I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.

UPDATE TO POSTING BELOW

Jihad Watch reports that for the first time in the United States somebody has been arrested for handing out Christian literature to Muslims.


There is a festival starting today in Dearborn, Michigan. It is the 14th annual Arabic International Festival. It claims to draw 300,000 participants from all over the United States and Canada.

Here is its website.

Notice the list of sponsors to the left of the festival description. How cool is it to have the FBI and the CIA sponsor your festival? That’s like having a delegation of Mounties greeting a planeload of Polish tourists.

Why Dearborn?

Apparently, 30% of the population of that city is Arabic. And, of course, the majority of those people are Muslim by religious affiliation. But, you know, the U.S. is multicultural and free. It is the world’s melting pot of immigrants and foreign creeds. There is no problem with a predominately Muslim-attended festival being held in a country that so vigorously practices Christianity.

You would think.

But apparently not.

A California-based evangelical church, the Arab Christian Perspective, which specializes in proselytizing Muslims of Arabic ethnicity has been denied the right to wander around and hand out Christian literature. It has been doing this for five years at the Dearborn festival, but this year, in the alleged interest of “crowd control”, the authorities decided that this group should be confined to a booth at the outer edges of the festival. It is the only attendee that has been restricted in this fashion.

Under Islamic law, Christians may practice their religion provided they do not do so in your face, so to speak. They must keep a low profile and must not offend Muslims. They must not distribute Christian literature to Muslims. This is the rule in countries where Islam reigns supreme. It is known as dhimmitude – second class citizenship, if you will.

Is this what President Obama meant when he said in Cairo the United States was turning a new page and respecting Islam? He is one smart cookie, knowing how local politicians will be prepared to sacrifice the U.S. Constitution to curry votes.

Goodbye tolerance. Goodbye religious freedom. Goodbye free expression. Goodbye equal rights under the law. Hello dhimmitude and a big, hearty welcome to the United States. I think you are really going like it here. After all, President Barack Hussein Obama has declared it to be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.

By the way, did Obama mention any of this Islamic stuff when he was running for the Democratic nomination and then the Presidency?