A law firm that defends and promotes Christian heritage and moral values has filed suit on a behalf of a Sudanese Christian who recently was barred from handing out Christian literature in the streets of Dearborn, Michigan.
For the last five years, Pastor George Saieg and his volunteers had descended on Dearborn, Michigan, during its annual Dearborn Arab International Festival to pass out literature and share the gospel. Pastor Saieg is a founder and director of the Arabic Christian Perspective, which ministers to Muslims. An estimated 30,000 of Dearborn's 98,000 residents are Muslims. Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center, says at this year's event, police told Saieg there would be restrictions on where he could conduct his activities. "They said, 'We're not going to allow you to walk the streets with your group. You're going to have to be in one place. And people would have to approach you for your ability to pass out literature,'" he points out. Thompson said after several failed attempts to convince officials to change their minds, Saieg and his group complied with the restrictions. "There is a double standard. Islamic organizations are able to do almost anything they want," the attorney adds. "And they justify this on the basis of cultural diversity. And people are afraid to oppose them because there is a tremendous amount of political correctness that is deciding these issues." The Thomas More Law Center is assisting in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Dearborn's policy. Thompson notes it is ironic that while Americans are applauding the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn is restricting the free-speech rights of Christians on the city's public sidewalks.
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