 7 Comments
Nabeel Quereshi

EDITORIAL (31-Aug-2010) - Monday morning, at the 19th District Court in Dearborn, Judge Mark Somers deliberated over a pre-trial hearing concerning an incident which occurred at Dearborn's 15th annual Arab International Festival on Friday, June 14th.  As previously reported in the Dearborn Free Press, several people affiliated with the Acts 17 Apologetics group were arraigned  on July 12th, on charges of "breach of peace".  The four Christians, David Wood (a 34 year old former atheist) from Bronx, New York, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi (a 29 year old former Muslim) from Virginia, Nageen Mayel (a … [Read more...]

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Debate About Free Speech In Dearborn Continues

July 25, 2010 By 5 Comments

EDITORIAL (Updated 27-Jul-2010) -- The Dearborn Free Press has purposely been very slow to report much about this controversy. We heard about the arrest of  four Christians at the Arab International Festival, on Friday, June 18 -- the night that it happened. We mentioned something about it on our Facebook page, the following Monday morning (June 21st). We have been very cautious to report anything, and a careful investigation is still ongoing. On June 21st we made the following statements  (only on the Dearborn Free Press Facebook page): We linked to a Detroit News article entitled … [Read more...]

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